TEHILLIM 88

A song, a psalm for the sons of Qoraḥ.
To the chief singer, on ‘Answers for sickness.’
A poem of Hĕman the Ezraḥite.

1 O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, Elohim of my deliverance,
By day I have cried out,
In the night before You,

2 Let my prayer come before You,
Incline Your ear to my cry.

3 For my being is filled with evils,
And my life draws near to the grave.

4 I have been reckoned among those
Who go down to the pit;
I have become like a man
Who has no strength,

5 Released among the dead,
Like slain ones lying in the grave,
Whom You have remembered no more,
And who have been cut off from Your hand.

6 You have put me in the lowest pit,
In dark places, in the depths.

7 Your wrath has rested heavily upon me,
And You have afflicted me with all Your breakers.
Selah.

8 You have put away my friends far from me;
You have made me an abomination to them;
I am shut in and do not go out;

9 My eye grows dim because of affliction.
𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, I have called upon You, all day long;
I have stretched out my hands to You.

10 Would You work wonders for the dead?
Would the dead rise to praise You? Selah.

11 Is Your kindness declared in the grave?
Your trustworthiness in the place of destruction?

12 Are Your wonders known in the dark?
And Your righteousness in the land of no remembrance?

13 But I, unto You I have cried, O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄,
And in the morning my prayer comes before You.

14 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, why do You reject me?
Why do You hide Your face from me?

15 I am afflicted and dying from childhood;
I have borne fear from You;
I am in despair.

16 Your fierce wrath has gone over me;
Your onslaughts have cut me off.

17 They surrounded me like water all day long;
They close in upon me altogether.

18 You have put loved one and companion far from me,
Darkness is my close friend!