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
21:11 Yes, 12 they intend to do you harm; 13
they dream up a scheme, 14 but they do not succeed. 15
36:4 He plans ways to sin while he lies in bed;
he is committed to a sinful lifestyle; 16
he does not reject what is evil. 17
38:12 Those who seek my life try to entrap me; 18
those who want to harm me speak destructive words;
all day long they say deceitful things.
62:3 How long will you threaten 19 a man?
All of you are murderers, 20
as dangerous as a leaning wall or an unstable fence. 21
64:5 They encourage one another to carry out their evil deed. 22
They plan how to hide 23 snares,
and boast, 24 “Who will see them?” 25
64:6 They devise 26 unjust schemes;
they disguise 27 a well-conceived plot. 28
Man’s inner thoughts cannot be discovered. 29
12:20 Deceit is in the heart of those who plot evil, 30
but those who promote peace 31 have joy.
7:6 They approach him, all the while plotting against him.
Their hearts are like an oven;
their anger smolders all night long,
but in the morning it bursts into a flaming fire.
2:1 Those who devise sinful plans are as good as dead, 32
those who dream about doing evil as they lie in bed. 33
As soon as morning dawns they carry out their plans, 34
because they have the power to do so.
2:2 They confiscate the fields they desire,
and seize the houses they want. 35
They defraud people of their homes, 36
and deprive people of the land they have inherited. 37
2:3 Therefore the Lord says this: “Look, I am devising disaster for this nation! 38
It will be like a yoke from which you cannot free your neck. 39
You will no longer 40 walk proudly,
for it will be a time of catastrophe.
1:11 From you, O Nineveh, 41 one has marched forth who plots evil against the Lord,
a wicked military strategist. 42
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 Or “for.”
13 tn Heb “they extend against you harm.” The perfect verbal forms in v. 11 are taken as generalizing, stating factually what the king’s enemies typically do. Another option is to translate with the past tense (“they intended…planned”).
14 sn See Ps 10:2.
15 tn Heb “they lack ability.”
16 tn Heb “he takes a stand in a way [that is] not good.” The word “way” here refers metaphorically to behavior or life style.
17 tn The three imperfect verbal forms in v. 4 highlight the characteristic behavior of the typical evildoer.
18 tn Heb “lay snares.”
19 tn The verb form is plural; the psalmist addresses his enemies. The verb הוּת occurs only here in the OT. An Arabic cognate means “shout at.”
20 tn The Hebrew text has a Pual (passive) form, but the verb form should be vocalized as a Piel (active) form. See BDB 953-54 s.v. רָצַח.
21 tn Heb “like a bent wall and a broken fence.” The point of the comparison is not entirely clear. Perhaps the enemies are depicted as dangerous, like a leaning wall or broken fence that is in danger of falling on someone (see C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms [ICC], 2:69).
22 tn Heb “they give strength to themselves, an evil matter [or “word”].”
23 tn Heb “they report about hiding.”
24 tn Heb “they say.”
25 tn If this is a direct quotation (cf. NASB, NIV), the pronoun “them” refers to the snares mentioned in the previous line. If it is an indirect quotation, then the pronoun may refer to the enemies themselves (cf. NEB, which is ambiguous). Some translations retain the direct quotation but alter the pronoun to “us,” referring clearly to the enemies (cf. NRSV).
26 tn Heb “search out, examine,” which here means (by metonymy) “devise.”
27 tc The MT has תַּמְנוּ (tamnu, “we are finished”), a Qal perfect first common plural form from the verbal root תָּמַם (tamam). Some understand this as the beginning of a quotation of the enemies’ words and translate, “we have completed,” but the Hiphil would seem to be required in this case. The present translation follows many medieval Hebrew
28 tn Heb “a searched-out search,” which is understood as referring here to a thoroughly planned plot to destroy the psalmist.
29 tn Heb “and the inner part of man, and a heart [is] deep.” The point seems to be that a man’s inner thoughts are incapable of being discovered. No one is a mind reader! Consequently the psalmist is vulnerable to his enemies’ well-disguised plots.
30 sn The contrast here is between “evil” (= pain and calamity) and “peace” (= social wholeness and well-being); see, e.g., Pss 34:14 and 37:37.
31 tn Heb “those who are counselors of peace.” The term שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “peace”) is an objective genitive, so the genitive-construct “counselors of peace” means those who advise, advocate or promote peace (cf. NAB, NIV).
32 tn Heb “Woe to those who plan sin.” The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “woe”; “ah”) was a cry used in mourning the dead.
33 tn Heb “those who do evil upon their beds.”
34 tn Heb “at the light of morning they do it.”
35 tn Heb “they desire fields and rob [them], and houses and take [them] away.”
36 tn Heb “and they oppress a man and his home.”
37 tn Heb “and a man and his inheritance.” The verb עָשַׁק (’ashaq, “to oppress”; “to wrong”) does double duty in the parallel structure and is understood by ellipsis in the second line.
38 tn Heb “clan” or “extended family.”
39 tn Heb “from which you will not remove your neck.” The words “It will be like a yoke” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
40 tn Or “you will not.”
41 tn The words “O Nineveh” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity. The preceding pronoun is feminine singular, indicating the personified city is in view. See 2:1 (2:2 HT).
42 tn Heb “a counselor of wickedness”; NASB “a wicked counselor”; NAB “the scoundrel planner.”