Translators will notice some differences between versions in the translation of verse 56. For example Revised Standard Version, thou didst hear my plea, along with New English Bible, Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, translates the verb as a past event. On the other hand New Jerusalem Bible, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, and others translate as an imperative, “Hear my plea.” As an imperative a closer formal parallel is made with the second clause. Hear in the first clause is not an imperative in Hebrew but a perfect, “You heard,” and so Revised Standard Version is preferred.

Most translations, including Revised Standard Version and New International Version, translate the second part of the verse as direct speech, quoting the words of the sufferer’s prayer. The Hebrew does not use quotation marks to distinguish direct speech from indirect, so the second part of the verse can also be translated in indirect speech as in Good News Translation, or as “You heard me when I asked you not to turn a deaf ear to my appeal.”

In regard to the second half of the verse, the Revised Standard Version footnote shows the Hebrew to be uncertain. This part seems to say “Do not hide your ear to my relief, to my cry for help.” Revised Standard Version, following the Septuagint, has dropped “to my relief.” New Jerusalem Bible retains both expressions in the form of “to my groan, to my cry.” The second of these two words is used several times in the Book of Psalms, but the first word only occurs here and in Exodus 8.15, where it means “relief, breathing space.” Such a meaning is unsuitable here, as can be seen by the difference between New English Bible‘s translation, “Do not turn a deaf ear when I cry, ‘Come to my relief,’ ” and the literal meaning given in an New English Bible footnote, “Do not turn a deaf ear to my relief, to my cry.” (This footnote no longer appears in recent printings of New English Bible.) According to Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, “to my relief” may also mean “to my breathing.” Accordingly Hebrew Old Testament Text Project proposes translating “Do not close your ear to my breathing.” If “breathing” is to be taken in the sense of sighing, groaning (Vulgate translates “from my groaning”), we may say with Bible en français courant “You have heard me cry out to you: ‘Do not close your ears to my sighs and to my cries.’ ” This seems to be a satisfactory model for translation.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .