Hell (Sheol / Gehenna)

System function Underworld; abode of the dead or place of punishment in biblical and traditional cosmology. Hell = -1 (below Earth). Hell is NOT a sub-level of any heaven — it is the underworld, contrasted with the ten heavens (1–10) above.

Primary inhabitants Souls of the dead; fallen beings (tradition-dependent).

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Notes

Documented in scripture and tradition under names such as Sheol (Hebrew), Gehenna, Hades. Often contrasted with the heavens. Hell is a non-heavenly realm, distinct from the ten heavens; it is the underworld, not a sub-level of any heaven.

View all realms on Earthly Realm Glossary: Hell Inhabitants

Inhabitants from human history

Named souls, fallen beings, and figures attested in scripture and tradition. Sourced from Biblical, Jewish, Christian, Greek/Roman, Islamic, and Zoroastrian texts.

Fallen angels & demons

Lucifer — Light-bearer; cast down Biblical; Isaiah 14
Former Seraph; cast down from heaven.
Isaiah 14:12; Luke 10:18
Satan — Adversary; accuser Biblical; Job; Zechariah
The adversary; accuser in Job and Zechariah.
Job 1–2; Zech 3:1–2; Matt 4
Beelzebub — Prince of demons New Testament
Prince of demons; lord of flies.
Matt 12:24; Mark 3:22
Belial — Spirit of lawlessness Deuteronomy; 2 Corinthians; Dead Sea Scrolls
Angel of darkness; spirit opposed to Christ.
2 Cor 6:15; Deut 13:13
Mastema — Chief of evil spirits Book of Jubilees
Chief of demons; tempts and corrupts; acts only with divine permission.
Jubilees 10:8; 11:5
Azazel — Fallen Watcher; scapegoat 1 Enoch; Leviticus
Taught weapons, metalworking, cosmetics. Bound in desert.
1 Enoch 8:1, 10:4–8; Lev 16
Semjaza — Chief of the Watchers 1 Enoch
Led 200 Watchers to Mount Hermon; took human wives.
1 Enoch 6:3, 7; 69:2
Satanail — Prince of the Watchers 2 Enoch (Slavonic)
Prince of fallen Grigori; 200 myriads of Watchers.
2 Enoch 18
Abaddon — Angel of the Abyss Revelation
Angel of the Abyss; king of the locusts.
Rev 9:11
Asmodeus — Demon of lust Tobit
Demon who slew the seven husbands of Sarah; bound by Raphael.
Tobit 3:8, 8:3
Legion — Legion of demons Mark; Luke
Many demons in the Gerasene demoniac; sent into swine.
Mark 5:9; Luke 8:30
Iblīs — Shayṭān; refused to bow Islamic; Quran
Refused to bow to Adam; cast out; tempter of humanity.
Shayṭān — Satan; devil Islamic; Quran
Generic term for devil/satan; evil spirits that tempt humans.

Souls of the dead

Rich man (Dives) — Parable of Lazarus Luke 16
In Hades, tormented; begged Abraham for mercy.
Luke 16:19–31
Korah — Rebel; went down to Sheol Numbers
Rebelled against Moses; earth swallowed him; went down alive into Sheol.
Num 16:32–33; 26:10
Dathan and Abiram — Rebels Numbers
Rebelled with Korah; went down alive into Sheol.
Num 16
Rephaim (dead) — Shades; dead in Sheol Jewish tradition; Isaiah
In Jewish tradition, Rephaim = shades or dead in Sheol.
Isa 14:9; Ps 88:10; Jewish Encyclopedia

Races

Demons — Evil spirits; daemons Biblical; tradition
Evil spirits; fallen angels or malevolent beings. See Races.
Fallen Angels — Rebel angels Biblical; 1 Enoch
Angels who rebelled; cast down. Grigori/Watchers in 1 Enoch.
Grigori — Watchers 1 Enoch
Fallen Watchers who descended at Mount Hermon; some bound in darkness.

Mythological (Greek, Roman, Zoroastrian)

Hades — God of the underworld Greek mythology
God of the dead and the underworld; brother of Zeus.
Persephone — Queen of the underworld Greek mythology
Queen of the underworld; abducted by Hades.
Charon — Ferryman of the dead Greek mythology
Ferries souls across the River Styx to the underworld.
Cerberus — Three-headed guard dog Greek mythology
Guards the entrance to the underworld.
Pluto — Roman god of the underworld Roman mythology
Roman equivalent of Hades; god of the dead and riches.
Angra Mainyu — Ahriman; destructive spirit Zoroastrianism
Destructive spirit; opposite of Ahura Mazda; dwells in darkness.
Daevas — Evil spirits Zoroastrianism
Evil spirits; opposed to the Amesha Spentas.

