Psalm 6 → 88
Reasoning: 7168 Output: 5184 Total: 12352
Argument
Here are multiple, mutually reinforcing ways to argue that Psalm 88 “follows on from” Psalm 6—stylistically, formally, lexically (in Hebrew), and in terms of life-setting and theology. I list the most probative links first, privileging rarer or more distinctive wording and exact matches where possible.
1) The core “Sheol logic”: Psalm 88 explicitly elaborates Psalm 6’s key argument
- Identical theme with shared key lexemes and argument structure:
- Ps 6:6 “for in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you thanks (mi yodeh-lakh)?”
- Ps 88:11–13 expands this same claim with a barrage of parallel questions using the same vocabulary set:
- “Will you do wonders for the dead? Will the Rephaim rise to praise you (yodukha)?” (v. 11)
- “Is your steadfast love (ḥasdekha) recounted in the grave? Your faithfulness in Abaddon?” (v. 12)
- “Are your wonders known in the darkness, your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?” (v. 13)
- Identical lexemes:
- Sheol: Ps 6:6; Ps 88:4.
- Hiphil of ידה “to praise/thank”: Ps 6:6 יודה־לך vs. Ps 88:11 יודוך. Same root and binyan; near-identical form and identical semantics.
- ḥesed “steadfast love”: Ps 6:5 למען חסדך; Ps 88:12 חסדך (again directly tied to the grave).
- The two psalms form a logical progression: Ps 6 introduces the persuasion “save me so I can praise you; the dead cannot,” while Ps 88 is the full-dress, exhaustive version of that very persuasion (adding “wonders,” “faithfulness,” “righteousness,” “darkness,” “forgetfulness,” “Rephaim,” “Abaddon”). If you read them consecutively, Psalm 88 reads like the developed brief of the thesis stated in Psalm 6:6.
2) Same complaint structure, same God-logic, with escalated intensity
- Rhetorical questions to God:
- Ps 6:4 “And you, YHWH—how long?” (עד־מתי)
- Ps 88:15 “Why, YHWH, do you spurn my soul? Why do you hide your face from me?” (למה … תזנח … תסתיר פניך)
- Petition framed by reasons introduced with כי:
- Ps 6:3, 6 “for (כי) I am languishing… for (כי) in death there is no remembrance…”
- Ps 88:4 “for (כי) my soul is sated with troubles…”
- The second psalm thus “follows on” by taking the same form-critical moves (address, complaint, petition, arguments) and pushing them closer to the brink of death.
3) Shared “sickness lament” profile, even signaled in the headings
- Both are individual laments of illness:
- Ps 6: classic “sickness psalm” (plea for healing: רפאני, v. 3; bones and soul shaken).
- Ps 88 superscription: על־מחלת לענות “according to ‘Mahalath Leannoth’” (a tune or genre label; both words are strongly associated with illness/affliction: מחלה “sickness,” ענות “affliction”), plus משכיל (instructive style).
- Both have liturgical performance markers:
- Ps 6: למנצח; בנגינות; על־השמינית.
- Ps 88: למנצח; technical tune label; Korahite guild; משכיל.
- This supports reading them as belonging to the same cultic repertoire of “affliction” songs; Psalm 88 is the darker, later-stage counterpart.
4) Identical or near-identical lexemes tied to divine wrath and affliction
- ḥēmah “wrath” with 2ms suffix, same noun:
- Ps 6:2 “and not in your wrath (בחמתך) discipline me.”
- Ps 88:8 “upon me your wrath (חמתך) has lain.” Exact noun; identical person/gender suffix.
- The petition to be saved from wrath in Ps 6 has “become reality” in Ps 88: the wrath has arrived and lies heavy.
5) The “praise and remembrance” word-family carried forward (with a striking reversal)
- זכר “remember”:
- Ps 6:6 “in death there is no remembrance of you (זכרך).”
- Ps 88:6 “among the dead … whom you remember no more (לא זכרתם עוד).”
- Same root (זכר), different but related parts of speech. Psalm 88 turns Ps 6’s logic inside out: not only can the dead not remember God; they are no longer “remembered” by God. That reversal both develops and darkens Psalm 6’s thought.
6) The same “soul” at risk, now closer to Sheol
- נפש “soul, life”:
- Ps 6:4 “my soul is greatly dismayed”; v. 5 “deliver my soul” (חלצה נפשי).
