God continues his accusation of the wicked: they are guilty of lies, deceit, and slander–all kinds of “sins of the tongue.” In verse 19a the text is literally “you send off your mouth with evil,” which is strangely like the American slang expression “to shoot off the mouth.”

In verse 19b the verb frames is “to join to, attach to,” which New English Bible and New International Version render “harness to” and New Jerusalem Bible “yoke to”–not very successful attempts in English at vividness. New Jerusalem Bible is better, “your tongue (is devoted to) inventing lies.”

You sit and speak (verse 20a) seems to imply a deliberate, premeditated slander, not just one spoken in the heat of anger. It can mean to sit as a judge with others, to hear complaints and accusations that are brought to them for judgment. New Jerusalem Bible has “you are busy maligning…,” and New English Bible “You are for ever talking against….”

In verse 20a brother could be a fellow Jew; but the parallel in line b makes it probable that the word is meant in the more restricted sense. The two lines, then, may be closely synonymous. But Bible en français courant translates the first line “your neighbor” and the second line “your own brother.”

In English your own mother’s son (also New English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible) in line b is not a natural expression; it would be better to use a personal pronoun. The verbal phrase translated slander (Good News Translation “to find fault”) uses a noun for “blemish” or “fault” that occurs only here in the Old Testament. New English Bible translates “stabbing … in the back,” a vivid, idiomatic phrase in English. Line b steps up the intensity by the use of slander, and the two lines may be translated, for example, “You not only say bad things about your own brother, you go so far as to slander him.”

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 .