2:1 Why 2 do the nations rebel? 3
Why 4 are the countries 5 devising 6 plots that will fail? 7
2:2 The kings of the earth 8 form a united front; 9
the rulers collaborate 10
against the Lord and his anointed king. 11
2:3 They say, 12 “Let’s tear off the shackles they’ve put on us! 13
Let’s free ourselves from 14 their ropes!”
2:4 The one enthroned 15 in heaven laughs in disgust; 16
the Lord taunts 17 them.
2:5 Then he angrily speaks to them
and terrifies them in his rage, 18 saying, 19
7:6 Stand up angrily, 20 Lord!
Rise up with raging fury against my enemies! 21
Wake up for my sake and execute the judgment you have decreed for them! 22
10:13 Why does the wicked man reject God? 23
He says to himself, 24 “You 25 will not hold me accountable.” 26
10:14 You have taken notice, 27
for 28 you always see 29 one who inflicts pain and suffering. 30
The unfortunate victim entrusts his cause to you; 31
you deliver 32 the fatherless. 33
46:6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms are overthrown. 34
God 35 gives a shout, 36 the earth dissolves. 37
93:3 The waves 38 roar, O Lord,
the waves roar,
the waves roar and crash. 39
93:4 Above the sound of the surging water, 40
and the mighty waves of the sea,
the Lord sits enthroned in majesty. 41
15:18 “If the world hates you, be aware 44 that it hated me first. 45
7:51 “You stubborn 51 people, with uncircumcised 52 hearts and ears! 53 You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, like your ancestors 54 did!
1 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.
2 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.
3 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.
4 tn The interrogative לָמָּה (lamah, “why?”) is understood by ellipsis in the second line.
5 tn Or “peoples” (so many English versions).
6 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).
7 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.
8 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.
9 tn Or “take their stand.” The Hebrew imperfect verbal form describes their action as underway.
10 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).
11 tn Heb “and against his anointed one.” The Davidic king is the referent (see vv. 6-7).
12 tn The words “they say” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The quotation represents the words of the rebellious kings.
13 tn Heb “their (i.e., the
14 tn Heb “throw off from us.”
15 tn Heb “sitting.” The Hebrew verb יָשַׁב (yashav) is here used metonymically of “sitting enthroned” (see Pss 9:7; 29:10; 55:19; 102:12; 123:1).
16 tn As the next line indicates, this refers to derisive laughter. The Hebrew imperfect verbal forms in vv. 4-5 describe the action from the perspective of an eyewitness who is watching the divine response as it unfolds before his eyes.
17 tn Or “scoffs at”; “derides”; “mocks.”
18 sn And terrifies them in his rage. This line focuses on the effect that God’s angry response (see previous line) has on the rebellious kings.
19 tn The word “saying” is supplied in the translation for clarification to indicate that the speaker is the Lord (cf. RSV, NIV).
20 tn Heb “in your anger.”
21 tn Heb “Lift yourself up in the angry outbursts of my enemies.” Many understand the preposition prefixed to עַבְרוֹת (’avrot, “angry outbursts”) as adversative, “against,” and the following genitive “enemies” as subjective. In this case one could translate, “rise up against my furious enemies” (cf. NIV, NRSV). The present translation, however, takes the preposition as indicating manner (cf. “in your anger” in the previous line) and understands the plural form of the noun as indicating an abstract quality (“fury”) or excessive degree (“raging fury”). Cf. Job 21:30.
22 tc Heb “Wake up to me [with the] judgment [which] you have commanded.” The LXX understands אֵלִי (’eliy, “my God”) instead of אֵלַי (’elay, “to me”; the LXX reading is followed by NEB, NIV, NRSV.) If the reading of the MT is retained, the preposition probably has the sense of “on account of, for the sake of.” The noun מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, “judgment”) is probably an adverbial accusative, modifying the initial imperative, “wake up.” In this case צִוִּיתָ (tsivvita, “[which] you have commanded”) is an asyndetic relative clause. Some take the perfect as precative. In this case one could translate the final line, “Wake up for my sake! Decree judgment!” (cf. NIV). However, not all grammarians are convinced that the perfect is used as a precative in biblical Hebrew.
23 tn The rhetorical question expresses the psalmist’s outrage that the wicked would have the audacity to disdain God.
24 tn Heb “he says in his heart” (see vv. 6, 11). Another option is to understand an ellipsis of the interrogative particle here (cf. the preceding line), “Why does he say in his heart?”
25 tn Here the wicked man addresses God directly.
