destroy or afflict; as
beings in human form, grotesque, malformed, awe-inspiring through their
hideousness. To these demons all sorts of misfortunes were ascribed:
toothache, headache, broken bones, raging fever, outbursts of anger, of
jealousy. Did a man lie wasting of disease and torn of pain, a demon
was thought to be within him, the disease being but a manifestation of
his malevolence. There could be no return of the precious boon of
{184} good health until the demon was exorcised, and it was to the
exorcising of demons that so large, so disproportionate a part of the
religious literature of Babylon and Nineveh was devoted."[24]
Sometimes demons are referred to in a manner which shows that the
conception in Job 1. 6ff., Zech. 3. 1ff., of the Adversary, or the
Satan, is closely related to the Babylonian conception of a demon as
accuser, persecutor, or oppressor.

The vision of the Old Testament is largely confined to this world.
There is little hope for a man after he passes away from this earth.
Indeed, there are some passages which would seem to imply the thought
that with death existence came entirely to an end. Compare, for
example, Psa. 39.13:

Oh, spare me, that I may recover strength
Before I go hence, and be no more;

or Job 14. 7-12:

For there is hope of a tree,
If it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
And that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
Though the root thereof wax old in the earth,
And the stock thereof die in the ground;
Yet through the scent of water it will bud,
And put forth boughs like a plant.
But man dieth, and is laid low;
Yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?
As the waters fail from the sea,
And the river wasteth and drieth up;
So man lieth down and riseth not:
Till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake,
Nor be roused out of their sleep.

{185} These are expressions of deepest despondency and despair over a
life soon ended, never to be lived again here upon earth.

However, by far the greatest number of Old Testament passages dealing
with the subject express a belief in a continuous existence after death
in Sheol. Sheol is the place of departed personalities; the
generations of one's forefathers are there: he who dies is gathered
unto his fathers; the tribal divisions of one's race are there: the
dead is gathered unto his people; and if his descendants have died
before him, they are there, and he goes down to th