In these three verses, by means of rhetorical questions the psalmist gives expression to the belief that the dead in Sheol are completely cut off from Yahweh’s care and concern. Yahweh performs no wonders there (verses 10a, 12a), as he had when he freed his people from Egypt. His steadfast love (chesed; see comments, 5.7), his faithfulness (ʾemunah; see 36.5), his saving help (tsedaqah; see 5.8) are all absent from Sheol, which is called the grave (see verse 5b), Abaddon, which means “destruction” (the Hebrew name comes from the verb “to perish”; see comments on “broken” in 31.12), the darkness (see verse 6), the land of forgetfulness (verse 12b), that is, the land where the inhabitants are forgotten by God (see verse 5c). It is less likely, as Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has it, that the land of forgetfulness means “the land where everything is forgotten.” All these names and phrases accurately portray the concept of Sheol, the world of the dead, which was prevalent at that time. Good News Translation has imitated the Hebrew in using rhetorical questions in verses 10-12 as an effective way of expressing the despairing, hopeless attitude of the psalmist. In some cases strong negative statements may be more effective; for example:

• You make no miracles for the dead,
and they do not rise up and praise you.
Your constant love is never mentioned in the grave,
and no one speaks of your faithfulness in the place of destruction.
No one sees your miracles in that place of darkness,
nor your goodness in the land of the forgotten.

Abaddon or Good News Translation‘s “place of destruction” is synonymous with the grave, and the translator should avoid giving the impression that they refer to different places. Wonders known must often be recast as active; for example, “Do the dead in the grave see the great works that you do?” Land of forgetfulness may sometimes be rendered as “that place of the dead where God is no longer concerned with dead people” or “in the grave where God pays no attention to the dead.”

In verse 10a the psalmist speaks of the dead, but in verse 10b he uses the more dramatic shades. In verse 11a the ordinary term grave is paralleled in verse 11b by the more literary level Abaddon, and in verse 12a the common darkness is matched by the more imaginative land of forgetfulness. In this series of parallel lines the writer is moving the idea of death forward toward the point of total extinction. Translators should pay particular attention to see that the terms they use and the poetic devices they employ reflect this movement.

In verse 10b the dead are called the shades. The Hebrews did not speak of the “souls” or “spirits” of the dead surviving in Sheol, as did the Greeks; the “shades” or “shadows” were pale, lifeless, ineffectual, shadowy images or replicas of the former living, active, robust self. Care should be taken not to picture them as ghosts, however, since this introduces elements not present in the Hebrew concept.

In the translation of the rhetorical questions in verses 10-12, the translator must first decide if such a sequence of questions is natural in the receptor language. If the questions are natural, do they require responses, since they assume a negative reply? Are there implicit elements that need to be made explicit in the receptor language? If the keeping of the question form will result in an unnatural style, the translator may have to recast these questions as statements. Examples are given here of two ways to handle the questions of verse 10 and three ways to treat them in verse 11. The same applies equally well to verse 12 or to any other rhetorical question. Verse 10: “Do you make miracles for the dead? No! Do the dead praise you? Never!” or, as negative statements, “You do not perform miracles for the dead, and they do not get up and praise you.” In verse 11: “Is your constant love spoken of in the grave? No! Is your faithfulness spoken of in the place of the dead? Never!” As negative statements: “Your constant love is not spoken of in the grave, nor is your faithfulness spoken of in the place of the dead.” With further adjustments for implicit information: “Do the dead in their graves speak about how you always love them, or do they talk about how faithful you are to them in the world of the dead?” Each question in the last rendering may in turn be followed by a negative reply or may be transformed into a negative statement, each case depending on the requirements of 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 .