In vivid language the psalmist confesses that he has been a sinner all his life. The literal language, “In iniquity I was given birth, and in sin my mother conceived me” (see 58.3), is hardly the basis for biological, anthropological, or theological pronouncements about the nature of the human being as sinner. Were the words to be taken literally, they would mean that the psalmist’s mother sinned when she became pregnant (which implies either that sexual intercourse as such is sinful or that she was guilty of fornication or adultery), and that at the moment of his birth he was already a sinner. What the psalmist is saying is that he (and so, by implication, everyone) is a sinner; sin is ingrained in human nature and permeates all of human activity. In some languages it may be better to follow the example of Good News Translation or of Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch: “Wrong and guilt have characterized my life ever since my mother gave birth to me.”

Verse 5 steps up the intensity in line b, in which mother conceive me is a specification and dramatization of brought forth in line a. The two lines may be rendered, for example, “I have been evil from the time of my birth, in fact, ever since I was conceived” or “I have been sinful from my birth, even longer, ever since my mother became pregnant with me.”

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 .