- Ps 88:4 “my soul is sated with evils”; v. 15 “why do you spurn my soul?”
- Identical noun and person. In Psalm 6 the soul pleads for deliverance; in Psalm 88 the soul experiences divine rejection.
7) Night → day-and-night: temporal escalation
- Ps 6 is a night-psalm: “All night I make my bed swim… I dissolve my couch with tears” (6:7).
- Ps 88 widens to “day and night” persistence:
- 88:2 “By day I cry out; by night before you.”
- 88:10 “I call you every day.”
- This suggests a sequence: the night of Ps 6 becomes an unrelenting, day-and-night siege in Ps 88, i.e., same sufferer, later in the ordeal.
8) Eye imagery of wasting away from sorrow—same noun, parallel rare verbs
- Identical noun:
- Ps 6:8 “my eye (עיני) wastes away (עששה) because of grief.”
- Ps 88:10 “my eye (עיני) languishes (דאבה) from affliction.”
- While the verbs differ (both relatively uncommon), the repeated “my eye” + wasting from sorrow motif is a hallmark lament image present in both.
9) Social horizon: from repelling evildoers to being repelled by one’s own circle
- Ps 6:9 “Depart from me, all workers of iniquity” (סורו ממני כל־פעלי און).
- Ps 88:9, 19 “You have removed my acquaintances from me… You have distanced from me friend and neighbor.”
- The social move in Ps 6 (the sufferer confidently sends evildoers away after being heard, vv. 9–11) is inverted in Ps 88 (God himself has removed allies). As a sequence, Ps 88 reads like “what happened when the confident resolution in Ps 6 didn’t materialize.”
10) Shared salvation vocabulary and prayer terms
- Root ישע “save”:
- Ps 6:5 הושיעני “save me.”
- Ps 88:2 “YHWH, God of my salvation (אלהי ישועתי).”
- תפלה “prayer”:
- Ps 6:10 “YHWH, my supplication/prayer (תפִלתי) the LORD accepts.”
- Ps 88:3 “Let my prayer (תפילתי) come before you”; 88:14 “in the morning my prayer comes before you.”
- Same semantic field; Psalm 88 is the continued praying of Psalm 6’s petitioner.
11) Water imagery of being overwhelmed
- Ps 6:7 “I make my bed swim… with my tears I dissolve my couch.”
- Ps 88:8 “All your breakers (משבריך) you have afflicted on me”; 88:18 “They surround me like water all day.”
- Different lexemes but same controlling image: being submerged.
12) Mythic death-world vocabulary amplifying Ps 6’s Sheol line
- Psalm 88 alone adds Rephaim, Abaddon, and Darkness/Land of Forgetfulness (vv. 11–13), the most concentrated “death-realm” diction in the Psalter; this is precisely the sphere hinted by Ps 6’s “death/Sheol” line. That makes Psalm 88 the natural “deepening” of the earlier thought-world.
Life-setting and liturgical sequence (how an ancient Israelite might have used them in order)
- Psalm 6 fits the onset/acute phase of serious illness: appeals for healing (רפאני), fear of divine anger, night-long tears, and a turn to confidence that God has heard.
- Psalm 88 fits the protracted or terminal phase: ongoing day-and-night prayer, social isolation, felt divine rejection, and proximity to the grave with no resolution.
- In ritual/liturgical terms, both are “for the director,” with genre/tune cues linked to affliction (Ps 88’s מחלת/לענות). It is easy to imagine Psalm 6 as the first prayer offered when sickness strikes, and Psalm 88 as the prayer when the illness persists and worsens—hence “logically following on.”
Bottom line
- The single most decisive link is the Sheol/praise argument with identical key words (שְׁאוֹל; חסד; Hiphil of ידה; זכר), where Psalm 88 explicitly develops the brief Psalm 6 introduces. Add to that the matching lament form, the same affliction/salvation lexicon, the same “eye wasting” motif, the escalation from night to day-and-night distress, the identical “wrath” noun (חמה), and the life-setting as sickness laments, and you have a coherent case that Psalm 88 is a natural sequel to Psalm 6—what the same sufferer might pray later if the hoped-for turn in Psalm 6 never came.
