The psalmist describes his pitiable condition: he is ill and lonely, and is being attacked by enemies. His “life” (literally days) is vanishing like smoke (see 37.20; 68.2). The Masoretic text is “in smoke,” but many Hebrew manuscripts, the Septuagint, and Jerome have “like smoke.”3-4 Hebrew Old Testament Text Project (“C” decision) stays with the Masoretic text. In some languages it is not possible to speak of one’s life disappearing. Instead it is often necessary to say, for example, “I am dying, just like rising smoke disappears.” His whole body (literally bones) “is burning like fire,” which sounds like a high fever (if meant as a physical symptom). The word translated “fire” is an unusual one; it usually means “burning coals” (so Dahood “brazier”), or “hearth” (New Jerusalem Bible), or “oven” (New English Bible “burn up as in an oven”; New Jerusalem Bible “burning like an oven”; Revised Standard Version furnace).

In verse 4a the psalmist compares himself to grass (or weeds) that has dried up and is beaten down; Hebrew has My heart (so Revised Standard Version), which is taken by most to represent the whole person (see New English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible). It is hard to understand how the psalmist could have spoken of the bodily organ, his heart, as being like dried grass (see New American Bible). In a psychological sense the figure could be descriptive of his feeling of despair and loneliness. In languages which cannot employ the passive, it may be necessary to recast the verb phrase “beaten down” and say, for example, “I feel like I have become like dry grass” or “I am like dry grass that someone has beaten down.”

In verse 4b I forget to eat my bread means that his sickness has caused him to lose his appetite. Most translations are quite literal; Good News Translation and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy indicate loss of appetite as the reason the psalmist does not eat. The verbal form translated I forget is taken by some, on the basis of a Ugaritic parallel, to mean “be wasted, emaciated, weak”; so New Jerusalem Bible “too wasted to eat my food”; New English Bible “I cannot find the strength to eat.” The interpretation of Good News Translation seems preferable. Although the Hebrew term used is the regular word for bread, it is also used generically for “food.” In the present context, if the translator uses the term for the most commonly eaten food (equivalent to bread), the translation will have more emotive impact on the intended readers.

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 .