The psalmist kept his promise and said nothing, “not even about anything good” (verse 2b, Good News Translation). This translates an obscure Hebrew phrase which appears to say “I was silent from good”; Revised Standard Version interprets I held my peace to no avail.2-3 Hebrew Old Testament Text Project translates “more [than it was] good,” which appears to mean “more than I should have” or “even though it did (me) no good” (as Traduction œcuménique de la Bible translates). New American Bible, through a conjecture, gets “I refrained from rash speech”; New Jerusalem Bible “I was very still”; and Dahood “I refrained from speaking” (though the meaning is the same, the explanations of the Hebrew text are different). Bible en français courant has “I said nothing at all.” New International Version and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy are like Good News Translation; Traduction œcuménique de la Bible has “I was silent, even though it did me no good”; Weiser translates “I held my peace, there was no happiness.” Everything considered, it seems best for the translator to follow the lead of New Jerusalem Bible and Bible en français courant. Line c completes the thought of line b; his situation became worse, not better.
In verse 3a my heart became hot within me means he burned with anxiety, with worry, or else with impatience. The expression my heart became hot within me, while denoting anxiety in Hebrew, will in many languages suggest anger rather than anxiety, if translated literally.
In verse 3b the fire burned carries the idea even farther; the psalmist became even more impatient or worried. New English Bible takes the line to refer to physical symptoms: “My mind wandered as the fever grew.”
No longer able to restrain himself, the psalmist finally spoke up (verse 3c). Weiser, Revised Standard Version, New International Version, and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy take the rest of the psalm as what the psalmist says, with closing quotation marks at the end of verse 13; New Jerusalem Bible places them at the end of verse 6; Good News Translation at the end of verse 4.
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .