Psalms 2:1-4

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.

Psalms 83:2-8

83:2 For look, your enemies are making a commotion;

those who hate you are hostile. ¹⁸ 

83:3 They carefully plot ¹⁹  against your people,

and make plans to harm ²⁰  the ones you cherish. ²¹ 

83:4 They say, “Come on, let’s annihilate them so they are no longer a nation! ²² 

Then the name of Israel will be remembered no more.”

83:5 Yes, ²³  they devise a unified strategy; ²⁴ 

they form an alliance ²⁵  against you.

83:6 It includes ²⁶  the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,

Moab and the Hagrites, ²⁷ 

83:7 Gebal, ²⁸  Ammon, and Amalek,

Philistia and the inhabitants of Tyre. ²⁹ 

83:8 Even Assyria has allied with them,

lending its strength to the descendants of Lot. ³⁰  (Selah)

Psalms 83:2

83:2 For look, your enemies are making a commotion;

those who hate you are hostile. ³¹ 

Psalms 14:1

Psalm 14 ³² 

For the music director; by David.

14:1 Fools say to themselves, ³³  “There is no God.” ³⁴ 

They sin and commit evil deeds; ³⁵ 

none of them does what is right. ³⁶ 

Psalms 20:1

Psalm 20 ³⁷ 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

20:1 May the Lord answer ³⁸  you ³⁹  when you are in trouble; ⁴⁰ 

may the God of Jacob ⁴¹  make you secure!

Psalms 20:1

Psalm 20 ⁴² 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

20:1 May the Lord answer ⁴³  you ⁴⁴  when you are in trouble; ⁴⁵ 

may the God of Jacob ⁴⁶  make you secure!

Isaiah 8:9-10

8:9 You will be broken, ⁴⁷  O nations;

you will be shattered! ⁴⁸ 

Pay attention, all you distant lands of the earth!

Get ready for battle, and you will be shattered!

Get ready for battle, and you will be shattered! ⁴⁹ 

8:10 Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted!

Issue your orders, but they will not be executed! ⁵⁰ 

For God is with us! ⁵¹ 

Isaiah 37:21-36

37:21 Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘Because you prayed to me concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria, ⁵²  37:22 this is what the Lord says about him: ⁵³ 

“The virgin daughter Zion ⁵⁴ 

despises you – she makes fun of you;

daughter Jerusalem

shakes her head after you. ⁵⁵ 

37:23 Whom have you taunted and hurled insults at?

At whom have you shouted

and looked so arrogantly? ⁵⁶ 

At the Holy One of Israel! ⁵⁷ 

37:24 Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, ⁵⁸ 

‘With my many chariots I climbed up

the high mountains,

the slopes of Lebanon.

I cut down its tall cedars

and its best evergreens.

I invaded its most remote regions, ⁵⁹ 

its thickest woods.

37:25 I dug wells

and drank water. ⁶⁰ 

With the soles of my feet I dried up

all the rivers of Egypt.’

37:26 ⁶¹ Certainly you must have heard! ⁶² 

Long ago I worked it out,

in ancient times I planned ⁶³  it,

and now I am bringing it to pass.

The plan is this:

Fortified cities will crash

into heaps of ruins. ⁶⁴ 

37:27 Their residents are powerless; ⁶⁵ 

they are terrified and ashamed.

They are as short-lived as plants in the field

or green vegetation. ⁶⁶ 

They are as short-lived as grass on the rooftops ⁶⁷ 

when it is scorched by the east wind. ⁶⁸ 

37:28 I know where you live

and everything you do

and how you rage against me. ⁶⁹ 

37:29 Because you rage against me

and the uproar you create has reached my ears, ⁷⁰ 

I will put my hook in your nose, ⁷¹ 

and my bridle between your lips,

and I will lead you back

the way you came.”

37:30 ⁷² “This will be your reminder that I have spoken the truth: ⁷³  This year you will eat what grows wild, ⁷⁴  and next year ⁷⁵  what grows on its own. But the year after that ⁷⁶  you will plant seed and harvest crops; you will plant vines and consume their produce. ⁷⁷  37:31 Those who remain in Judah will take root in the ground and bear fruit. ⁷⁸ 

37:32 “For a remnant will leave Jerusalem;

survivors will come out of Mount Zion.

The intense devotion of the Lord who commands armies ⁷⁹  will accomplish this.

37:33 So this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:

‘He will not enter this city,

nor will he shoot an arrow here. ⁸⁰ 

He will not attack it with his shielded warriors, ⁸¹ 

nor will he build siege works against it.

37:34 He will go back the way he came –

he will not enter this city,’ says the Lord.

37:35 I will shield this city and rescue it for the sake of my reputation and because of my promise to David my servant.”’” ⁸² 

37:36 The Lord’s messenger ⁸³  went out and killed 185,000 troops ⁸⁴  in the Assyrian camp. When they ⁸⁵  got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses! ⁸⁶ 

[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.”

