In verse 3 the same construction is used as in verse 1: the first line is incomplete, lacking a verb; the second line repeats the first line and completes the thought with a verb: “How long (will) the wicked, Yahweh, how long will the wicked be glad?” The question is not a request for information; it is a way of reminding Yahweh that it is time he stop the boasting of the wicked. Instead of Good News Translation “be glad,” the verb “to gloat” better suits the context. In languages in which the question How long shall … will be interpreted as a request for information, it will be necessary to recast this to say, for example, “the wicked should stop being glad for the evil they do” or “evil people should stop boasting about the wicked things they do.”

Revised Standard Version takes verse 4 as declarative, placing it at the beginning of the next strophe (so New English Bible, New International Version, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy); but Good News Translation, An American Translation, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and Dahood take it as parallel with verse 3 (see Briggs, Kirkpatrick). In verse 4 Good News Translation has used the word “criminals” to describe those people (Revised Standard Version evildoers). The verse in Hebrew is “They pour out, they speak insolence, they boast, all the doers of evil.” Good News Translation “be proud and boast” translates the three verbal phrases; the verb pour out is used here figuratively, as in 19.2; 79.6. Weiser translates “they foam with rage,” which is possible but does not seem likely. The verb they boast in Hebrew does not have a complement; Good News Translation has supplied “about their crimes”; however, a translation can be “they are boastful” or “they brag about themselves.”

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 .