The wicked hate to be disciplined by God and they reject his commandments (literally words–see the use of the Hebrew “word” as a commandment in the traditional Ten Commandments, or “Ten Words,” Exo 34.28). The first line can be translated “you detest my teaching” (New Jerusalem Bible), or “you hate my instruction” (New International Version), since the word translated discipline can have the broader meaning of “education.”

Intensification is used in verse 17 through the use of the figure cast my words behind you in line b. In some languages an equivalent figure may be used; for example, “you throw away my words” or “you wipe my words away.” However, the use of a metaphor in line b may not be an intensifying device, and the translator may have to say, for example, “You hate for me to teach you, and more serious than that, you reject what I have ordered you to do.”

And instead of condemning such flagrant sinners as thieves and adulterers, these wicked people become their friends and associate with them (verse 18). In verse 18a “become the friend of” translates a verb which generally means “be pleased with, be favorable to, approve”; one version may be “you think well of him”; New International Version “you join with him”; Bible en français courant “you take his side.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project notes that the verb may mean “to run” as well as “to agree with.” The rendering “you ran with him” would probably be understood as “you became his partner.”

The expression adulterers including both sexes is often more difficult than the terms for the female only, which is often expressed by means of idiomatic phrases. In speaking of adulterers one can sometimes say, for example, “men and women who are not faithful to their spouses” or “people who live in other marriages.”

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 .