For verses 37-42 Revised Standard Version uses the past tense of specific events; Good News Translation has the present tense of habitual or continuing actions. The translator must decide which seems better. In line with similar cases, it is recommended that Good News Translation be followed.

The verbs pursued and overtook both occur in 7.5. They were consumed translates a verb meaning to cease, to be finished, be wiped out. The use of the passive form, as Revised Standard Version has done, might imply that someone else “consumed” them; it seems better to use the active voice, with the psalmist as the subject.

In verse 38 I thrust … through translates a verb meaning to break in pieces (Good News Translation “I strike … down”); here, of course, it refers to defeat in battle. The English phrase “thrust through” means specifically to drive a sword or a lance through someone’s body; the Hebrew verb does not have that specific sense. The phrase they fell under my feet is a picture of destruction and death, not that of the defeated enemy meekly submitting to the victor. In some languages expressions for killing people depend upon the manner of action; for example, intentional or unintentional, by witchcraft, ambush, secretly planned, and the like. In this context the psalmist refers to battles with enemy troops where intentional killing of enemy soldiers is understood. Since the parallelism of verse 38 is one of consequences, the verse may be rendered, for example, “When I beat my enemies down (knock them down), they cannot get up again; so they die at my feet defeated” or “… they are finished.”

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 .