The psalmist vividly portrays his intense grief with the statement that his tears have been his food day and night. In some languages tears cannot be spoken of as food, since they are liquid, or the verb which will be required to express food will have to show that the food in this case is liquid. In some languages one will have to say “my tears are all that I drink,” and in others it is possible to say “the only food that I have is my tears.”

In verse 3c Good News Translation “my enemies ask me” translates “they say,” which is the text of a few Hebrew manuscripts; the Masoretic text is “he says,” a way of expressing “someone says” or “it is said” (and see also verse 11). New Jerusalem Bible and New Jerusalem Bible use the passive “I am taunted.”

The question Where is your God? (also verse 10) seems to indicate that the psalmist’s enemies are not Jews but Gentiles, who taunt the psalmist for his God’s apparent inability to rescue him from his distress. The question means “Why doesn’t your God help you?” Bible en français courant has “What is your God doing?”

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 .