This final strophe (verses 12-15) has no obvious connection with what precedes, and may well have been a separate composition. Verse 12 begins with the Hebrew relative pronoun which normally means “which” or “who”; some emend it to the word which means “happy” (as in verse 15). Some translations, like Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, and Bible en français courant, take the verses as expressing a wish, a prayer (so Hebrew Old Testament Text Project); others take them as statements of facts (see New Jerusalem Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, New English Bible, New International Version, Bible de Jérusalem, and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). There is nothing in the strophe as such to determine which is correct; in its present setting, as part of Psalm 144, however, it seems more fitting to take them as wishes.

There are several expressions in these verses whose meaning is disputed. In verse 12 plants translates a word found nowhere else in the Old Testament; the figure is that of health and vigor. And in verse 12c the figure corner pillars is either that of beauty and stateliness, or else of strength. King James Version and New Jerusalem Bible translate “cornerstones,” Dahood “pillars.” Some recall the carved female figures used as columns in Greek architecture, but others object that this would not be a possibility here. The word translated palace in line d (Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and others) may mean “the Temple” (New American Bible, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). In Good News Translation “adorn” (also New International Version) translates a word meaning “shape, figure”; Revised Standard Version, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, and Dahood have structure. New Jerusalem Bible translates the whole figure “cornerstones trimmed to give shape to a palace.” Something like Good News Translation or Revised Standard Version seems to make for a more intelligible figure. For translation adjustments to wishes expressed with “may,” see 137.6. In languages in which “stately columns” will be unfamiliar (unless seen in the art work accompanying United Bible Societies’ New Readers Scriptures), it will most often be best to render these as “beautiful posts which hold up the corners of the king’s house.”

In verse 13 garners (Good News Translation “barns”) translates a word found nowhere else in the Old Testament; Good News Translation “with crops of every kind” translates what is literally “providing from kind to kind,” that is, all kinds (of crops). Good News Translation “barns” may be translated in some languages as “granaries.” Where a place for the storage of grain is not known or has no name, a descriptive phrase may be used; for example, “May the place where grains are stored be filled with all kinds of crops.” In language areas where storing of grain is unknown, it may be better to say “may you always have food to eat.”

In verse 13c-d the Hebrew has thousands … ten thousands, a common way of emphasizing a great number; the Hebrew of verse 13c, “produce by the thousands,” occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament.

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 .