Evaluation
Score: 6.5
Evaluated at: 2025-11-21T03:34:44 (UTC)
Evaluator model: gpt-5
Evaluator version: v2
Reasoning: 2880 Output: 6012 Total: 8892
Checklist
- Has verse refs: Yes
- Factual error detected: No
- Only generic motifs: No
- Counterargument considered: No
- LXX/MT numbering acknowledged: No
Vocabulary specificity: 5.0 / 10
Strong, text-anchored Sheol/praise linkage (Ps 6:6 ~ Ps 88:11–13) plus multiple precise overlaps (חמתך; נפש; עיני; לילה/יום). However, motifs are common in laments and no editorial linkage is shown.
Prompt
Consider Psalm 6 and Psalm 88 (reproduced below). What arguments could you make to justify that Psalm 88 logically follows on from Psalm 6? Consider stylistic similarities, similarities of form, similarities of vocab or ideas, shared roots (if you're doing the search in Hebrew), connections to sequences of events common in ancient Israelite life, mythology or history shared by the two psalms.
Rarer words are more significant than commoner words. Identical forms are more significant than similar forms. The same word class is more significant than different word classes formed from the same root. Identical roots are more significant than suppletive roots.
Psalm 6:
Psalm 6
1. לַמְנַצֵּ֣חַ
בִּ֭נְגִינוֹת
עַֽל־
הַשְּׁמִינִ֗ית
מִזְמ֥וֹר
לְדָוִֽד׃
2. יְֽהוָ֗ה
אַל־
בְּאַפְּךָ֥
תוֹכִיחֵ֑נִי
וְֽאַל־
בַּחֲמָתְךָ֥
תְיַסְּרֵֽנִי׃
3. חָנֵּ֥נִי
יְהוָה֮
כִּ֤י
אֻמְלַ֫ל
אָ֥נִי
רְפָאֵ֥נִי
יְהוָ֑ה
כִּ֖י
נִבְהֲל֣וּ
עֲצָֽtמָי׃
4. וְ֭נַפְשִׁי
נִבְהֲלָ֣ה
מְאֹ֑ד
ואת
וְאַתָּ֥ה
יְ֝הוָ֗ה
עַד־
מָתָֽי׃
5. שׁוּבָ֣ה
יְ֭הוָה
חַלְּצָ֣ה
נַפְשִׁ֑י
ה֝וֹשִׁיעֵ֗נִי
לְמַ֣עַן
חַסְדֶּֽךָ׃
6. כִּ֤י
אֵ֣ין
בַּמָּ֣וֶת
זִכְרֶ֑ךָ
בִּ֝שְׁא֗וֹל
מִ֣י
יֽוֹדֶה־
לָּֽךְ׃
7. יָגַ֤עְתִּי ׀
בְּֽאַנְחָתִ֗י
אַשְׂחֶ֣ה
בְכָל־
לַ֭יְלָה
מִטָּתִ֑י
בְּ֝דִמְעָתִ֗י
עַרְשִׂ֥י
אַמְסֶֽה׃
8. עָֽשְׁשָׁ֣ה
מִכַּ֣עַס
