For my soul has had enough troubles, And my life has approached Sheol.
Parallel translations
- WEB For my soul is full of troubles. My life draws near to Sheol.
- KJV For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.
- 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.
- 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 abhors all kinds of food. They draw near to the gates of death.
- Mark 14:33–34He took with him Peter, James, and John, and began to be greatly troubled and distressed.
- Lam 3:15–19He has filled me with bitterness. He has sated me with wormwood.
- Isa 53:3He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him.
- Ps 69:17–21Don’t hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me speedily!
- Ps 88:14–15Yahweh, why do you reject my soul? Why do you hide your face from me?
- Ps 143:3–4For the enemy pursues my soul. He has struck my life down to the ground. He has made me live in dark places, as those who have been long dead.
- Matt 26:37–39He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and severely troubled.
- Job 6:2–4“Oh that my anguish were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances!
- Ps 77:2In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night, and didn’t get tired. My soul refused to be comforted.
- Job 33:22Yes, his soul draws near to the pit, and his life to the destroyers.
- Ps 107:26They mount up to the sky; they go down again to the depths. Their soul melts away because of trouble.
- Isa 53:10–11Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days, and Yahweh’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.
- Ps 22:11–21Don’t be far from me, for trouble is near. For there is no one 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.