the Week of Proper 21 / Ordinary 26
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King James Version
Psalms 88:18
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- InternationalParallel Translations
You have removed lover and friend far from me;My acquaintances are in darkness.
You have removed lover and friend far from me; My acquaintances are in darkness.
Thou hast put a way farre from me my frende and neighbour: [thou hast hid] mine acquaintaunce out of sight.
Lover and associate hast thou put far from me: my familiar friends are darkness.
Loved one and friend You have put far from me, And my acquaintances into darkness.
You have taken lover and friend far from me, he who knows me, into darkness.
You caused my friends and loved ones to leave me. Now darkness is my closest friend.
You have put lover and friend far from me, And my friends into darkness.
Louer and friend hast thou put farre from me: and mine acquaintance into darkenesse.
My louers and fredes hast thou put awaye fro me, and turned awaye myne acquantaunce.
Lover and friend You have placed far from me; My familiar friends are in darkness.
Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, And mine acquaintance into darkness.
You have sent my friends and lovers far from me; I am gone from the memory of those who are dear to me.
Lover and friend you have put far from me, And my acquaintances into darkness.
Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, [and] my acquaintance into darkness.
You cause my friends and neighbors to keep their distance; those who know me leave me alone in the darkness.
My friends and neighbors have turned against me because of you, and now darkness is my only companion.
They surge around me all day like a flood, from all sides they close in on me. You have made friends and companions shun me; the people I know are hidden from me.
My louers and friends hast thou put away from me, and mine acquaintance hid themselues.
Friends and neighbors thou hast put far from me, and mine acquaintances thou hast kept away from me.
You have put lover and friend far from me, And my friends into darkness.
They came round about me like water all the day; they compassed me about together. Friend and companion hast Thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.
You have taken away my companions and loved ones. Darkness is my closest friend.
You have taken my friend and loved one far from me. Friends that were near to me are in darkness.
Thou hast put far from me every friend, and mine acquaintances because of my wretchedness.
Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.
You have removed my beloved and my friend; darkness is my closest companion.
You have caused friend and neighbor to shun me; my companions are in darkness.
Thou hast far removed from me, lover and friend, Mine acquaintances, are in darkness.
(87-19) Friend and neighbour thou hast put far from me: and my acquaintance, because of misery.
You have removed loved one and friend far from me, my acquaintances far from my darkness.
You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness.
You have removed lover and friend far from me; My acquaintances are in a hiding place.
You have taken away my loved ones and friends. Darkness is my only friend.
You have made even my closest friends abandon me, and darkness is my only companion.
You have distanced loved one and neighbor from me; darkness is my only friend.
Thou madist fer fro me a frend and neiybore; and my knowun fro wretchidnesse.
Thou hast put far from me lover and friend, Mine acquaintance [is] the place of darkness!
Thou hast caused lover and friend to shun me; my companions are in darkness.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Lover: Psalms 88:8, Psalms 31:11, Psalms 38:11, Job 19:12-15
mine acquaintance: A figurative expression to denote that he now never saw them.
Reciprocal: 2 Samuel 16:3 - where is Job 6:15 - My brethren Job 19:13 - put my brethren Psalms 142:4 - but there was Proverbs 19:7 - the brethren Isaiah 51:18 - none Matthew 26:31 - and the Mark 14:50 - General Luke 23:49 - acquaintance
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Lover and friend hast thou put far from me,.... This is mentioned in Psalms 88:8, and is here repeated; and the account is closed with it, to show that this was a most aggravating circumstance of his affliction, and which bore exceeding hard upon him; and this must be a very uncomfortable case, to be in distress, whether of body or mind, and to have no kind friend near to yield the least help, relief, and comfort; so Christ's lovers and friends, his disciples, who loved him and he loved them, and reckoned them as his friends, and was a friend to them, when he was taken by his enemies, they all forsook him, and fled, Matthew 26:56,
and mine acquaintance into darkness; either by death into the dark grave, which Job calls the land of darkness and shadow of death,
Job 10:21, or being removed from him, so that he could not see them, it was all one to him as if they had been put into darkness, into some dark dungeon, or into the grave itself: or the words may be rendered, mine acquaintance are darkness i: this was the case of Christ, when on the cross; he had none near him, no acquaintance about him, but darkness; and darkness was over all the land for the space of three hours; and a darkness was on his soul, being forsaken by his Father; and the prince of darkness, with all the fiends of hell, were throwing their fiery darts at him, Matthew 27:45. Thus ends this sorrowful and mournful song; a joyful one follows.
i מידעי מחשך "noti mei sunt tenebrae", Cocceius, Schmidt, Michaelis; "amici mei sunt caligo", Gejerus.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Lover and friend hast thou put far from me - That is, Thou hast so afflicted me that they have forsaken me. Those who professed to love me, and whom I loved - those whom I regarded as my friends, and who seemed to be my friends - are now wholly turned away from me, and I am left to suffer alone. See the notes at Psalms 88:8.
