Introduction. Psalm translations, from Hebrew, Greek (the Septuagint) and Latin (the Vulgate), were not unusal school exercises. Milton certainly performed such exercises (see his paraphrase on Psalm 114), but many of the translations published in the 1673 edition of Poems appear to have been done as much for devotional as for linguistic exercise. Certainly Milton also took pride in the breadth of metrical virtuosity displayed in these verse translations.

It is instructive to compare Milton's translation with those of the King James Version and the Geneva. Also interesting to compare is the Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins version of 1562.

Italics indicate words that Milton has inserted to smooth out both the sense and the meter. According to Milton, "all but what is in a different Character, are the very words of the text, translated from the Original."