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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 choice of a benefactive construction as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.
Here, samashite (覚まして) or “wake” is used in combination with kudasaru (くださる), a respectful form of the benefactive kureru (くれる). A benefactive reflects the good will of the giver or the gratitude of a recipient of the favor. To convey this connotation, English translation needs to employ a phrase such as “for me (my sake)” or “for you (your sake).” (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
With this verse the psalmist begins a strophe (verses 6-9) in which he calls upon God, the Judge of all humankind, to judge him and declare him innocent of the charges against him.
With three verbs the psalmist calls upon Yahweh to act: Arise … lift thyself up … awake. These are ways of asking him to take action against the psalmist’s enemies and defeat them. The first two are quite close in meaning; see “Arise, O LORD” in 3.7. The third one, awake, does not necessarily imply that Yahweh is asleep, but only that he is inactive; so Good News Translation “rouse yourself,” New Jerusalem Bible “bestir Yourself.”
In line b the noun fury may be parallel to anger in line a, so that the line may mean “Stand up in fury against my enemies”; so An American Translation, New English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible footnote. Although the Hebrew word for fury is not the same as other words already used in Psalms, it is not significantly different. It appears in four other passages, referring always to God’s anger (78.49b; 85.3a; 90.9a, 11b); Revised Standard Version consistently translates “wrath.”
Fury of my enemies must often be recast, since fury will in some cases not function as the object of lift thyself up against, but only as a description of the enemies. In such cases it may be rendered “stand up against my furious enemies,” or figuratively, “protect me from my hot-hearted enemies.” The word for enemies is the same as in 6.7.
In line cGood News Translation “and help me” (Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “and be on my side”) translates the Masoretic text “for me” (as in the Revised Standard Version footnote). But if different vowels are used, the two consonants of the Hebrew word mean “my God”; so Revised Standard Version, New English Bible, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible (Septuagint has “O Lord my God”).6 Hebrew Old Testament Text Project (“B” decision) prefers “unto me,” meaning “in my favor.”
The last words of the verse in Hebrew have no obvious connection with what precedes; literally “you have decreed justice (or, judgment).” Both New English Bible and New Jerusalem Bible (which have “my God”) take it as a description of God, “you who demand that justice shall be done” (see also Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Bible en français courant); New Jerusalem Bible and Bible de Jérusalem are like Revised Standard Version; New American Bible is different, “wake to the judgment you have decreed” (which is none too clear). Moffatt has “Awake to aid us, to maintain the right”; Weiser, “Appoint a judgment.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project says the Hebrew may mean “you have (in fact) ordained judgment,” or “you who have ordained judgment” or “… ordain judgment.”
The word for “justice” (or, judgment) is mishpat (used in 1.5), a word which covers the widest area possible of conformity to rule, custom, command, right; it may be used in the abstract sense of justice, of what is right, fitting, proper, or in the concrete sense of an act of judgment, including the concept of the final Day of Judgment.
Since it is difficult or impossible in many languages to speak of “decreeing judgment,” it is often necessary recast this expression. Taking “justice” in the sense of conforming to rules, it is possible to say “God requires that people live right,” or in the sense of God’s judgment, “God will judge people” or “God has fixed a time to judge everyone.”
Good News Translation has joined the last words of this verse to the next verse; that this is the way the Hebrew text is to be understood is by no means certain.
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 .
