Paul now begins to direct himself specifically to those Jews who have rejected the Christian message. Once again the Good News Translation supplies the understood object of the verb hear, namely, the message (An American Translation* and New English Bible “it,” with “message” as the antecedent).

Of course they did is a strong emphatic particle in Greek; in 9.20 it appears as but. The question and emphatic response may be transformed into a strong statement: “but it is certainly true that they did indeed hear the message” or “but most certainly they did hear the message.”

Since Paul introduces another scripture quotation here, the Good News Translation makes the identification clear with the words as the scripture says. Paul quotes directly from the Septuagint of Psalm 19.4, and he uses this passage to prove that the Christian message has gone to all the earth.

There is a problem in the reference of their in the quotation cited from Psalm 19.4. In the manner in which Paul employs this quotation one may justify employing a translation such as “the sound of the voices of the messengers went out to all the people in the world.”

If one translates literally the sound of their voices it might imply “meaningless sound.” Something which might have meaning would be “the words of their voices,” “the words which they spoke aloud,” or “the words which they spoke with their mouths.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1973. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .