Psalms 2:1-6

Psalm 2 ¹ 

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 

2:6 “I myself ²⁰  have installed ²¹  my king

on Zion, my holy hill.”

Psalms 2:8

2:8 Ask me,

and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, ²² 

the ends of the earth as your personal property.

Psalms 89:27

89:27 I will appoint him to be my firstborn son, ²³ 

the most exalted of the earth’s kings.

Matthew 2:2-16

2:2 saying, “Where is the one who is born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose ²⁴  and have come to worship him.” 2:3 When King Herod ²⁵  heard this he was alarmed, and all Jerusalem with him. 2:4 After assembling all the chief priests and experts in the law, ²⁶  he asked them where the Christ ²⁷  was to be born. 2:5 “In Bethlehem of Judea,” they said, “for it is written this way by the prophet:

2:6 ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are in no way least among the rulers of Judah,

for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’” ²⁸ 

2:7 Then Herod ²⁹  privately summoned the wise men and determined from them when the star had appeared. 2:8 He ³⁰  sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and look carefully for the child. When you find him, inform me so that I can go and worship him as well.” 2:9 After listening to the king they left, and once again ³¹  the star they saw when it rose ³²  led them until it stopped above the place where the child was. 2:10 When they saw the star they shouted joyfully. ³³  2:11 As they came into the house and saw the child with Mary his mother, they bowed down ³⁴  and worshiped him. They opened their treasure boxes and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, ³⁵  and myrrh. ³⁶  2:12 After being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, ³⁷  they went back by another route to their own country.

The Escape to Egypt

2:13 After they had gone, an ³⁸  angel of the Lord ³⁹  appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod ⁴⁰  is going to look for the child to kill him.” 2:14 Then he got up, took the child and his mother during ⁴¹  the night, and went to Egypt. 2:15 He stayed there until Herod ⁴²  died. In this way what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet was fulfilled: “I called my Son out of Egypt.” ⁴³ 

2:16 When Herod ⁴⁴  saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he became enraged. He sent men ⁴⁵  to kill all the children in Bethlehem ⁴⁶  and throughout the surrounding region from the age of two and under, according to the time he had learned from the wise men.

Romans 8:17

8:17 And if children, then heirs (namely, heirs of God and also fellow heirs with Christ) ⁴⁷  – if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him.

Hebrews 1:2

1:2 in these last days he has spoken to us in a son, ⁴⁸  whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he created the world. ⁴⁹ 

[2:1]  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.

[2:1]  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.

[2:1]  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.

[2:1]  ⁴ tn The interrogative לָמָּה (lamah, “why?”) is understood by ellipsis in the second line.

[2:1]  ⁵ tn Or “peoples” (so many English versions).

[2:1]  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).

[2:1]  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.

[2:2]  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.

[2:2]  ⁹ tn Or “take their stand.” The Hebrew imperfect verbal form describes their action as underway.

[2:2]  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).

[2:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and against his anointed one.” The Davidic king is the referent (see vv. 6-7).

[2:3]  ¹² tn The words “they say” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The quotation represents the words of the rebellious kings.

[2:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “their (i.e., the Lord’s and the king’s) shackles.” The kings compare the rule of the Lord and his vice-regent to being imprisoned.

[2:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “throw off from us.”

[2:4]  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).

[2:4]  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.

[2:4]  ¹⁷ tn Or “scoffs at”; “derides”; “mocks.”

[2:5]  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.

[2:5]  ¹⁹ tn The word “saying” is supplied in the translation for clarification to indicate that the speaker is the Lord (cf. RSV, NIV).

[2:6]  ²⁰ tn The first person pronoun appears before the first person verbal form for emphasis, reflected in the translation by “myself.”

[2:6]  ²¹ tn Or perhaps “consecrated.”

[2:8]  ²² sn I will give you the nations. The Lord promises the Davidic king universal dominion.

[89:27]  ²³ sn The firstborn son typically had special status and received special privileges.

