2:1 Why 3 do the nations rebel? 4
Why 5 are the countries 6 devising 7 plots that will fail? 8
2:2 The kings of the earth 9 form a united front; 10
the rulers collaborate 11
against the Lord and his anointed king. 12
9:3 This is the unfortunate fact 13 about everything that happens on earth: 14
the same fate awaits 15 everyone.
In addition to this, the hearts of all people 16 are full of evil,
and there is folly in their hearts during their lives – then they die. 17
5:33 Now when they heard this, they became furious 18 and wanted to execute them. 19
7:54 When they heard these things, they became furious 20 and ground their teeth 21 at him.
1 tn The words “the people” are not in the Greek text but have been supplied.
2 sn Psalm 2. In this royal psalm the author asserts the special status of the divinely chosen Davidic king and warns the nations and their rulers to submit to the authority of God and his chosen vice-regent.
3 tn The question is rhetorical. Rather than seeking information, the psalmist expresses his outrage that the nations would have the audacity to rebel against God and his chosen king.
4 tn The Hebrew verb רָגַשׁ (ragash) occurs only here. In Dan 6:6, 11, 15 the Aramaic cognate verb describes several officials acting as a group. A Hebrew nominal derivative is used in Ps 55:14 of a crowd of people in the temple.
5 tn The interrogative לָמָּה (lamah, “why?”) is understood by ellipsis in the second line.
6 tn Or “peoples” (so many English versions).
7 tn The Hebrew imperfect form describes the rebellion as underway. The verb הָגָה (hagah), which means “to recite quietly, meditate,” here has the metonymic nuance “devise, plan, plot” (see Ps 38:12; Prov 24:2).
8 tn Heb “devising emptiness.” The noun רִיק (riq, “emptiness”) may characterize their behavior as “worthless, morally bankrupt” but more likely refers to the outcome of their plots (i.e., failure). As the rest of the psalm emphasizes, their rebellion will fail.
9 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.
10 tn Or “take their stand.” The Hebrew imperfect verbal form describes their action as underway.
11 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).
12 tn Heb “and against his anointed one.” The Davidic king is the referent (see vv. 6-7).
13 tn Heb “evil.”
14 tn Heb “under the sun.”
15 tn The term “awaits” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness and stylistic reasons.
16 tn Heb “also the heart of the sons of man.” Here “heart” is a collective singular.
17 tn Heb “and after that [they go] to [the place of] the dead.”
18 sn The only other use of this verb for anger (furious) is Acts 7:54 after Stephen’s speech.
19 sn Wanted to execute them. The charge would surely be capital insubordination (Exod 22:28).
20 tn This verb, which also occurs in Acts 5:33, means “cut to the quick” or “deeply infuriated” (BDAG 235 s.v. διαπρίω).
21 tn Or “they gnashed their teeth.” This idiom is a picture of violent rage (BDAG 184 s.v. βρύχω). See also Ps 35:16.
22 tn Grk “and punishing…I tried.” The participle τιμωρῶν (timwrwn) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style. Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.
23 sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.
24 tn The imperfect verb ἠνάγκαζον (hnankazon) has been translated as a conative imperfect (so BDAG 60 s.v. ἀναγκάζω 1, which has “ἠνάγκαζον βλασφημεῖν I tried to force them to blaspheme Ac 26:11”).
25 tn Or “was so insanely angry with them.” BDAG 322 s.v. ἐμμαίνομαι states, “to be filled with such anger that one appears to be mad, be enraged…περισσῶς ἐμμαινόμενος αὐτοῖς being furiously enraged at them Ac 26:11”; L&N 88.182 s.v. ἐμμαίνομαι, “to be so furiously angry with someone as to be almost out of one’s mind – ‘to be enraged, to be infuriated, to be insanely angry’ …‘I was so infuriated with them that I even went to foreign cities to persecute them’ Ac 26:11.”
26 tn Or “I pursued them even as far as foreign cities.”