PSALM 88
1 The song of the psalm, to the sons of Korah, to victory on Mahalath, for to answer the learning of Heman, (the) Ezrahite. Lord God of mine health; I cried in day and night before thee. (A psalm, yea, a song by the Korahites, for the choirmaster, according to Mahalath, to answer a teaching by Heman, the Ezrahite. Lord God of my salvation; I have cried day and night before thee.)
2 My prayer enter before thy sight (or Let my prayer come before thee); bow down thine ear to my prayer.
3 For my soul is [full-]filled with evils; and my life nighed to hell. (For my soul is filled full of evils; and my life came near to Sheol, that is, the land of the dead, or and my life nighed to the grave.)
4 I am guessed with them that go down into the pit; I am made as a man without help,
5 and free among dead men. As men wounded sleeping in sepulchres, of which men none (thou) is mindful (of) after; and they be put away from thine hand. (and free among the dead. Like the slain who sleep in tombs, or graves, of whom there is no one thou remembereth any more; yea, they all be cut off from thy help, or thy care.)
6 They have put me in the lower pit; in dark places, and in the shadow of death.
7 Thy strong vengeance is confirmed on me (or Thy fury hath raged against me); and thou hast brought in all thy waves on me.
8 Thou hast made far from me my known; they have set me (an) abomination to themselves. I am taken (in), and I went not out; (Thou hast taken all my friends far away from me; thou hast made me an abomination to them. I am enclosed, and I cannot go out;)
9 mine eyes were sick for poverty [or mine eyes (were) (en)feebled for mis-ease]. Lord, I cried to thee; all day I spreaded abroad mine hands to thee. (my eyes have been weakened from suffering. Lord, I cried to thee; and every day I spread abroad my hands to thee.)
10 Whether thou shalt do marvels to dead men; either leeches shall raise (them up), and they shall acknowledge to thee? (Shalt thou do marvellous deeds for the dead? or shall physicians raise them up, and then they shall praise thee?)
11 Whether any man in sepulchre shall tell thy mercy; and thy truth in perdition? (Shall any man in the tomb, or in the grave, tell of thy love? or in perdition, tell of thy faithfulness?)
12 Whether thy marvels shall be known in darknesses; and thy rightfulness in the land of forgetting? (Shall thy marvellous deeds be known in the dark places? or thy righteousness in the land of the forgotten? or in the land of oblivion?)
13 And, Lord, I cried to thee; and early my prayer shall before come to thee. (But, Lord, I cried to thee; and every morning my prayer hath come before thee.)
14 Lord, why puttest thou away my prayer; thou turnest away thy face from me? (Lord, why puttest thou me away? why rejectest me? why turnest thou away thy face from me?)
15 I am poor, and in travails from my youth; soothly I am enhanced, and I am made low, and troubled. (I am poor, and have had troubles from my youth; truly I am abased, and greatly troubled.)
16 Thy wraths passed on me; and thy dreads troubled me. (Thy rages have swept over me or Thy anger hath come upon me; and thy terrors have made me afraid.)
17 They (en)compassed me as water all day; they (en)compassed me (al)together. (They surrounded me like water all day long; they have completely surrounded me.)
18 Thou madest far from me a friend and neighbour; and my known from wretchedness. (Thou hast taken my friends and my neighbours far away from me; and now wretchedness is my only companion.)