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Psalms · Bible in Basic English

Psalm 88 Bible in Basic English

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About BBE
  • Scholarly edition
  • OT: Masoretic Hebrew (not verified)
  • NT: Critical text (not verified)
  • Protestant (66 books)
  • Simplified language
  • 1965
  • Public domain

Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings

Notes on this text (1)

1 A Song. A Psalm. Of the sons of Korah. To the chief music-maker; put to Mahalath Leannoth. Maschil. Of Heman the Ezrahite. O Lord, God of my salvation, I have been crying to you for help by day and by night: 2 Let my prayer come before you; give ear to my cry: 3 For my soul is full of evils, and my life has come near to the underworld. 4 I am numbered among those who go down into the earth; I have become like a man for whom there is no help: 5 My soul is among the dead, like those in the underworld, to whom you give no more thought; for they are cut off from your care. 6 You have put me in the lowest deep, even in dark places. 7 The weight of your wrath is crushing me, all your waves have overcome me. (Selah.) 8 You have sent my friends far away from me; you have made me a disgusting thing in their eyes: I am shut up, and not able to come out. 9 My eyes are wasting away because of my trouble: Lord, my cry has gone up to you every day, my hands are stretched out to you. 10 Will you do works of wonder for the dead? will the shades come back to give you praise? (Selah.) 11 Will the story of your mercy be given in the house of the dead? will news of your faith come to the place of destruction? 12 May there be knowledge of your wonders in the dark? or of your righteousness where memory is dead? 13 But to you did I send up my cry, O Lord; in the morning my prayer came before you. 14 Lord, why have you sent away my soul? why is your face covered from me? 15 I have been troubled and in fear of death from the time when I was young; your wrath is hard on me, and I have no strength. 16 The heat of your wrath has gone over me; I am broken by your cruel punishments. 17 They are round me all the day like water; they have made a circle about me. 18 You have sent my friends and lovers far from me; I am gone from the memory of those who are dear to me.

People & places in this chapter

From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.

People

  • Heman the Ezrahite

    Psalm 88 author named in title

    Named in the title of Psalm 88 as the author of its Maskil, a song also marked as a psalm of the sons of Korah. The text does not say whether he is Heman the wise man of 1 Kings…

    Cited in the guide: Psalm 88:1

Cross references (18)

Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.

  1. 1 Isaiah 12:2; Psalm 22:2; Luke 18:7; Psalm 86:3; Genesis 49:18
  2. 2 Psalm 31:2; Psalm 141:1–2; Lamentations 3:8; Psalm 79:11; 1 Kings 8:31
  3. 3 Psalm 107:18; Lamentations 3:15–19; Mark 14:33–34; Psalm 69:17–21; Isaiah 53:3
  4. 4 Psalm 28:1; 2 Corinthians 1:9; Isaiah 38:17–18; Psalm 31:12; Psalm 143:7
  5. 5 Isaiah 53:8; Psalm 31:22; Isaiah 14:9–12; Psalm 136:23; Job 6:9
  6. 6 Psalm 69:15; Psalm 86:13; Psalm 40:2; Psalm 143:3; Lamentations 3:2
  7. 7 Psalm 42:7; 1 Peter 2:24; Romans 2:5–9; Job 6:4; John 3:36
  8. 8 Psalm 31:11; Isaiah 49:7; Job 30:10; Isaiah 63:3; Zechariah 11:8
  9. 9 Job 11:13; Psalm 86:3; Psalm 38:10; Psalm 143:6; Psalm 42:3
  10. 10 Isaiah 26:19; Psalm 6:5; Isaiah 38:18–19; Psalm 30:9; 1 Corinthians 15:52–57
  11. 11 Proverbs 15:11; Psalm 55:23; Matthew 7:13; Romans 9:22; Job 21:30
  12. 12 Ecclesiastes 9:5; Matthew 8:12; Job 10:21–22; Ecclesiastes 2:16; Isaiah 8:22
  13. 13 Psalm 5:3; Mark 1:35; Psalm 30:2; Psalm 119:147–148
  14. 14 Job 13:24; Psalm 13:1; Psalm 43:2; Psalm 44:24; Matthew 27:46
  15. 15 Job 6:4; Luke 22:44; Psalm 73:14; Job 7:11–16; Isaiah 53:10
  16. 16 Galatians 3:13; Revelation 6:17; Psalm 90:7; Psalm 89:46; Romans 8:32
  17. 17 Psalm 22:16; Psalm 69:1–2; Psalm 116:3; Job 30:14–15; Psalm 42:7
  18. 18 Psalm 88:8; Psalm 38:11; Job 19:12–15; Psalm 31:11

Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences

What the Fathers said

Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).

How these were chosen

“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).

  1. Commentary Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Psalms (Psalm LXXXVII)

    The Psalm which has just been sung is short, if we look to the number of its words, but of deep interest in its thoughts....The subject of song and praise in that Psalm is a city, whose citizens are we, as far as we are Christians: whence we are absent, as long as we are mortal: whither we are tending: …

    Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)