Good News Translation has restructured the two lines in verse 62: “his own people” translates both his people and his heritage (see comments at 16.6). Vented his wrath (“He was angry”) translates the same verb used in verse 59a.
The sword (verse 62a) represents death in battle. The reference is probably to the same battle with the Philistines (1 Sam 4.10-11; see the commentaries). Gave … over to the sword means “let them be killed.”
In verse 63 Fire means war, battle, in parallel with sword. Care should be taken lest the modern notion of “firearms” be inadvertently expressed. It is doubtful that the text means the young men were burned to death (so New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, and others).
Good News Translation “young women had no one to marry” translates their maidens had no marriage song, which is a reference to the songs at the wedding which praised the bride’s beauty and charms. New Jerusalem Bible translates “their maidens remained unwed.” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “there were no wedding songs for the brides” could be misleading. Maidens had no marriage song is, of course, a consequence of their future husbands being killed in battle. In many languages it will be necessary to make explicit the logical relationship between line a and line b; for example, “because the young men were killed in war, the young women had no one to marry.”
In verse 64 the statement about priests being killed may refer to Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli (1 Sam 4.11). Their widows made no lamentation in line b means either that so many priests were killed that there was no time for proper burial rites for each dead priest, or else that the widows were not permitted to have public mourning for their dead husbands (as Good News Translation expresses it; also Weiser, New English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible), or that the conditions of war made normal mourning impossible. It does not mean that the widows were unmoved by the death of their husbands.
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 .