Honorary "rare" construct denoting God ("is/be present")

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, o-rare-ru (おられる) or “is/be present” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Psalm 68:34 - 68:35

In verse 34 the people of the world are exhorted to recognize and confess God’s power (Revised Standard Version Ascribe; Good News Translation “Proclaim”), whose majesty as ruler of the people of Israel has been manifested, and whose power is displayed in the skies (literally “the clouds,” which here is a synonym for “the heavens” in verse 33). In some languages Ascribe power to God may be rendered “Say that God is powerful.” Whose majesty is over Israel must often be recast in translation so that majesty is expressed as a verb phrase; for example, “who rules as king over Israel.” His power is in the skies may sometimes be rendered in translation as “the skies show his power” or “the skies show how powerful he is.”

Terrible (verse 35a) is highly inappropriate; see comments on “dread” in 65.5. The Hebrew text is “God (you are) awesome from your sanctuary,” which Good News Translation (with a change to the third person) has translated “as he comes from his sanctuary”; Revised Standard Version in is a translation of the Septuagint text (see also New International Version). Since the emotion of terror or awesomeness is produced on the people, it is often possible in translation to express this in idiomatic terms such as “how a person’s insides tremble…” or “how the heart flutters when God comes from….” The Hebrew word is plural, “sanctuaries,” which Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and others take to be an intensive plural (“a large/magnificent sanctuary”); New Jerusalem Bible and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible translate it by a plural. Commentators are not agreed whether God’s sanctuary here is the Temple in Jerusalem or heaven. Sanctuary may be rendered in some languages “God’s holy place” or “the place where God lives.”

The word strength translates a word not found elsewhere in the Old Testament; the related verb “be mighty” is used in 38.19.

For comments on Blessed be, see 18.46.

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 .