I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death! Death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your destruction?  Compassion will be hidden from my eyes.
It is a fact that, "Modern scholarship is virtually unanimous in taking this verse as a threat.  God is summoning up the plagues of death to punish his recalcitrant people."[27]  Despite this, we are certain that the scholars are wrong here because they are blind to the crying need for just such a promise in this exact place.  They are looking only at Israel; but God's purpose in Israel has always been a redemption planned for all men, and not for Jews only.  Most of the so-called "modern translations" follow the lead of the scholars in perverting this blessed promise; and in this particular, they become not "translations" in any sense but commentary, and woefully ignorant and inaccurate commentary at that!  The apostle Paul could not have used this passage as he did, unless it is a glorious promise.  Many of the scholars, even some of them who accept the passage as a threat, have pointed out that there is no genuine authority whatever for their changing the meaning of this verse.