Bible Strands
Psalms 6:5
For there is no mention of You in death; who can praise You from Sheol?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist, in acute distress, has just begged the LORD to turn and deliver his soul (v. 4) and now grounds that plea in the reality of death. He speaks to God, between a cry for rescue and a description of weeping all night.
The words — zikhrekh (זִכְרֶ֑ךָ), "remembrance of you," is the load-bearing noun: the claim is not that the dead are punished but that they are simply absent from God's presence, with no capacity for remembrance. The rhetorical mi (מִי), "who?", then closes the question with no expected answer.
The thread — Psalms 88:10 asks whether the dead can rise to praise God; Psalms 115:17 states flatly that the dead do not praise the LORD; Ecclesiastes 9:10 adds that in Sheol there is no work. All four converge on the same premise: death severs the relationship, it does not merely pause it.
Why it lands — The verse converts the psalmist's plea into an argument for urgency: if the window for praise and remembrance closes at death, the request in v. 4 is not a ritual formula but a race against a fixed deadline. It asks the reader to treat the present moment as the only time in which the relationship is live.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?
Cross-references
- Psalms 88:10 Do You work wonders for the dead? Do departed spirits rise up to praise You? Selah
- Psalms 115:17 It is not the dead who praise the LORD, nor any who descend into silence.
- Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, for in Sheol, where you are going, there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.
- Psalms 30:9 “What gain is there in my bloodshed, in my descent to the Pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it proclaim Your faithfulness?
- Isaiah 38:18 For Sheol cannot thank You; Death cannot praise You. Those who descend to the Pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.
- Psalms 118:17 I will not die, but I will live and proclaim what the LORD has done.
- John 9:4 While it is daytime, we must do the works of Him who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work.