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.
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.
- 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.
- 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 away by oppression and judgment; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people?
- Ps 31:22As for me, I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before your eyes.” Nevertheless you heard the voice of my petitions when I cried to you.
- Isa 14:9–12Sheol from beneath has moved for you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the departed spirits for you, even all the rulers of the earth. It has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
- Gen 8:1God remembered Noah, all the animals, and all the livestock that were with him in the ship; and God made a wind to pass over the earth. The waters subsided.
- Job 11:10If he passes by, or confines, or convenes a court, then who can oppose him?
- Gen 19:29When God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.
- Ps 88:16Your fierce wrath has gone over me. Your terrors have cut me off.
- Job 6:9even that it would please God to crush me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!
- Ps 31:12I am forgotten from their hearts like a dead man. I am like broken pottery.
- Ps 136:23Who remembered us in our low estate; for his loving kindness endures forever;
- 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, to the lower parts of the earth, with those who go down into the pit.
- Isa 38:10–12I said, “In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol. 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
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.