Psalm 88

Complete Jewish Bible

88 ⁽⁰⁾A song. A psalm of the sons of Korach. For the leader. Set to “Sickness that Causes Suffering.” A maskil of Heiman the Ezrachi.

²⁽¹⁾Adonai, God of my salvation,
when I cry out to you in the night,
³⁽²⁾let my prayer come before you,
turn your ear to my cry for help!
⁴⁽³⁾For I am oversupplied with troubles,
which have brought me to the brink of Sh’ol.
⁵⁽⁴⁾I am counted among those going down to the pit,
like a man who is beyond help,
⁶⁽⁵⁾left by myself among the dead,
like the slain who lie in the grave —
you no longer remember them;
they are cut off from your care.

⁷⁽⁶⁾You plunged me into the bottom of the pit,
into dark places, into the depths.
⁸⁽⁷⁾Your wrath lies heavily on me;
your waves crashing over me keep me down. (Selah)
⁹⁽⁸⁾You separated me from my close friends,
made me repulsive to them;
I am caged in, with no escape;
¹⁰⁽⁹⁾my eyes grow dim from suffering.

I call on you, Adonai, every day;
I spread out my hands to you.
¹¹⁽¹⁰⁾Will you perform wonders for the dead?
Can the ghosts of the dead rise up and praise you? (Selah)
¹²⁽¹¹⁾Will your grace be declared in the grave,
or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
¹³⁽¹²⁾Will your wonders be known in the dark,
or your righteousness in the land of oblivion?

¹⁴⁽¹³⁾But I cry out to you, Adonai;
my prayer comes before you in the morning.
¹⁵⁽¹⁴⁾So why, Adonai, do you reject me?
Why do you hide your face from me?

¹⁶⁽¹⁵⁾Since my youth I have been miserable, close to death;
I am numb from bearing these terrors of yours.
¹⁷⁽¹⁶⁾Your fierce anger has overwhelmed me,
your terrors have shriveled me up.
¹⁸⁽¹⁷⁾They surge around me all day like a flood,
from all sides they close in on me.
¹⁹⁽¹⁸⁾You have made friends and companions shun me;
the people I know are hidden from me.

James 2:14-26

Complete Jewish Bible

¹⁴What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith but has no actions to prove it? Is such “faith” able to save him? ¹⁵Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food, ¹⁶and someone says to him, “Shalom! Keep warm and eat hearty!” without giving him what he needs, what good does it do? ¹⁷Thus, faith by itself, unaccompanied by actions, is dead.

¹⁸But someone will say that you have faith and I have actions. Show me this faith of yours without the actions, and I will show you my faith by my actions! ¹⁹You believe that “God is one”?^[a] Good for you! The demons believe it too — the thought makes them shudder with fear!

²⁰But, foolish fellow, do you want to be shown that such “faith” apart from actions is barren? ²¹Wasn’t Avraham avinu declared righteous because of actions when he offered up his son Yitz’chak on the altar? ²²You see that his faith worked with his actions; by the actions the faith was made complete; ²³and the passage of the Tanakh was fulfilled which says, “Avraham had faith in God, and it was credited to his account as righteousness.”^[b] He was even called God’s friend.^[c] ²⁴You see that a person is declared righteous because of actions and not because of faith alone.

²⁵Likewise, wasn’t Rachav the prostitute also declared righteous because of actions when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another route? ²⁶Indeed, just as the body without a spirit is dead, so too faith without actions is dead.

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