Verse 6 is a consequence of verses 4-5 and should be clearly marked as such in translation. Revised Standard Version Therefore may be represented by “That is why” or “That is the reason why….”

In verse 6 the pride and the violence of wicked people are compared to a necklace and a garment. The emphasis here is on the fact that these people do not try to hide their pride and their violence; instead they display them openly, unashamedly, as though they were virtues and not defects.

For necklace the translator should employ a term that refers to an object worn as a symbol of rank. The Hebrew word suggests a “chain” of gold or jewels worn by high ranking men (see Gen 41.42 for the chain given to Joseph by Pharaoh, or Dan 5.29). The translator must be careful to distinguish between objects worn to symbolize rank, and those worn to symbolize status such as married or single, or associated exclusively with a particular sex. The similes which Good News Translation has used, “wear pride like a necklace and violence like a robe,” may have to be recast in some languages to say “their pride can be seen as easily as a necklace, and their violence as easily as the clothes they wear.”

The first line of verse 7 in the Masoretic text seems to be “their eye goes out from fatness.” A translation such as New Jerusalem Bible, “Fat shuts out their eyes,” means little, if anything. Some of those who try to translate the Masoretic text take the word fatness quite literally; so Revised Standard Version; New English Bible “their eyes gleam through folds of fat”; New Jerusalem Bible “From their fat oozes out malice”; Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “they are so fat that their eyes pop out.” Others take the word as a figure of insensitivity, or stubbornness, or unwillingness to submit to God. New International Version “From their callous hearts comes iniquity”; and New American Bible “Out of their crassness comes iniquity.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch takes “fatness” as a figure of excessive self-indulgence, as follows: “Their luxurious life leads them to sin.” Instead of following the Masoretic text “their eye,” Good News Translation follows the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate “their iniquity”; and the word for “fatness” is taken in the sense of “heart” (see its use in 17.10a). New English Bible, following G. R. Driver, takes the verb translated “pour out” (Revised Standard Version swell) to mean “gleam”; similarly Dahood, who translates “their eyes glisten more than milk.” There is hardly any agreement on the form and meaning of the line.

If the translator follows Good News Translation, the metaphor “hearts pour out evil” may have to be recast; for example, “their hearts are full of evil thoughts” or “their innermost is full of bad thinking.”

The second line is a bit obscure, but the general sense seems clear enough; New English Bible has “while vain fancies pass through their minds”; New Jerusalem Bible “their fancies are extravagant”; Bible en français courant “anyone can clearly see what they are imagining.” The word translated “fancies” by New Jerusalem Bible (Revised Standard Version follies) is rare and its meaning is uncertain. New International Version has “evil conceits,” New Jerusalem Bible “cunning,” and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “evil intentions.”

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 .