26 tn Heb “you will not seek.” The verb דָרַשׁ (darash, “seek”) is used here in the sense of “seek an accounting.” One could understand the imperfect as generalizing about what is typical and translate, “you do not hold [people] accountable.”
27 tn Heb “you see.” One could translate the perfect as generalizing, “you do take notice.”
28 tn If the preceding perfect is taken as generalizing, then one might understand כִּי (ki) as asseverative: “indeed, certainly.”
29 tn Here the imperfect emphasizes God’s typical behavior.
30 tn Heb “destruction and suffering,” which here refers metonymically to the wicked, who dish out pain and suffering to their victims.
31 tn Heb “to give into your hand, upon you, he abandons, [the] unfortunate [one].” The syntax is awkward and the meaning unclear. It is uncertain who or what is being given into God’s hand. Elsewhere the idiom “give into the hand” means to deliver into one’s possession. If “to give” goes with what precedes (as the accentuation of the Hebrew text suggests), then this may refer to the wicked man being delivered over to God for judgment. The present translation assumes that “to give” goes with what follows (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV). The verb יַעֲזֹב (ya’azov) here has the nuance “entrust” (see Gen 39:6; Job 39:11); the direct object (“[his] cause”) is implied.
32 tn Or “help.”
33 tn Heb “[for] one who is fatherless, you are a deliverer.” The noun יָתוֹם (yatom) refers to one who has lost his father (not necessarily his mother, see Ps 109:9).
34 tn Heb “nations roar, kingdoms shake.” The Hebrew verb הָמָה (hamah, “roar, be in uproar”) is used in v. 3 of the waves crashing, while the verb מוֹט (mot, “overthrown”) is used in v. 2 of mountains tumbling into the sea (see also v. 5, where the psalm affirms that Jerusalem “cannot be moved”). The repetition of the verbs suggests that the language of vv. 2-3 is symbolic and depicts the upheaval that characterizes relationships between the nations of the earth. As some nations (symbolized by the surging, chaotic waters) show hostility, others (symbolized by the mountains) come crashing down to destruction. The surging waters are symbolic of chaotic forces in other poetic texts (see, for example, Isa 17:12; Jer 51:42) and mountains can symbolize strong kingdoms (see, for example, Jer 51:25).
35 tn Heb “He.” God is the obvious referent here (see v. 5), and has been specified in the translation for clarity.
36 tn Heb “offers his voice.” In theophanic texts the phrase refers to God’s thunderous shout which functions as a battle cry (see Pss 18:13; 68:33).
37 tn Or “melts.” See Amos 9:5. The image depicts the nation’s helplessness before Jerusalem’s defender, who annihilates their armies (see vv. 8-9). The imperfect verbal form emphasizes the characteristic nature of the action described.
38 tn The Hebrew noun translated “waves” often refers to rivers or streams, but here it appears to refer to the surging waves of the sea (see v. 4, Ps 24:2).
39 tn Heb “the waves lift up, O
40 tn Heb “mighty waters.”
41 tn Heb “mighty on high [is] the
42 tn The term ἄνοια (anoia) denotes a kind of insane or mindless fury; the opponents were beside themselves with rage. They could not rejoice in the healing, but could only react against Jesus.
43 tn The use of the optative (ποιήσαιεν, poihsaien, “might do”) in an indirect question indicates that the formal opposition and planning of Jesus’ enemies started here (BDF §§385.1; 386.1).
44 tn Grk “know.”
45 tn Grk “it hated me before you.”
46 tn Or “If I had not done.”
47 tn Grk “the works.”
48 tn Grk “they would not have sin” (an idiom).
49 tn The words “the deeds” are supplied to clarify from context what was seen. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context.
50 tn Or “But now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father.” It is possible to understand both the “seeing” and the “hating” to refer to both Jesus and the Father, but this has the world “seeing” the Father, which seems alien to the Johannine Jesus. (Some point out John 14:9 as an example, but this is addressed to the disciples, not to the world.) It is more likely that the “seeing” refers to the miraculous deeds mentioned in the first half of the verse. Such an understanding of the first “both – and” construction is apparently supported by BDF §444.3.
51 sn Traditionally, “stiff-necked people.” Now the critique begins in earnest.
52 tn The term ἀπερίτμητοι (aperitmhtoi, “uncircumcised”) is a NT hapax legomenon (occurs only once). See BDAG 101-2 s.v. ἀπερίτμητος and Isa 52:1.
53 tn Or “You stubborn and obstinate people!” (The phrase “uncircumcised hearts and ears” is another figure for stubbornness.)
54 tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”