Unless This Makes Sense—! (Psalm 27:13)

Like any attempt to translate ancient texts, translating the Bible is not a straightforward process. Before a translation can be made, translators must first understand the meaning of the original text—which often seems to make no sense!

The traditional Hebrew text of Psalm 27:13 actually reads quite awkwardly, as can be seen in a literal translation:

Unless I believed to see the goodness of YHWH in the land of the living.

Because of the conjunction “unless”, the sentence feels incomplete; an additional clause would normally be expected to complete the thought. Let us take a look at how different translations try to make sense of the Hebrew text of Psalm 27:13:

1. Adding Extra Words

Several translations attempt to resolve this awkwardness by adding a few extra words to complete the thought:

• NKJV: “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living.”
• NASB1995: “I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living.”
• LSB: “I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of Yahweh In the land of the living.”
• NET: “Where would I be if I did not believe I would experience the LORD's favour in the land of the living?”

2. Assigning Alternative Meaning to Words

Some scholars think that the Hebrew word for “unless” in Psalm 27:13, lūwlēʾ (לוּלֵא), could be an expression of affirmation, “surely” (HALOT). This view is represented in the following translations:

• NASB: “I certainly believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living.”
• LEB: “Surely I believe that I will see the goodness of Yahweh in the land of the living.”

3. Altering the Traditional Text

It is also possible that the traditional Hebrew text is mistaken, and the Hebrew word for “unless” was actually not part of the original Hebrew text of Psalm 27:13. This view is represented in the following translations:

• ESV: “I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living!”
• NIV: “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.”
• CSB: “I am certain that I will see the LORD’s goodness in the land of the living.”

Proposal: Leave the Text Alone!

It is most likely that the thought of the verse was intentionally left incomplete:

Unless I believed to see the goodness of YHWH in the land of the living—

This is called aposiopesis, where a sentence is intentionally left unfinished for literary effect. An example of aposiopesis would be, “Had I not escaped that danger in time—!”

In the preceding context, David had recounted the state of his distress. Here in verse 13, David uses aposiopesis to emphasize the severity of his distress: “Had I not believed—!” He could not bring himself to finish the sentence. He could not imagine how he would have survived those circumstances—had he not held on to his faith in the Lord.

However, this feature in the original Hebrew text is lost to the reader when the translation tries to “help” by unnecessarily adding extra words (KJV, NASB1995, LSB, NET), assigning alternative meanings to words (NASB, LEB), or altering the traditional Hebrew text (ESV, NIV, CSB).