There was no fundamental belief in an afterlife in ancient Jewish thought. Sheol was simply a shadowy place with no real existence. Some translations make references that simply do not exist in the text. <Not sure that is true in modern translations.> What belief in an afterlife there was had no religious importance to the Jews.
Why is that? Why wouldn’t God reveal that to his chosen people. Maybe it was to teach them first that the primary end of man is to find God, not to seek after eternal life. When life after death is the goal, then God is not the center. By their history, Jews learned in a very direct, almost merciless, way that earthly prosperity is not he reward of seeing God.