inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Ps 90:9)

Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)

The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).

For this verse, the Jarai and the Adamawa Fulfulde translations both use the exclusive pronoun, excluding the Lord.

complete verse (Psalm 90:9)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 90:9:

  • Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
    “All our days end (while) they are under your wrath;
    we finish our years with groaning.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Newari:
    “Your anger shortens our life span.
    Our lives come to an end with groaning.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon:
    “(It is) true that in your (sing.) anger we (excl.) will-die;
    our (excl.) lives will-end as-if just a sigh.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Laarim:
    “In all of our days we find your anger,
    and we finish our years with groaning.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
    “Uhai wetu unafupishwa na hasira yako,
    uhai wetu unakwisha kama vile pumzi.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
  • English:
    “Because you are angry with us, you cause our lives to end;
    the years that we live pass as quickly as a sigh does.” (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 90:9 - 90:10

The psalmist now produces a contrast in time. In verse 4 he looked at time from God’s view, which moved from years to yesterday to a watch in the night. Now looking at mankind’s time the movement is in the opposite direction: our days … our years.

In verse 9 all our days and our years are parallel expressions, meaning “our lifetime, our life.” In verse 9a Revised Standard Version our days pass away under thy wrath misses the point that God’s wrath is the cause of our days ending. Furthermore, the verb is used with a poetic connotation that calls to mind the ending of a day. Good News Translation “cut short” misses that connotation. Bible en français courant translates “Under the effect of your anger our life wanes,” and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has “In truth, our whole life ends because of your anger.” In verse 9b come to an end is parallel with pass away in verse 9a; the form of the verb in Hebrew is “we end (our years)” (see Revised Standard Version footnote). It is not necessary to depart from the Masoretic text and follow the Syriac, as Revised Standard Version does, in order to make sense of the passage. New Jerusalem Bible translates the Masoretic text “we spend our years like a sigh.” The emphasis appears to be on the brevity of human life, so a better translation can be “our life goes by as quickly as a sigh.”

Even when a person lives out the full life span of seventy years–and, in exceptional cases, eighty years–all that person experiences is toil and trouble; life is over quickly and we fly away. Again, this is poetic language, and nothing is to be inferred from this passage as to what happens at death. Bible en français courant has “we fly toward death.”

Good News Translation‘s “… years is all we have” is idiomatic in English and will have to be recast in many languages to say something like “A person only lives seventy years, or if he is strong, he may live eighty years.”

Good News Translation “all they bring” in verse 10c translates what seems to be “and their pride.” The noun is variously defined by the lexicons: BDB has “pride”; K-B “eagerness, insistence”; Holladay “crowding, hurry.” One possible translation is “but at best they bring only”; Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “yet pride in living so long (only brings illnesses and toil)”; New Jerusalem Bible “but the best of them” (with a note: “meaning of Heb uncertain”).

Revised Standard Version, New American Bible, An American Translation, and New Jerusalem Bible follow the Septuagint and other ancient versions in reading “their extent.” Anderson says the Revised Standard Version emendation is not needed; the meaning of the Masoretic text is “even the best years of our life … are characterized by toil and trouble.”9-10 Hebrew Old Testament Text Project suggests “and their turmoil (or, hurry)” (“B” decision).

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 .