For: verse 6 gives the reason why the destinies of the righteous and the wicked are different. The outcomes of the two separate groups are pictured as “ways,” that is, roads, one of which is safe and secure, while the other leads to destruction.

The force of the verb “to know” in line a is that of care and concern. “It involves approval, care, guidance” (Kirkpatrick); “it is under his protection” (Toombs). New Jerusalem Bible “cherishes”; New Jerusalem Bible “watches over”; Spanish common language version (Biblia Dios Habla Hoy) “takes care of.” If the Good News Translation language is followed, it may be better to use an active construction: “The LORD guides and protects the righteous.”

In contrast, the way followed by the wicked will perish, that is, will lead to destruction and death. New English Bible and Jerusalem Bible have “the way (or, path) of the wicked is doomed”; another way of saying it would be “the way followed (or, chosen) by the wicked leads to destruction (or, death).” See Psalms 68.2; 73.27; 92.9. The translator will recognize the difficulty of keeping the parallelism of line a, way of the righteous, and line b, way of the wicked. This is due to the metaphorical use of the word knows in line a and to the combination of way and perish in line b. Because of the necessity of restructuring for the sake of meaning, the elements which are parallel in Hebrew are lost in many languages, but the translator must maintain the contrast between the righteous and the wicked.

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 .