Psalms, 88

A song, a melody of the sons of Koʹrah. To the director over Maʹha·lath^*1 for making responses. Masʹkil^*2 of Heʹman the Ezʹra·hite.

¹ O Jehovah, the God of my salvation, By day I have cried out, In the night [also] in front of you.

² Before you my prayer will come. Incline your ear to my entreating cry.

³ For my soul has had enough of calamities, And my very life has come in touch even with Sheʹol.^*1

⁴ I have been reckoned in among those going down to the pit; I have become like an able-bodied man without strength,

⁵ Set free among the dead themselves, Like slain ones lying in the burial place, Whom you have remembered no longer And who have been severed from your own [helping] hand.

⁶ You have put me in a pit of the lowest depths, In dark places, in a large abyss.^*1

⁷ Upon me your rage has thrown itself, And with all your breaking waves you have afflicted [me]. Seʹlah.

⁸ You have put my acquaintances far away from me; You have set me as something very detestable to them. I am under restraint and cannot go forth.

⁹ My own eye has languished because of my affliction. I have called on you, O Jehovah, all day long; To you I have spread out my palms.

¹⁰ For those who are dead will you do a marvel? Or will those impotent in death^*1 themselves arise, Will they laud you? Seʹlah.

¹¹ Will your loving-kindness be declared in the burial place^*1 itself, Your faithfulness in [the place of] destruction?^*2

¹² Will a marvel by you be known in the darkness itself, Or your righteousness in the land of oblivion?

¹³ And yet to you, O Jehovah, I myself have cried for help, And in the morning my own prayer keeps confronting you.

¹⁴ Why is it, O Jehovah, that you cast off my soul? Why do you keep your face concealed from me?

¹⁵ I am afflicted and about to expire from boyhood on; I have borne frightful things from you very much.^*1

¹⁶ Over me your flashes of burning anger have passed; Terrors from you yourself have brought me to silence.

¹⁷ They have surrounded me like waters all day long; They have closed in upon me all at one time.

¹⁸ You have put far away from me friend and companion; My acquaintances are a dark place.