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.
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.
- BSB 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.
- 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 53:8He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
- Ps 31:22For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.
- Isa 14:9–12Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
- Gen 8:1And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged;
- Job 11:10If he cut off, and shut up, or gather together, then who can hinder him?
- Gen 19:29And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt.
- Ps 88:16Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.
- Job 6:9Even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!
- Ps 31:12I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel.
- Ps 136:23Who remembered us in our low estate: for his mercy endureth for ever:
- Ezek 32:18–32Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit.
- Isa 38:10–12I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue 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
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