waters roar and foam

The Hebrew that is translated as “waters roar and foam” in English is emphasized in Sar with the ideophone (a word that expresses what is perceived by the five senses) pukətu pukətu (“the foam rises pukətu pukətu“). Pukətu pukətu
“evokes the movement of a liquid mass. Examples: a good amount of water poured over a person, wading across the river, agitating the water as it wades across the river.” (Source: Ngarbolnan Riminan in Le Sycomore 2000, p. 20ff. ).

William Shakespeare's translation of Psalm 46

One interesting story from the translation of the English Bible is William Shakespeare’s rumored translation of Psalm 46 in the King James Version (Authorised Version). Shakespeare’s 46th birthday occurred in 1611 (some sources say 1610), which coincided with the publication date of the King James Bible. Careful readers realized that the 46th word from the beginning of Psalm 46 is “shake,” and the 46th word from the end is “spear” (or in the first edition: “speare”).

Susan Gillingham wrote this about the assertion in 2012 (p. 172f.): “[William Shakespeare’s] collected works offer allusions to over sixty different psalms. His source was almost certainly the Geneva Bible; given that the King James Bible was published in 1611, some five years before his death, and that it took some time before it overtook the popularity of the Geneva Bible, it is more likely that his allusions to psalmody are from the latter translation. But others have had a different view. An article in the Times some forty years ago popularized the idea that Shakespeare had a particular hand in the translation of some of the Psalms for the King James Bible. The key evidence was from Psalm 46: Shakespeare would have been 46 in 1610, the year before the publication, and when one reads in 46 words from the beginning of Ps. 46:1 (starting with ‘God’), and then 46 words from the end of Ps. 46:11 (after the rubric ‘Selah’), one gets a combination of words ‘shake+speare’. Was this some secret coding by Shakespeare himself, or maybe a birthday attribution by the translators? Another view presumes that Shakespeare had a hand in Psalm 23, as his birthday fell on 23 April. However, it is more likely that the fifty-four translators possibly did not recognize the literary worth of Shakespeare for what it was (noting that Sir Thomas Bodley wrote to the Keeper of the Books, Thomas James, as late as 1598, telling him not to fill the library with those ‘Baggage Books,’ i.e. the folios of Shakespeare), but rather used their own committee of clerics, academics and theologians.”

Note: Other scholars, including Naseeb Shaheen (2011, p. 20), insist that Miles Coverdale’s translation of the Psalms that was typically included in the Book of Common Prayer, was Shakespeare’s preferred English translation of the Psalms.

Psalm 46 in the original King James Version:

1 God is our refuge and strength: a very present helpe in trouble.
2 Therfore will not we feare, though the earth be remoued: and though the mountaines be caried into the midst of the sea.
3 Though the waters thereof roare, and be troubled, though the mountaines shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.
4 There is a riuer, the streames wherof shall make glad the citie of God: the holy place of the Tabernacles of the most High.
5 God is in the midst of her: she shal not be moued; God shall helpe her, and that right early.
6 The heathen raged, the kingdomes were mooued: he vttered his voyce, the earth melted.
7 The Lord of hosts is with vs; the God of Iacob is our refuge. Selah.
8 Come, behold the workes of the Lord, what desolations hee hath made in the earth.
9 He maketh warres to cease vnto the end of the earth: hee breaketh the bow, and cutteth the speare in sunder, he burneth the chariot in the fire.
10 Be stil, and know that I am God: I will bee exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
11 The Lord of hosts is with vs; the God of Iacob is our refuge. Selah.

Translation commentary on Psalm 46:1 - 46:3

The psalmist’s statement of the security of God’s people in trouble describes such a time in terms of worldwide upheavals and disasters. God is our refuge: see the word refuge as it is used in 14.6; God is our … strength means “God keeps us strong,” that is, confident, unafraid. The expression God is our refuge must often be shifted to a verb phrase; for example, “God is the one who protects us” or “God is the one who shelters us.”

In verse 1b very present translates a phrase meaning “very accessible”; the verb means “be present, near.” The noun help is used also in 22.19.

All of the catastrophes listed in verses 2-3 represent the end of the world, with the disappearance of order and the return of the chaos which existed before creation.

In verse 2a Revised Standard Version translates the earth should change; it is better, following Holladay, to see the meaning “shake, quake” for this verb, which in other contexts means “to change, exchange.” So most modern translations have “heave, be shaken, reel, quake.” New Jerusalem Bible translates “be in turmoil”; New Jerusalem Bible “reels.” The passive constructions used in Good News Translation and implied in Revised Standard Version will be difficult to use in languages where the passive is nearly nonexistent. In verses 2a and 3b it will be necessary in some languages to say, for example, “even if the earth breaks up” and “the hills move violently.”

The second phenomenon, in verse 2b, is that of mountains shaking in the heart of the sea. This is better represented by “the mountains fall into the depths of the ocean” as the result of a severe earthquake. Or else “the mountains in the depths of the seas totter.” These are the mountains reaching down into the underworld, and upon which the earth rests, according to the idea of that time about the structure of the earth.

In verse 3a the psalmist speaks of the seas as they roar and foam, and in verse 3b of the hills as they tremble from the fury of the waves. Revised Standard Version tumult carries only the notion of noise; the main idea, however, is that of the violence, the fury of the waves as they hurl themselves against the hills. The expression its waters roar may in some languages be expressed as a simile; for example, “even if the seas roar like a wild animal and make a great noise.”

In verse 3b, instead of with its tumult (Good News Translation “by the violence”), New English Bible has “before his majesty”; the Hebrew noun has the meaning of “majesty” in 68.34 (and see also Deut 33.26); most other translations have the same meaning expressed by Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation.

Translators should be accustomed by now to recognize movement or lack of movement between parallel lines. In verse 2 line a has the earth, which is made more specific by mountains in line b. In verse 3 line a waters picks up from sea in verse 2b, and verse 3b repeats mountains from verse 2b. The movement through verse 2ab to verse 3a is that of a step-up of intensity, both by being more specific in the choice of nouns and by the addition of the verbs. Translators should try to reflect this element of meaning in their translations. In English the step-up can be seen by rendering, for example,

• So we will not be afraid if the earth should shake
not even if the mountains should fall into the sea;
nor even if the oceans roar and rage
and the hills are violently shaken.

For Selah see 3.2.

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 .