These two verses are taken by Good News Translation and others to mean that the enemies had been killed (see Briggs, Anderson); some, however, take the verbs to mean that the enemy soldiers were paralyzed with fear, stunned, unconscious, unable to fight (Toombs); see New Jerusalem Bible “they were in a stupor.” And some take verse 5 to mean death, and verse 6 to mean paralysis (see New Jerusalem Bible, Dahood).

In verse 5a The stouthearted are the brave enemy soldiers; and their spoil are their weapons and armament, which were taken from them. Revised Standard Version their spoil means the weapons and objects these defeated soldiers had plundered from others; but the meaning of the Hebrew is given by Good News Translation, which should be followed. A simpler way to represent the meaning would be “they were despoiled” (so New Jerusalem Bible, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). In languages which do not use passive constructions, the active will have to be employed, the agent being the victors in battle; for example, “Those who defeated them have taken from the brave soldiers all they had.”

Revised Standard Version they sank into sleep in verse 5b presumably means death. In languages in which sleep is not used as a metaphor for death, it will normally be best to say “they are now dead.”

The last line in verse 5 in Hebrew is “they did not find their hands” (see Revised Standard Version). This is taken by Good News Translation to mean “all their strength and skill was useless”; it can mean “they were unable to use their weapons”–either from paralyzing fear (so New Jerusalem Bible) or because they were dead (see New International Version). New Jerusalem Bible has “the warriors’ arms have failed them” (also New American Bible), and New English Bible “the strongest cannot lift a hand,” which provide two different interpretations of the Hebrew word “hands.”

For Good News Translation “threatened” in verse 6a (Revised Standard Version rebuke), see 18.15 and comments. For God of Jacob see comments on 20.1.

The verb in verse 6b is “fall into sleep,” which means either “dead” (Good News Translation) or stunned (New Jerusalem Bible, Revised Standard Version); New English Bible “fall senseless”; Bible en français courant has “paralyzed.” It seems better to follow Good News Translation “fell dead.” The nouns in the Masoretic text are “chariot and horse” (so translated by Bible de Jérusalem, New Jerusalem Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy); but the Hebrew word for “chariot” can, with different vowels, mean rider (Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, New English Bible, and most others).

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 .