עֵינִ֑י
עָֽ֝תְקָ֗ה
בְּכָל־
צוֹרְרָֽי׃
9. ס֣וּרוּ
מִ֭מֶּנִּי
כָּל־
פֹּ֣עֲלֵי
אָ֑וֶן
כִּֽי־
שָׁמַ֥ע
יְ֝הוָ֗ה
ק֣וֹל
בִּכְיִֽי׃
10. שָׁמַ֣ע
יְ֭הוָה
תְּחִנָּתִ֑י
יְ֝הוָ֗ה
תְּֽפִלָּתִ֥י
יִקָּֽח׃
11. יֵבֹ֤שׁוּ ׀
וְיִבָּהֲל֣וּ
מְ֭אֹד
כָּל־
אֹיְבָ֑י
יָ֝שֻׁ֗בוּ
יֵבֹ֥שׁוּ
רָֽגַע׃
Psalm 88:
Psalm 88
1. שִׁ֥יר
מִזְמ֗וֹר
לִבְנֵ֫י
קֹ֥רַח
לַמְנַצֵּ֣חַ
עַל־
מָחֲלַ֣ת
לְעַנּ֑וֹת
מַ֝שְׂכִּ֗יל
לְהֵימָ֥ן
הָאֶזְרָחִֽי׃
2. יְ֭הוָה
אֱלֹהֵ֣י
יְשׁוּעָתִ֑י
יוֹם־
צָעַ֖קְתִּי
בַלַּ֣יְלָה
נֶגְדֶּֽךָ׃
3. תָּב֣וֹא
לְ֭פָנֶיךָ
תְּפִלָּתִ֑י
הַטֵּֽה־
אָ֝זְנְךָ֗
לְרִנָּתִֽי׃
4. כִּֽי־
שָֽׂבְעָ֣ה
בְרָע֣וֹת
נַפְשִׁ֑י
וְ֝חַיַּ֗י
לִשְׁא֥וֹל
הִגִּֽיעוּ׃
5. נֶ֭חְשַׁבְתִּי
עִם־
י֣וֹרְדֵי
ב֑וֹר
הָ֝יִ֗יתִי
כְּגֶ֣בֶר
אֵֽין־
אֱיָֽל׃
6. בַּמֵּתִ֗ים
חָ֫פְשִׁ֥י
כְּמ֤וֹ
חֲלָלִ֨ים ׀
שֹׁ֥כְבֵי
קֶ֗בֶר
אֲשֶׁ֤ר
לֹ֣א
זְכַרְתָּ֣ם
ע֑וֹד
וְ֝הֵ֗מָּה
מִיָּדְךָ֥
נִגְזָֽרוּ׃
7. שַׁ֭תַּנִי
בְּב֣וֹר
תַּחְתִּיּ֑וֹת
בְּ֝מַחֲשַׁכִּ֗ים
בִּמְצֹלֽוֹת׃
8. עָ֭לַי
סָמְכָ֣ה
חֲמָתֶ֑ךָ
וְכָל־
מִ֝שְׁבָּרֶ֗יךָ
עִנִּ֥יתָ
סֶּֽלָה׃
9. הִרְחַ֥קְתָּ
מְיֻדָּעַ֗י
מִ֫מֶּ֥נִּי
שַׁתַּ֣נִי
תוֹעֵב֣וֹת
לָ֑מוֹ
כָּ֝לֻ֗א
וְלֹ֣א
אֵצֵֽא׃
10. עֵינִ֥י
דָאֲבָ֗ה
מִנִּ֫י
עֹ֥נִי
קְרָאתִ֣יךָ
יְהוָ֣ה
בְּכָל־
י֑וֹם
שִׁטַּ֖חְתִּי
אֵלֶ֣יךָ
כַפָּֽי׃
11. הֲלַמֵּתִ֥ים
תַּעֲשֶׂה־
פֶּ֑לֶא
אִם־
רְ֝פָאִ֗ים
יָק֤וּמוּ ׀
יוֹד֬וּךָ
סֶּֽלָה׃
12. הַיְסֻפַּ֣ר
בַּקֶּ֣בֶר
חַסְדֶּ֑ךָ
אֱ֝מֽוּנָתְךָ֗
בָּאֲבַדּֽוֹן׃
13. הֲיִוָּדַ֣ע
בַּחֹ֣שֶׁךְ
פִּלְאֶ֑ךָ
וְ֝צִדְקָtתְךָ֗
בְּאֶ֣רֶץ
נְשִׁיָּֽה׃
14. וַאֲנִ֤י ׀
אֵלֶ֣יךָ
יְהוָ֣ה
שִׁוַּ֑עְתִּי
וּ֝בַבֹּ֗קֶר
תְּֽפִלָּתִ֥י
תְקַדְּמֶֽךָּ׃
15. לָמָ֣ה
יְ֭הוָה
תִּזְנַ֣ח
נַפְשִׁ֑י
תַּסְתִּ֖יר
פָּנֶ֣יךָ
מִמֶּֽנִּי׃
16. עָ֘נִ֤י
אֲנִ֣י
וְגֹוֵ֣עַ
מִנֹּ֑עַר
נָשָׂ֖אתִי
אֵמֶ֣יךָ
אָפֽוּנָה׃
17. עָ֭לַי
עָבְר֣וּ
חֲרוֹנֶ֑יךָ
בִּ֝עוּתֶ֗יךָ
צִמְּתוּתֻֽנִי׃
18. סַבּ֣וּנִי
כַ֭מַּיִם
כָּל־
הַיּ֑וֹם
הִקִּ֖יפוּ
עָלַ֣י
יָֽחַד׃
19. הִרְחַ֣קְתָּ
מִ֭מֶּנִּי
אֹהֵ֣ב
וָרֵ֑עַ
מְֽיֻדָּעַ֥י
מַחְשָֽׁךְ׃