English Standard Version
Psalms 88:12
12Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
Psalms 88:12 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
- New International Version (NIV)Are your wonders known in the place of darkness, or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?
- New King James Version (NKJV)Shall Your wonders be known in the dark? And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
- New Living Translation (NLT)Can the darkness speak of your wonderful deeds? Can anyone in the land of forgetfulness talk about your righteousness?
Context of Psalms 88:12
10Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah 11Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon? Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? 13But I, O Lord, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you. 14O Lord, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me?
Read all of Psalms 88Psalms 88:12 word by word
הֲיִוָּדַ֣ע בַּחֹ֣שֶׁךְ פִּלְאֶ֑ךָ וְ֝צִדְקָתְךָ֗ בְּאֶ֣רֶץ נְשִׁיָּֽה׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Psalms 88:12
- Psalms 143:3For the enemy has pursued my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead.
- Job 10:21before I go—and I shall not return— to the land of darkness and deep shadow,
- Isaiah 8:22And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.
- Matthew 8:12while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
- Jude 1:13wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.
- Psalms 88:5like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand.
- Psalms 31:12I have been forgotten like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel.
- Ecclesiastes 2:16For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool!
- Ecclesiastes 8:10Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity.
- Ecclesiastes 9:5For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.
Commentaries on Psalms 88:12
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 12The land of forgetfulness? - The place of separate spirits, or the invisible world. The heathens had some notion of this state. They feigned a river in the invisible world, called Lethe, , which signifies oblivion, and that those who drank of it remembered no more any thing relative to their former state. - Animae, quibus altera fato Corpora debentur, lethaei ad fluminis undam Securos latices et longa oblivia potant. Virg. Aen. 6: 713. To all those souls…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 12Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? - In the dark world; in “the land of darkness and the shadow of death; a land of darkness, as darkness itself, and where the light is as darkness.” Job 10:21-22. “And thy righteousness.” The justice of thy character; or, the ways in which thou dost maintain and manifest thy righteous character. In the land of forgetfulness - Of oblivion; where the memory has decayed, and where the remembrance of former things is…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 10-18Verses 10-18 Departed souls may declare God's faithfulness, justice, and lovingkindness; but deceased bodies can neither receive God's favours in comfort, nor return them in praise. The psalmist resolved to continue in prayer, and the more so, because deliverance did not come speedily. Though our prayers are not soon answered, yet we must not give over praying. The greater our troubles, the more earnest and serious we should be in prayer. Nothing grieves…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 8-12In his second charge, the psalmist claims that God has isolated him and caused his loneliness (compare Psalms 31:11; 38:11). In that culture, loneliness was a curse because relationships mattered more than personal success.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 11-1211-12. amplify the foregoing, the whole purport (as Psa 6:5) being to contrast death and life as seasons for praising God.Read the comment
Topics related to Psalms 88:12
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Psalms 88
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- The Treasury of David
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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