duty). Second, he describes his own incessant toil to reestablish contact with his God (v. 3, using first person of supplicant and reporting futile prayer; see Pss 6:7–8 [RSV 6–7]; 38:7–9 [RSV 6–8]; 88:2, 10 [RSV 1, 9]; 102:6–8 [RSV 5–7]; 130:1; 141:1). The supplicant seems to head directly for a full-fledged ritual argument with his personal God, which may loom behind Psalms 6, 73, and 88; or Psalms 7, 17, and 26. Also, the Job literature of the ancient Near East has preserved this contest motif
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