Chapter 87

  A canticle of a psalm for the sons of Core: unto the end, for Maheleth, to answer understanding of Eman the Ezrahite.  

-

  O Lord, the God of my salvation: I have cried in the day, and in the night before thee.  

-

  Let my prayer come in before thee: incline thy ear to my petition.  

-

  For my soul is filled with evils: and my life hath drawn nigh to hell.  

-

  I am counted among them that go down to the pit: I am become as a man without help,  

-

  free among the dead. Like the slain sleeping in the sepulchres, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cast off from thy hand.  

-

  They have laid me in the lower pit: in the dark places, and in the shadow of death.  

-

  Thy wrath is strong over me: and all thy waves thou hast brought in upon me.  

-

  Thou hast put away my acquaintance far from me: they have set me an abomination to themselves. I was delivered up, and came not forth:  

-

  my eyes languished through poverty. All the day I cried to thee, O Lord: I stretched out my hands to thee.  

-

  Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? or shall physicians raise to life, and give praise to thee?  

-

  Shall any one in the sepulchre declare thy mercy: and thy truth in destruction?  

-

  Shall thy wonders be known in the dark; and thy justice in the land of forgetfulness?  

-

  But I, O Lord, have cried to thee: and in the morning my prayer shall prevent thee.  

-

  Lord, why castest thou off my prayer: why turnest thou away thy face from me?  

-

  I am poor, and in labours from my youth: and being exalted have been humbled and troubled.  

-

  Thy wrath hath come upon me: and thy terrors have troubled me.  

-

  They have come round about me like water all the day: they have compassed me about together.  

-

  Friend and neighbour thou hast put far from me: and my acquaintance, because of misery.  

-