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Psalms · Free Bible Version

Psalm 88 Free Bible Version

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  • Individual translator
  • OT: Masoretic Hebrew
  • NT: Critical text
  • Protestant (66 books)
  • Dynamic (thought for thought)
  • 2018
  • CC BY-SA 4.0

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

Notes on this text (1)
FBV Free Bible Version
WEB World English Bible (Classic, with Deuterocanon)
1 A song. A psalm of the descendants of Korah. For the music director. To the tune “Mahalath Leannoth.” A maskil by Heman the Ezrahite Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out to you day and night.
1 A Song. A Psalm by the sons of Korah. For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “The Suffering of Affliction.” A contemplation by Heman, the Ezrahite. Yahweh, the God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you.
2 Please listen to my prayer; hear my words as I plead with you.
2 Let my prayer enter into your presence. Turn your ear to my cry.
3 My life is full of troubles, and my death is approaching.
3 For my soul is full of troubles. My life draws near to Sheol.
4 I'm counted among the dying; a man with no strength.
4 I am counted among those who go down into the pit. I am like a man who has no help,
5 I am abandoned among the dead, lying like a corpse in the grave, forgotten and beyond your care.
5 set apart among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more. They are cut off from your hand.
6 You have placed me in a deep pit, in the depths of darkness.
6 You have laid me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths.
7 Your hostility crushes me; you are drowning me under your crashing waves. Selah.
7 Your wrath lies heavily on me. You have afflicted me with all your waves. Selah.
8 You have made my friends avoid me by making me look repulsive to them. I'm trapped, I can't go out.
8 You have taken my friends from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am confined, and I can’t escape.
9 I've cried my eyes out begging you every day for your help, Lord, holding out my hands to you.
9 My eyes are dim from grief. I have called on you daily, Yahweh. I have spread out my hands to you.
10 Do you do miracles among the dead? Do the dead stand up to praise you? Selah.
10 Do you show wonders to the dead? Do the departed spirits rise up and praise you? Selah.
11 Your faithful love—is it mentioned in the grave? Your trustworthiness—is it discussed in the place of destruction?
11 Is your loving kindness declared in the grave? Or your faithfulness in Destruction?
12 Are the wonderful things you do known in the darkness? Is your goodness known in the land of forgetfulness?
12 Are your wonders made known in the dark? Or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
13 But I cry out to you for help; every morning I pray to you.
13 But to you, Yahweh, I have cried. In the morning, my prayer comes before you.
14 Lord, why do you reject me? Why do you turn away from me?
14 Yahweh, why do you reject my soul? Why do you hide your face from me?
15 I have been sick since I was young, often at death's door. I have had to bear the terrible things you've done to me. I'm in despair!
15 I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer your terrors, I am distracted.
16 Your anger has overcome me; the terrible things you do have destroyed me.
16 Your fierce wrath has gone over me. Your terrors have cut me off.
17 They surround me all the time like floodwaters, swallowing me up.
17 They came around me like water all day long. They completely engulfed me.
18 You have made my family and friends avoid me. Darkness is my only friend.
18 You have put lover and friend far from me, and my friends into darkness.

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

    See in the family tree

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

Articles and answers on this site that cite Psalm 88.

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)