Neither God’s anger nor his goodness could guarantee the people’s faithful obedience. They still sinned and did not believe in him, even after the miracles he had performed. Verse 32b could mean, as New Jerusalem Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Bible en français courant, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy translate, “they did not believe his miracles.” If this is the meaning adopted by the translator, the sense would be “they did not believe that these were miracles performed by God.”

Again God’s anger at them flared up, and he killed them (verse 33). Like a breath translates a word (hebel) that means primarily a breath, a puff of wind (see 39.5c, 11c; 62.9a, d); it also means in vain, for nothing (see 39.6b)–a keyword in Ecclesiastes. Here it may mean, as Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation have it (also Weiser, Dahood, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy), that God destroyed them as though they were no more substantial or lasting than a breath, a puff of wind (New American Bible “quickly”; so Briggs). But this does not offer as close a parallel with the next line as “with a breath” (see Bible en français courant), that is, “he snuffed out their lives” (New English Bible). New Jerusalem Bible has “He made their days end in futility.”

The poetic euphemism for killing, made their days vanish, is a case of substituting their days for “the days of their lives.” In some languages it will be necessary to avoid the euphemism and repeat “God killed them” from verse 31. There is a poetic progression from their days to their years.

In verse 33b Good News Translation “sudden disaster” translates a word rarely used in the Old Testament; Revised Standard Version has in terror, and New Jerusalem Bible has “sudden death”; Bible en français courant “he put an end to their life with a sudden disaster.”

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 .