Text -- Psalms 88:2-18 (NET)

88:2 Listen to my prayer! Pay attention to my cry for help! 88:3 For my life is filled with troubles and I am ready to enter Sheol. 88:4 They treat me like those who descend into the grave. I am like a helpless man, 88:5 adrift among the dead, like corpses lying in the grave, whom you remember no more, and who are cut off from your power. 88:6 You place me in the lowest regions of the pit, in the dark places, in the watery depths. 88:7 Your anger bears down on me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. (Selah) 88:8 You cause those who know me to keep their distance; you make me an appalling sight to them. I am trapped and cannot get free. 88:9 My eyes grow weak because of oppression. I call out to you, O Lord, all day long; I spread out my hands in prayer to you. 88:10 Do you accomplish amazing things for the dead? Do the departed spirits rise up and give you thanks? (Selah) 88:11 Is your loyal love proclaimed in the grave, or your faithfulness in the place of the dead? 88:12 Are your amazing deeds experienced in the dark region, or your deliverance in the land of oblivion? 88:13 As for me, I cry out to you, O Lord; in the morning my prayer confronts you. 88:14 O Lord, why do you reject me, and pay no attention to me? 88:15 I am oppressed and have been on the verge of death since my youth. I have been subjected to your horrors and am numb with pain. 88:16 Your anger overwhelms me; your terrors destroy me. 88:17 They surround me like water all day long; they join forces and encircle me. 88:18 You cause my friends and neighbors to keep their distance; those who know me leave me alone in the darkness.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Psa 88:2

¹ tn Heb “may my prayer come before you.” The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive, indicating the psalmist’s desire or prayer.

² tn Heb “turn your ear.”

NET Notes: Psa 88:3

¹ tn Or “my soul.”

² tn Heb “and my life approaches Sheol.”

NET Notes: Psa 88:4

¹ tn Heb “I am considered with.”

² tn Heb “the pit.” The noun בּוֹר (bor, “pit,” “cistern”) is sometimes used of the grave and/or the realm of the dead.

³ tn Heb “I am like a man [for whom] there is no help.”

NET Notes: Psa 88:5

¹ tn Heb “set free.”

² tn Heb “from your hand.”

NET Notes: Psa 88:6

¹ tn The noun בּוֹר (bor, “pit,” “cistern”) is sometimes used of the grave and/or the realm of the dead. See v. 4.

NET Notes: Psa 88:8

¹ tn Heb “[I am] confined and I cannot go out.”

NET Notes: Psa 88:9

¹ tn Heb “I spread out my hands to you.” Spreading out the hands toward God was a prayer gesture (see Exod 9:29, 33; 1 Kgs 8:22, 38; 2 Chr 6:12-13, 29; Ezra 9:15; Job 11:13; Isa 1:15). The words “in prayer” have been supplied in the translation to clarify this.

NET Notes: Psa 88:10

¹ tn Heb “Rephaim,” a term that refers to those who occupy the land of the dead (see Isa 14:9; 26:14, 19).

NET Notes: Psa 88:11

¹ tn Heb “in Abaddon,” a name for Sheol. The noun is derived from a verbal root meaning “to perish,” “to die.”

NET Notes: Psa 88:12

¹ tn Heb “known.”

² tn Heb “darkness,” here a title for Sheol.

³ tn Heb “forgetfulness.” The noun, which occurs only here in the OT, is derived from a verbal root meaning “to forget.”

sn The rhetorical questions in vv. 10-12 expect the answer, “Of course not!”

NET Notes: Psa 88:14

¹ tn Heb “[why] do you hide your face from me?”

NET Notes: Psa 88:15

¹ tn Heb “and am dying from youth.”

² tn Heb “I carry your horrors [?].” The meaning of the Hebrew form אָפוּנָה (’afunah), which occurs only here in the OT, is unclear. It may be an adverb meaning “very much” (BDB 67 s.v.), though some prefer to emend the text to אָפוּגָה (’afugah, “I am numb”) from the verb פוּג (pug; see Pss 38:8; 77:2).

NET Notes: Psa 88:16

¹ tn Heb “passes over me.”

NET Notes: Psa 88:17

¹ tn Heb “they encircle me together.”

NET Notes: Psa 88:18

¹ tn Heb “you cause to be far from me friend and neighbor.”

² tn Heb “those known by me, darkness.”