For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.
Parallel translations
- WEB For my soul is full of troubles. My life draws near to Sheol.
- BSB For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.
- NKJV For my soul is full of troubles, And my life draws near to the grave.
- NASB For my soul has had enough troubles, And my life has approached Sheol.
- NLT For my life is full of troubles, and death draws near.
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
His soul is full of troubles and his life draws near to death. He stands at the very edge of the grave.
Overview
Heman describes a life so overwhelmed by trouble that it nears Sheol, the realm of the dead. The honesty of his despair shows that lament has a place in faith. It points to the reality of human suffering that Christ fully entered, drawing near to death on behalf of His people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Ps 107:18Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death.
- Mark 14:33–34And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy;
- Lam 3:15–19He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.
- Isa 53:3He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
- Ps 69:17–21And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.
- Ps 88:14–15LORD, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?
- Ps 143:3–4For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.
- Matt 26:37–39And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.
- Job 6:2–4Oh that my grief were throughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together!
- Ps 77:2In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.
- Job 33:22Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers.
- Ps 107:26They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
- Isa 53:10–11Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
- Ps 22:11–21Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
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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 88:3 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.