John Wu Ching-hsiung (1899-1986) was a native of Ningbo, Zhejiang, a renowned jurist who studied in Europe and the United States, and served as a professor of law at Soochow University, as a judge and the Acting President of the Shanghai Provisional Court, and as the Vice President of the Commission for the Drafting of the Constitution of the Republic of China, before becoming the Minister of the Republic of China to the Holy See. Wu has written extensively, not only on law but also on Chinese philosophy, and has also written his autobiography, Beyond East and West, in English. Wu was a devout Catholic and had a personal relationship with Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975). Wu began translating the the Psalms in 1938, and was encouraged by Chiang to translate the entire New Testament, which he corrected in his own handwriting. (…) John Wu Ching-hsiung’s translation of the Psalms (first draft in 1946, revised in 1975) was translated into Literary Chinese in the form of poetic rhyme, with attention paid to the style of writing. According to the content and mood of the different chapters of the original psalm, Wu chose Chinese poetic forms such as tetrameter, pentameter, heptameter [4, 5 or 7 syllables/Chinese characters per stanza], and the [less formal] Sao style, and sometimes more than two poetic forms were used in a single poem. (Source: Simon Wong)
John Wu Ching-hsiung himself talks about his celebrated and much-admired (though difficult-to-understand) translation in his aforementioned autobiography: (Click or tap here to see)
“Nothing could have been farther from my mind than to translate the Bible or any parts of it with a view to publishing it as an authorized version. I had rendered some of the Psalms into Chinese verse, but that was done as a part of my private devotion and as a literary hobby. When I was in Hongkong in 1938, I had come to know Madame H. H. Kung [Soong Ai-ling], and as she was deeply interested in the Bible, I gave her about a dozen pieces of my amateurish work just for her own enjoyment. What was my surprise when, the next time I saw her, she told me, “My sister [Soong Mei-ling] has written to say that the Generalissimo [Chiang Kai-shek] likes your translation of the Psalms very much, especially the first, the fifteenth, and the twenty-third, the Psalm of the Good Shepherd!”
“In the Autumn of 1940, when I was in Chungking, the Generalissimo invited me several times to lunch with him and expressed his appreciation of the few pieces that he had read. So I sent him some more. A few days later I received a letter from Madame Chiang [Soong Mei-ling], dated September 21, 1940, in which she said that they both liked my translation of the few Psalms I had sent them. ‘For many years,’ she wrote, ‘the Generalissimo has been wanting to have a really adequate and readable Wen-li (literary) translation of the Bible. He has never been able to find anyone who could undertake the matter.’ The letter ends up by saying that I should take up the job and that ‘the Generalissimo would gladly finance the undertaking of this work.’
“After some preliminary study of the commentaries, I started my work with the Psalms on January 6, 1943, the Feast of the Epiphany.
“I had three thousand years of Chinese literature to draw upon. The Chinese vocabulary for describing the beauties of nature is so rich that I seldom failed to find a word, a phrase, and sometimes even a whole line to fit the scene. But what makes such Psalms so unique is that they bring an intimate knowledge of the Creator to bear upon a loving observation of things of nature. I think one of the reasons why my translation is so well received by the Chinese scholars is that I have made the Psalms read like native poems written by a Chinese, who happens to be a Christian. Thus to my countrymen they are at once familiar and new — not so familiar as to be jejune, and not so new as to be bizarre. I did not publish it as a literal translation, but only as a paraphrase.
“To my greatest surprise, [my translation of the Psalms] sold like hot dogs. The popularity of that work was beyond my fondest dreams. Numberless papers and periodicals, irrespective of religion, published reviews too good to be true. I was very much tickled when I saw the opening verse of the first Psalm used as a headline on the front page of one of the non-religious dailies.”
A contemporary researcher (Lindblom 2021) mentions this about Wu’s translation: “Wu created a unique and personal work of sacred art that bears the imprint of his own admitted love and devotion, a landmark achievement comparable to Antoni Gaudi’s Basilica of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Spain. Although its use is still somewhat limited today, it continues to attract readers for the aforementioned qualities, and continues to be used in prayers and music by those who desire beauty and an authentic Chinese-sounding text that draws from China’s ancient traditions.”
The translation of Psalm 7 from the 1946 edition is in pentameter and heptameter with rhyme schemes based on -an and -ai (the 1946 edition did not have verse numbers either):
The following are presentations by the Psalms: Layer by Layer project, run by Scriptura . The first is an overview, the second an introduction into the poetry, and the third an introduction into the exegesis of Psalm 7.
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