Aestimatus sum

General information

8th of the Responsories for Holy Saturday
Source: Vulgate, Psalm 87.
The English translation is from King James version of Psalm 88. The final line is altered in the translation from the Latin original. "Posuerunt me" means "They have laid me," not "Thou hast laid me."

Settings by composers

• Carlo Gesualdo SSATTB
• Tomás Luis de Victoria SSAT & TTBB
• Annibale Zoilo SATB

Original text and translations

Latin text Aestimatus sum cum descendentibus in lacum, factus sum sicut homo sine adjutorio, inter mortuos liber. Versus: Posuerunt me in lacu inferiori, in tenebrosis et in umbra mortis. Factus sum sicut homo sine adjutorio, inter mortuos liber.

English translation Translation supplied by Paul Pascal, Professor Emeritus of Classics, University of Washington. I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength: free among the dead. Verse: Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. I am as a man that hath no strength: free among the dead.