sunrise, sunset

The Hebrew and Greek terms that is translated as “sunrise” and “sunset” or similar in English are translated in Chichewa as “sun coming out” and “sun entering.” The understanding is that the sun moves and that when it is evening it goes back where it belongs. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

See also periods of the night.

complete verse (Psalm 139:9)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 139:9:

  • Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
    “If I fly where the sun comes out from,
    if I stay at the ends of the lake,” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Newari:
    “Even if [I] fly far away to the east,
    or if [I] go to the west arriving at a distant ocean shore,” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon:
    “If I also go to-the-east or settle/live on the-very-farthest place in the west,” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Laarim:
    “If I would fly with wings to go to east,
    or if I go to the side of the sea where the sun goes down,” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
    “Iwapo naruka mpaka mashariki,
    au kwenda kukaa magharibi,” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
  • English:
    “If I had wings and flew very far east, or if I flew west and made a place to live on an island in the ocean,” (Source: Translation for Translators)

sea / lake

The various Greek, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Latin and Hebrew terms that are translated as “sea,” “ocean,” or “lake” in English are all translated in Chichewa with one term: nyanja. Malawi, where Chichewa is spoken, has a lot of lakes but does not share a border with the ocean (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation). Likewise, in Toposa all the different bodies of water are all called by one term as well: nya-name̥ (source: Schröder 2026, p. 101).

In Malagasy culture, the sea is perceived as sacred because it was a path taken by the ancestors. That is why the Malagasy word for the “sea” is ranomasina, which literally means “the sacred water.” The word masina actually has two different meanings: “salted” and “sacred/holy.” Salt is used for the conservation of some foods, such as meat or fish, that are to be set aside for later use. In this sense, the Malagasy phrase for “Holy Spirit” has the literal meaning of “Salted Spirit.” (Source: Brigitte Rabarijaona in The Bible Translator 2022, p. 103ff.)

“Sea” (or: “ocean”) is translated in Tepeuxila Cuicatec as “water land” and in Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac as “very big lake.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

Psalm 139 as Elizabethan poetry

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.

Translation commentary on Psalm 139:9 - 139:10

In verse 9 the psalmist refers to the extreme east and the extreme west. Revised Standard Version gives the wrong impression that the actions of the two lines are part of one event, take the wings … and dwell. The Hebrew lines show two distinct events, “If I take…, if I dwell….” The exact meaning of the language in verse 9a, If I take the wings of the morning, is in dispute; in parallel with verse 9b (which clearly refers to the farthest west) it seems probable that the language is a figurative way of speaking of going to the east, where the sun comes up (so Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “if I were to fly away to the east”; Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “Were I to fly to where the sun rises”; and Bible en français courant is similar). In verse 9b the uttermost parts of the sea means as far as one could go to the west; the sea is the Mediterranean, which is west of Palestine. In many languages the directions in verse 9 can best be expressed as “where the sun rises” and “where the sun sets.” However, if the translator wishes to keep the geography of Palestine in view, he may translate “west” as does Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, “the borders of the western sea.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “to the end of the seas, where the sun sinks.”

Wherever he may go, the psalmist knows that Yahweh is there to lead him and to hold him (verse 10); the second verb in Hebrew is “to hold, grasp,” in the positive sense of helping or sustaining, not in the negative sense of seizing or arresting.

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 .