New Living Translation
Psalms 88:12
12Can the darkness speak of your wonderful deeds? Can anyone in the land of forgetfulness talk about your righteousness?
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?
- English Standard Version (ESV)Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
- New King James Version (NKJV)Shall Your wonders be known in the dark? And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
Context of Psalms 88:12
10Are your wonderful deeds of any use to the dead? Do the dead rise up and praise you? Interlude 11Can those in the grave declare your unfailing love? Can they proclaim your faithfulness in the place of destruction? Can the darkness speak of your wonderful deeds? Can anyone in the land of forgetfulness talk about your righteousness? 13O Lord, I cry out to you. I will keep on pleading day by day. 14O Lord, why do you reject me? Why do you turn 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 143:3My enemy has chased me. He has knocked me to the ground and forces me to live in darkness like those in the grave.
- Job 10:21before I leave—never to return— for the land of darkness and utter gloom.
- Isaiah 8:22and down at the earth, but wherever they look, there will be trouble and anguish and dark despair. They will be thrown out into the darkness.
- Matthew 8:12But many Israelites—those for whom the Kingdom was prepared—will be thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
- Jude 1:13They are like wild waves of the sea, churning up the foam of their shameful deeds. They are like wandering stars, doomed forever to blackest darkness.
- Psalms 88:5They have left me among the dead, and I lie like a corpse in a grave. I am forgotten, cut off from your care.
- Psalms 31:12I am ignored as if I were dead, as if I were a broken pot.
- Ecclesiastes 2:16For the wise and the foolish both die. The wise will not be remembered any longer than the fool. In the days to come, both will be forgotten.
- Ecclesiastes 8:10I have seen wicked people buried with honor. Yet they were the very ones who frequented the Temple and are now praised in the same city where they committed their crimes! This, too, is meaningless.
- Ecclesiastes 9:5The living at least know they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, nor are they remembered.
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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