The psalmist shows that it is wrong to rely on human help, because all people, “great and small alike” (Good News Translation), are weak and unreliable. By the use of the figures a breath and a delusion, the psalmist portrays human beings as no more dependable, no more solid and substantial, than a breath. Some take the word delusion in verse 9b as “lie” (as in verse 4), that is, that people are deceptive, they are liars; but as a parallel with breath in line a it seems more appropriate that the word here refers to their lack of value as a dependable object of trust, rather than to their moral character as liars.

“Great and small alike” translates the same two phrases used with the same meaning in 49.2a (see comments there). Revised Standard Version‘s of low estate and of high estate shows the meaning but is not a literal translation. In the translation of Good News Translation‘s “great and small alike” the translator must avoid rendering this expression as big and small in size. In some languages one can say, for example, “people of the front and people of the back,” referring to their importance. Other expressions are “people who have much and people who have nothing” or “people with many animals and people with only small animals.” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy translates “the poor as well as the rich.”

In the second half of verse 9 the psalmist uses the expressive figure of a pair of scales; on one plate are placed all people, on the other plate is placed the weight meant to determine how much they weigh. But no matter how small the weight, the plate it is on goes down, while the other plate goes up, which shows that people weigh less than a breath. Simply to translate in the balances they go up leaves the reader wondering what the psalmist is talking about.

Verse 10, continuing the thought of verse 9, shows the futility of depending on riches, on what can be gotten by extortion or robbery. This verse is the negative equivalent of the positive exhortation in verse 8. The noun translated extortion, which means to use threats or force in order to make someone do something (see Lev 6.4), may have the general sense of “violence,” as Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, and others translate it. Either meaning makes good sense in the context, and the translator should feel free to choose.

Confidence in extortion and “trust in violence” in many languages must be shifted to verb phrases; for example, “don’t put your heart on getting things by hurting people.”

At the end of verse 10, set not your heart on them means not to place your hope, confidence, trust, in wealth.

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 .