When you are disturbed do not sin

For the phrase “When you are disturbed, do not sin,” see Ephesians 4:26.

Note that this quote in the New Testament is not taken from the Hebrew Bible but from the Greek Septuagint (LXX) which translates into English as “Be angry, and do not sin.” (Translation by NETS — for the Greek version see the title’s tooltip)

keep peace, quiet, silent

The Hebrew that is translated “silent,” “quiet,” or “keep peace” or similar in English is emphasized in the interconfessional Chichewa translation (publ. 1999) with the ideophone phee. (Source: Wendland 1998, p. 105)

Philip Noss (in The Bible Translator 1976, p. 100ff. ) explains the function of an ideophone: “The ideophone may be identified with onomatopoeia and other sound words frequently seen in French and English comic strips, but in [many] African languages it comprises a class of words with a very wide range of meaning and usage. They may function verbally, substantively, or in a modifying role similar to adverbs and adjectives. They describe anything that may be experienced: action, sound, color, quality, smell, or emotion. In oral literature they are used not only with great frequency but also with great creativity.”

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 4:4

The sense of the first Hebrew verb is disputed; the root meaning seems to be “be excited, perturbed,” whether with fear, anger, or joy. The Septuagint takes it in the sense of anger, and it is in this sense that the passage is quoted in Ephesians 4.26; and that is how Revised Standard Version, New English Bible, Zürcher Bibel, and Bible en français courant have translated it here. But most modern translators and commentators take it in the sense of fear: Briggs, Kirkpatrick, Weiser, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and others. Certainly this seems more appropriate as a warning to the psalmist’s enemies. If a translator chooses the meaning of anger, the sense of the line must be something like “If you are angry, do not sin” (Bible en français courant) or “Don’t let your anger lead you into sin.”

In many languages it is unnatural to command someone to experience an emotional state such as fear or anger. For this reason the relation between the emotion and the following command is not readily apparent without recasting the anger part as a dependent clause. Many languages express fear in terms of such figures as “trembling heart” or “breath departed.” Here also the rendering may be more meaningful with a subordinate clause expressing the fear; for example, “even when your heart trembles from fear of God’s punishment, do not sin” or “although you are afraid of what might happen to you, do not let this make you sin.”

The next line is literally “talk in your hearts on your beds and be silent,” which is an advice to the psalmist’s enemies to meditate quietly and in private on what the psalmist is saying. New International Version “when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent.” The word beds (or, “couches”) may imply nighttime, or else simply privacy (so Weiser); and the verb translated “be silent” may mean “be inactive,” that is, don’t do anything. New Jerusalem Bible has “sigh.”

Some languages express meditation and reflection in ways very close to the Hebrew form. But the same expression in other languages would imply that such a person is mentally unstable. It is therefore sometimes necessary to say “think about these words” or “remember these words.” In many cultures practically the only privacy a person has is at night on his bed. The entire sentence can often be rendered “When you lie down on your bed at night, think about these words and be silent.”

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 .