Psalm 89:46 Fix grammar

[earboxer]

Compare Psalm 13:1

[earboxer]

It feels like the grammar in Psalm 13:1 should also be changed.

How long, Lᴏʀᴅ, will you forget me forever?

This implies that Yahweh is actively 'forgetting [David] forever.' If He's forgotten him forever, why bother asking 'how long'? If it has happened forever, it will always be the case. Is this hyperbole, or is the question something different:

How long, Lᴏʀᴅ, will you forget me? Forever?

It's probably not right to split the question into two questions.

How long, Lᴏʀᴅ! Will you forget me forever?

Most English translations go with one of those two options, though NET says 'continually forget me', which is more consistent with the current sense, while sounding more coherent.

(I assume it's our job to make the Psalmist's words coherent? Intentionally translating something as incoherent should not be done without good reason.)

How long, Lᴏʀᴅ, will you forever forget me?

For some reason, I like this better, but I'm not sure why. It may be subjective.

[Coburn]

This is definitely a stylistic question for the English language only. The Hebrew in Psalm 89 reads approximately:

HOW LONG LORD WILL YOU HIDE ALWAYS?

There are no punctuation marks per se in the original consonantal texts. The musical accents added by the Masoretes indicate a phrasing as one single question, "Will you hide forever?"

Psalm 13:1 is even less ambiguous. The expression "Will you forget me forever" is a construct phrase, so that "forever" is tightly linked to "forget me." it is not like the English where we can separate it into two questions. Looking it over, two questions seems less ideal than one.

Don't feel too bad about "making the Psalmist's words coherent." They are poetic and so a certain amount of departure from ordinary oral language is intentional. But it was coherent when he wrote it. If you translate it as less coherent, you mistranslated it. You have to include every element of meaning in the original that you can. But you have to make it sound like good English, as if he wrote it in English. If possible, make it good poetry, even good music. I don't suppose we're going to achieve a rhyming Psalter. But it was music at one time.

[openenglishbible]

As you say we're not going to be able to do a rhyming Psalter within our parameters, although I would love there to be a high quality copyright free metrical psalter in modern English! Nevertheless, we should try to end up with a translation which communicates a sense of the Psalms being poetic and musical.

I agree something has gone wrong with Psalm 89:46, that second 'you' isn't right.

Maybe something like this (keeping a sense of movement in the English)

\v 46 How long, \nd Lord\nd* will you hide - forever? \q2 How long are the fires of your wrath to burn?

And in 13.1:

\v 1 How long, \nd Lord\nd*, will you forget me - forever? \q2 How long will you hide your face from me?

This is sort of two questions in structure, although not punctuated as two. However I think we can't avoid that if we are to retain the repetition of the initial 'How long'.