2 Samuel 12:23

Wherefore should I fast? These words portray David’s resignation to the will of God, and his understanding of the state of the dead. After the child had died, there was nothing further he could do about the matter, and he humbly accepted the inevitable.

I shall go to him. The Hebrews spoke figuratively of the dead sleeping together in a realm called she’ol. This word is translated both “grave” and “hell” in the KJV. The rendering “hell” is unfortunate, for she’ol has nothing to do with torture or consciousness. The one who died was sometimes represented as going to sleep with his fathers (2 Sam. 7:12; 1 Kings 1:21; 2:10), or as being gathered to his fathers (2 Kings 22:20). David meant that he would join his son in death, but that his son would not return to the land of the living.