And mine acquaintance into darkness - The Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate render this, “my acquaintance from my misery.” Luther, “Thou hast caused my friends and neighbors, and my kindred, to separate themselves far from me, on account of such misery.” The literal rendering would be, my acquaintances are darkness. This may mean either that they had so turned away that he could not see them, as if they were in the dark; or, that his familiars now - his companions - were dark and dismal objects - gloomy thoughts - sad forebodings. Perhaps the whole might be translated, “Far away from me hast thou put lover and friend - my acquaintances! All is darkness!” That is, When I think of any of them, all is darkness, sadness. My friends are not to be seen. They have vanished. I see no friends; I see only darkness and gloom. All have gone, leaving me alone in this condition of unpitied sorrow! This completes the picture of the suffering man; a man to whom all was dark, and who could find no consolation anywhere - in God; in his friends; in the grave; in the prospect of the future. There are such cases; and it was well that there was one such description in the sacred Scriptures of a good man thus suffering - to show us that when we thus feel, it should not be regarded as proof that we have no piety. Beneath all this, there may be true love to God; beyond all this, there may be a bright world to which the sufferer will come, and where he will forever dwell.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Psalms 88:18. Lover and friend — I have no comfort, and neither friend nor neighbour to sympathize with me.
Mine acquaintance into darkness. — All have forsaken me; or מידעי מחשך meyuddai machsach, "Darkness is my companion." Perhaps he may refer to the death of his acquaintances; all were gone; there was none left to console him! That man has a dismal lot who has outlived all his old friends and acquaintances; well may such complain. In the removal of their friends they see little else than the triumphs of death. Khosroo, an eminent Persian poet, handles this painful subject with great delicacy and beauty in the following lines: -
[---Persic---]
[---Persic---]
[---Persic---]
[---Persic---]
Ruftem sauee khuteereh bekerestem bezar
Az Hijereh Doostan ke aseer fana shudend:
Guftem Eeshah Kuja shudend? ve Khatyr
Dad az sada jouab Eeshan Kuja!
"Weeping, I passed the place where lay my friends
Captured by death; in accents wild I cried,
Where are they? And stern Fate, by Echoes voice,
Returned in solemn sound the sad Where are they?"
J. B. C.
ANALYSIS OF THE EIGHTY-EIGHTH PSALM
There are four parts in this Psalm: -
I. A petition, Psalms 88:1-2.
II. The cause of this petition, his misery, which he describes, Psalms 88:3-9.
III. The effects produced by this miserable condition: 1. A special prayer, Psalms 88:10-12; 2. An expostulation with God for deliverance, Psalms 88:10-12.
IV. A grievous complaint, Psalms 88:14-18.
The psalmist offers his petition; but before he begins, he lays down four arguments why it should be admitted, -
1. His confidence and reliance on God: "O Lord God of my salvation."
2. His earnestness to prevail: "I have cried."
3. His assiduity: "Day and night."
4. His sincerity: "I have cried before thee."
And then he tenders his request for audience: "Let my prayer come before thee, incline thine ear unto my cry."
II. And then next he sets forth the pitiful condition he was in, that hereby he might move God to take compassion, which he amplifies several ways: -
1. From the weight and variety of his troubles; many they were, and pressed him to death. "For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh to the grave."
2. From the danger of death in which he was.
Which is illustrated by three degrees: -
1. That he was moribundus, dying, no hope of life in him even by the estimate of all men: "I am counted with them that go down to the pit; I am as a man that hath no strength."
2. That he was plane mortuus, nearly dead; but as a dead man, "free among the dead;" freed from all the business of this life; as far separate from them as a dead man.
3. Yea, dead and buried: "Like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberedst no more;" i.e., to care for in this life; and "they are cut off from thy hand," i.e., thy providence, thy custody, as touching matter of this life.
And yet he farther amplifies his sad condition by two similitudes: -
1. Of a man in some deep dark dungeon: "Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps;" as was Jeremiah, Jeremiah 37:15-16; Jeremiah 38:6.
