^1aA Song. A Psalm to the sons of Korah. To the choirmaster with dancing and singing in response.↑

An Instructive Psalm of Heman the Ezrahite.

^1bO Lord God of my salvation,

By day I have cried out;

By night my cry is before you.

²May my prayer come before you;

Incline your ear to my outcry.

³For my being is saturated with evils,

And my life is touching the grave.

⁴I am considered as being among those

Going down to the pit.

I am like a man without strength,

⁵Among the dead, free,

Like the slain who lie in a grave,

Whom you no longer remember,

As they are cut off from your hand.

⁶You have put me in the pit,

In the lowest regions,

In the dark places

– In the depths.

⁷Your fury bears down on me;

You have afflicted me with all your breakers.

Selah.

⁸You have removed my acquaintances from me;

You have made me an abomination to them.

I am hemmed in,

And I can't come out.

⁹My eye languishes from affliction.

I have called on you, O Lord, daily;

I have opened out my hands to you.

¹⁰Do you perform a wonder for the dead?

Do the Rephaim rise and praise you?

Selah.

¹¹Is your kindness recounted in the grave?

– Or your faithfulness in the place of decease?

¹²Is your wondrous power known in the darkness?

– Or your righteousness in the land of oblivion?

¹³But I have cried out to you, O Lord,

And my prayer went to you early in the morning.

¹⁴Why, O Lord, are you averse to my being?

Why do you hide your face from me?

¹⁵I am afflicted,

And I have been expiring since my youth.

I have borne your terrors,

And I am bewildered.

¹⁶Your outpourings of fury have come over onto me;

Alarming things of yours have cut me down.

¹⁷They surround me like water all day long;

They encircle me in unison.

¹⁸You have removed lover and friend from me,

And my acquaintances, to darkness.