Psalms

About this book

Psalm 6

1 For the music director, to be accompanied by stringed instruments, according to the sheminith style; a psalm of David. Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger. Do not discipline me in your raging fury. 2 Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am frail. Heal me, Lord, for my bones are shaking. 3 I am absolutely terrified, and you, Lord—how long will this continue? 4 Relent, Lord, rescue me! Deliver me because of your faithfulness. 5 For no one remembers you in the realm of death. In Sheol who gives you thanks?⁠ 6 I am exhausted as I groan. All night long I drench my bed in tears; my tears saturate the cushion beneath me.⁠ 7 My eyes grow dim from suffering; they grow weak because of all my enemies. 8 Turn back from me, all you who behave wickedly, for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping. 9 The Lord has heard my appeal for mercy;⁠ the Lord has accepted my prayer.⁠ 10 They will be humiliated and absolutely terrified. All my enemies will turn back and be suddenly humiliated.

Texts in conversation

Compare Psalm 6:5 and Baruch 2:17

Hebrew Bible · Deuterocanon

Summary

Psalm 6 teaches that death ends the chance to praise God because Sheol is a silent place where memory and thanks come to a halt. Baruch presents the same outlook by portraying the dead as unable to lift their voices in gratitude.

Passages

Psalm 6:5

Hebrew Bible

3 I am absolutely terrified, and you, Lord—how long will this continue? 4 Relent, Lord, rescue me! Deliver me because of your faithfulness. 5 For no one remembers you in the realm of death. In Sheol who gives you thanks? 6 I am exhausted as I groan. All night long I drench my bed in tears; my tears saturate the cushion beneath me. 7 My eyes grow dim from suffering; they grow weak because of all my enemies.

600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

Baruch 2:17

Deuterocanon

15 that all the earth may know that you are the Lord our God, because Israel and his posterity is called by your name. 16 O Lord, look down from your holy house and consider us. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear. 17 Open your eyes, and see; for the dead that are in Hades, whose breath is taken from their bodies, will give to the Lord neither glory nor righteousness; 18 but the soul who is greatly vexed, who goes stooping and feeble, and the eyes that fail, and the hungry soul, will declare your glory and righteousness, O Lord. 19 For we do not present our supplication before you, O Lord our God, for the righteousness of our fathers and of our kings.

200–50 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Baruch

References

"... The significance of the recension which underlies the Latin is that it is an explicit rejection of the older doctrine that once a man is dead, his soul in Sheol is cut off from all that can be truly called life, and from all true personal relationships with the Lord; that, in particular, he is cut off from the living Israelite's privilege of raising his voice in praise and thanksgiving to God. This imperfect doctrine finds expression especially in certain Psalms. Psalm 6:5: 'In death there is no remembrance of thee; in Sheol who shall give thee thanks?' Psalm 115:17: 'The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence. But we will bless the Lord'. See also Psalm 30:9; 88:10-12; Isaiah 38:18, 19; Baruch 2:17 etc. And the same doctrine finds a place in the Greek here in Sirach: 'Who shall give praise to the Most High in the grave?'. But the Latin suppresses this question here; and goes on then positively to contradict the assumption which underlies it ..."

Conleth Kearns, The Expanded Text of Ecclesiasticus: Its Teaching on the Future Life as a Clue to Its Origin, ed. Pancratius C. Beentjes, DCLS 11 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, 2011), 152–153.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Psalms150 psalms

Compare Psalm 6:5 and Baruch 2:17

Summary

Passages

Psalm 6:5

Baruch 2:17

References

Tags

Your feedback

Leave a comment

Glossary

Search the Library