88:1 A song. A psalm for the sons of Qorakh.
For the director for appealing for answers to a riddle [see LXX, and Goldingay]
By Heman the Ezraite. [See 2 Chronicles 5:12]
88:2 Yahweh, God of my salvation
In the daytime I cry out, at the night, in front you.
88:3My prayer comes before your face
Incline your ear to my howling [today in modern Hebrew and Arabic, the word means ‘ululating’].
88:4For my life [nephesh] is filled with rot/evil/calamity/misery [ra’a]
And my life [khay] is arriving at sheol [grave].
88:5I am reckoned [niphal] with those going down the pit
I am like a powerful man without strength [BDB there is no help].
88:6among the dead [I am] free just like pierced/profaned ones
Lying [in a] grave, who you do not remember them again
And they from your hand are cut off.
88:7You set me in the lowest pit in the darknesses, in the depths
88:8upon me your rage rests, and all your breakers bring me down. Selah.
88:9You have put knowledge of me far away.
You have set me [as one of the] abominations to them, a shut up one [prisoner], and I do not go out.
88:10My eyes grow tired from my affliction
I cry out to you, Yahweh, all day
I spread out to you my palms.
88:11Will you do wonders for the dead?
Will the Rephaim [the spirits of the dead] arise [and] praise you? Selah.
88:12Your steadfast faithfulness is not recounted in the grave, is it?
Your truth in the place of destruction?
88:13Is your wonder made known in the darkness?
Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
88:14And I cry out for help unto you Yahweh,
And in the morning my prayer confronts you.
88:15Why, Yahweh, do you reject my life?
[Why] do you hide from me?
88:16Afflicted I am, expiring since my youth
I bear your terror and am helpless.
88:17Your rage comes upon me
Your terrors annihilate me.
88:18They surround me like waters all the day,
They go around me all together.
88:19You have put beloved and friend away from me,
From the people I know
My acquaintances are darkness.