Psalms 88:5

Free among the dead,.... If he was a freeman, it was only among the dead, not among the living; if he was free of any city, it was of the city of the dead; he looked upon himself as a dead man, as

Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand. Free among the dead - i:e., severed from thy service.

Free among the dead; well nigh discharged from the warfare of the present life, and entered es a member into the society of the dead; as Israelitish servants, when they were made flee, were thereby made denizens of the commonwealth of Israel. I expect no other freedom from my miseries but that which death gives, as ,18. Whom thou rememberest no more; whom thou seemest wholly to neglect and to bury in oblivion; for he speaks of these matters not as they are in truth, for he knew very well that forgetfulness was not incident to God, and that God did remember all the dead, and would call them to an account, but only as to sense and appearance, and the opinion of the world, and the state and things of this life. From thy hand; from the care and conduct of thy providence, which is to be understood as the former clause. Or, by thy hand. But our translation seems better to agree both with the foregoing branch, which it explains and improves, and with the order of the words; for it seems improper, after he had represented the persons as dead, and in their graves, to add that they are cut off, to wit, by death.

Psalms 88:5 Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.Ver. 5. Free among the dead] Free of that company, one of the many among the manes, or ghosts; a free denizen of that society of that moiety of mankind that are dead. Yea, I am mortuorum minimus, as R. Jonah rendereth it, according to the Arabic, A mundo manumissus. Like the slain that lie in the grave] That are thrown on heaps into a pit, as after a field fought (R. David). Whom thou rememberest no more] As to this present world, and as it may seem to others, with whom out of sight out of mind; dead folk are soon forgotten. Varro thinks Lethum, death, hath its name αποτηνληθης, from forgetfulness; because they which have now forgotten all the world should soon be forgotten of the world. And they are cut off from thine hand] Thy providence over them in matters belonging to life is at an end.

(5) Free among the dead . . .—So the old versions without exception, taking chaphshî as an adjective, as in Job 3:19 (where used of an emancipated slave); 1 Samuel 17:25 (free from public burdens). So of the separate house for lepers, who were cut off from society (2 Kings 15:5). Hence some refer the psalm to Uzziah. The Targum explains, “freed from legal duties.” But plainly the meaning is here exactly that of defunctus. The verse offers an instance of introverted parallelism, and this clause answers to “they are cut off from thy hand.” Gesenius, however, makes the Hebrew word a noun (comp. Ezekiel 27:20), and renders, among the dead is my couch.Whom thou.—The dead are “clean forgotten, out of mind” even to God. From thy hand—i.e., from the guiding, helping hand which, though stretched out for living men, does not reach to the grave.

Verse 5. Free among the dead] במתים צפשי bammethim chophshi, I rather think, means stripped among the dead. Both the fourth and fifth verses seem to allude to a field of battle: the slain and the wounded, are found scattered over the plain; the spoilers come among them, and strip, not only the dead, but those also who appear to be mortally wounded, and cannot recover, and are so feeble as not to be able to resist. Hence the psalmist says, "I am counted with them that go down into the pit; I am as a man that hath no strength," Psalms 88:4. And I am stripped among the dead, like the mortally wounded (חללים chalalim) that lie in the grave. "Free among the dead," inter mortuos liber, has been applied by the fathers to our Lord's voluntary death: all others were obliged to die, he alone gave up his life, and could take it again, John 10:18. He went into the grave, and came out when he chose. The dead are bound in the grave; he was free, and not obliged to continue in that state as they were. They are cut off from thy hand.] An allusion to the roll in which the general has the names of all that compose his army under their respective officers. And when one is killed, he is erased from this register, and remembered no more, as belonging to the army; but his name is entered among those who are dead, in a separate book. This latter is termed the black book, or the book of death; the other is called the book of life, or the book where the living are enrolled. From this circumstance, expressed in different parts of the sacred writings, the doctrine of unconditional reprobation and election has been derived. How wonderful!

5. Free among the dead] There can hardly be any allusion to Job 3:19, where the word is used of a welcome release from servitude, for it is a far-fetched interpretation to suppose that a new turn is given to the phrase and that it here means ‘dismissed against his will from the service of God.’ Render as R.V., cast off, or R.V. marg., cast away. A cognate word is used for ‘the house of separation’ in which Uzziah lived as a leper (2 Chronicles 26:21). Another but doubtful translation is, My couch is among the dead: cp. Job 17:13. the slain &c.] The slain in battle, whose corpses are flung into a nameless common grave. Cp. Ezekiel 32:24 ff. whom thou rememberest no more] Sheol is the ‘land of oblivion,’ where men neither remember God (Psalms 6:5; Psalms 30:9) nor are remembered by Him. They are cut off from thy hand, severed from Thy gracious help and protection. Cp. Psalms 31:22; Lamentations 3:54; 2 Chronicles 26:21. On this gloomy view of the future state see Introd. pp. xciii ff.

Free among the dead - Luther renders this, “I lie forgotten among the dead.” DeWette renders it, “Pertaining to the dead - (den Todten angehorend) - stricken down, like the slain, I lie in the

5. Free among the dead—If äôùׁ ?é, (haphshee,) is to be translated free, as in the common version, which is its prevailing sense; it must here denote freedom “from the cares and oppression of life,” and so Dr.