Pronoun-Switching in the Hebrew Bible

Wayne Leman’s post on pronoun-switching in the Psalms is engendering a lively discussion. The enallage of persons is used in many genres of classical Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic literature in which direct and indirect address shade into each other. More than one addressee may be involved in the pronomial dance. When and how to reproduce pronoun-switching in translation: that is the question.

The translation technique I prefer involves being as literal as possible and as free as necessary. The tendency of more literal translations to preserve the enallage of persons found in many examples of ancient Hebrew literature has much to commend it, but if this is done, the discourse function of the usus loquendi ought to be explained. So far as I know, no one has yet done this in a convincing manner.