Psalms 88:4

Psa 88:4 I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man [that hath] no strength:

Ver. 4. I am counted with them, &c.] I am looked upon as irrecoverable, given up for desperate. Conclamatum est.

I am as a man that hath no strength] A man no man; weak as water, ακιας αναρ ανθρωπος.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5. (Psa 88:4) I am reckoned with those going down to the pit; I am (or am become) as a man with no strength. With the first clause compare Psa 28:1; Psa 143:7. With no strength, literally (to whom) there is no strength. The last word in Hebrew occurs only here, but a cognate form in Psa 22:19). There is in the original an antithesis, which cannot be conveyed by mere translation, arising from the fact that the first word for man is one implying strength.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 4. I am counted with them, c.] I am as good as dead nearly destitute of life and hope.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(4) As a man . . .—Rather, like a hero whose strength is gone.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. He is regarded as a dying man. The pit is the grave or Sheol. Cp. Psa_28:1; Psa_143:7; Psa_22:29; Pro_1:12.

that hath no strength] Like the feeble shadows of the dead. Or as R.V., that hath no help: cp. the cognate word in Psa_22:19, rendered in R.V., O thou my succour.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I am counted with them that go down into the pit,.... With the dead, with them that are worthy of death, with malefactors that are judicially put to death, and are not laid in a common grave, but put into a pit together: thus Christ was reckoned and accounted of by the Jews; the sanhedrim counted him worthy of death; and the common people cried out Crucify him; and they did crucify him between two malefactors; and so he was numbered or counted with transgressors, and as one of them, Isa 53:3.

I am as a man that hath no strength; for his "strength" was "dried up like a potsherd", Psa 22:15, though he was the mighty God, and, as man, was made strong by the Lord for himself.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

I am counted with them that go down into the pit - I am so near to death that I may be reckoned already as among the dead. It is so manifest to others that I must die - that my disease is mortal - that they already speak of me as dead. The word “pit” here means the grave - the same as Sheol in the previous verse. It means properly

(1) a pit,

(2) a cistern, Gen 37:20,

(3) a prison or dungeon, Isa 24:22,

(4) the grave, Psa 28:1; Psa 30:4; Isa 38:18.

I am as a man that hath no strength - Who has no power to resist disease, no vigor of constitution remaining; who must die.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

I am given up by my friends and acquaintance for a lost man.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 4. I am counted with them that go down into the pit. My weakness is so great that both by myself and others I am considered as good as dead. If those about me have not ordered my coffin they have at least conversed about my sepulchre, discussed my estate, and reckoned their share of it. Many a man has been buried before he was dead, and the only mourning over him has been because he refused to fulfil the greedy expectations of his hypocritical relatives by going down to the pit at once. It has come to this with some afflicted believers, that their hungry heirs think they have lived too long.

I am as a mat, that hath no strength. I have but the name to live; my constitution is broken up; I can scarce crawl about my sick room, my mind is even weaker than my body, and my faith weakest of all. The sons and daughters of sorrow will need but little explanation of these sentences, they are to such tried ones as household words.

Ver. 4. I am counted with them that go down into the pit. Not only myself, says he, but others also now despair of my life, and number me with those whose corpses are borne forth to burial. For now all my powers have failed and my vital spirits become quenched. He uses the word rbg which indicates fortitude rather than Mda or wya in order to show how great the severity of these evils was, and the vehemence of his griefs, which had broken even a most robust man. Mollerus.

Ver. 4. I am counted with them that go down into the pit. Next to the troubles of Christ's soul, are mentioned the disgrace and ignominy to which he submitted: He who was the fountain of immortality, from whom no one could take his life, who could in a moment have commanded twelve legions of angels to his aid, or have caused heaven and earth, at a word speaking, to fly away before him, he was counted among them that go down into the pit; he died, to all appearance, like the rest of mankind, nay, he was forcibly put to death, as a malefactor; and seemed, in the hands of his executioners, as a man that had no strength, no power, or might, to help and save himself. His strength went from him; he became weak, and like another man. The people shook their heads at him, saying, "He saved others, himself he cannot save." Samuel Burder.

Ver. 4. There is in the original an antithesis, which cannot be conveyed by mere translation, arising from the fact that the first word for man is one implying strength. J.A. Alexander.

Ver. 4. (last clause). Conscious weakness, painfully felt, at certain times, in various duties. Intended to keep us humble, to drive us to our knees, and to bring greater glory to God.

Ver. 4-5.

1. The resemblance of the righteous man to the wicked.

(a) In natural death.

(b) In bodily infirmities.

2. His difference from them. He is "counted with them" but is not of them.

(a) He experiences natural death only.

(b) His strength is perfected in weakness.

(c) For him to die is gain. G.R.

Psalms 88:5*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

4. I am counted—I am already reckoned among the dead. The pit— Another word for grave, and equal to sheol, Psa_88:3. See Psa_88:6.

As a man that hath no strength—Literally, As a strong man, or warrior, without strength.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I am counted with them that go down into the pit; i.e. "to the grave." I am reckoned as one just about to die. I am as a man that hath no strength. All my strength is departed from me; I am utterly feeble and weak a mere shadow of my former self. Physical weakness, something like paralysis, seems to be meant.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Counted - l am given up by my friends for a lost man.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

For my soul is sated with troubles He says this concerning the people of Israel.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.