Answer me: see 3.4. This must be rendered by a term which invites an attentive response, and should not be translated by a term which only means “reply to my question.” Where ambiguity would result it is better to use an expression meaning “listen and help” or “pay attention.”

I call: “I pray for help.” Bible en français courant “I call to you for help.”

In his prayer the psalmist addresses God as God of my right. The Hebrew word translated right (tsedeq) is a legal term and means defense or vindication against the charges brought by one’s accuser. Briggs defines the phrase as “the God who vindicates his cause against his adversaries and establishes his right.” New English Bible translates “maintainer of my rights”; New Jerusalem Bible “my vindicator”; New Jerusalem Bible “upholder of my right.” A different interpretation is given by New American Bible, “O my just God.” The Hebrew word takes on various meanings, according to the context. When applied to people it usually means obedience to God’s will as expressed in the Law; when applied to God it describes him as one who always does what is right. In particular it means his activity on behalf of his people. Thus the word sometimes means “saving deed,” “salvation.” In some languages one may reverse the order of the two clauses and say “O God, you are my defender. So please listen to me and help me when I pray.”

Thou hast given me room: Good News Translation “you helped me” takes the Hebrew expression “you gave me room” to mean freedom of movement as opposed to the restrictive circumstances of the distress that kept him a prisoner. The Hebrew word for distress implies confinement in a limited space. Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has “in my distress you gave me relief.” New Jerusalem Bible translates the whole line “You freed me from distress.” Another possibility is “you have set me free.”

Good News Translation makes the first clause a temporal dependent clause indicating condition, “When I was in trouble”; the second clause is the result: “you helped me.” For many languages this is a more natural arrangement. Good News Translation‘s “trouble” and “helped” are generic terms. The translator should attempt wherever possible to use specific and picturable renderings; for example, “When I was snared you set me free” or “when I was tied up you untied me.”

Be gracious translates a verb which means to show favor, kindness, compassion, mercy. New Jerusalem Bible has “take pity on me”; New American Bible “have pity on me”; New Jerusalem Bible “have mercy on me.” Good News Translation has “now” in order to make the petition even stronger; since God has helped him in the past, he should do the same now.

Be gracious to me is rendered in many languages by idiomatic terms having to do with physical and emotional responses; for example, “Have a white heart for me,” “Be pained for me,” or “Cry in your heart for me.”

Hear my prayer: “answer my prayer,” “give me what I ask for.”

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 .

Good News Translation has restructured this verse, placing first the statement about God and then the request for him to act. In the first half of the verse in Hebrew (see Revised Standard Version), there is a particle which expresses a strong wish; so Revised Standard Version O let … but establish. Good News Translation has expressed the meaning by using the imperative of the two verbs, “Stop” and “reward.” New English Bible follows Jerome, who understands the Hebrew noun to say “righteousness,” and therefore New English Bible has in the text “establish the reign of righteousness”; in the margin it has “the cause of the righteous” (following the Hebrew text).

Let … come to an end (Good News Translation “Stop”) is not a request to permit evil to end but a command in the third person that this evil must stop. Good News Translation‘s “Stop the wickedness of evil men” makes this clear, but even this may need to be recast in translation, since it may not be natural to speak of stopping an abstract quality. One must often say, therefore, “Stop bad people from doing evil acts.”

Establish thou (Good News Translation “reward”) is literally “make firm, cause to prosper, establish.” “Reward” must sometimes be translated by “give good things” or “give gifts”; for example, “give gifts to people who do good things.”

God, who is righteous, judges people’s minds and hearts. The verb translated triest means to put to the test, to examine, to prove. Minds and hearts (Good News Translation “thoughts and desires”) translates what is literally “hearts and kidneys” (so King James Version “hearts and reins”). The heart is often spoken of as the place in the human body where thinking is done, and the kidneys were regarded as the center of feelings and desires. New Jerusalem Bible has “conscience” as a translation of “kidneys”; in some cultures this may not be an appropriate concept, so something like “feelings,” or “emotions,” or “desires” will be better. Minds and hearts is often expressed idiomatically, “what the heart thinks and what the insides wish.”

There is an advantage gained by placing thou righteous God as an identifying statement, “You are a righteous God,” at the beginning of verse 9, since verses 8, 10, and 11 (see Revised Standard Version) also begin with similar expressions. Righteous refers here to the nature of God and is rendered idiomatically in some languages as “straight,” “clean,” or “white heart”; for example, “You are a God who has a white heart.”

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 .