Glossary: Hell inhabitants

The seven descending levels — giving Hell an interior

This app had ten rungs going up and one undifferentiated realm going down. These are the seven the sources actually name, read as depths within Hell (Realm −1) rather than as replacements for it — so Hell keeps its page and its inhabitants, and gains a structure.

Why seven, when there are ten heavens? Because three independent traditions structure the descent at seven and none structures it at ten: the seven names of Gehinnom (Eruvin 19a), the seven gates of Jahannam (Qur’an 15:44), and the seven earths. Mirroring the ten numerically would have meant composing three levels no source gives. So the numbers do not mirror — the function does, in the opposite-pairs map below, and where nothing is attested the pair says so.

The seven names of Gehinnom

The Talmud (Eruvin 19a) gives Gehinnom seven names. Later tradition — Midrash Konen, and the Zohar — reads them as seven compartments, one below the next. Every one of the seven is a word the Hebrew Bible already uses.

Depth	Name	Meaning	What it is	Attested in
−1	She’ol	the grave; the place of asking	The general realm of the dead, and the only one of the seven that the Hebrew Bible uses constantly. Not originally a place of punishment — Jacob expects to go down to She’ol mourning, and he is not being sentenced. It is the threshold: the first level down, as Shamayim is the first level up.	Scripture Genesis 37:35; Numbers 16:33; Psalm 16:10
−2	Avaddon (Abaddon)	destruction	Paired with She’ol repeatedly — “She’ol is naked before him, and Avaddon hath no covering” (Job 26:6). In Revelation 9:11 the word has become a being: Abaddon, “the angel of the bottomless pit,” Apollyon in Greek. A place name that turned into a name. See Revelation 9.	Scripture Job 26:6; 28:22; Proverbs 15:11; Revelation 9:11
−3	Be’er Shachat	the pit of corruption	“Thou wilt not leave my soul in She’ol; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see shachat” (Psalm 16:10) — the verse Peter quotes at Pentecost. Shachat is decay, the pit as the place where things break down rather than merely where they are kept.	Scripture Psalm 16:10; 55:23; Isaiah 38:17
−4	Bor Shaon	the pit of tumult, the roaring pit	From “he brought me up also out of an horrible pit” — bor sha’on, a pit that makes noise. Psalm 40:2 is the single verse that supplies both this level and the next, in the same breath.	Scripture Psalm 40:2
−5	Tit haYaven	the miry clay	“… out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock.” The image is being held rather than being burned — sinking, unable to get purchase. Psalm 69:2 uses it of drowning in deep mire where there is no standing.	Scripture Psalm 40:2; Psalm 69:2
−6	Tzalmavet	the shadow of death	The best-known Hebrew word in this list, from “the valley of the shadow of death.” Job 10:21–22 describes it as “a land of darkness … where the light is as darkness” — and Job 38:17 asks whether Job has seen “the gates of the shadow of death,” which is a gate, in a book that predates the compartment schemes by centuries.	Scripture Psalm 23:4; Job 10:21–22; 38:17
−7	Eretz haTachtit	the nethermost earth, the lowest	The floor. “A fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest She’ol” (Deut 32:22) — the phrase assumes a lowest, which assumes levels. Isaiah 14:15 sends the one who said “I will ascend into heaven” down to “the sides of the pit.” This is the level the app treats as facing the throne.	Scripture Deuteronomy 32:22; Isaiah 14:15; Ezekiel 31:14–18

Stated plainly: the Talmud gives these as seven names, in a list. Reading them as an ordered descent is what Midrash Konen and the Zohar did with them afterwards, and the ordering differs a little between sources. The names are attested; the sequence is tradition.

The mirror — opposites by function, not by number

Scripture states the vertical mirror directly in at least four places, so the idea is not imported: Isaiah 14:13–15 (ascend to heaven / brought down to the pit), Amos 9:2 (“though they dig into hell … though they climb up to heaven”), Psalm 139:8 (“if I ascend up into heaven … if I make my bed in hell”), and Ephesians 4:9–10, which matches the two magnitudes against each other: “he that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens.”

