My words are full of joy translates “my tongue rejoiced,” but in many languages it is difficult to say “my words are full of joy,” for obviously the words do not experience the joy, but the person has this experience, as manifested in his speaking. Hence, one may be required to shift the semantic structure so as to translate “I am very joyful as I speak.”
One may argue that such shifts inevitably impair the poetic character of such a passage. From our standpoint this is certainly true, for the semantic shifts seem to be much less poetic. However, the poetic character of such a passage may be enhanced in many languages by appropriate shifts in word order, fixed length of lines, alliterative devices, and parallelism of structure, so that not all the poetic values are lost. When certain semantic shifts are required, it is important for the translator to attempt to compensate for these by such formal modifications as may be appropriate so as to reflect as much as possible of the poetic structure.
The Greek use of sarks, literally “flesh,” is a singular type of poetic figure which must be changed in English if the passage is to make sense. The Good News Translation has compensated somewhat for the loss of the figure of speech by introducing a rather elaborate syntactic device, and I, mortal though I am. This is entirely in keeping with the somewhat elaborate introductory particles in Greek eti de kai “yet but also.”
The phrase mortal though I am is equivalent in many languages to “just a man like all others” or “a person destined to die.” When David spoke of “his flesh” he would have been characterizing himself as a mortal being, weak and frail, in contrast to God who is eternal and powerful.
The phrase rest assured in hope involves two different events, which in most languages must be specified as related events, often as coordinate, for example, “rest and hope.” However, an expression for “confidence” may require a specification of the goal of the confidence, such as “rest, having confidence in God.” Other languages may employ such phrases as “hope in what God will do for me” or “hope for God’s promises.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .