Amos 9:2
Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down: Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:
Amos was a herdsman and fruit gardener from Tekoa about twelve miles south of Jerusalem, sent to Bethel and Samaria to denounce the idolatry and depravity of Israel and the surrounding nations. His prophecy was delivered in the reign of Jeroboam II just after his great successes, when prosperity brought luxury for the rich through violence and robbery, oppression and enslavement of the poor and needy, corrupt judges, and hatred of uprightness. It teaches that justice between man and man is a divine foundation of society and that privilege implies responsibility, so that nations and by analogy individuals must live up to the light and knowledge granted them and will surely be punished if they fail, and that elaborate worship insults God when will and conduct do not conform to his requirements.
The word rendered hell is the Hebrew sheol, which occurs 63 times in the Old Testament, translated hell 31 times, grave 30 times, and pit 3 times, and is elsewhere rendered grave, pit, or hell. It means grave, sepulchre, pit, underworld, or the state of the dead in general, not a place of torment, and is the same as the New Testament Greek hades. In this verse sheol denotes the darkness and unconsciousness of death.
Neither going down into the depths nor rising to the heights can escape God's reach, to take them and bring them down where he wills. Even hiding in sheol cannot escape God, for his hand reaches there and takes the dead out. Death and sheol give them up, so they are no longer concealed in darkness and no longer unconscious. Those taken out appear before God to meet the exact record of their sins and answer for their deeds, showing that sin cannot be hidden from God and that the guilt of those who persist in sin will surely be exposed in judgment.