In this verse the psalmist continues with the figure of arrows, speaking of a quiver full of them. Good News Translation does not refer to a quiver, since the word would be difficult for many readers (similarly Biblia Dios Habla Hoy); but Good News Translation has retained the figure, “who has many such arrows.” In those languages in which quiver cannot be used and no adequate substitute is available, the translator may say, for example, “Happy is the man who has many sons.”
The last part of verse 5 in Hebrew has the verbs in the plural, “They will not be ashamed when they speak,” and some take the subject to be the sons of verse 4 (New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version, Bible de Jérusalem, New American Bible); but most translations take the plural as a general way of speaking (so New English Bible “such men”), referring to the fathers of many sons (see Cohen; so Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, New Jerusalem Bible), not to the sons themselves. This seems preferable, since it maintains the same subject in verses 4-5. To be put to shame is to experience the shame of defeat. Good News Translation‘s “never be defeated” will in some languages require recasting; for example, “His enemies will never defeat him.”
The enemies in the gate are a man’s adversaries in a legal dispute; the open space near the inner gate of the city was the place where legal disputes were settled (see Ruth 4.1-2; Job 29.7-17). If he had a number of grown sons with him, a man would be more likely to win in a legal dispute with his adversaries. In some languages there is a term for a designated place in the village where village elders meet for hearings. In cases where there is no such customary place, in the gate is sometimes rendered, for example, “the place where men meet to decide matters,” or idiomatically, “the place where people meet to cut words.”
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 .