אַ֭לְמָנָה וְגֵ֣ר יַהֲרֹ֑גוּ וִֽיתוֹמִ֣ים יְרַצֵּֽחוּ׃
6They kill the widow and the stranger;
they murder the orphan,
The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated as “orphan” in English is translated in Enlhet as “those who are gone past.” (Source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 24ff. )
For other constructs with “go past” see in abundance, rich, faithful.
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “widow” in English is translated in West Kewa as ona wasa or “woman shadow.” (Source: Karl J. Franklin in Notes on Translation 70/1978, pp. 13ff.)
The etymological meaning of the Hebrew almanah (אַלְמָנָה) is likely “pain, ache,” the Greek chéra (χήρα) is likely “to leave behind,” “abandon,” and the English widow (as well as related terms in languages such as Dutch, German, Sanskrit, Welsh, or Persian) is “to separate,” “divide” (source: Wiktionary).
See also widows.
The psalmist exposes the evil actions of the Israelite leaders: they are heartless, cruel, and unjust.
Verse 5 is an example of the way in which the poet sometimes places the metaphor (crush) in the first line and the general term (afflict) in the second. This, however, applies only to the event words. The objects of these events follow the more common positioning, with the general term people in the first line and the more specific heritage in the second line. This combination tends to remove the intensification, but not so much as to encourage the translator to reduce them to a single line, unless, of course, there is no alternative.
In verse 5a crush is used in the sense of “persecute,” “destroy,” “oppress,” as in 10.10; 72.4. In verse 5b thy heritage is parallel with thy people in verse 5a.
Some consider the denunciations in verse 6 to be poetic exaggeration (see Oesterley), but it would not be proper to tone down the harsh language in translation. For “widows and orphans” see 68.5; see also 82.3-4 for comments on a similar passage that sheds light on this one. Good News Translation “the strangers who live in our land” (Revised Standard Version the sojourner) translates the Hebrew term for resident aliens, whose rights were protected by Israelite law. Good News Translation has kept “widows and orphans” together as a common class of those who are often oppressed. Many translators will also prefer to do so, although in the Hebrew text “widows and foreigners” are together.
For statements similar to the thought expressed in verse 7, see 10.4, 11. Such people act as if God does not exist, as though he has no interest in what is going on (see also 14.1; 53.1). In verse 7a The LORD translates Yah (as in 68.4); and for comments on the God of Jacob, see 46.7. Verse 7 closes the stanza and contains a degree of intensification in the second line which may be rendered, for example, “They say, ‘The LORD does not see what we do; the God of Israel does not even pay any attention to us.’ ” The God of Jacob may have to be recast as “The God whom the people of Israel worship.”
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 .