The scripture quotation in these verses is basically from the Septuagint of Psalm 69.22-23, with allusions to Psalm 35.8. In Greek these verses appear as a third person imperative, a form which is difficult to translate into English. The traditional translation is “let…,” but the modern English equivalent is more nearly “may….” May they be caught and trapped at their feasts is literally “may their feast [singular] become a snare and a trap,” but in general the plural, feasts, is preferable.

It is impossible in many languages to employ a third person imperative representing a request or supplication. In such languages it is necessary to be explicit about the fact of supplication, and frequently one must indicate precisely who is supplicated and who is to act accordingly. Hence, it may be necessary to change the form, though not the content or meaning, of these supplications by rendering them as “I pray to God that he may catch and trap them at their feasts.” For all of the passive expressions which follow, God may be made the subject: “that God may punish them” or “may God cause their eyes to be closed.” It is God also who is the agent of the causative expression, “that God may make them bend.”

On the basis of a literal translation of the first line in the quotation, it is impossible to determine whether the snare and trap are something they are going to be caught in themselves or something in which they hope to catch others. That the former is the case is made clear by the last two words in the second line of the Greek text, “for them.” The word “snare” is difficult for English readers, and if this verse is to be translated literally the more general term “trap” should probably occur before the less well-known word “snare.”

In order to make the meaning of the first line of the quotation clear to the reader, the Good News Translation does several things. First, it provides in the first line the information that these people are to be the ones who are to be caught and trapped. Second, in order to avoid the difficulty of the simile (“become a snare and a trap”), it transforms these nouns into verbs. Finally, it uses a more generic term, caught, in the transfer from the noun “snare” to the verb “be snared.”

Similar transformations are made in the second line of the quotation. In Greek the second line is a continuation of the first, and the meaning is “may their feasts become a trap.” The word “trap” (some translations “stumbling-block”) technically refers to the stick over which one trips in order to spring a trap, but it is here used simply as a synonym for the two words in the previous line. In order to show the connection between this line and the previous line, the Good News Translation repeats the verb may they and transforms the word “trap” into a verb, fall.

May their eyes be closed so that they cannot see is literally “may their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,” which the New English Bible renders as “may their eyes become so dim that they lose their sight” and the Jerusalem Bible as “may their eyes be struck incurably blind.” The Good News Translation interprets what is literally “bend their backs for ever” (so Revised Standard Version) to mean make them bend under their troubles at all times (see An American Translation* “make their backs bend forever under their burden”).

In some languages it is not possible to say make them bend under their troubles, since bend under is not applicable to such experiences as troubles. In some languages one may say that “troubles cause people to bend down,” but it is more likely that a satisfactory equivalent will be found in some such expression as “cause them to suffer because of their troubles.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1973. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .