God is praised as the victorious warrior. The word Glorious translates what appears to be a form of the verb “to shine”; so New Jerusalem Bible “resplendent,” New Jerusalem Bible “radiant,” and New International Version “resplendent with light.” New English Bible and others prefer to change the order of the consonants to get the word “terrible” (noraʾ instead of naʾor; see also 65.5 and comments). Glorious art thou must be rendered in some languages as “How great you are” or “How wonderful you are.” If the translator follows Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation majestic, this expression may be rendered in this context as a simile; for example, “Like a great king you return….”

After “How majestic” (Good News Translation) the Masoretic text is simply “from the mountains of prey,” which Good News Translation has taken to mean “as you return from the mountains where you defeated your foes” (the enemy being understood as Yahweh’s “prey”). New Jerusalem Bible translates this second line “glorious on the mountains of prey”; Traduction œcuménique de la Bible “because of the mountains of prey.” New International Version takes “prey” to mean animals to be hunted: “mountains rich with game.” Revised Standard Version translates the Septuagint everlasting instead of the Hebrew “prey” in order to arrive at its text. The Septuagint, however, is not “(more majestic) than the everlasting mountains”; it is “you are marvelously resplendent from the everlasting mountains.” Bible en français courant is like Revised Standard Version. Interestingly enough, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project (“C” decision) recommends the Revised Standard Version conjecture here and says the phrase may be interpreted in two ways: (1) “from the eternal mountains” or (2) “from the mountains of booty.” Since the meaning of the original text is so difficult to determine, the translator should feel free to follow either Revised Standard Version or Good News Translation.

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 .