[83:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “lift up [their] head[s].” The phrase “lift up [the] head” here means “to threaten; to be hostile,” as in Judg 8:28.

[83:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “they make crafty a plot.”

[83:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and consult together against.”

[83:3]  ²¹ tn The passive participle of the Hebrew verb צָפַן (tsafan, “to hide”) is used here in the sense of “treasured; cherished.”

[83:4]  ²² tn Heb “we will cause them to disappear from [being] a nation.”

[83:5]  ²³ tn Or “for.”

[83:5]  ²⁴ tn Heb “they consult [with] a heart together.”

[83:5]  ²⁵ tn Heb “cut a covenant.”

[83:6]  ²⁶ tn The words “it includes” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[83:6]  ²⁷ sn The Hagrites are also mentioned in 1 Chr 5:10, 19-20.

[83:7]  ²⁸ sn Some identify Gebal with the Phoenician coastal city of Byblos (see Ezek 27:9, where the name is spelled differently), though others locate this site south of the Dead Sea (see BDB 148 s.v. גְּבַל; HALOT 174 s.v. גְּבַל).

[83:7]  ²⁹ map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[83:8]  ³⁰ tn Heb “they are an arm for the sons of Lot.” The “arm” is here a symbol of military might.

[83:2]  ³¹ tn Heb “lift up [their] head[s].” The phrase “lift up [the] head” here means “to threaten; to be hostile,” as in Judg 8:28.

[14:1]  ³² sn Psalm 14. The psalmist observes that the human race is morally corrupt. Evildoers oppress God’s people, but the psalmist is confident of God’s protection and anticipates a day when God will vindicate Israel.

[14:1]  ³³ tn Heb “a fool says in his heart.” The singular is used here in a collective or representative sense; the typical fool is envisioned.

[14:1]  ³⁴ sn “There is no God.” The statement is probably not a philosophical assertion that God does not exist, but rather a confident affirmation that God is unconcerned about how men live morally and ethically (see Ps 10:4, 11).

[14:1]  ³⁵ tn Heb “they act corruptly, they make a deed evil.” The verbs describe the typical behavior of the wicked. The subject of the plural verbs is “sons of man” (v. 2). The entire human race is characterized by sinful behavior. This practical atheism – living as if there is no God who will hold them accountable for their actions – makes them fools, for one of the earmarks of folly is to fail to anticipate the long range consequences of one’s behavior.

[14:1]  ³⁶ tn Heb “there is none that does good.”

[20:1]  ³⁷ sn Psalm 20. The people pray for the king’s success in battle. When the king declares his assurance that the Lord will answer the people’s prayer, they affirm their confidence in God’s enablement.

[20:1]  ³⁸ tn The prefixed verbal forms here and in vv. 1b-5 are interpreted as jussives of prayer (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV). Another option is to understand them as imperfects, “the Lord will answer,” etc. In this case the people declare their confidence that the Lord will intervene on behalf of the king and extend to him his favor.

[20:1]  ³⁹ sn May the Lord answer you. The people address the king as they pray to the Lord.

[20:1]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “in a day of trouble.”

[20:1]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “the name of the God of Jacob.” God’s “name” refers metonymically to his very person and to the divine characteristics suggested by his name, in this case “God of Jacob,” which highlights his relationship to Israel.

[20:1]  ⁴² sn Psalm 20. The people pray for the king’s success in battle. When the king declares his assurance that the Lord will answer the people’s prayer, they affirm their confidence in God’s enablement.

[20:1]  ⁴³ tn The prefixed verbal forms here and in vv. 1b-5 are interpreted as jussives of prayer (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV). Another option is to understand them as imperfects, “the Lord will answer,” etc. In this case the people declare their confidence that the Lord will intervene on behalf of the king and extend to him his favor.

[20:1]  ⁴⁴ sn May the Lord answer you. The people address the king as they pray to the Lord.

[20:1]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “in a day of trouble.”

[20:1]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “the name of the God of Jacob.” God’s “name” refers metonymically to his very person and to the divine characteristics suggested by his name, in this case “God of Jacob,” which highlights his relationship to Israel.

[8:9]  ⁴⁷ tn The verb רֹעוּ (ro’u) is a Qal imperative, masculine plural from רָעַע (ra’a’, “break”). Elsewhere both transitive (Job 34:24; Ps 2:9; Jer 15:12) and intransitive (Prov 25:19; Jer 11:16) senses are attested for the Qal of this verb. Because no object appears here, the form is likely intransitive: “be broken.” In this case the imperative is rhetorical (like “be shattered” later in the verse) and equivalent to a prediction, “you will be broken.” On the rhetorical use of the imperative in general, see IBHS 572 §34.4c; GKC 324 §110.c.

