Every compartment of Gehinnom (the place of spiritual purification after death) contains 7,000 crevices. Every crevice contains 7,000 scorpions. Every scorpion has 300 cavities, and every cavity holds 7,000 pouches of venom, each pouring six rivers of deadly poison. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle compiled by Jerahmeel ben Solomon, when a person touches this venom, their body bursts apart. The angels of destruction collect the scattered limbs, reassemble the body, revive it, and begin the punishment all over again.
The underworld has seven named levels, each measuring 300 years' journey in every direction. From the surface downward: Sheol. Beer Shahat (the Pit of Corruption). Tit-Hayaven (the Mire of Clay). Shaare Mavet (the Gates of Death). Abadon (Destruction). Shaare Salmavet (the Gates of the Shadow of Death). And Gehinnom itself. The total span of the underworld is 6,300 years' walking distance. The fire in each level is sixty times hotter than the level above it.
Sheol, the uppermost, consists of half fire and half ice. When sinners escape the flames, the ice tortures them. When they escape the ice, the fire burns them. The angels keep their souls locked inside their bodies so they cannot die.
Sinners spend twelve months in each level before being lowered to the next. When they finally reach the deepest point, the righteous see them and plead with God: "Have mercy. Let it be enough." But God replies, "It is not yet enough. They destroyed My Temple and sold My children as slaves." Those lowered into Arqa, the layer beneath the river of fire that flows from the heavenly throne, never ascend again.
Above Arqa lies the cosmic geography: Tehom, Tohu, Bohu, the sea, the waters, and finally the inhabited world with its mountains, valleys, law, and charity. At the time of final judgment, 6,000 angels surround each person and lead them to the scales. If guilt outweighs merit, the angels of terror pass the soul downward through successively worse angelic custodians until the Angel of Death hurls it into the depths. If merit outweighs guilt, the angels of peace pass it upward to the angels of mercy, who escort it into the Garden of Eden.