Psalms 6:5-7

6:5 For no one remembers you in the realm of death, ¹ 

In Sheol who gives you thanks? ² 

6:6 I am exhausted as I groan;

all night long I drench my bed in tears; ³ 

my tears saturate the cushion beneath me. ⁴ 

6:7 My eyes ⁵  grow dim ⁶  from suffering;

they grow weak ⁷  because of all my enemies. ⁸ 

[6:5]  ¹ tn Heb “for there is not in death your remembrance.” The Hebrew noun זֵכֶר (zekher, “remembrance”) here refers to the name of the Lord as invoked in liturgy and praise. Cf. Pss 30:4; 97:12. “Death” here refers to the realm of death where the dead reside. See the reference to Sheol in the next line.

[6:5]  ² tn The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “no one.”

[6:6]  ³ tn Heb “I cause to swim through all the night my bed.”

[6:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “with my tears my bed I flood/melt.”

[6:7]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text has the singular “eye” here.

[6:7]  ⁶ tn Or perhaps, “are swollen.”

[6:7]  ⁷ tn Or perhaps, “grow old.”

[6:7]  ⁸ sn In his weakened condition the psalmist is vulnerable to the taunts and threats of his enemies.