complete verse (Psalm 1:3)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 1:3:

  • Chichewa Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero translation, 2002/2016:
    “He is like a tree planted in the banks of rivers of water,
    which bears its fruits in its season
    and its leaves do not wither.
    Anything that he does he profits from it.” (Source: Chichewa Back Translation)
  • Newari:
    “He is like a tree planted on a river bank.
    He always bears fruit at the proper times
    and his leaves never dry up.
    Whatever work he does gets finished.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon:
    “He is like a tree planted beside the stream
    that bears-fruit in season of bearing-fruit,
    and (whose) leaves do- not -wither.
    A man like this will-prosper in what he does.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Eastern Bru:
    “That person becomes like a tree someone planted near flowing water.
    At the appropriate time, it produces fruit, and its leaves never wither/dry up.” (Source: Bru Back Translation)
  • Laarim:
    “He is like a tree planted at the bank of river,
    its bears always when its months reach.
    Its leaves do not dry.
    All the good matters he does, stay well.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
  • West African language:
    “Then you will be like a river-by tree whose leaves the sun cannot kill,
    whose children are always ripe at the right time.
    Then everything you do will finish on a good road.” (Source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1983, p. 420ff. )
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
    “Huyo yuko kama vile mti,
    ambao umepandwa kando katika chemchemi ya maji,
    ambao unazaa matunda katika wakati wake,
    na majani yake hayanyauki.
    Yote ambayo anayafanya yanakuwa ni mema.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
  • English:
    “They constantly produce/do things that please God
    just like fruit trees that have been planted along the banks of a stream produce fruit at the right time every year.
    Like trees that never wither,
    they succeed in everything that they do.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Psalm 1:3

This verse is remarkably like Jeremiah 17.8; see also Psalm 92.12-14.

The righteous are compared to healthy trees, provided with abundant water, which “bear fruit at the right time” (Good News Translation), that is, at the proper season of the year.

The verb planted is taken by some commentators to mean “transplanted” (see Ezek 17.8, 10, 22; 19.10, 13); most translations have simply “planted,” since the important thing is not whether the tree is planted or transplanted, but that it grows where there is plenty of water.

Streams of water: a literal translation of the Hebrew phrase, which means either a natural course of water or an artificial canal. In either case it supplies fresh running water to the tree. However, the picture of fruit trees growing beside a water course in the dry Middle East is quite different from that of trees growing along low-lying or swampy stream beds in the tropics. In the tropics fruit trees are often grown away from streams, since they require better drainage. Accordingly they depend on the rains for their water, and a desirable rendering may be “They are like trees that grow where there is plenty of water” or “They are like trees that grow well because they are well watered.”

Season may often be rendered as in Good News Translation, “at the right time,” or “always,” or in some languages “without ever failing.”

Its leaf does not wither: “its leaves don’t wither.” The withering of leaves is an indication that the tree is dying, or dead, and so in some languages it may be more effective to say “it does not die” or “it stays strong and healthy.”

In all that he does, he prospers: see Joshua 1.8b. Some think that a tree is the subject of this last line (see American Translation [An American Translation] “and whatever it bears comes to maturity”; see also New Jerusalem Bible). But most commentaries and translations take the righteous person to be the subject; so Good News Translation “They succeed.” The verb “to prosper” includes all areas of life, not only spiritual but also financial and physical.

If translators keep the plural subject, as in Good News Translation, they must make certain that the pronoun refers to the persons compared to the trees, and not to the trees themselves. In some cases it will be best to introduce a new subject; for example, “People who follow God’s way.” Prospers is translated in some languages by means of idiomatic expressions; positively it may sometimes be said “People who follow God’s way will see goodness” or “… will touch good things,” or negatively, “… will not fail to see good things.”

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 .

Psalm 1: Layer by Layer

The following are presentations by the Psalms: Layer by Layer project, run by Scriptura . The first is an overview and the second an introduction into the poetry of Psalm 2.


Copyright © Scriptura


Copyright © Scriptura

The overview in French (click or tap here to view the video):


Copyright © Scriptura

The overview in Russian (click or tap here to view the video):


Copyright © Scriptura

The introduction into Psalm 1’s poetry in Russian (click or tap here to view the video):


Copyright © Scriptura

Psalm 1 as classical Chinese poetry

John Wu Ching-hsiung (1899-1986) was a native of Ningbo, Zhejiang, a renowned jurist who studied in Europe and the United States, and served as a professor of law at Soochow University, as a judge and the Acting President of the Shanghai Provisional Court, and as the Vice President of the Commission for the Drafting of the Constitution of the Republic of China, before becoming the Minister of the Republic of China to the Holy See. Wu has written extensively, not only on law but also on Chinese philosophy, and has also written his autobiography, Beyond East and West, in English. Wu was a devout Catholic and had a personal relationship with Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975). Wu began translating the the Psalms in 1938, and was encouraged by Chiang to translate the entire New Testament, which he corrected in his own handwriting. (…) John Wu Ching-hsiung’s translation of the Psalms (first draft in 1946, revised in 1975) was translated into Literary Chinese in the form of poetic rhyme, with attention paid to the style of writing. According to the content and mood of the different chapters of the original psalm, Wu chose Chinese poetic forms such as tetrameter, pentameter, heptameter [4, 5 or 7 syllables/Chinese characters per stanza], and the [less formal] Sao style, and sometimes more than two poetic forms were used in a single poem. (Source: Simon Wong)

