soaked

In Gbaya, the notion of being soaked in water in Psalm 109:18 is emphasized with dɔkbɔɗɔk, an ideophone that can describe damp wood that doesn’t burn easily.

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

soak into his body

In Gbaya, the notion of wetness soaking into a body is emphasized in Psalm 109:18 with ɗik-ɗik, an ideophone that describes something damp.

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

clothe with cursing as a coat

The Hebrew of Psalm 109:18 that is translate in English as “he clothed himself with cursing as his coat, may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones” or similar is translated in Mam (Ostuncalco) with an expression which comes from the way liquor enters into the entire body to warm it, and they used this idiom to replace the two figures for complete identification of the curse with the person: “May the curse saturate him as liquor saturates the one who drinks it.”

fat, oil

The different Hebrew and Greek terms that are translated as “(olive) oil” and “(animal) fat” in English are translated in Kwere with only one term: mavuta. (Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

complete verse (Psalm 109:18)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 109:18:

  • Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
    “He clothed cursing like a cloth;
    cursing entered in his body like water,
    entering in his bones like oil.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Newari:
    “For him cursing is like wearing clothes.
    Curses fill (him) like water (fills) his stomach,
    and they come into his bones like oil.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon:
    “He does- not -cease to-curse others; it seems that this (is) now garment that he wears.
    May-it-be that his curse will-return to him like water that enters into his body or like oil that soaks/penetrates to his bones.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Laarim:
    “He wears a curse like his clothes,
    the curse enters his body like water,
    the curse enters his bones like oil” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
    “Alikuvaa kulaani kama vile nguo,
    laana iingie ndani mwake kama maji,
    katika mifupa yake kama vile mafuta.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
  • English:
    “He cursed other people as often/ easily as he put on his clothes;
    cause that the terrible things that he wanted to happen to others will happen to him and
    enter his body like water that he drinks,
    like olive oil soaks into a person’s bones when it is rubbed on his skin.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Psalm 109:18 - 109:19

In verse 18a the psalmist compares his enemy’s cursing to wearing clothes; Good News Translation takes this to mean “He cursed as naturally as he dressed himself”; but the language may be a figure for the constancy, not the ease, with which he uttered curses on others. So a translation can be “He cursed others all the time” or “He never stopped cursing others.” New Jerusalem Bible translates “Cursing has been the uniform he wore.” But New Jerusalem Bible and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy translate this as a plea: “May he be clothed in a curse like a garment,” which means that the curses against him are to cling to him like the clothes he wears (as in verse 19, but this interpretation is not preferred). In verse 18b-c, by the use of a rather unusual figure, the psalmist hopes that those curses the enemy pronounced on others might soak into his body like water and like oil. Of course water can enter the body (literally “the inside”; see “within me” in 103.1) when someone drinks it, but olive oil is spread over the body and was thought to seep into the bones. So Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “… like water that one drinks, like oil which one rubs on oneself.” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy translates “may it (the malediction) enter his stomach and his bones as though it were water and olive oil.” Some see in this figure a reference to the ritual described in Numbers 5.11-31, in which a married woman suspected of adultery had to drink a liquid which contained a curse (see especially verses 23 and 27). There is perhaps a degree of intensification involved in the movement through the lines in this verse. This is contained mainly in the process of moving from the outside of the body (the garment) to the inside of the body, and finally into the bones. A suggested rendering can be:

• He cursed as regularly as he put on his clothes.
May his curses even enter his body like the water he drinks,
And may they go on to reach like oil down to his bones.

The same wish is expressed in another fashion in verse 19, that these curses always cover the enemy like a garment and like a belt, that is, that they hang on to him and never let go of him.

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 .