Belief in the Hereafter According to the Torah

Resurrection

Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. (Daniel, 12:2)

"And you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put My Spirit in you and you will live"... declares the Lord. (Ezekiel, 37:13-14)

But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy... The earth will give birth to her dead. (Isaiah, 26:19)

O Lord, You brought me up from the grave; You spared me from going down into the pit [hell]. (Psalms, 30:3)

As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance. (Daniel, 12:13)

The Lord brings death and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and raises up. (1 Samuel, 2:6)

The Last Day

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The Sun and Moon will be darkened, and the stars no longer shine... The earth and the sky will tremble. (Joel, 3:14-16)

I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The Sun will be turned to darkness and the Moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. (Joel, 2:30-31)

Before them the earth shakes, the sky trembles, the Sun and Moon are darkened, and the stars no longer shine... The day of the Lord is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it? (Joel, 2:10-11)

Their slain will be thrown out... All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree. (Isaiah, 34:3-4)

The great day of the Lord is near—near and coming quickly. Listen! The cry on the day of the Lord will be bitter, the shouting of the warrior there. That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, a day of trumpet and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the corner towers. I will bring distress on the people and they will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord... Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the Lord's wrath... (Zephaniah, 1:14-18)

Alas for that day! For the day of the Lord is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty. (Joel, 1:15)

... Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming. It is close at hand. (Joel, 2:1)

... For the day of the Lord is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty. Because of this, all hands will go limp, every man's heart will melt. Terror will seize them, pain and anguish will grip them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at each other, their faces aflame. See, the day of the Lord is coming—a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger—to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising Sun will be darkened and the Moon will not give its light. I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless. (Isaiah, 13:6-11)

"Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire," says the Lord Almighty. "Not a root or a branch will be left to them." (Malachi, 4:1)

Men will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from dread of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty, when He rises to shake the earth. (Isaiah, 2:19)

... That day will be darkness, not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him. Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light—pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness? (Amos, 5:18-20)

Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all humanity together will see it. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken." (Isaiah, 40:4-5)

He lifts up a banner for the distant nations, He whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Here they come, swiftly and speedily... If one looks at the land, he will see darkness and distress; even the light will be darkened by the clouds. (Isaiah, 5:26, 30)

The Day of Judgment

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. (Joel, 3:14)

"O profane [those who do not obey the laws of God}... whose day has come, whose time of punishment has reached its climax..." this is what the Sovereign Lord says: ... It will not be as it was: The lowly will be exalted and the exalted will be brought low. (Ezekiel, 21:25-26)

The day of the Lord is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head. (Obadiah, 1:15)

Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalms, 1:4-6)

The Lord is known by His justice; the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands. The wicked return to the underworld [hell], all the nations that forget God. (Psalms, 9:16-17)

Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds. Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them! They will be paid back for what their hands have done. (Isaiah, 3:10-11)

... whose day has come, whose time of punishment has reached its climax. (Ezekiel, 21:29)

The day of your watchmen has come, the day God visits you. Now is the time of their confusion. (Micah 7:4)

The great day of the Lord is near, it is near and coming very quickly. Listen! The cry on the day of the Lord will be bitter, the shouting of the warrior there. That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness... and they will walk like blind men... Even their silver and their gold will not be able to keep them safe in the day of the Lord's wrath.

Hell

(The references to the underworld [sheol, hell] in the Torah are used in the sense of hell)

... Trembling grips the godless: "Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?" (Isaiah, 33:14)

... Before I go to the place of no return, to the land of gloom and deep shadow, to the land of deepest night, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness. (Job, 10:21-22)

... Some to everlasting life [paradise], others to shame and everlasting contempt. (Daniel, 12:3)

As heat and drought snatch away the melted snow, so the grave [hell] snatches away those who have sinned. (Job, 24:19)

As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to the grave [hell] does not return. (Job, 7:9)

Death and destruction are never satisfied... (Proverbs, 27:20)

