When it is said
It opens the sixth song of the Paraklesis.
Orthodox churches sing the Paraklesis at times of need, and on alternate evenings from 1 to 14 August.
On its own it is short enough to say on a day when nothing longer will come.
Where it comes from
Author by tradition
A verse to God in a service to the Mother of God
The Paraklesis is a service of prayer to the Mother of God. The Russian prayer books say it is sung “in every sorrow of soul and circumstance”. Its hymns are credited to the monk Theosterictus, of the 9th century, though the Greek book of hours adds that others name Theophanes. Most of them ask the Mother of God for help, but this one opens the sixth song and speaks to God Himself.
Supplicatory canon to the Most Holy Theotokos, Church Slavonic, Azbyka; The Small Supplicatory Canon, Greek text, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America; “History of the Small Paraklesis (Supplication) Canon to the Theotokos”, St Andrew Greek Orthodox Church, 2013
Words from the Psalms and Jonah
Almost every line comes from Scripture. In Psalm 142 the psalmist pours out his complaint before God. In Psalm 88 his soul is full of troubles and his life draws near the grave. The last line takes up the prayer Jonah prayed from inside the fish, when God brought his life up from the pit.
The Scripture in it
I pour out my complaint before Him; I reveal my trouble to Him.
For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.
To the roots of the mountains I descended; the earth beneath me barred me in forever! But You raised my life from the pit, O LORD my God!
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Greek
Τὴν δέησιν ἐκχεῶ πρὸς Κύριον,
καὶ αὐτῷ ἀπαγγελῶ μου τάς θλίψεις,
ὅτι κακῶν ἡ ψυχή μου ἐπλήσθη,
καὶ ἡ ζωή μου τῷ ᾍδῃ προσήγγισε,
καὶ δέομαι ὡς Ἰωνᾶς·
Ἐκ φθορᾶς, ὁ Θεός με ἀνάγαγε.
From the Small Supplicatory Canon, in the Horologion texts of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.