The Wicked Turned into Hell: Character and Consequence

Psalm 9:17 declares a sobering truth: "The wicked shall be turned into hell." Victorian expositor Joseph S. Exell identifies the wicked with precision: those who willfully violate God's precepts—drinkers, profane persons, those who dishonor the Sabbath, the dishonest. The category includes persecutors of God's people, religious hypocrites, and all unregenerate souls. Wickedness is not superficial defect but a "profound radical principle, deeply rooted in the heart of man."

The psalmist's phrase "nations that forget God" references heathen peoples whose gods were idols. To forget God means to neglect His character as Benefactor and Sovereign, to ignore His all-prevailing presence and His Word.

The affirmation is unmistakable: the wicked shall be "turned into hell"—suddenly, irresistibly, unexpectedly. Sheol (the place of the lost) is not merely the grave, which receives both righteous and unrighteous, but the eternal state peculiar to the wicked. It comprises two punishments: the punishment of loss—eternal privation of God's blessed presence and all attending joy—and the punishment of sense, described as "unquenchable fire," inflicting unspeakable torments upon soul and body forever.

Exell emphasizes the certainty of this affirmation rests upon universal moral consent, the justice of Elohim as moral governor of the universe, the moral unfitness of the wicked for any other state, and the testimony of Holy Scripture itself.