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."
