Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 139:22:
Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
“I hate them completely;
they are my enemies.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Newari:
“I hate them from the bottom of my heart.
Your enemies are also my enemies.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon:
“My hatred/[lit. heat] against them (is) very severe;
I consider them my enemies.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Laarim:
“I hate them truly,
they are also my enemies.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
“Maadui zako ni maadui zangu mimi,
nawachukia kabisa.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
English:
“I hate them completely, and I consider that they are my enemies.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
The Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Latin that is translated as “enemy” or “foe” in English is translated in the HausaCommon Language Bible as “friends of front,” i.e., the person standing opposite you in a battle. (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
In North Alaskan Inupiatun it is translated with a term that implies that it’s not just someone who hates you, but one who wants to do you harm (Source: Robert Bascom), in Tarok as ukpa ìkum or “companion in war/fighting,” and in Ikwere as nye irno m or “person who hates me” (source for this and one above: Chuck and Karen Tessaro in this newsletter ).
In Cherokee it is either translated as “the one(s) who reprimand(s) you” or “the one(s) feared.” (Source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 47)
The following is a lyrical rendition of Psalm 139 into English by Mary Herbert , Countess of Pembroke (née Sidney, 1561 – 1621), authored c. 1594 as part of the Sidney Psalms :
O Lord, in me there lieth nought
But to thy search revealèd lies,
For when I sit
Thou markest it;
No less thou notest when I rise;
Yea, closest closet of my thought
Hath open windows to thine eyes.
Thou walkest with me when I walk;
When to my bed for rest I go,
I find thee there,
And everywhere:
Not youngest thought in me doth grow,
No, not one word I cast to talk
But yet unuttered thou dost know.
If forth I march, thou goest before,
If back I turn, thou com’st behind:
So forth nor back
Thy guard I lack,
Nay on me too, thy hand I find.
Well I thy wisdom may adore,
But never reach with earthy mind.
To shun thy notice, leave thine eye,
O whither might I take my way?
To starry sphere?
Thy throne is there.
To dead men’s undelightsome stay?
There is thy walk, and there to lie
Unknown, in vain I should assay.
O Sun, whom light nor flight can match,
Suppose thy lightful flightful wings
Thou lend to me,
And I could flee
As far as thee the ev’ning brings:
Even led to West he would me catch,
Nor should I lurk with western things.
Do thou thy best, O secret night,
In sable veil to cover me:
Thy sable veil
Shall vainly fail;
With day unmask’d my night shall be,
For night is day, and darkness light,
O father of all lights, to thee.
Each inmost piece in me is thine:
While yet I in my mother dwelt,
All that me clad
From thee I had.
Thou in my frame hast strangely dealt:
Needs in my praise thy works must shine
So inly them my thoughts have felt.
Thou, how my back was beam-wise laid,
And raft’ring of my ribs, dost know;
Know’st every point
Of bone and joint,
How to this whole these parts did grow,
In brave embroid’ry fair array’d,
Though wrought in shop both dark and low.
Nay, fashionless, ere form I took,
Thy all-and-more beholding eye
My shapeless shape
Could not escape:
All these time-framed successively
Ere one had being, in the book
Of thy foresight enroll’d did lie.
My God, how I these studies prize,
That do thy hidden workings show!
Whose sum is such
No sum so much,
Nay, summ’d as sand they sumless grow.
I lie to sleep, from sleep I rise,
Yet still in thought with thee I go.
My God, if thou but one wouldst kill,
Then straight would leave my further chase
This cursèd brood
Inur’d to blood,
Whose graceless taunts at thy disgrace
Have aimed oft; and hating still
Would with proud lies thy truth outface.
Hate not I them, who thee do hate?
Thine, Lord, I will the censure be.
Detest I not
The cankered knot
Whom I against thee banded see?
O Lord, thou know’st in highest rate
I hate them all as foes to me.
Search me, my God, and prove my heart,
Examine me, and try my thought;
And mark in me
If ought there be
That hath with cause their anger wrought.
If not (as not) my life’s each part,
Lord, safely guide from danger brought.
The psalmist vigorously expresses his hatred for Yahweh’s enemies. The rhetorical questions in verse 21 (see Revised Standard Version) are a way of making an emphatic statement. He feels for them a perfect hatred, that is, complete hatred, without a drop of compassion or good will; and he looks upon them as his own enemies. Perfect hatred or Good News Translation‘s “total hatred” in verse 22 must often be recast to say, for example, “I hate them with all my heart, soul, stomach, throat, liver,” whichever body part represents the center of the emotions.
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 .
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