A 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.

• ¹Yahweh, the God of my salvation,
• I have cried day and night before you.

• ²Let my prayer enter into your presence.
• Turn your ear to my cry.

• ³For my soul is full of troubles.
• My life draws near to Sheol *Sheol is the place of the dead..

• ⁴I am counted among those who go down into the pit.
• I am like a man who has no help,
• ⁵set apart among the dead,
• like the slain who lie in the grave,
• whom you remember no more.
• They are cut off from your hand.

• ⁶You have laid me in the lowest pit,
• in the darkest depths.

• ⁷Your wrath lies heavily on me.
• You have afflicted me with all your waves.

• Selah.

• ⁸You have taken my friends from me.
• You have made me an abomination to them.
• I am confined, and I can’t escape.

• ⁹My eyes are dim from grief.
• I have called on you daily, Yahweh.
• I have spread out my hands to you.

• ¹⁰Do you show wonders to the dead?
• Do the dead rise up and praise you?

• Selah.

• ¹¹Is your loving kindness declared in the grave?
• Or your faithfulness in Destruction?

• ¹²Are your wonders made known in the dark?
• Or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

• ¹³But to you, Yahweh, I have cried.
• In the morning, my prayer comes before you.

• ¹⁴Yahweh, why do you reject my soul?
• Why do you hide your face from me?

• ¹⁵I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up.
• While I suffer your terrors, I am distracted.

• ¹⁶Your fierce wrath has gone over me.
• Your terrors have cut me off.

• ¹⁷They came around me like water all day long.
• They completely engulfed me.

• ¹⁸You have put lover and friend far from me,
• and my friends into darkness.