For great is Your love toward me; You have delivered me from the depths of the grave [hell]. (Psalms, 86:13)

I will set My face against them... The fire will yet consume them. (Ezekiel, 15:7)

For a fire has been kindled by My wrath, one that burns to the realm of death [hell] below... (Deuteronomy, 32:22)

Therefore the grave [hell] enlarges its appetite and opens its mouth without limit... So man will be brought low and mankind humbled, the eyes of the arrogant humbled. (Isaiah, 5:14-15)

... Let them go down alive to the grave [hell], for evil finds lodging among them. (Psalms, 55:15)

So they... went down alive into the grave [hell], with everything they owned... (Numbers, 16:33)

There are three things that never are satisfied, and the fourth never say, "Enough!": the grave [hell]... (Proverbs, 30:15-16)

This is the fate of those who trust in themselves, and of their followers, who approve their sayings. Like sheep they are destined for the grave... Their forms will decay in the grave [hell], far from their princely mansions. But God will redeem my life from the grave [hell]; He will surely take me to Himself. (Psalms, 49:13-15)

But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit [hell]. Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: "Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world a desert, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?" (Isaiah, 14:15-17)

Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes... Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,who put darkness for light and light for darkness,who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent. Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty... (Isaiah, 5:18-24)

... O Lord, for I have cried out to You; but let the wicked be put to shame and lie silent in the underworld [hell]. (Psalms, 31:17)

The underworld [hell] and destruction are before the Lord... (Proverbs, 15:11)

... [The Lord says] "... Your breath is a fire that consumes you. The peoples will be burned as if to lime; like cut thornbushes they will be set ablaze." (Isaiah, 33:10-12)

... You sent your ambassadors far away; you went as low as the underworld [hell]! (Isaiah, 57:9)

Because You will not abandon me in the underworld [hell], nor will You let your holy one see corruption. (Psalms, 16:10)

But the wicked will perish: The Lord's enemies will be like the beauty of the fields, they will vanish—vanish like smoke. (Psalms, 37:20)

But rebels and sinners will both be broken... ( Isaiah, 1:28)

Do not be troubled because of evil-doers, or have envy of sinners: For there will be no future for the evil man; the light of sinners will be put out. (Proverbs, 24:19-20)

He will guard the feet of his saints, but the wicked will be silenced in darkness. "It is not by strength that one prevails." (1 Samuel, 2:9)

But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. "There is no peace," says my God, "for the wicked." (Isaiah, 57:20-21)

He will repay them for their sins and destroy them for their wickedness; the Lord our God will destroy them. (Psalms, 94:23)

Paradise

(The references to the everlasting life and land of the living in the Torah are used in the sense of paradise.)

... Some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. (Daniel, 12:2-3)

The path of life [paradise] leads upward for the wise to keep him from going down to the grave [hell]. (Proverbs, 15:24)

I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living [paradise]. (Psalms, 27:13)

That I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living [paradise]. (Psalms, 116:9)

... Then man goes to his eternal home [paradise]... and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God Who gave it. (Ecclesiastes, 12:5, 7)

He who walks righteously and speaks what is right, who rejects gain from extortion and keeps his hand from accepting bribes, who stops his ears against plots of murder and shuts his eyes against contemplating evil—this is the man who will dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the mountain fortress. His bread will be supplied, and water will not fail him. (Isaiah, 33:15-16)

Wicked men are overthrown and are no more, but the house of the righteous stands firm... (Proverbs, 12:7)

... O God... lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalms, 139:23-24)

In that day they will say, "Surely this is our God; we trusted in Him, and He saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in Him; let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation." (Isaiah, 25:9)

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life... (Proverbs, 11:30)

The Prophet Adam (pbuh) and the Garden of Eden

Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there He put the man [Adam] He had formed. (Genesis, 2:8)

... This is what the Sovereign Lord says: "You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the Garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared." (Ezekiel, 28:12)

So the Lord God banished him [Adam] from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. (Genesis, 3:23)