[2:2]  ²⁴ tn Or “in its rising,” referring to the astrological significance of a star in a particular portion of the sky. The term used for the “East” in v. 1 is ἀνατολαί (anatolai, a plural form that is used typically of the rising of the sun), while in vv. 2 and 9 the singular ἀνατολή (anatolh) is used. The singular is typically used of the rising of a star and as such should not normally be translated “in the east” (cf. BDAG 74 s.v. 1: “because of the sg. and the article in contrast to ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν, vs. 1, [it is] prob. not a geograph. expr. like the latter, but rather astronomical…likew. vs. 9”).

[2:3]  ²⁵ sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1.

[2:4]  ²⁶ tn Or “and scribes of the people.” The traditional rendering of γραμματεύς (grammateu") as “scribe” does not communicate much to the modern English reader, for whom the term might mean “professional copyist,” if it means anything at all. The people referred to here were recognized experts in the law of Moses and in traditional laws and regulations. Thus “expert in the law” comes closer to the meaning for the modern reader.

[2:4]  ²⁷ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[2:6]  ²⁸ sn A quotation from Mic 5:2.

[2:7]  ²⁹ sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1.

[2:8]  ³⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[2:9]  ³¹ tn Grk “and behold the star.”

[2:9]  ³² tn See the note on the word “rose” in 2:2.

[2:10]  ³³ tn Grk “they rejoiced with very great joy.”

[2:11]  ³⁴ tn Grk “they fell down.” BDAG 815 s.v. πίπτω 1.b.α.ב has “fall down, throw oneself to the ground as a sign of devotion, before high-ranking persons or divine beings.”

[2:11]  ³⁵ sn Frankincense refers to the aromatic resin of certain trees, used as a sweet-smelling incense (L&N 6.212).

[2:11]  ³⁶ sn Myrrh consisted of the aromatic resin of certain shrubs (L&N 6.208). It was used in preparing a corpse for burial.

[2:12]  ³⁷ sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1.

[2:13]  ³⁸ tn Grk “behold, an angel.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[2:13]  ³⁹ tn Or “the angel of the Lord.” See the note on the word “Lord” in 1:20.

[2:13]  ⁴⁰ sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1. Herod the Great was particularly ruthless regarding the succession to his throne.

[2:14]  ⁴¹ tn The feminine singular genitive noun νυκτός (nuktos, “night”) indicates the time during which the action of the main verb takes place (ExSyn 124).

[2:15]  ⁴² sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1.

[2:15]  ⁴³ sn A quotation from Hos 11:1.

[2:16]  ⁴⁴ sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1. Note the fulfillment of the prophecy given by the angel in 2:13.

[2:16]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “soldiers.”

[2:16]  ⁴⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.

[8:17]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “on the one hand, heirs of God; on the other hand, fellow heirs with Christ.” Some prefer to render v. 17 as follows: “And if children, then heirs – that is, heirs of God. Also fellow heirs with Christ if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him.” Such a translation suggests two distinct inheritances, one coming to all of God’s children, the other coming only to those who suffer with Christ. The difficulty of this view, however, is that it ignores the correlative conjunctions μέν…δέ (men…de, “on the one hand…on the other hand”): The construction strongly suggests that the inheritances cannot be separated since both explain “then heirs.” For this reason, the preferred translation puts this explanation in parentheses.

[1:2]  ⁴⁸ tn The Greek puts an emphasis on the quality of God’s final revelation. As such, it is more than an indefinite notion (“a son”) though less than a definite one (“the son”), for this final revelation is not just through any son of God, nor is the emphasis specifically on the person himself. Rather, the focus here is on the nature of the vehicle of God’s revelation: He is no mere spokesman (or prophet) for God, nor is he merely a heavenly messenger (or angel); instead, this final revelation comes through one who is intimately acquainted with the heavenly Father in a way that only a family member could be. There is, however, no exact equivalent in English (“in son” is hardly good English style).

[1:2]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “the ages.” The temporal (ages) came to be used of the spatial (what exists in those time periods). See Heb 11:3 for the same usage.