From amusement Yahweh’s emotion turns to anger. It seems better to maintain the descriptive present tense, as Good News Translation does: “he warns … and terrifies” (also Moffatt, Bible en français courant, New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, New American Bible). Verses 5-6 still deal with the Lord’s reaction to the rebels.
The two nouns wrath and fury describe his attitude. Such human traits are ascribed quite naturally by Old Testament writers to God, in their conviction that he “was actively, vigorously, and personally involved in man’s history” (Toombs). The noun translated fury is used in the Old Testament only with God as subject. It means literally “burning,” that is, an anger that consumes and destroys the enemy (see Exo 15.7).
He will speak to them (or “he warns them,” “he rebukes them,” or “he threatens them”) and terrify them: for this last verb see also 83.15. Moffatt translates “he … scares them.” Many languages will follow more closely the Hebrew form of speaking to them in his wrath. However, in many cases “speaking” does not carry the negative injunction implied. Furthermore, anger involves a strong emotional element which is often stated in physiological terms such as “hot heart” or “hot stomach.” It may be best then to render the warning as a negative command in direct address; for instance, “God is angry and says, ‘Do not act this way.’ ” In some languages the full line will be: “With a hot stomach God says, ‘Do not act like this.’ ”
The parallelism of verse 5 is a typical case of line b representing a dramatic intensification of line a, from the ordinary speak to the intense terrify. It may be possible to represent this movement in the parallelism; for example, “He will be angry and speak to them; he will be so angry their strength will fail,” or “He will warn them because he is angry; so angry is he that their hearts run away,” or “Being angry at them he will speak out; he will scare them to death.”
In many languages the idea terrify, used in both Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version, implies some kind of physical loss and is sometimes expressed figuratively as “the breath departed,” “the heart ran away,” “the strength ran out,” or “the strength melted.”
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 .