Psalm 2

First impression of the Bay Psalm Book's translation of Psalm 2: hard to read. Obviously the language used is different, which fits with the time, but the way it reads is less smooth as the version in The Book of Psalms by Robert Alter.

The line lengths in the Bay translation don't vary all that much. It normally has a longer line followed by a shorter line, but all in all, it's neat and tight. The Alter version is a little more varied and spaced out; each line carries on a thought and the next thought is the next line. In order to keep the neat, tidy sense, the Bay version has completed a thought or sentence in a line and continued to another within the same numbered line. For example, line 4 in Bay has a semi-colon, and goes on. In Alter, whats after the semi-colon is the start of the next line. This happens again in line 7 of Bay. This leads me to think that the Bay version was more concerned with things looking good and following certain guidelines rather than being worried about how well the psalm flows as a poetic writing. From what I know of early American religion, it was strict. I would think that the rhythm and flow of the text wouldn't really matter to them; that was extraneous and would make the psalm into an artistic form instead of it's true purpose, speaking of God. The Alter version doesn't leave out the message, but puts in it a more poetic form so that it can be enjoyed either or both ways.

The word choice is various parts of the Bay psalm stuck out to me as well. In some places, the wording is a lot stronger than the Alter version, but in others, it's weaker. The first line of Bay read much stronger to me. "Rage" and "furiously" compared to "aroused." Also the change of "nations" and "Heathen" struck me as odd. I thought it may have been used because of the strong feelings for heathens or pagans and serve sort of like a warning. When it's used later, in line 8, the "Heathens" are given away by God to the king, making them property. Seeing heathens as property, or something less than humans looks to fit with the thinking of the time. Back to the strength of word choices, there were places, specifically line 3, 5, and 8 in the Bay psalm that did not seem to have the power behind it that the parallel lines in Alter did.

Line 3
Bay - "their cords bee from us throwne."
Alter - "let us fling away their bonds!" (punctuation helps too)

Line 5
Bay - "Speak to them in his ire, and wrath: / and vex them suddenlie."
Alter - "The will He speak to them in His wrath, / in His burning anger dismay them..."

Line 8

Bay - "and of the earth thou shalt possesse / the utmost coasts abroad."

Alter - "the ends of the earth."

Another note is the capitalization of "He," "His," "My," "Myself," "Lord (although it's capitalized once in Bay), and "Him" in the Alter version. In the Bay version however, "King" and "Son" are capitalized. It seems from this that the early view was that the king, the chosen one is very high standing, much closer to God than anyone else. Emphasis is placed on the chosen one, which may align with the thinking of early Americans of the power and status of those kings. In the Alter version, more emphasis is placed on God. He is more distant and hard to reach, and deserves respect and the worshiping capitalization of any pronoun associated with him.

So, to wrap up my thoughts on this, the Bay translation of Psalm 2 chooses neatness and conformity over rhythm and has a king that is so close in relation to God that he deserves to be capitalized. The Alter translation goes for smooth, poetic feel as well as a strong vision of God.