Add parallel Print Page Options

For in death there is no remembrance of you.
    Who praises you in Sheol?[a](A)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 6:6 A motive for God to preserve the psalmist from death: in the shadowy world of the dead no one offers you praise. Sheol is the biblical term for the underworld where the insubstantial souls of dead human beings dwelt. It was similar to the Hades of Greek and Latin literature. In the second century B.C., biblical books begin to speak positively of life with God after death (Dn 12:1–3; Wis 3).

11 [a]Do you work wonders for the dead?
    Do the shades arise and praise you?(A)
Selah

III

12 Is your mercy proclaimed in the grave,
    your faithfulness among those who have perished?[b]
13 Are your marvels declared in the darkness,
    your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 88:11–13 The psalmist seeks to persuade God to act out of concern for divine honor: the shades give you no worship, so keep me alive to offer you praise.
  2. 88:12 Perished: lit., “Abaddon,” the deepest part of Sheol.