A Song, a Psalm for the sons of Korah. To the chief Musician. Upon Mahalath Leannoth. An instruction. Of Heman the Ezrahite.

88 Jehovah, God of my salvation, I have cried by day [and] in the night before thee.

² Let my prayer come before thee; incline thine ear unto my cry.

³ For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh to Sheol.

⁴ I am reckoned with them that go down into the pit; I am as a man that hath no strength:

⁵ Prostrate among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave; whom thou rememberest no more, and who are cut off from thy hand.

⁶ Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in dark places, in the deeps.

⁷ Thy fury lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted [me] with all thy waves. Selah.

⁸ Thou hast put my familiar friends far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

⁹ Mine eye consumeth by reason of affliction. Upon thee, Jehovah, have I called every day; I have stretched out my hands unto thee.

¹⁰ Wilt thou do wonders to the dead? shall the shades arise and praise thee? Selah.

¹¹ Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave? thy faithfulness in Destruction?

¹² Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

¹³ But as for me, Jehovah, I cry unto thee, and in the morning my prayer cometh before thee.

¹⁴ Why, O Jehovah, castest thou off my soul? [why] hidest thou thy face from me?

¹⁵ I am afflicted and expiring from my youth up; I suffer thy terrors, [and] I am distracted.

¹⁶ Thy fierce anger hath gone over me; thy terrors have brought me to nought:

¹⁷ They have surrounded me all the day like water; they have compassed me about together.

¹⁸ Lover and associate hast thou put far from me: my familiar friends are darkness.