complete verse (Psalm 106:28)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 106:28:

  • Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
    “They started worshiping Baal-Peor
    and ate sacrifices given to gods without life;” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Newari:
    “They worshipped Baal at the place called Peor.
    And they ate the meat of animals sacrificed to lifeless gods.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon:
    “They handed-over themselves/[lit. their own selves] to the little-god Baal there at the Mountain of Peor
    and they ate the sacrifices/offerings offered to the dead ones.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Laarim:
    “They worshipped the false god called Baal of Peor,
    and they ate the things of sacrifice that was given to the gods which are not alive.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
    “Basi wakamwabudu Baali wa katika Peoli,
    wakala dhabihu za kuchoma ambazo zimetolewa kwa wafu.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
  • English:
    “Later the Israeli people started to worship the idol of Baal who they thought lived at Peor Mountain,
    and they ate meat that had been sacrificed to Baal and those other lifeless gods.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Psalm 106:28 - 106:31

These verses report the events narrated in Numbers 25.1-13. Peor was a mountain in Moab, on the east side of the Jordan. The name Baal means “lord, master,” and is the name often given in the Old Testament to the gods of other nations. The Hebrew verb translated attached themselves to (Good News Translation “joined in the worship of”) is the one used in Numbers 25.3. Something like “committed themselves to” or “pledged their allegiance (or, loyalty) to” may be better. In verse 28b the dead are the idols, the pagan gods themselves, which the psalmist considers to have no real existence (see the description in 115.4-8). New Jerusalem Bible and New International Version translate “lifeless gods.” Dahood, however, takes the meaning here to be funeral sacrifices, offerings for the dead (so Oesterley, Weiser). A translator may choose to follow this interpretation. Baal may require some identification; for example, “the god called Baal” or “the god the other nations worshiped, called Baal.”

In verse 29b the plague (same word used in Num 25.8-9) is unspecified; it is a disease or epidemic of some sort. It should be clear that this happened as a result of Yahweh’s anger.

In verse 30a Good News Translation “punished the guilty” translates a verb which means “sit in judgment” or “arbitrate, intervene.” So Revised Standard Version interposed; New Jerusalem Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and New International Version have “intervened.” Phinehas killed an Israelite man and the Midianite woman he had taken into his tent; this “intervention” caused God to stop the plague (which had killed 24,000 people). Instead of “intervened” the Septuagint has here “made atonement,” the same word used in Numbers 25.13. The use of the passive in the plague was stayed will have to become active in many languages, in which case the subject supplied will be God; that is, “God stopped the plague” or “God stopped the sickness that was killing them.”

In verse 31 the Hebrew is “this is accounted to him as righteousness” (tsedaqah); Traduction œcuménique de la Bible translates “This was reckoned as a righteous deed.” The text can be understood to refer to divine approval (so Bible en français courant); the same phrase is used of Abraham in Genesis 15.6. Or it can mean the high regard in which Phinehas was held by the people of Israel ever since the original event, and which will continue for all time to come. In translation this may be stated “people have always remembered this good act and will go on remembering it always.”

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 .