complete verse (Psalm 132:4)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 132:4:

  • Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
    “I will not allow my eyes to sleep,
    or my eyelids (that) they doze,” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Newari:
    “I will not go to sleep and I also will not rest” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon:
    “or sleep” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Laarim:
    “I am not going to allow my eyes to sleep,
    there is no sleep inside my eyes,” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
    “macho yangu hayatalala usingizi,
    au kusinzia,” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
  • English:
    “I will not sleep at all” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Psalm 132:3 - 132:5

David’s vow (verses 3-5) is not recorded elsewhere in the Old Testament. Each one of the three verses is composed of two parallel and synonymous lines; Good News Translation has reduced verses 3-4 to one line each, without omitting any of the semantic content of the text.

In verse 3 my house translates the Hebrew “the tent of my house” (see New American Bible “the house I live in”), and my bed translates the Hebrew “the bed of my couch” (see 6.6). In English the word “couch” today is not used as a precise synonym for “bed.”

For nearly the same expression as that in verse 4, see Proverbs 6.4; Anderson suggests the language may have been proverbial. For translators who wish to keep the poetic parallelism by having two synonymous and parallel lines, New Jerusalem Bible offers a good model: “will not allow myself to sleep, not even to close my eyes.”

Verse 5 is also composed of two parallel and synonymous lines; find in verse 5a does not mean to try to locate a place, as though it were unknown or had been lost, which “find” in English suggests. Briggs, however, takes it in this sense, believing it means the attempt to find the place where the Covenant Box was before David took it to Jerusalem. It seems best to take it in the sense of preparing a tent where the Covenant Box was to be placed (see 1 Chr 15.1–16.1). The translator should stay with the language of the text and represent David as trying to build or provide a place for Yahweh to live in; it would not be advisable to expand the text and say “until I prepare a place for the Covenant Box of the LORD, the Mighty God of Jacob.” In verse 5b a dwelling place is synonymous with a place in verse 5a. Some modern versions keep both “a place” and “a home,” as in Good News Translation. Others such as Biblia Dios Habla Hoy have only “a home,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “a place where the Lord … can live.” The manner in which this is handled depends largely on whether or not the translator keeps the parallelism.

The language of verse 5 is used in Acts 7.46, but there are textual problems in the New Testament passage.

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 .