My eye wastes away because of affliction. Lord, I have called daily upon You; I have stretched out my hands to You.
Parallel translations
- WEB My eyes are dim from grief. I have called on you daily, Yahweh. I have spread out my hands to you.
- KJV Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.
- BSB My eyes grow dim with grief. I call to You daily, O LORD; I spread out my hands to You.
- NASB My eye grows dim from misery; I have called upon You every day, Lord; I have spread out my hands to You.
- NLT My eyes are blinded by my tears. Each day I beg for your help, O Lord; I lift my hands to you for mercy.
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 eyes fail from grief, yet he calls on the LORD daily and spreads out his hands in prayer. Even in despair, he keeps praying.
Overview
Worn down by sorrow, Heman nonetheless persists in daily prayer, spreading his hands toward God. This perseverance shows that faith can endure even when relief does not come. Such steadfast crying out, even from the depths, models the prayerful endurance perfected in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Job 11:13“If you set your heart aright, stretch out your hands toward him.
- Ps 38:10My heart throbs. My strength fails me. As for the light of my eyes, it has also left me.
- Ps 86:3Be merciful to me, Lord, for I call to you all day long.
- Ps 143:6I spread out my hands to you. My soul thirsts for you, like a parched land. Selah.
- Ps 42:3My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
- Job 16:20My friends scoff at me. My eyes pour out tears to God,
- Ps 68:31Princes shall come out of Egypt. Ethiopia shall hurry to stretch out her hands to God.
- Job 17:7My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.
- Ezek 17:11Moreover Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
- Ps 55:17Evening, morning, and at noon, I will cry out in distress. He will hear my voice.
- John 11:35Jesus wept.
- Ps 44:20If we have forgotten the name of our God, or spread out our hands to a strange god;
- Ps 88:1A Song. A Psalm by the sons of Korah. For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “The Suffering of Affliction.” A contemplation by Heman, the Ezrahite. Yahweh, the God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you.
- Lam 3:48–49My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- Ps 6:7My eye wastes away because of grief. It grows old because of all my adversaries.
- Ps 102:9For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with tears,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 88:9 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.