flashed on every side

In Gbaya, the notion of arrows everywhere in Psalm 77:17 is emphasized with the ideophone pamyala, which expresses dispersion one by one, like a group that scatters.

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

complete verse (Psalm 77:17)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 77:17:

  • Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
    “The clouds poured their waters down,
    in the sky thunders were heard;
    your arrows flew there and there.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Newari:
    “Rain fell from the clouds
    In the heavens it also thundered
    Lightning flashed from all sides.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon:
    “(It) rained from the clouds;
    (it) thundered in heaven and lightening-flashed everywhere/[lit. where ever].” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Laarim:
    “The clouds poured water,
    and the thunder filled up heaven,
    your lightening shines like arrows.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
  • Gbaya:
    “the clouds melt onto the ground,
    the thunderclap throws its voice to the ground,
    your arrows fly in all directions.” (Source: Philip Noss in The Bible Translator 1976, p. 100ff. . Noss explains: [For the translation of this verse, the Gbaya translators chose] “grammatical constructions [that] are specifically literary, occurring only in narrative discourse. This pattern was used sparingly, but [here] it seemed appropriate.”
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
    “Mvua ikamwagika kutoka katika mawingu,
    radi ikanguruma mbinguni,
    vimulimuli vikamulika kotekote.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
  • English:
    “Rain poured down from the clouds;
    it thundered very loudly, and lightning flashed in all directions.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

addressing God

Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed.

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Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or modern English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.

Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”

In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.

Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking.” (Source Philip Noss)

In the most recent Manchu translation of 1835 (a revision of an earlier edition from 1822), God is never addressed with a pronoun but with “father” (ama /ᠠᠮᠠ) instead. Chengcheng Liu (in this post on the Cambridge Centre for Chinese Theology blog ) explains: “In Manchu tradition, as in Chinese etiquette, second-person pronouns could be considered disrespectful when speaking to superiors or spiritual beings. Manchu Shamanist prayers avoided si [‘you’] and sini [‘your’] for this very reason. To use them for God would be, in Lipovzoff’s [one of the two translators] words, ‘the most uncouth and indecent way to speak to the Almighty — as if He were a servant or slave.’ There was also a grammatical problem. In Manchu, si and sini could refer to both singular and plural subjects. For a faith that insisted on the singularity of God, this was potentially confusing. By contrast, repeating ama removed any ambiguity.”

In Dutch, Afrikaans, Gronings, and Western Frisian translations, God is always addressed with the formal pronoun.

See also formal pronoun: disciples addressing Jesus, female second person singular pronoun in Psalms.

Translation commentary on Psalm 77:16 - 77:18

As in the similar passage 74.12-17, it is difficult to decide here whether the psalmist is speaking of creation or of the exodus from Egypt. Certainly in verse 20 the meaning is not in doubt, and some see verses 16-19 as a recital of the events of the exodus. Yet it seems more likely that here, as elsewhere, the biblical writer draws the two themes together: the God who brought the nation Israel into being, defeating Israel’s enemies with mighty acts of salvation, is the same God who brought the world into being, defeating the primeval forces of chaos (see Weiser, Anderson, Toombs, McCullough). Some see verses 16-20 as a fragment of an old poem added here either by the psalmist himself or by some later editor (see Dentan, Dahood).

At the coming of God the waters … were afraid … the deep trembled; these primeval waters (or, the Sea of Reeds, the Red Sea) feared the all-powerful God. The deep translates the plural of the word “the deep” used in Genesis 1.2; so Good News Translation “the depths of the sea.” As Revised Standard Version shows, in verse 16 the Hebrew text repeats “when the waters saw you.” The poetic expressions waters saw thee and they were afraid create a translation problem for languages in which the personification of inanimate objects is not natural. In such cases it may be possible to shift to a simile; for example, “like a person sees, when the waters saw you….” In some languages it will be necessary to speak of “all the rivers” or “all the seas.” In the same manner it may be necessary in some languages to employ a simile in the deep trembled by saying, for example, “the depths of the sea trembled like a frightened person.”

God’s coming was accompanied by rain, thunder, and lightning (verse 17; see similar accounts in 18.7-15 and 29.3-9 of Yahweh as the God of the storm). In verse 17c God’s arrows are the lightnings of verse 18b (see similar parallel in 18.14a-b). In languages in which arrows are known, it does not automatically follow that the word lends itself for metaphorical use, or that the meaning of “lightning” would be implied. It may be possible to say, for example, “your lightning flashed like flying arrows.”

In verse 18a Good News Translation “rolled out” translates a word defined as “wheel of a war chariot.” Good News Translation takes the line to speak of the thunder as the noise made by the wheels of God’s “war chariot” (see 65.11; 68.33). New Jerusalem Bible has “Your thunder rumbled like wheels” (same as Weiser); similarly Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Bible de Jérusalem, Bible en français courant “as it rolled” (also New English Bible footnote). Revised Standard Version, New English Bible, New American Bible, and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy translate in the whirlwind; An American Translation “in the cyclone.” Dahood takes the word to mean “the dome of heaven,” in conjunction with “the world” in line b and “nether world” in line c.

In verse 18c trembled translates the same verb as in verse 16c; for shook see comments on “quaked” in 68.8.

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 .