2. Of a man in a wreck at sea, that is compassed with the waves, to which he compares God's anger: "Thy wrath lieth hard upon me. and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves." One wave impels another. The recurrence of his troubles was perpetual; one no sooner gone but another succeeded.
And, to add to this his sorrow, his friends, whose visits in extremity used to alleviate the grief of a troubled soul, even these proved perfidious, and came not to him; he had no comfort with them; which was also God's doing, and thus augmented his grief.
The auxesis or augmentation is here very elegant:
1. "Thou hast put away mine acquaintance from me." THOU.
2. "Thou hast made me an abomination to them." No less; an abomination.
3. "I am shut up, I cannot come forth." As a man in prison, I cannot come at them, and they will not come to me.
III. The effect of which grievous affliction was threefold: 1. An internal grief and wasting of the body; 2. An ardent affection in God; and 3. An expostulation with God.
1. "My eye mourns by reason of affliction." An evidence that I am troubled and grieved to the heart, that my eye droops and fails; for when the animal and vital spirits suffer a decay, the eye will quickly, by her dimness, deadness, and dulness, discover it.
2. It produced an ardent affection, a continuance and assiduity in prayer, which is here made evident by the adjuncts.
1. His voice: "I have called daily upon thee." It was, 1. A cry; 2. It was continual.
2. By the extension of his hands: "I have stretched out my hands to thee." Men used to do so when they expected help; when they looked to receive; whence we sometimes say Lend me thy hand.
3. The third effect was, an expostulation with God, in which he presseth to spare his life from the inconvenience that might thereby happen, viz., that he should be disabled to praise God and celebrate his name, as he was bound and desired to do, among the living: an argument used before, Psalms 6:3. This argument, though it savours too much of human frailty, yet he thought by it to move God, who above all things is jealous of his own glory, which by his death he imagines will suffer loss; and therefore he asks, -
1. "Wilt thou show wonders among the dead?" That is, thy desire is to set forth thy honour, which cannot be done if I go to the grave, except by some miracle I should be raised from thence.
2. "Shall the dead arise again and praise thee?" It is the living that shall show forth thy praise, thy power, and goodness; thy fidelity in keeping thy promises to the sons of men. The dead, as dead, cannot do this; and they return not from the grave, except by miracle.
3. "Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave, or thy faithfulness in destruction? shall thy wonders be known in the dark, or thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?' Such is the grave, a place of oblivion; for Abraham is ignorant of us. The goodness and faithfulness of God, which he makes known to us in this life, are not known nor can be declared by the dead: the living see them; they have experience of them; and therefore he desires that his life may be spared to that end, lest if he die now that faculty should be taken from him; he should no longer be able to resound the praise of God, which is the end for which men ought to desire life.
IV. He returns to his complaint; and again repeats what he had said before, and almost in the same words, and gives three instances: -
1. In his prayer: "But unto thee have I cried, O Lord; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee." He prayed earnestly, early, not drowsily; for he did prevent God: he prayed, and would continue in prayer; and yet all in vain.
2. For God seems to be inexorable, of which he complains: "Lord, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?" Even the best of God's servants have sometimes been brought to that strait, that they have not had a clear sense of God's favour, but conceived themselves neglected and deserted by him, and discountenanced.
His second instance is, his present affliction, mentioned before, Psalms 88:4-7: "I am afflicted and ready to die," which he here exaggerates: -
1. From the time and continuance of it; for he had borne it "even from his youth up."
2. From the cause. It did not proceed from any outward or human cause; that might have been borne and helped: but it was an affliction sent from God: "Thy terrors have I suffered;" it came from a sense of God's wrath.
3. From an uncomfortable effect. It wrought in this soul amazement, unrest, a perpetual trouble and astonishment: "Thy terrors have I suffered with a troubled mind: "I am distracted with them."
He amplifies this wrath by the former similes, Psalms 88:7; waves and water.
1. "Thy fierce wrath goes over me;" as waves over a man's head at sea. "Thy terrors have cut me off," as a weaver's thrum.
2. "They came round about me like water; daily like water."
3. "They compassed me about together," as if they conspired my ruin: "all thy waves," Psalms 88:7.
His third instance, which is the same, Psalms 88:8. The perfidiousness and desertion of friends: a loving friend is some comfort in distress; but this he found not: "Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness." They appear no more to me to give me any counsel, help, or comfort, than if they were hidden in perpetual darkness. His case, therefore, was most deplorable.
