Psalms 88
1 A canticle of a psalm for the sons of Core: unto the end, for Maheleth, to answer understanding of Eman the Ezrahite. O Lord, the God of my salvation: I have cried in the day, and in the night before thee.
Yahweh God, you who rescues me, all during each day I call out [to you] to help me, and I cry out to you during each night also.
2 Let my prayer come in before thee: incline thy ear to my petition.
Listen [IDM] to my prayer [DOU], while I cry out to you [for help]!
I have experienced many troubles/difficulties, and I am about to die [MTY] and go where dead people are. (Sheol h7585)
4 I am counted among them that go down to the pit: I am become as a man without help,
Because I have no more strength, [other people also] consider that I will soon die.
5 Free among the dead. Like the slain sleeping in the sepulchres, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cast off from thy hand.
I am like a corpse that has been abandoned; I am like dead people who lie in their graves, people who have been completely forgotten, because you do not take care of them any more.
6 They have laid me in the lower pit: in the dark places, and in the shadow of death.
[It is as though] you have thrown me into a deep, dark pit, into a place where they throw corpses.
7 Thy wrath is strong over me: and all thy waves thou hast brought in upon me.
[It seems like] you are very angry with me, and [it is as though] you have crushed me like [ocean] waves [crash down on people] [MET].
8 Thou hast put away my acquaintance far from me: they have set me an abomination to themselves. I was delivered up, and came not forth:
You have caused my friends to (avoid/stay away from) me; I have become repulsive to them. [It is as though] I am in a prison and cannot escape.
9 My eyes languished through poverty. All the day I cried to thee, O Lord: I stretched out my hands to thee.
My eyes cannot see well because I cry very much. Yahweh, every day I call out to you [to help me]; I lift up my hands to you [while I pray].
10 Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? or shall physicians raise to life, and give praise to thee?
You certainly do not [RHQ] perform miracles for dead people! Their spirits do not [RHQ] arise to praise you!
11 Shall any one in the sepulchre declare thy mercy: and thy truth in destruction?
Corpses in the grave certainly do not tell about your faithfully loving us [RHQ], and in the place where people are finally destroyed, no one tells about what you faithfully [do for us] [RHQ].
12 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark; and thy justice in the land of forgetfulness?
No one in the deep dark pit ever sees the miracles that you perform [RHQ], and no one in the place where people have been completely forgotten tells about your being good to us.
13 But I, O Lord, have cried to thee: and in the morning my prayer shall prevent thee.
But [as for me], Yahweh, I cry out to you [to help me]; each morning I pray to you.
14 Lord, why castest thou off my prayer: why turnest thou away thy face from me?
Yahweh, why do you reject me [RHQ]? Why do you turn away from me [RHQ]?
15 I am poor, and in labours from my youth: and being exalted have been humbled and troubled.
All the time since I was young, I have suffered and have often almost died; I am (in despair/very discouraged) because of enduring the terrible things that you have done to me.
16 Thy wrath hath come upon me: and thy terrors have troubled me.
[I feel that] you have crushed me because of your being angry with me; the terrible things that you are doing to me are almost destroying me.
17 They have come round about me like water all the day: they have compassed me about together.
[I feel as though] they surround me like a flood [SIM]; they are (closing in on/crushing) me from all sides.
18 Friend and neighbour thou hast put far from me: and my acquaintance, because of misery.
You have caused [even] my friends and others whom I love to avoid me, and [it is as though] the only friend that I have is darkness.
