I am forsaken among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom You remember no more, who are cut off from Your care.
Parallel translations
- WEB set apart among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more. They are cut off from your hand.
- KJV Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.
- NKJV Adrift among the dead, Like the slain who lie in the grave, Whom You remember no more, And who are cut off from Your hand.
- NASB Abandoned among the dead, Like the slain who lie in the grave, Whom You no longer remember, And they are cut off from Your hand.
- NLT They have left me among the dead, and I lie like a corpse in a grave. I am forgotten, cut off from your care.
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
He feels set apart among the dead, like the slain, seemingly forgotten and cut off from God's hand. His anguish includes a sense of abandonment.
Overview
Heman voices the fear of being forgotten by God among the dead, cut off from His care. This reflects the Old Testament's shadowy view of Sheol and the believer's experience of feeling forsaken. The cry of being cut off is answered in Christ, who was cut off for transgressors yet was not finally abandoned to the grave.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- 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 31:22In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from Your sight!” But You heard my plea for mercy when I called to You for help.
- Isa 14:9–12Sheol beneath is eager to meet you upon your arrival. It stirs the spirits of the dead to greet you—all the rulers of the earth. It makes all the kings of the nations rise from their thrones.
- Gen 8:1But God remembered Noah and all the animals and livestock that were with him in the ark. And God sent a wind over the earth, and the waters began to subside.
- Job 11:10If He comes along to imprison you, or convenes a court, who can stop Him?
- Gen 19:29So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, He remembered Abraham, and He brought Lot out of the catastrophe that destroyed the cities where he had lived.
- Ps 88:16Your wrath has swept over me; Your terrors have destroyed me.
- Job 6:9that God would be willing to crush me, to unleash His hand and cut me off!
- Ps 31:12I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind. I am like a broken vessel.
- Ps 136:23He remembered us in our low estate His loving devotion endures forever.
- Ezek 32:18–32“Son of man, wail for the multitudes of Egypt, and consign her and the daughters of the mighty nations to the depths of the earth with those who descend to the Pit:
- Isa 38:10–12I said, “In the prime of my life I must go through the gates of Sheol and be deprived of the remainder of my years.”
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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 88:5 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.