88:1Jehovah, God of my salvation, I have cried by day and in the night before thee.

88:2Let my prayer come before thee; incline thine ear unto my cry.

88:3For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh to Sheol.

88:4I am reckoned with them that go down into the pit; I am as a man that hath no strength:

88:5Prostrate among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave; whom thou rememberest no more, and who are cut off from thy hand.

88:6Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in dark places, in the deeps.

88:7Thy fury lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.

88:8Thou hast put my familiar friends far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

88:9Mine eye consumeth by reason of affliction. Upon thee, Jehovah, have I called every day; I have stretched out my hands unto thee.

88:10Wilt thou do wonders to the dead? shall the shades arise and praise thee? Selah.

88:11Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave? thy faithfulness in Destruction?

88:12Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

88:13But as for me, Jehovah, I cry unto thee, and in the morning my prayer cometh before thee.

88:14Why, O Jehovah, castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?

88:15I am afflicted and expiring from my youth up; I suffer thy terrors, and I am distracted.

88:16Thy fierce anger hath gone over me; thy terrors have brought me to nought:

88:17They have surrounded me all the day like water; they have compassed me about together.

88:18Lover and associate hast thou put far from me: my familiar friends are darkness.