In verse 4a it is not certain whether the psalmist is talking about himself or of others in the statement “A crooked heart will depart from me”; the former is favored by the majority of commentators and translators. And in verse 4b the Hebrew for evil may be evil people or evil as such. The Hebrew verb “to know” in this line has the meaning of “to have experience of, to participate in”; so New English Bible and Good News Translation “have no dealings with.”

In verse 5 the king promises to destroy slanderers in his court (literally “to silence”; see “wipe them out” in 94.23). The meaning of “to silence” in other contexts makes it likely that here the meaning is also “to destroy, to kill,” which seems harsh (see “destroyed” in 18.40; “put an end to” in 54.5 and 73.27; “wipe them out” in 94.23; and “destroy” in verse 8, below). Some (New English Bible, Bible en français courant, New International Version, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible) have simply “I will silence.”

In the second part of verse 5 the king promises to banish from his court anyone who is “proud and arrogant” (literally “haughty eyes and a proud heart”). Endure translates the Masoretic text verb yakal “to be able, to endure”; by using other vowels with the same Hebrew consonants, New English Bible (following the Septuagint) gets a form of the verb ʾakal “to eat”: “I will not sit at table with proud and pompous men.” Most translations have “endure, tolerate.” The proud person in verse 5 is described twice with expressions having the same meaning, and in some languages it may be necessary to have only one term or figure of speech.

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 .