Psalm 78.41 reads:
וַיָּשׁ֣וּבוּ וַיְנַסּ֣וּ אֵ֑ל וּקְדֹ֖ושׁ יִשְׂרָאֵ֣ל הִתְווּ׃
The NASB, as an example of a normal translation, reads:
Again and again they tempted God, And pained the Holy One of Israel.
The NKJV reads:
Yes, again and again they tempted God, And limited the Holy One of Israel.
with a very different meaning for הִתְווּ (hīṯwû) in the second part of the verse. We will see that there is a genuine difficulty in ascertaining the meaning of the word.
The ASV reads:
And they turned again and tempted God, And provoked the Holy One of Israel.
Here, the translators have rendered וַיָּשׁ֣וּבוּ (wayyāšûḇû) with ‘and they turned again’ rather than with ‘again and again’. The verb שׁוּב (šûḇ) in its Qal form as here, can mean ‘turn back’, ‘return’, but it can also mean ‘do repeatedly’, so either way of translating is within the lexical range of the word.
psalm 78.41 in the ‘passion translation’
In the ‘Passion Translation’, however, Brian Simmons has this verse as:
Again and again they limited God, preventing him from blessing them. Continually they turned back from him and wounded the Holy One!
We seem to have a new and previously unknown messianic prophecy, conjured out of thin air, so to say. Israel wounded the Holy One, according to Simmons. Is there any justification for translating the verse in this way?