John Wu Ching-hsiung himself talks about his celebrated and much-admired (though difficult-to-understand) translation in his aforementioned autobiography: (Click or tap here to see)

“Nothing could have been farther from my mind than to translate the Bible or any parts of it with a view to publishing it as an authorized version. I had rendered some of the Psalms into Chinese verse, but that was done as a part of my private devotion and as a literary hobby. When I was in Hongkong in 1938, I had come to know Madame H. H. Kung [Soong Ai-ling], and as she was deeply interested in the Bible, I gave her about a dozen pieces of my amateurish work just for her own enjoyment. What was my surprise when, the next time I saw her, she told me, “My sister [Soong Mei-ling] has written to say that the Generalissimo [Chiang Kai-shek] likes your translation of the Psalms very much, especially the first, the fifteenth, and the twenty-third, the Psalm of the Good Shepherd!”

“In the Autumn of 1940, when I was in Chungking, the Generalissimo invited me several times to lunch with him and expressed his appreciation of the few pieces that he had read. So I sent him some more. A few days later I received a letter from Madame Chiang [Soong Mei-ling], dated September 21, 1940, in which she said that they both liked my translation of the few Psalms I had sent them. ‘For many years,’ she wrote, ‘the Generalissimo has been wanting to have a really adequate and readable Wen-li (literary) translation of the Bible. He has never been able to find anyone who could undertake the matter.’ The letter ends up by saying that I should take up the job and that ‘the Generalissimo would gladly finance the undertaking of this work.’

“After some preliminary study of the commentaries, I started my work with the Psalms on January 6, 1943, the Feast of the Epiphany.

“I had three thousand years of Chinese literature to draw upon. The Chinese vocabulary for describing the beauties of nature is so rich that I seldom failed to find a word, a phrase, and sometimes even a whole line to fit the scene. But what makes such Psalms so unique is that they bring an intimate knowledge of the Creator to bear upon a loving observation of things of nature. I think one of the reasons why my translation is so well received by the Chinese scholars is that I have made the Psalms read like native poems written by a Chinese, who happens to be a Christian. Thus to my countrymen they are at once familiar and new — not so familiar as to be jejune, and not so new as to be bizarre. I did not publish it as a literal translation, but only as a paraphrase.

“To my greatest surprise, [my translation of the Psalms] sold like hot dogs. The popularity of that work was beyond my fondest dreams. Numberless papers and periodicals, irrespective of religion, published reviews too good to be true. I was very much tickled when I saw the opening verse of the first Psalm used as a headline on the front page of one of the non-religious dailies.”


A contemporary researcher (Lindblom 2021) mentions this about Wu’s translation: “Wu created a unique and personal work of sacred art that bears the imprint of his own admitted love and devotion, a landmark achievement comparable to Antoni Gaudi’s Basilica of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Spain. Although its use is still somewhat limited today, it continues to attract readers for the aforementioned qualities, and continues to be used in prayers and music by those who desire beauty and an authentic Chinese-sounding text that draws from China’s ancient traditions.”

The translation of Psalm 1 from the 1946 edition is in pentameter with rhyme schemes based on -i and -ie (the 1946 edition did not have verse numbers either):

君子與小人

長樂惟君子。為善百祥集。莫偕無道行。恥與群小立。 避彼輕慢徒。不屑與同席。優游聖道中。涵泳徹朝夕。 譬如溪畔樹。及時結嘉實。歲寒葉不枯。條鬯靡有極。
惡人徒狡黠。飄飄如穅屑。悠悠逐風轉。何處是歸結。 惡貫既滿盈。天人共棄絕。 我主識善人。無道終滅裂。

Transcription into Roman alphabet with rhymes highlighted:

jūn zǐ yǔ xiǎo rén

cháng lè wéi jūn zǐ 。 wéi shàn bǎi xiáng jí 。 mò xié wú dào xíng 。 chǐ yǔ qún xiǎo lì 。 bì bǐ qīng màn tú 。 bù xiè yǔ tóng xí 。 yōu yóu shèng dào zhōng 。 hán yǒng chè zhāo xī 。 pì rú xī pàn shù 。 jí shí jié jiā shí 。 suì hán yè bù kū 。 tiáo chàng mí yǒu jí 。
è rén tú jiǎo xiá 。 piāo piāo rú kāng xiè 。 yōu yōu zhú fēng zhuǎn 。 hé chǔ shì guī jié 。 è guàn jì mǎn yíng 。 tiān rén gòng qì jué 。 wǒ zhǔ shí shàn rén 。 wú dào zhōng miè liè 。

With thanks to Simon Wong.