Revelation 20:14

“Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death — the lake of fire.” — NKJV

Part of the Nature of Hell study.

The Common Reading

Death and Hades are cast into the lake of fire, which is the final, eternal place of conscious torment. “Second death” is a euphemism for eternal suffering — spiritual death in a conscious state of separation from God.

What the Passage Actually Says

The Hebrew Gospel Text

“And the death (H4194 maveth) and the Gehinnom were cast (H7993) into the $fire (H784), and this is a second (H8145) death (H4194 maveth).”

Why “Gehinnom” — and What It Means

Every other “lake of fire” passage in the Hebrew Revelation uses Sheol — the grave, the realm of the dead (Rev 19:20, 20:10, 21:8). But here, and ONLY here, the Hebrew switches to Gehinnom.

Gehinnom is the Hebrew name for the Valley of Hinnom (H1516 gay + Hinnom) — a real valley south of Jerusalem where Israel burned their children to Molech (2 Chr 28:3, 33:6, Jer 7:31). Josiah defiled it to stop the practice (2 Kgs 23:10). By the Second Temple period, Gehinnom had evolved from a geographic location into a theological concept: the place of divine judgment for the wicked. In rabbinic literature, Gehinnom IS the word for what English calls “hell” — the system of divine punishment after death.

So when the Hebrew text says “death and Gehinnom were cast into the fire,” it is saying: death and the entire system of divine judgment were thrown into God’s $fire and destroyed.

This is not a valley being thrown into a lake. It is the CONCEPT of judgment being consumed. The mechanism of punishment is itself ended. Compare Rev 21:4, just a few verses later: “There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Death is gone. Gehinnom — the judgment system — is gone. The “former things” include the system of punishing the wicked.

And what is the H784 esh (fire) they are thrown into? If God IS the consuming $fire (Deut 4:24, Heb 12:29), then the fire is not a separate place — it is God’s own nature. The temporary judgment mechanism (Gehinnom) is swallowed up by the permanent reality (God Himself). The tool of judgment is consumed by the Judge.

The word switch matters: in v.13, “$sheol gave up the dead” — the grave releases its dead. Then in v.14, “Gehinnom was cast into the fire” — the judgment concept is destroyed. Two different Hebrew words for two different things being ended. Sheol (the grave) gives up its dead. Gehinnom (the judgment system) is consumed. Both are finished.

Why Trust the Hebrew? Directionality and Corroboration

The directionality argument: A translator working from Greek into Hebrew would render G86 hades as H7585 sheol — that’s the standard, default equivalent, and it’s what the Hebrew text does in every other verse (Rev 19:20, 20:10, 20:13, 21:8). But HERE, and only here, the Hebrew switches to Gehinnom. A back-translator would have no reason to introduce this term — the Greek gives no signal to switch. The Greek just says “hades” again. A mechanical translator would write sheol again.

But if the Hebrew is the original: the author deliberately chose Gehinnom (the judgment concept) rather than sheol (the grave) because the POINT of this verse is that judgment itself ends. The Greek translator, seeing a Hebrew term with no clean Greek equivalent, fell back on hades — the catch-all — losing the sheol/Gehinnom distinction. The Hebrew contains a theological precision the Greek cannot carry. The translation arrow points one direction: Hebrew → Greek.

Additionally, the Greek says “lake (limne) of fire.” The Hebrew says simply “the fire” (ha-esh) — no lake. A back-translator from Greek would render “lake of fire” with something like agam esh (pool of fire). The Hebrew’s simpler “the fire” looks like an original that the Greek elaborated, not a reduction of the Greek.

Independent corroboration — the Targums: The phrase “second death” does not appear in the Hebrew Bible. But it appears SIX times in the Aramaic Targums — Jewish translations of the OT that predate or are contemporary with the NT:

• Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Deut 33:6 — “Let Reuben live in this world, nor die the second death which the wicked die in the world to come”
• Targum Jonathan on Isa 22:14 — “this your iniquity shall not be forgiven you till you die the second death”
• Targum Jonathan on Isa 65:6 — “I will recompense unto them the wages for their sins, and deliver their bodies to the second death”
• Targum Jonathan on Isa 65:15 — also uses “second death”
• Targum on Jer 51:39 — also uses “second death”

In every Targum occurrence, “second death” means permanent death — final, irreversible death in the world to come. Not eternal conscious torment. Not ongoing suffering. Death. The Targums show this was an established Jewish concept BEFORE Revelation was written, and its meaning was always permanent death — the death from which there is no further resurrection.

The Targum on Isaiah 65:6 is especially significant: “deliver their bodies to the second death.” Bodies are delivered to death — they die. This is not a description of conscious torment. It is bodily destruction.

“Second Death” — Acher Maveth (Another Kind of Death)

The Hebrew Revelation uses two different words for “second” across its four occurrences of this phrase — and the distinction matters:

H312 acher does not merely mean “second in sequence.” It means another kind — a different one. When Abraham took “another” wife (Gen 25:1), the word is acher — a different wife. When the spies reported “another” spirit in Caleb (Num 14:24), it’s acher — a qualitatively different spirit.

So acher maveth is not “death #2.” It is a death of a different kind — qualitatively distinct from ordinary death. This is the same signal the Targumists saw in the OT Hebrew: passages where H4191 muth is used but the context demands something beyond ordinary mortality. The Hebrew Revelation carries the same marker: this death is acher — different, other, unlike the first.

Only in the final summary (Rev 21:8) does the text switch to the ordinal H8145 sheni — “THE second death.” By then the concept is established. The ordinal clinches what the acher language introduced.

The text names what this is: death (H4194 maveth). Not “another torment.” Not “a different suffering.” A different kind of death — permanent, final, no return.

If “death” in “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23) means death, then “second death” means death again — permanently. The first death (sheol) was temporary — it gave up its dead (v.13). The second death is final — there is no third resurrection from it.

The Sequence

1. The dead are IN sheol (the first death — temporary holding)
2. Sheol delivers up the dead (resurrection for judgment, v.13)
3. They are judged according to works (v.13)
4. Death and the grave-concept are cast into the fire (v.14)
5. Anyone not in the Book of Life is cast into the fire (v.15)
6. This is called death — not torment

The raising is for accountability. The sentence is permanent death — not a return to sheol, not eternal conscious torment. Death itself dies.

Harmony

1. Gehinnom = the system of divine judgment — by Second Temple times, the Valley of Hinnom had become the Hebrew word for post-death punishment. Casting it into the fire = ending the judgment system itself.
2. The fire is God — H784 esh, the same fire that IS God’s nature (Deut 4:24). Gehinnom is consumed by the Judge Himself. The tool of punishment is swallowed by the source of all authority.
3. “Second death” means death — H4194 maveth, the same word for ordinary death. Not a euphemism for torment.
4. The first death was temporary — $sheol gave up its dead (v.13). The second death is permanent — no further resurrection.
5. Death itself is destroyed — This fulfills 1 Cor 15:26: “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” And Rev 21:4: “there shall be no more death.”
6. Two different endings, two different words — $sheol (v.13) gives up its dead (the holding cell is emptied). Gehinnom (v.14) is cast into the fire (the judgment system is destroyed). Both are finished.
7. No description of conscious torment for humans — v.10 describes the devil’s fate; vv.14-15 describe humans’ fate as “death.”

Hebrew & Greek Reference