(no subject)

[goodfoot08.livejournal.com]

Psalms
Chapter 88

1. A song; a psalm of the Korahites. For the leader; according to Mahalath. For singing; a maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.
2
LORD, my God, I call out by day; at night I cry aloud in your presence.
3
Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry.
4
2 For my soul is filled with troubles; my life draws near to Sheol.
5
I am reckoned with those who go down to the pit; I am weak, without strength.
6
My couch is among the dead, with the slain who lie in the grave. You remember them no more; they are cut off from your care.
7
You plunged me into the bottom of the pit, into the darkness of the abyss.
8
Your wrath lies heavy upon me; all your waves crash over me. Selah
9
Because of you my friends shun me; you make me loathsome to them; Caged in, I cannot escape;
10
my eyes grow dim from trouble. All day I call on you, LORD; I stretch out my hands to you.
11
3 Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the shades arise and praise you? Selah
12
Is your love proclaimed in the grave, your fidelity in the tomb?
13
Are your marvels declared in the darkness, your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?
14
But I cry out to you, LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you.
15
Why do you reject me, LORD? Why hide your face from me?
16
I am mortally afflicted since youth; lifeless, I suffer your terrible blows.
17
Your wrath has swept over me; your terrors have reduced me to silence.
18
All the day they surge round like a flood; from every side they close in on me.
19
Because of you companions shun me; my only friend is darkness.

Comments

[omarius.livejournal.com]

Ole King Dave sure was a stickler for numbering his lines. ;)

[goodfoot08.livejournal.com]

I wonder if there is a more anguished plea in the Bible. The sense of despair is huge. Do you think the numbering is "authentic" or were they assigned by the translators. Sorry to say, I don't have any background here.
I would be curious to hear this offered in some Sunday.

[omarius.livejournal.com]

I don't know who decided to start numbering the chapters and verses of the Bible, but it certainly wasn't the authors. They are an aid to study, nothing more.

I recently had the pleasure of reading Richard Lattimore's translation of the Acts and Letters of the Apostles (I.e., the New Testament minus the gospels and Revalation), and it had nary a section number in the text--only at the tops of pages (I suppose to aid in comparative reading). I found it much easier to comprehend in actual paragraphs rather than numbered sentenceoids.

[goodfoot08.livejournal.com]

also an aid for reference on a Sunday morning too. funny how these things happen. I would be curious to see Bible text set up in paragraphs. But that may be just another new-fangled lens for looking at the text. I worked through the Book of J a few years back and thought the text was almost epigramatic. Without transitional niceties of grammar as we know it.