Jehovah's Witnesses firmly reject the doctrine of hell as a place of conscious, fiery torment. They teach that 'hell' (sheol in Hebrew, hades in Greek) simply means the grave—the state of nonexistence in which the dead await resurrection. Because the soul is not immortal and the dead have no conscious existence (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10), there is no possibility of conscious suffering after death for anyone. The common grave of mankind (not a fiery inferno) is the true meaning of hell.

The fate of the permanently wicked—those who are judged unworthy of resurrection at the Last Judgment—is not eternal torment but 'the second death' (Revelation 20:14): permanent annihilation, ceasing to exist forever. This is understood as a just, merciful, and scripturally sound outcome: a God of love would not torture people for eternity. The doctrine of hellfire is attributed by Jehovah's Witnesses to the influence of pagan Babylonian and Greek mythology on apostate Christianity. Gehenna (used by Jesus) is interpreted as a symbol of permanent destruction, not ongoing torment.