confess (sin)

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The Hebrew and Greek that is typically translated as “confess” in English in the context of these verses is translated in a variety of ways. Here are some (back-) translations:

  • Highland Puebla Nahuatl, Tzeltal: “say openly”
  • San Blas Kuna: “accuse oneself of one’s own evil”
  • Kankanaey: “tell the truth about one’s sins”
  • Huastec: “to take aim at one’s sin” (“an idiom which is derived from the action of a hunter taking aim at a bird or animal”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Tabasco Chontal: “say, It is true, I’ve done evil” (source: Larson 1998, p. 204)
  • Central Pame: “pull out the heart” (“so that it may be clearly seen — not just by men, but by God”) (source: Nida 1952, p. 155)
  • Shipibo-Conibo: “say, It is true I have sinned” (source: Nida 1964, p. 228)
  • Obolo: itutumu ijo isibi: “speak out sin” (source: Enene Enene).
  • Tagbanwa: “testify that one would now drop/give-up sin” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Kutu: “speak sin” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

worry

The Greek and Hebrew that are translated as “worry” or “anxious” in English are translated in Navajo as “my mind is killing me.” (Source: Nida 1952, p. 24)

Nida (1952, p. 124) also gives other examples:

“The Piro in Peru use almost the same idiom when they say that a worried man is ‘one who is hard chased.’ The worried person is like a pursued animal in the forest trying to elude the hunter. The impenetrable jungle of the future, the failing strength, and the exhaustion of doubt all press hard upon the soul. And one’s heart seems to fail and even disappear. This is the very phrase employed by the Tzeltal Indians in the rugged mountains of southern Mexico. They describe ‘worry’ by the words ‘their hearts are gone.'”

See also anxious / worried about many things and worries/cares of the world/this age.

Translation commentary on Psalm 38:18 - 38:19

The psalmist confesses his sins to God (verse 18a), acknowledging that they fill him with anxiety (verse 18b), as Good News Translation translates it (also Bible en français courant, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). Revised Standard Version translates I am sorry for my sin as a close parallel to line a. But the Hebrew verb has the meaning “be anxious about,” even “be afraid of” (see Jer 42.16); so New Jerusalem Bible here has “I am fearful over my sin”; New International Version “I am troubled by my sin”; New English Bible “I am anxious at the thought of my sin.” The expression “fill me with anxiety” can sometimes be translated idiomatically; for example, “they hang my heart up” or “they make my heart tremble,” or nonfiguratively “they cause me to be afraid.”

In verse 19a Good News Translation “healthy” translates the Masoretic text “living,” which is the sense expressed by Traduction œcuménique de la Bible “full of life” and New International Version “vigorous.” New Jerusalem Bible and Dahood translate it “mortal.”18-19 Hebrew Old Testament Text Project says only that the Masoretic text means “living” (“A” decision) but does not explain what it means in the context. It cites factor 14, “Conjectural form of the text,” which states that the committee does not propose any conjectural emendation (regardless of whether or not the Masoretic text makes sense to the translator). Others conjecture the Hebrew term for “without reason” (as in 35.19), which makes the line a close parallel to the following one (Briggs, Weiser, Revised Standard Version, New English Bible, New American Bible, Bible de Jérusalem, New Jerusalem Bible). The Masoretic text is somewhat strange. In line b Revised Standard Version hate me wrongfully means “it is wrong for them to hate me”; so Good News Translation “for no reason.”

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 .