Now the psalmist sings the happiness of the pilgrims, as they make their way through dry, desolate regions to Mount Zion, where they will see God in the Temple. They start on their way strengthened by God himself; by his strength they begin the pilgrimage (verse 5a) and “They grow stronger as they go” (verse 7a). But the word translated strength in verse 5a may mean “refuge” (New English Bible, Bible en français courant, New Jerusalem Bible). It is better to translate strength, as Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation have done. The expression whose strength is in thee, or Good News Translation‘s “… comes from you,” must sometimes be shifted to say, for example, “who receive their strength from you” or “who are strong because you give them their strength.”

Verse 5b in Hebrew is “the highways (are) in their hearts,” which Good News Translation has taken to mean that they have a deep desire to travel the roads that lead to Mount Zion; New Jerusalem Bible “whose mind is on the [pilgrim] highways.” New English Bible “whose hearts are set on the pilgrim ways” may be ambiguous. Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has “those who want to make the pilgrimage to your mountain,” and New American Bible “their hearts are set on the pilgrimage” (similarly New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version).

Instead of the Hebrew highways the Septuagint has “ascents,” which Bible de Jérusalem prefers, explaining the word as a reference to the “Psalms of Ascent” (Psa 120–134), which the pilgrims sang as they made their way up to Mount Zion. Good News Translation supplies translationally “(make the pilgrimage) to Mount Zion”; Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “to your mountain”; and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “to your sanctuary.” It is recommended that the translator imitate Good News Translation. In verse 5b, if the translator is to retain the sense of making a pilgrimage, this may be rendered sometimes as “people who wish to walk up the paths to worship you in Mount Zion.”

In verse 6a the Hebrew for the valley of Baca is hard to understand. The Masoretic text is bakaʾ, “balsam tree,” a tree that grows in dry places; seven Hebrew manuscripts have bekeh, which is taken to mean “weeping” (so the Septuagint, Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate). An American Translation, Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, New International Version, and New Jerusalem Bible translate as a proper name, a name that appears nowhere else in the Old Testament; Weiser and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy have “Valley of Tears”; New English Bible “the thirsty valley”; New Jerusalem Bible “Valley of the Balsam”; Bible de Jérusalem, Bible en français courant, and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible “valley of balsam trees.” It seems preferable either to translate the Masoretic text by “valley of balsam trees,” or else to translate the variant reading in the Hebrew manuscripts and the ancient versions, “Valley of Tears.” Nothing much is gained by transliterating the Hebrew word as a place name, Baca. In any case, as the context shows, it was an arid place.

Verse 6b in Hebrew is “they make it (a place of) springs,” which is what most translations say. Good News Translation has taken the plural active form as an impersonal plural, “it becomes”; Bible en français courant translates “God transforms it into an oasis.” If an active plural form is used in translation, they make, it should not appear to the reader that by means of hard work and irrigation the pilgrims transformed the place from a desert into a well-watered valley. So something like Good News Translation or Bible en français courant may be preferable. As the next line shows, it is the early rain (that is, the rains in autumn) that covers it with pools. The word translated pools involves a change of vowels in the Hebrew text; the Masoretic text has the vowels that make the word “blessings” (Briggs, Oesterley, Kirkpatrick, New Jerusalem Bible, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Bible de Jérusalem, New Jerusalem Bible).5-7 Hebrew Old Testament Text Project translates the whole verse as follows: “When they wander through the Baka Valley, they change it into a spring, and moreover the early rain envelopes it with blessings.”

New Jerusalem Bible, with a footnote, “Meaning of Heb. uncertain,” translates the verse as follows: “They pass through the Valley of Baca, regarding it as a place of springs, as if the early rains had covered it with blessing.” This is as good a model as any for the translator to follow.

In verse 7a Good News Translation “They grow stronger” translates They go from strength to strength. But the noun may be taken to mean “a strong place,” that is, a fortified wall, a rampart (so New Jerusalem Bible “from rampart to rampart”), or “high place, height” (so Bible de Jérusalem, New Jerusalem Bible); New English Bible translates “They pass from outer wall to inner wall (that is, of Jerusalem).”

The verb (he) will be seen in verse 7b may be translated to mean “they (that is, the pilgrims) will appear (or, present themselves)” (so Weiser, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, and New Jerusalem Bible). Good News Translation and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy transform the passive “he will be seen” into the active “they will see.” The phrase God of gods is a superlative, that is, “the supreme God” (Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). But the vowels in the Masoretic text make the first word mean “before (God)”; so New Jerusalem Bible “appearing before God in Zion” (similarly Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Bible en français courant, New International Version); the Septuagint, however, translates as though it were “God (of gods)” (so Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, New English Bible, and others). Here Hebrew Old Testament Text Project prefers the versional reading “God” and not the Masoretic text’s “toward.” It justifies its decision by saying that there was an interpretive modification by ancient editors or scribes (Factor 7). If the translator follows Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation God of gods, it will be necessary in some languages to recast this expression to say, for example, “God who is above all other gods” or “God who rules over all other gods.”

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 .