How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
Parallel translations
- WEB For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. How long, Yahweh? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
- BSB For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?
- NKJV How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?
- NASB How long, Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?
- NLT O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever? How long will you look the other way?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
David cries, 'How long, Yahweh? Will you forget me forever?' He laments God's seeming forgetfulness and hidden face.
Overview
Psalm 13 opens with the fourfold 'how long' of a soul in prolonged distress, feeling forgotten by God. This honest lament shows that faith may wrestle with God's apparent absence without abandoning Him. Such prayers give believers language for seasons when God seems far, while still addressing Him in trust.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Job 13:24Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?
- Lam 5:20Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?
- Ps 89:46How long, LORD? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy wrath burn like fire?
- Ps 94:3–4LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?
- Ps 22:1–2My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
- Ps 80:4O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?
- Ps 44:24Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?
- Ps 35:17Lord, how long wilt thou look on? rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling from the lions.
- Ps 6:3My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O LORD, how long?
- Ps 74:1O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
- Ps 10:12Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble.
- Ps 85:5Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?
- Isa 59:2But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
- Ps 90:14O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
- Deut 31:17Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us?
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 13:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.