With this strophe (verses 6-9a) the psalmist renews his pleas for God’s help.

Incline thy ear (Good News Translation “turn to me”) translates the phrase “to bend the ear” (used of God also in 31.2; 71.2; 86.1; 102.2; 116.2), that is, to pay attention to, to listen. Some languages use expressions for “listen” which mean mere hearing. Others use terms whose focus is on obeying. Neither of these is appropriate in this passage, in which the writer is asking for close attention. This is rendered in some cases “put your ear on this” or “have two ears for my words.”

The psalmist now reaches back to verse 1 to repeat his call to God to hear. In doing so he takes the Hebrew verb for hear from the beginning of verse 1a and repeats it at the end of verse 6b, thus creating a chiasmus with the opening verse. This device has as its purpose to call attention by repeating in reverse order. Good News Translation has accomplished the same arrangement with “listen” in both verses.

The two petitions in line b may be taken as synonymous and be reduced to one request: “listen to my petition (or, prayer).” However, in typical parallelism something is added in the second clause to carry the idea forward and heighten its effect. Here two verbs are used to increase the intensification. In fact, line b may be considered a consequence of line a, or as specification of the verb call in line a. As consequence it may then be rendered “therefore give me your ear and hear what I have to say,” or as in Good News Translation, “so turn to me and listen….” In some languages it may not be possible to have two similar verbs for “listen” in line b; for example, “listen to me carefully and pay attention to my words (or, prayer).”

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 .