In vivid terms the psalmist predicts the tyrant’s ruin: God will break you down, that is, God will take away his power and prestige. In some languages God will break you down may be expressed figuratively; for example, “God will smash you like a gourd” or “God will crush you like a pot.”

God will also snatch him (literally “knock down” or “break”–a Hebrew word used only here in the Old Testament), and tear him (literally “tear down”) from his tent. This is a picture of God entering the man’s home, knocking him down and dragging him away.

God will uproot him from this life; that is, he will remove him from this world and thrust him into Sheol. Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has simply “he will end your life.” The word translated land can mean the land of Israel instead of the world; so Bible en français courant “he will tear you up out of the land where we live.” It seems better, however, to understand it in the broader sense of “world.” The expression uproot you from the land of the living should, if possible, be matched in translation by a poetic or euphemistic manner of indicating death. It is not advisable to say simply that God will cause him to die, unless, of course, there is no alternative in the language.

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 .