Psalm 145:5

A couple months ago, I read Psalm 145 in the ESV and noticed some significance in the structure of verse 5:  "On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate."  The structure is inverted so that the objects on which the Psalmist meditates come first in the sentence, and to some degree, this primary position matches the importance they hold for him.  In English, "splendor" and "works" are both objects of prepositions, but if I'm not mistaken, in the Hebrew, which also has this structure, they're simply direct objects:

הֲדַר כְּבוֹד הוֹדֶךָ וְדִבְרֵי נִפְלְאוֹתֶיךָ אָשִֽׂיחָה׃

Psalm 143:3

Last year, I read Psalm 143 in the ESV and noticed a way in which the punctuation in English translations heightens the meaning.

In the ESV, verse 3 is:  "For the enemy has pursued my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead."  In the NIV, it's:  "The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in darkness like those long dead."  The NKJV renders it as:  "For the enemy has persecuted my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me dwell in darkness, like those who have long been dead."

The NIV has a comma splice, but otherwise, all of these translations connect the three clauses with semicolons.  Because the clauses follow each other so closely, without the pause that a sentence break or even a conjunction would provide, there's a sense of being "pursued" or "crushed."

1 Kings 2:33

While reading 1 Kings in the NIV last year, I found an-other instance where a chiastic structure highlights opposites, this time in 1 Kings 2:33:

May the guilt of their blood rest

on the head of Joab and his descendants forever.

But on David and his descendants, his house and his throne,

may there be the LORD's peace forever.

This structure is also in the Hebrew:

וְשָׁבוּ דְמֵיהֶם

בְּרֹאשׁ יוֹאָב וּבְרֹאשׁ זַרְעוֹ לְעֹלָם

וּלְדָוִד וּלְזַרְעוֹ וּלְבֵיתוֹ וּלְכִסְאוֹ

יִהְיֶה שָׁלוֹם עַד־עוֹלָם מֵעִם יְהוָֽה׃

And the Latin Vulgate:

et revertetur sanguis illorum

in caput Ioab et in caput seminis eius in sempiternum

David autem et semini eius et domui et throno illius

sit pax usque in aeternum a Domino

Psalm 139:5

A few months ago, I read Psalm 139 in the ESV and noticed a small feature in verse 5:  "You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me."  There's a sort of parallelism between "behind" and "before," and the visual similarity of the words matches this.

This feature is also present in the NIV and the NKJV, but it seems specific to what English translations I referenced.