In verse 29a When thou hidest thy face means to withdraw, to leave, to turn away from. Bible en français courant translates “But if you refuse (to give them their food), they are terrified.” God’s presence is essential to the animals’ continued existence. When the animals sense that Yahweh is abandoning them, they become terrified.

In verse 29b the Masoretic text has their breath (or “their spirit,” or “their life”); it is God who gives ruach (breath, spirit) to all living beings, and should God withhold it, they die, and their ruach returns to God (Gen 2.7; Eccl 12.7). See R. G. Bratcher, “Breath, life, spirit,” and D. C. Arichea, “Translating breath and spirit,” in The Bible Translator 34, no. 2 (April 1983), pages 201-213. Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Bible en français courant, and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translate “When you withhold from them the life-giving breath, they die.” Dahood argues that the Masoretic text is identical in meaning with the parallel thy face in verse 29a, though here the word has the pronoun suffix for their instead of thy. But it should be noted that the Qumran manuscript of the Psalms has “your breath.” So the meaning may be “when you hold back your life-giving breath, they die” (see Good News Translation). This seems preferable and better parallels the thought of verse 30a.

For verse 29c see the parallel in 90.3. New English Bible and others consider this line to be a later gloss. The Hebrew their dust means “the dust they were made of.”

In verse 30a the translation of “your ruach” should use the same word as in verse 29b, “your life-giving breath.” Good News Translation here should be “your breath.” Revised Standard Version and New International Version have thy Spirit, which introduces a nuance that is lacking in the Hebrew; see New Jerusalem Bible “send back Your breath, they are created.” They are created means that the successive generations of animals are all acts of divine creation; God is the one who brings them into being and thus continually renews life on earth (literally “you renew the face of the earth”). Bible en français courant has “everything on the surface of the earth becomes new.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “you give the earth a new appearance” (similarly Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). Care must be taken in translation not to lead the reader to think that verses 29b and 30a speak of the death and resurrection of the same animals; it is rather the successive generations of living beings, each new generation replacing the old one that has died. The expression thou renewest the face of the ground or Good News Translation‘s “you give new life to the earth” must often be recast to say, for example, “you cause new life to be born on the earth,” or “you make new creatures to be born…,” or “you make everything on the earth new.”

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 .