A Song. A Psalm for the Sons of Korah, to the chief musician on Mahalath, to make humble. A Poem of Heman the Ezrahite. O Jehovah God of my salvation, I have cried in the day, in the night before You.

Let my prayer come before You; bow down Your ear to my cry.

For my soul is full with evils, and my life touches Sheol.

I am counted with those who go down to the Pit; I have been like a feeble man,

free among the dead, as pierced ones lying in the grave, whom You remember no more; yea by Your hand they are cut off.

You have laid me in the lowest pit, in dark places, in the deeps.

Your fury has lain hard upon me, and You afflict me with all Your waves. Selah.

You have taken ones knowing me away from me; You have made me a hateful thing to them; I am shut up, I will not go out.

My eye mourns because of affliction; O Jehovah, I have called on You every day; I have spread out my hands to You.

For will You do wonders for those dying? Or shall the departed spirits rise and thank You? Selah.

Shall Your mercy be declared in the grave, Your faithfulness amidst ruin?

Shall Your wonders be known in the dark, and Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

But to You I have cried, O Jehovah; and in the morning my prayer shall go before You.

O Jehovah, why do You cast off my soul; why do You hide Your face from me?

I am afflicted and dying from childhood; I suffer Your terrors; I am distracted.

Your fierce wrath goes over me; Your terrors have cut me off.

They surrounded me like waters all the day; they have come together around me.

You have taken lover and friend far from me, he who knows me, into darkness.