Yahweh warns that he will punish any disobedience on the part of David’s descendants (his children, verse 30), but their sins will not cancel the promise he made to David, that his dynasty would always continue to reign over Israel.

Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation render verses 30-32 as one sentence, which in some languages may be too long. In that case each verse can be rendered as a separate sentence; for example, “30 It may be that his descendants will … commands. 31 Or it may be that they will … commandments. 32 If that happens, I will….”

In verses 30-31 four synonymous terms are used: law, ordinances, statutes, commandments (see similar list in 19.7-9). All of these are the laws that are part of the covenant between God and his people. In verse 30b the verb walk means, as it often does, to conduct oneself, to live. Verses 30-31 are two conditions followed in verses 32-37 by continued promises. With verse 30 the psalmist shifts to a chiastic arrangement, which here serves the function of grasping the reader’s attention. The translator should not simply employ a Hebrew chiasmus, but whatever device in the receptor language which serves an equivalent function. By contrast with verse 30, in verse 31 both lines follow the same word order. The first line of verses 30 and 31 is positive, while the second line in each verse is negative. The second line does not go beyond the first line in terms of heightening the poetic effect. It merely restates it in a negative way. How the translator handles these two verses will depend largely on the effect of combining positive and negative conditions. It is possible that the two lines will have to be reduced to one.

In verse 31 violate translates a verb that usually means “to profane, to desecrate”; see in 55.20b its use with a covenant as the object, and 74.7b with the Temple as the object (“desecrated”); and see verse 34 below.

In verse 32, for the word translated transgression see 19.13; and for iniquity see 51.2. The rod and scourges are figures for harsh punishment (see 2 Sam 7.14); Biblia Dios Habla Hoy shortens and combines the two lines into one: “I will punish their rebellion and wrongdoing with lashes of a cane.” The rod was probably a straight, pliable stick, chosen and prepared to serve as a cane for whipping people; scourges are to be thought of as flexible whips made of vines or ropes. If the figurative language is to be kept, as well as the two lines, the following may be said:

• I will beat them on account of their sins,
I will whip them because of their wrongdoing.

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 .