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Your wrath has swept over me; Your terrors have destroyed me.
Psalms 88:16 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB Your fierce wrath has gone over me. Your terrors have cut me off.
  • KJV Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.
  • NKJV Your fierce wrath has gone over me; Your terrors have cut me off.
  • NASB Your burning anger has passed over me; Your terrors have destroyed me.
  • NLT Your fierce anger has overwhelmed me. Your terrors have paralyzed me.

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

God's fierce wrath has swept over him and His terrors have cut him off. He feels overwhelmed by divine judgment.

Overview

Heman again describes being engulfed by God's wrath and terrors, feeling severed from comfort. The relentless imagery conveys unrelieved distress. This experience of overwhelming wrath finds its ultimate answer in Christ, who absorbed the wrath that would otherwise cut off His people.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 11

  • Rev 6:17For the great day of Their wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?”
  • Dan 9:26Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing. Then the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood, and until the end there will be war; desolations have been decreed.
  • Gal 3:13Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
  • Ps 90:7For we are consumed by Your anger and terrified by Your wrath.
  • Ps 89:46How long, O LORD? Will You hide Yourself forever? Will Your wrath keep burning like fire?
  • Rom 8:32He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?
  • Ps 102:10because of Your indignation and wrath, for You have picked me up and cast me aside.
  • Ps 90:11Who knows the power of Your anger? Your wrath matches the fear You are due.
  • Isa 53:4–6Surely He took on our infirmities and carried our sorrows; yet we considered Him stricken by God, struck down and afflicted.
  • Isa 53:8By oppression and judgment He was taken away, and who can recount His descendants? For He was cut off from the land of the living; He was stricken for the transgression of My people.
  • Ps 38:1–2A Psalm of David, for remembrance. O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath.

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Psalms videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Psalms 88:16YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on PsalmsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 88:16 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.