Psalms 88:5

5. Free among the dead If הפשׁי , ( 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. Robinson.

Thus it is used, Job 3:19, “There [in death] the servant is free from the master.” This sense also would suit to the political condition of the author. Death would free him from the Chaldean yoke. But this is not in harmony with the connexion or scope. Better to translate prostrate among the dead. Furst: “My couch is among the dead.” Gesenius: “Among the dead I am laid prostrate.” The next clause explains it.

Like the slain that lie in the grave Like those killed in battle who lie down in the grave. The expression is very strong. It is not merely to die, nor to be buried, but to be in sheol among the spirits of the departed. So the same verb, to lie, signifies, (Genesis 47:30,) “I will lie with my fathers.”

Whom thou rememberest no more That is, with a view to treat them as living men upon the earth. The word remember is never used in the metaphysical sense of simply recalling past impressions or ideas, but always in the ethical sense that is, with the adsignification of the object or purpose of remembering.

From thy hand By thy hand. So Exodus 2:23:

“Sighed by reason of the bondage.” Hebrew, Sighed from, that is, from the effects of, their bondage. In the text the reference is to those who are dead from from the effects of God’s hand by reason of his judgments.