1 Samuel 12:3

12:3 Here I am. Bring a charge against me before the Lord and before his chosen king. ¹  Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I wronged? Whom have I oppressed? From whose hand have I taken a bribe so that I would overlook something? Tell me, ²  and I will return it to you!”

Psalms 2:2

2:2 The kings of the earth ³  form a united front; ⁴ 

the rulers collaborate ⁵ 

against the Lord and his anointed king. ⁶ 

Psalms 20:6

20:6 Now I am sure ⁷  that the Lord will deliver ⁸  his chosen king; ⁹ 

he will intervene for him ¹⁰  from his holy heavenly temple, ¹¹ 

and display his mighty ability to deliver. ¹² 

Psalms 28:8

28:8 The Lord strengthens his people; ¹³ 

he protects and delivers his chosen king. ¹⁴ 

Psalms 45:7

45:7 You love ¹⁵  justice and hate evil. ¹⁶ 

For this reason God, your God ¹⁷  has anointed you ¹⁸ 

with the oil of joy, ¹⁹  elevating you above your companions. ²⁰ 

Acts 4:27

4:27 “For indeed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together in this city against ²¹  your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, ²² 

Acts 10:38

10:38 with respect to Jesus from Nazareth, ²³  that ²⁴  God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power. He ²⁵  went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, ²⁶  because God was with him. ²⁷ 

¹ tn Heb “anointed [one].”

² tn The words “tell me” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

³ sn The expression kings of the earth refers somewhat hyperbolically to the kings who had been conquered by and were subject to the Davidic king.

⁴ tn Or “take their stand.” The Hebrew imperfect verbal form describes their action as underway.

⁵ tn Or “conspire together.” The verbal form is a Niphal from יָסַד (yasad). BDB 413-14 s.v. יָסַד defines the verb as “establish, found,” but HALOT 417 s.v. II יסד proposes a homonym meaning “get together, conspire” (an alternate form of סוּד, sud).

⁶ tn Heb “and against his anointed one.” The Davidic king is the referent (see vv. 6-7).

⁷ tn Or “know.”

⁸ tn The perfect verbal form is probably used rhetorically to state that the deliverance is as good as done. In this way the speaker emphasizes the certainty of the deliverance. Another option is to take the statement as generalizing; the psalmist affirms that the Lord typically delivers the king.

⁹ tn Heb “his anointed one.” This title refers to the Davidic king. See Pss 2:2 and 18:50.

¹⁰ tn Heb “he will answer him.”

¹¹ tn Heb “from his holy heavens.”

¹² tn Heb “with mighty acts of deliverance of his right hand.” The Lord’s “right hand” here symbolizes his power to protect and deliver (see Ps 17:7).

¹³ tn Heb “the Lord [is] strength to them” (or perhaps, “to him”). The form לָמוֹ (lamo, “to them/him”) is probably a corruption of an original לְעַמוֹ (lÿ’amo, “to his people”; see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 236), perhaps due to quiescence of the letter ayin (ע; see P. McCarter, Textual Criticism [GBS], 55). Note the reference to the Lord’s “people” in the next verse.

¹⁴ tn Heb “he [is] a refuge of help for his anointed one.” The noun מָשִׁיחַ (mashiakh, “anointed one”) refers to the Davidic king, who perhaps speaks as representative of the nation in this psalm. See Pss 2:2; 18:50; 20:6; 84:9; 89:38, 51; 132:10, 17.

¹⁵ sn To love justice means to actively promote it.

¹⁶ sn To hate evil means to actively oppose it.

¹⁷ tn For other examples of the repetition of Elohim, “God,” see Pss 43:4; 48:8, 14; 50:7; 51:14; 67:7. Because the name Yahweh (“Lord”) is relatively rare in Pss 42-83, where the name Elohim (“God”) predominates, this compounding of Elohim may be an alternative form of the compound name “the Lord my/your/our God.”

¹⁸ sn Anointed you. When read in the light of the preceding context, the anointing is most naturally taken as referring to the king’s coronation. However, the following context (vv. 8-9) focuses on the wedding ceremony, so some prefer to see this anointing as part of the king’s preparations for the wedding celebration. Perhaps the reference to his anointing at his coronation facilitates the transition to the description of the wedding, for the king was also anointed on this occasion.

¹⁹ sn The phrase oil of joy alludes to the fact that the coronation of the king, which was ritually accomplished by anointing his head with olive oil, was a time of great celebration and renewed hope. (If one understands the anointing in conjunction with the wedding ceremony, the “joy” would be that associated with the marriage.) The phrase “oil of joy” also appears in Isa 61:3, where mourners are granted “oil of joy” in conjunction with their deliverance from oppression.

²⁰ tn Heb “from your companions.” The “companions” are most naturally understood as others in the royal family or, more generally, as the king’s countrymen.

²¹ sn The application of Ps 2:1-2 is that Jews and Gentiles are opposing Jesus. The surprise of the application is that Jews are now found among the enemies of God’s plan.

²² sn A wordplay on “Christ,” v. 26, which means “one who has been anointed.”

²³ sn The somewhat awkward naming of Jesus as from Nazareth here is actually emphatic. He is the key subject of these key events.

²⁴ tn Or “how.” The use of ὡς (Jws) as an equivalent to ὅτι (Joti) to introduce indirect or even direct discourse is well documented. BDAG 1105 s.v. ὡς 5 lists Acts 10:28 in this category.

²⁵ tn Grk “power, who.” The relative pronoun was replaced by the pronoun “he,” and a new sentence was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style, due to the length of the sentence in Greek.

²⁶ tn The translation “healing all who were oppressed by the devil” is given in L&N 22.22.

²⁷ sn See Acts 7:9.