Therefore thou, O Lord, God of the righteous … who did not sin against thee: Therefore indicates that what follows is the logical outcome of verse 7. Good News Translation does not represent it because its restructuring prevents it. The logic is: You, Lord, provided the chance of repentance in order that sinners could be saved; therefore you did not provide it for the benefit of those who did not need it. In Good News Translation‘s restructuring the address to God, O Lord, God of the righteous, is made into a statement: “You, Lord, are the God of righteous people,” which of course, does not follow as the logical outcome from verse 7. The connective Therefore is exceptionally weak, however, and nothing is really lost by not rendering it. Another possible connective is “Of course” as in “Of course, you, Lord, as the God of righteous people [or, people who obey your Law], did not need to allow Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to repent, for they had never sinned [or, disobeyed you].” The idea that the righteous do not need repentance is found also in Luke 5.32; 15.7.

Hast not appointed repentance for the righteous, for Abraham and Isaac and Jacob is rendered by Good News Translation as “Repentance was not necessary for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Good News Translation omits for the righteous. This is probably justified; almost surely the writer means the three patriarchs mentioned here when speaking of the righteous. The wording of Good News Translation for the first three lines of this verse could be sharpened a bit by saying:

You, Lord, are the God of righteous people.
You did not need to allow Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to repent,
because they never sinned against you.

If a translator prefers to think of the righteous as being of broader scope, a possible rendering is:

You, Lord, are the God of righteous people.
You do not need to allow righteous people to repent,
people like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
because they have never sinned against you.

This Handbook suggests that the former option is to be preferred.

But thou hast appointed repentance for me, who am a sinner: Now the writer comes to the point, the painful point when he must admit that he is one who stands in need of this repentance. He does not say specifically that he is the most wicked person in the world, but the form of his confession suggests that the righteous are on one side, and he alone is on the other (compare Luke 18.13). The words a sinner are literally “the sinner.” Good News Translation misses the point badly by saying “But for sinners like me….” This man sees himself miserably alone in his sinfulness. A suggested model for this line is “The sinner you have given a chance to repent is me—I am that sinner.”

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see