“Listen, sir, ¹  you are a mighty prince ²  among us! You may bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will refuse you his tomb to prevent you ³  from burying your dead.”

By David. To you, O Lord, I cry out! My protector, ²  do not ignore me! ³  If you do not respond to me, ⁴  I will join ⁵  those who are descending into the grave. ⁶ 

So Death ¹  will open up its throat, and open wide its mouth; ²  Zion’s dignitaries and masses will descend into it, including those who revel and celebrate within her. ³ 

Sheol ¹  below is stirred up about you, ready to meet you when you arrive. It rouses ²  the spirits of the dead for you, all the former leaders of the earth; ³  it makes all the former kings of the nations rise from their thrones. ⁴ 

‘What right do you have to be here? What relatives do you have buried here? ¹  Why ²  do you chisel out a tomb for yourself here? He chisels out his burial site in an elevated place, he carves out his tomb on a cliff.

Your treaty with death will be dissolved; ¹  your agreement ²  with Sheol will not last. ³  When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by, ⁴  you will be overrun by it. ⁵ 

Those who lived in its shade, its allies ¹  among the nations, also went down with it to Sheol, to those killed by the sword.

“Edom is there with her kings and all her princes. Despite their might they are laid with those killed by the sword; they lie with the uncircumcised and those who descend to the pit.

Then the people ¹  who were with Mary ²  in the house consoling her saw her ³  get up quickly and go out. They followed her, because they thought she was going to the tomb to weep ⁴  there.

Now we do not want you to be uninformed, ¹  brothers and sisters, ²  about those who are asleep, ³  so that you will not grieve like the rest who have no hope.

The ¹  sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death ²  and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each one was judged according to his deeds.

“You are to take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel, ¹ 

It is higher ¹  than the heavens – what can you do? It is deeper than Sheol ²  – what can you know?

Will ¹  it ²  go down to the barred gates ³  of death? Will ⁴  we descend ⁵  together into the dust?”

For what is his interest ¹  in his home after his death, ²  when the number of his months has been broken off? ³ 

Those who survive him are buried by the plague, ¹  and their ²  widows do not mourn for them.

He redeemed my life ¹  from going down to the place of corruption, and my life sees the light!’

to turn back his life from the place of corruption, that he may be enlightened with the light of life.

I am forgotten, like a dead man no one thinks about; ¹  I am regarded as worthless, like a broken jar. ² 

You cause my friends and neighbors to keep their distance; ¹  those who know me leave me alone in the darkness. ²