complete verse (Psalm 90:5)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 90:5:

  • Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
    “You sweep people away in the sleep of death,
    they are like new morning grass,” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Newari:
    “You sweep people away like with flooding water.
    They are like a dream.
    They are like grass that sprouts in the morning.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon:
    “You (sing.) put an end to our (excl.) lives like a dream” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Laarim:
    “You give people to disappear quickly by death,
    it is like the grass that grow in the morning,” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
    “Unawazoa watu, wanapotea kama vile ndoto,
    ni kama vile majani ambayo yanaota asubuhi,” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
  • English:
    “You cause people suddenly to die;
    they live only a short time, like a dream lasts only a short time.
    They are like grass/ weeds that grow up.” (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.

Translation commentary on Psalm 90:5 - 90:6

These two verses are not clear in Hebrew, and there are different explanations of the text. The verb in verse 5a appears in this form nowhere else in the Old Testament; K-B says only “unexplained”; Holladay defines it “stop, put an end to life.” Revised Standard Version has sweep; Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “you drag men away violently”; New Jerusalem Bible “you engulf men in sleep”; and New Jerusalem Bible “you flood them with sleep.” The expression sweep men away must not be rendered so that the reader pictures God busy with a broom. In the same way Good News Translation‘s “carry … away” may produce a picture of God carrying people away in his arms. Other expressions may be used; for example, “You bring people’s lives to a sudden end” or “You cast people aside as if they were nothing.” See Bible en français courant “You put an end to human life.”

The word translated dream is literally “sleep” (see 76.5 and comments), and some translate the Hebrew “You make an end to them in their sleep” (New American Bible; similarly Dahood). Most, however, interpret as do Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, comparing a human being’s frail and transitory existence to a dream that is quickly gone. Good News Translation uses the exclusive plural “us” and “we” in verses 5-6 for greater ease of understanding, and also to be consistent with the first plural in verses 7-12.

The author reaches for another image of brief human life, which he finds in a fragile grass that withers between morning and evening. Grass, that is, weeds, last only one day, sprouting in the morning and dying in the evening. See similar language in 37.2; see also 103.15-16; Job 14.1-2.

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 .