What I remember from Bible school: it seem to be something quite different from the NT equalent Hell/Gehenna, which is more a place totally without hope or rest. Sheol seems to be a place with those thing. It's also a place for both the wicked and the rightous. Gehenna seems to be a place just for the wicked/unrightous. But it's very clear that Sheol was a place of sorrow, but you have rest there compared to the tough life of the life of ordinary people in Israel.