complete verse (Psalm 139:16)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 139:16:

  • Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
    “Your eyes saw before my body was molded.
    All the days that were given to me, were written in your book
    before they even start to be counted.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Newari:
    “Even before I was born, You saw me.
    and day by day You wrote the events of my life
    in your book.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon:
    “You (sing.) had- already -seen me even before I was-formed.
    The appointed days that I will-live were- already -written in your (sing.) book, even before it started.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Laarim:
    “your eyes saw me when my body was still be made.
    All the days of my life
    were written in your book
    before I was born.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
    “Wewe uliniona wakati bado kuzaliwa.
    Siku zangu ulizipanga,
    na kuziandika katika kitabu chako,
    wakati bado kuwako siku hata moja.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
  • English:
    “You saw me before I was born.
    You wrote in your book the number of days that you had decided that I would live.
    You did that before any of those days had even started!” (Source: Translation for Translators)

addressing God

Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed. The first example is from a language where God is always addressed distinctly formal whereas the second is one where the opposite choice was made.

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Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.

Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”

In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.

Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking (source Philip Noss).

In Dutch and Western Frisian translations, however, God is always addressed with the formal pronoun.

See also female second person singular pronoun in Psalms.

Honorary "rare" construct denoting God (“see”)

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, mi-rare-ru (見られる) or “see” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Psalm 139:16

Line a goes with the preceding verse; my unformed substance translates a noun found only here in the Old Testament, “embryo” (Good News Translation “before I was born,” New International Version “my unformed body”). New American Bible follows the Syriac “my actions”; it is better to translate the Hebrew text, as understood by most.

The rest of the verse seems to change the subject from the formation and growth of the embryo to the days of the psalmist’s life. But King James Version, New Jerusalem Bible, and New English Bible take the subject of the rest of the verse to be still “my unformed limbs” (as New Jerusalem Bible translates in line a). This is possible but does not seem probable (see Anderson). The thought of verse 16b-d seems to be that before the psalmist’s birth Yahweh had already fixed the number of days he would live; Yahweh had written them down in his book (for which see 69.28). In verse 16d there was none of them translates one form of the Hebrew text (ketiv), “and not one among them”; another form of the text (qere; also the Qumran manuscript) has “and for it (there was) one among them”–a reference to the day of the psalmist’s birth. New Jerusalem Bible translates the qere as follows: “every one that was fixed is there,” taking “one” in the generic sense of “all.” It seems best to stay with ketiv, as Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and others do. Good News Translation‘s “The days allotted to me” may have to be recast to say, for example, “The number of days you gave me to live had all been written down in your book” or, in languages which do not use the passive, “You wrote down in your book the number of days you gave me to live.” Because book may not be familiar in this context, it may be better to say “You decided before I was born how long I would live.”

The translation of verses 14-16 is full of difficulties, and very few commentators or translators are dogmatic about the exact meaning of the Masoretic text. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project says: “The entire V. would be: ‘your eyes saw me an embryon / fetus; and in your book they are all inscribed, the days which were formed and nobody among / in them (or: … were formed before any among them existed)’.” And on the two forms of the Hebrew text, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project comments on how the ketiv may be understood: “… the days which were formed and nobody was among them”, or “… the days which were formed before any among them existed”.

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 .