Heaven	Its opposite below	Standing of the pairing	Why
7 — Araboth, the throne	Eretz haTachtit, the lowest — and the Abyss	Scripture	The clearest opposite in the whole table, and scripture draws it itself. Isaiah 14:13–15: “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God … yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.” The highest ambition answered by the lowest floor, in one sentence.
3 — Shehaqim / Paradise	Gehinnom — the compartments as punishment	Scripture	Luke 16:19–31 puts both on stage at once: Abraham’s bosom and the place of torment, both conscious, both located, separated by a fixed chasm yet within sight and speech. See Other documented realms.
5 — Mathey, the Watchers	Tartarus / Dudael — the prison of the Watchers	Scroll	The same beings at both ends. 2 Enoch 18 places the Watchers in the fifth heaven; 1 Enoch 10 buries Azazel at Dudael and binds the rest in the valleys of the earth; 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 hold them in chains until judgement. One order, one fall, two addresses. See Grigori.
4 — Machenon, the heavenly Jerusalem	Babylon the great	Scripture	Revelation sets the two cities against each other deliberately — the harlot city that falls (Rev 17–18) against the bride city that descends (Rev 21). Two cities, one contrast, one book.
1 — Shamayim, nearest Earth	She’ol, nearest Earth going down	Structural	The two thresholds either side of Realm 0. Neither is a destination: one is the first step up, the other the first step down. A reading of the structure, not a claim in any text.
6 — Zebul, seasons and elements	—	None attested	Nothing in any tradition pairs the steward-heaven of the natural order with a descending level. The cell is empty because the sources are.
8–10 — Muzaloth, Kuchavim, the Tenth	—	None attested	The three heavens above the throne come from 2 Enoch, the minority ten-heaven scheme. The descent traditions all run on seven and stop. These are precisely the three levels a full numeric mirror would have had to invent, which is why this app does not attempt one.

Two rows are empty on purpose. That is the finding — the descent traditions stop at seven, so the three heavens above the throne have nothing facing them, and neither does the steward-heaven. An empty cell that says why is worth more than a symmetrical one that was filled in to look tidy.

The same descent in other traditions

Scheme	Tradition	Levels	Notes
The seven gates of Jahannam Qur’an 15:44; names from tafsir tradition	Islamic	Seven	“It has seven gates; for every gate is a portion assigned.” The traditional names: Jahannam, Laẓā, Ḥuṭamah, Saʿīr, Saqar, Jaḥīm, Hāwiyah — and several appear in the Qur’an in their own right (Hāwiyah 101:9; Saqar 74:26–27; Laẓā 70:15; Ḥuṭamah 104:4–5).
The seven earths Midrash; Zohar	Jewish (Midrash, Zohar)	Seven	A separate seven-fold descent again: Eretz, Adamah, Arka, Ge, Neshiyah, Tziyah, Tevel — inhabited earths stacked below this one, not places of punishment. The order varies between sources, and no two lists agree completely.
The nine circles Dante, Inferno (c. 1320)	Dante, Inferno	Nine	Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Wrath, Heresy, Violence, Fraud, Treachery — graded by offence rather than by depth of darkness, which is what makes it the odd one out. It is also the only descent in this table that is a single author’s composition rather than an accumulated tradition.
Hades, and Tartarus below it Hesiod, Theogony 720–725; 2 Peter 2:4	Greek	Two, with a stated distance	The oldest explicit statement that the mirror is symmetric. Hesiod measures it: a bronze anvil falls nine days from heaven to earth, and nine more from earth to Tartarus. The New Testament borrows the word once — 2 Peter 2:4 uses the verb tartaroō, and does it to angels, not people.

Open questions

Is She’ol a level of Gehinnom, or the container both sit in? The Hebrew Bible uses She’ol for the realm of the dead generally, with no moral sorting; Eruvin 19a lists it as one of Gehinnom’s seven names. Those are two different claims and the tradition holds both.
Are the seven compartments punishments or places? Dante grades by offence; the Gehinnom seven are graded by darkness and depth. Only one of those is a sorting system.
Where does the Abyss fit? It has a shaft, a lock and an external key-holder (Revelation 9; 20:1–3), which none of the seven has. It may be a separate facility rather than a depth. See Revelation 9.
Do the seven earths belong on this ladder at all? They are described as inhabited, not penal, which makes them a different kind of descent.
Should Hell be renumbered −1 to −7? This app keeps Hell as the container at −1 with seven depths inside it, so that existing inhabitant records and links stay valid. A flat −1 to −7 ladder is the alternative and would read more symmetrically.

Sources

Scripture: Genesis 37:35 · Numbers 16:33 · Deuteronomy 32:22 · Job 10:21–22; 26:6; 28:22; 38:17 · Psalm 16:10; 23:4; 40:2; 55:23; 69:2; 139:8 · Proverbs 15:11 · Isaiah 14:13–15; 38:17 · Ezekiel 31:14–18 · Amos 9:2 · Luke 16:19–31 · Ephesians 4:9–10 · 2 Peter 2:4 · Jude 6 · Revelation 9:11; 17–18; 20:1–3; 21 · Qur’an 15:44; 70:15; 74:26–27; 101:9; 104:4–5. Quotations are KJV.
Post-biblical: Talmud, Eruvin 19a (the seven names) · Midrash Konen and the Zohar (the seven as compartments; the seven earths) · 1 Enoch 10 · 2 Enoch 18.
Classical and later: Hesiod, Theogony 720–725 · Dante, Inferno.

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