In this verse, the speaker and the addressee are both singular in Hebrew (as shown in Revised Standard Version). However, since these singular forms are to be understood as collective in meaning, Good News Translation translates them as plurals.
The verse opens with a command to the enemy, “Rejoice not over me, O my enemy” (Revised Standard Version). Good News Translation turns this into a statement, Our enemies have no reason to gloat over us, but in many languages it will be perfectly natural to keep the form of a command.
The word gloat implies that the enemies are rejoicing with bad motives. It will help to strengthen the emotional effect of the verse in other languages if translators can find a term that implies something similar.
The reason why the enemy should not gloat is expressed in the two statements that follow. Both are figurative, and both contain two clauses, of which the second contrasts with the first. The figure in the first statement involves falling and getting up again, and in the second, darkness and light. These figures can usually be retained in translation, since they speak of universal human experiences and do not depend on particular features of Hebrew culture.
Notice that there may be several ways of expressing the contrasts between the two clauses in each figure. Revised Standard Version has “when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me,” using a subordinate temporal clause followed by a main clause. Good News Translation, with its We have fallen, but we will rise again. We are in darkness now, but the LORD will give us light, uses two pairs of main clauses, with each pair of clauses linked by the conjunction but. The construction is different, but the underlying relationship expressed is basically the same. Translators should consider what constructions are available to them in their own languages to express this relationship of contrast, and should use the one that is most clear and natural. They should be careful that they do not translate the “when” of Revised Standard Version or the but of Good News Translation literally without considering whether these terms express the correct relationships in their languages. They should be sure that the resulting construction in the receptor language really does carry the meaning of contrast.
Although Good News Translation says the LORD will give us light, the Hebrew is more precisely “the LORD will be a light to me (or, to us)” (see Revised Standard Version), and it may be quite meaningful in many languages to express the idea in this way.
Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. et al. A Handbook on Micah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1978, 1982, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .