The poem is addressed to everyone who will listen, all inhabitants of the world, since its lesson is universally valid for Israelites and Gentiles alike, whether great or small, rich or poor. The two lines of verse 1 are parallel and synonymous, calling all people of the world to listen to what the psalmist has to say. Line b of verse 1 focuses on all peoples of line a by emphasizing it. This results in heightening the effect and may be rendered in English, for example, “Listen to this everyone, let everybody on earth hear it!”

In verse 2a Good News Translation has reversed the two classifications, in accordance with English language usage. The low (Good News Translation “small”) are literally “sons of ʾadam (mankind)”; the high (Good News Translation “great”) are literally “sons of ʾish (man)” (see the use of “sons of man” in 4.2). Biblia Dios Habla Hoy translates “the powerful and the humble”; New Jerusalem Bible has “men of all estates.” Not all take the two phrases to have distinct meanings; New English Bible takes them as parallel: “all mankind, every living man.”

In some languages it will be necessary to personalize rich and poor; for example, “you who are rich and you who are poor.” Together, verse 2b, in this context is another way of saying both, as in line a. Both lines include all humankind, all people from one extreme to the other. So a translator may choose to say “all people everywhere,” “everyone in the world”; this, however, ceases to be poetry and becomes prose.

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 .