Verses 3-5 show how parallel images may interact semantically and syntactically over several verses. Verses 3-4 have four “If” clauses, and verse 5 has four corresponding consequential clauses, stated as “Let” commands. The dynamics of the progression from the general to the concrete is seen in comparing the vivid clauses of verse 5 with the more general ones of verses 3-4.

For my God in verse 3a, see discussion in 3.7.

In these two verses the psalmist denies the accusations that have been brought against him. He denies three charges:
(1) “I have wronged anyone” (Good News Translation) translates there is wrong in my hands. The word for wrong means “injustice, unrighteousness”; Briggs thinks it specifically means accepting bribes, but no translation takes it in this narrower sense. In translation this expression may often be rendered as “I have done evil to someone” or “I have not been straight with someone.”
(2) “I have betrayed a friend” (Good News Translation) or, as New English Bible translates, “repaid a friend evil for good”; New Jerusalem Bible “repaid my ally with treachery.” Another rendering can be “repaid a friend with evil.” “Betrayed” must sometimes be rendered “I have given a friend to his enemy” or “I have sold someone to his enemy.” Here the Hebrew for my friend is “the one who is at peace with me” (see also 55.20, where the same Hebrew expression is used for “his friends”). Another possible translation of the Masoretic text is “If I have repaid evil with evil” (Bible en français courant); this is what the Septuagint has.
(3) I have … plundered my enemy without cause: the meaning of the Hebrew text is uncertain. Literally it says “or have rescued my enemy for nothing.” Possible explanations are as follows:
(a) Some scholars believe that a scribe transposed two Hebrew consonants, so that a verb meaning “to do violence to” or “to oppress” was changed to one which means “to rescue, deliver.” The meaning is then “or if I have without cause done violence to (or, plundered) my enemy” (so Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, New International Version; also possible is “robbed without provocation one who was hostile to me”), or else “or if I have done violence to someone who without cause was my enemy” (so Bible en français courant “I have plundered the one who for no reason robbed me”). The idea of “plunder” in some languages is phrased “take someone’s possessions by force.” Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation accept this interpretation, which follows the ancient versions (see footnote in Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia). See also An American Translation, Delitzsch, Weiser. However, apart from the evidence of the ancient versions, there is no manuscript evidence to support this interpretation.
(b) Some take the Hebrew text as an affirmation: “I have shown mercy to someone who wronged me unjustly”; so King James Version (King James Version), American Standard Version, New American Bible; New Jerusalem Bible has “I who rescued my foe without reward”; this interpretation can also be “I who rescued one who without cause was hostile to me.” This transforms what is meant to be an accusation of wrongdoing into a statement of the psalmist’s virtue. However, it seems impossible to understand the Hebrew text in this way, since the “if” at the beginning of line a modifies line b as well.
(c) The meaning which the Hebrew text seems to require is that given in the Good News Translation footnote, “If I have shown mercy to someone who wronged me unjustly.” New Jerusalem Bible has “or spared someone who attacked me unprovoked” and states in a footnote that this is the law that requires payment of evil for evil as well as good for good (see Exo 21.23-25). To take revenge upon one’s enemy would therefore not be thought of as evil or sinful; an enemy was rightly to be condemned and punished. This is the meaning defended by Briggs and Oesterley and expressed by Bible de Jérusalem, New Jerusalem Bible, and New English Bible. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible combines this with the preceding: “if I have wronged my ally by allowing my adversary to escape.” For a more detailed discussion of the matter, see The Bible Translator 23 (April 1972), pages 241-242.

Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation keep the conditional form of the Hebrew text in verses 3-4, which requires the sentence to go without a pause to the end of verse 5. So it may be better to do as Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has done, and use a series of rhetorical questions (which clearly imply the answer “No”): “Have I by any chance committed a crime? Have I by any chance paid back my friend evil for good? Have I by any chance without reason oppressed my enemy?” And then verse 5 can begin, “If that is so, then…” or “If I have done any of these things, then….”

It should be noted that Good News Translation places at the end of verses 3-4 “if I have done any of these things,” which in the Hebrew comes at the beginning of verse 3, if I have done this. The translator must decide which of the two seems more natural in the receptor language.

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 .