The opening prayer for justice and righteousness for the king uses the two nouns as synonyms. For justice (verses 1a, 2b) and the related verb in verse 4a, see 7.6 and comments on “judgment”; for righteousness (verses 1b, 2a, 3b) see comments on 4.1 (“right”); 5.8. It should be noted that in verse 1a the Hebrew text has the plural form, which some take to mean “your judgments” (New Jerusalem Bible), “your statutes” (Weiser); the Septuagint and Syriac have the singular form, which makes for a better parallel with the singular in line b.

In verse 1 the verb Give is used in the sense of “endow” (New English Bible, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible), that is, to confer on the king the qualities mentioned; Good News Translation has used “Teach … to judge” and “share” to express the idea of the Hebrew verb. Good News Translation has thereby restructured Give the king thy justice, so that justice is the event of judging and righteousness is the manner of judging. This model may be followed in many languages. Often judge is expressed idiomatically as “cut the words,” meaning “to give a decision.” In some languages “judge” as a verb combines the notions of “investigation” and “judgment.” Righteousness is often rendered as “true” or “straightness,” or by figurative expressions.

The Hebrew form is “to the king,” “to the son of the king,” and represents poetic word-pairing in which the noun of line a is paralleled in line b by “son of” plus the word from line a. (For further examples see Amos 1.4; Judges 5.12; 2 Sam 20.2; Num 23.18.) Good News Translation has not attempted to keep the word pair but has replaced “son of the king” in line b with “him.” Translators should be able to retain the Hebrew order of the lines but should avoid giving the impression that two royal persons are involved. In some languages it will be necessary to say “our king” instead of the king; for example, “O God, show our king how you judge matters fairly, and teach our king your goodness.”

For the poor (verse 2b) see 9.12; the psalmist calls them thy poor in parallel with thy people in line a. This does not necessarily imply that all the people were poor and oppressed; it recognizes that the oppressed among the people have special need of justice. This psalm stresses what is now called a preferential treatment of the poor. The translator will note that Revised Standard Version, following the Hebrew, has thy people and thy poor, whereas Good News Translation has “your people” and “the oppressed.” This may be for stylistic reasons in English; however, in some languages it will be clearer to employ the possessive pronoun, or its equivalent, with both. Otherwise it may appear that “the oppressed” are not God’s people. Verses 1 and 2 form a chiastic pattern with the sequence A-B-B-A: justice, righteousness; righteousness, justice. This is a poetic device used at the opening of the psalm and calls the reader’s attention to the major theme running through the psalm. Translators may feel that lines a and b of verse 2 are so similar in content that they should be reduced to one. This is possible. However, if that is done, the translator is obliged to compensate for the loss in emphasis given to the theme, by providing an equivalent device in the receptor language. Since Psalm 72 is a prayer, English “May…” is repeated in many stanzas and must be recast in some languages; for example, “I pray that…” or “I ask that….”

For the verb judge (Good News Translation “rule”) in verse 2, see 7.8a; it is synonymous with the more frequently used verb in verse 4a (see 7.8b). The traditional translation judge may be too limited; the verb applies to all aspects of the king’s rule and not just to his function as judge; so Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “govern.”

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 .