[8:9]  ⁴⁸ tn The imperatival form (Heb “be shattered”) is rhetorical and expresses the speaker’s firm conviction of the outcome of the nations’ attack. See the note on “be broken.”

[8:9]  ⁴⁹ tn The initial imperative (“get ready for battle”) acknowledges the reality of the nations’ hostility; the concluding imperative (Heb “be shattered”) is rhetorical and expresses the speakers’ firm conviction of the outcome of the nations’ attack. (See the note on “be broken.”) One could paraphrase, “Okay, go ahead and prepare for battle since that’s what you want to do, but your actions will backfire and you’ll be shattered.” This rhetorical use of the imperatives is comparable to saying to a child who is bent on climbing a high tree, “Okay, go ahead, climb the tree and break your arm!” What this really means is: “Okay, go ahead and climb the tree since that’s what you really want to do, but your actions will backfire and you’ll break your arm.” The repetition of the statement in the final two lines of the verse gives the challenge the flavor of a taunt (ancient Israelite “trash talking,” as it were).

[8:10]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “speak a word, but it will not stand.”

[8:10]  ⁵¹ sn In these vv. 9-10 the tone shifts abruptly from judgment to hope. Hostile nations like Assyria may attack God’s people, but eventually they will be destroyed, for God is with his people, sometimes to punish, but ultimately to vindicate. In addition to being a reminder of God’s presence in the immediate crisis faced by Ahaz and Judah, Immanuel (whose name is echoed in this concluding statement) was a guarantee of the nation’s future greatness in fulfillment of God’s covenantal promises. Eventually God would deliver his people from the hostile nations (vv. 9-10) through another child, an ideal Davidic ruler who would embody God’s presence in a special way (see 9:6-7). Jesus the Messiah is the fulfillment of the Davidic ideal prophesied by Isaiah, the one whom Immanuel foreshadowed. Through the miracle of the incarnation he is literally “God with us.” Matthew realized this and applied Isaiah’s ancient prophecy of Immanuel’s birth to Jesus (Matt 1:22-23). The first Immanuel was a reminder to the people of God’s presence and a guarantee of a greater child to come who would manifest God’s presence in an even greater way. The second Immanuel is “God with us” in a heightened and infinitely superior sense. He “fulfills” Isaiah’s Immanuel prophecy by bringing the typology intended by God to realization and by filling out or completing the pattern designed by God. Of course, in the ultimate fulfillment of the type, the incarnate Immanuel’s mother must be a virgin, so Matthew uses a Greek term (παρθένος, parqenos), which carries that technical meaning (in contrast to the Hebrew word עַלְמָה [’almah], which has the more general meaning “young woman”). Matthew draws similar analogies between NT and OT events in 2:15, 18. The linking of these passages by analogy is termed “fulfillment.” In 2:15 God calls Jesus, his perfect Son, out of Egypt, just as he did his son Israel in the days of Moses, an historical event referred to in Hos 11:1. In so doing he makes it clear that Jesus is the ideal Israel prophesied by Isaiah (see Isa 49:3), sent to restore wayward Israel (see Isa 49:5, cf. Matt 1:21). In 2:18 Herod’s slaughter of the infants is another illustration of the oppressive treatment of God’s people by foreign tyrants. Herod’s actions are analogous to those of the Assyrians, who deported the Israelites, causing the personified land to lament as inconsolably as a mother robbed of her little ones (Jer 31:15).

[37:21]  ⁵² tn The parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:20 reads, “That which you prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.” The verb “I have heard” does not appear in Isa 37:21, where אֲשֶׁר (’asher) probably has a causal sense: “because.”

[37:22]  ⁵³ tn Heb “this is the word which the Lord has spoken about him.”

[37:22]  ⁵⁴ sn Zion (Jerusalem) is pictured here as a young, vulnerable daughter whose purity is being threatened by the would-be Assyrian rapist. The personification hints at the reality which the young girls of the city would face if the Assyrians conquer it.

[37:22]  ⁵⁵ sn Shaking the head was a mocking gesture of derision.

[37:23]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “and lifted your eyes on high?” Cf. NIV “lifted your eyes in pride”; NRSV “haughtily lifted your eyes.”

[37:23]  ⁵⁷ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[37:24]  ⁵⁸ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[37:24]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “the height of its extremity”; ASV “its farthest height.”

[37:25]  ⁶⁰ tc The Hebrew text has simply, “I dug and drank water.” But the parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:24 has “foreign waters.” זָרִים (zarim, “foreign”) may have accidentally dropped out of the Isaianic text by homoioteleuton (cf. NCV, NIV, NLT). Note that the preceding word, מַיִם (mayim, “water) also ends in mem (ם). The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has “foreign waters” for this line. However, in several other passages the 1QIsa^a scroll harmonizes with 2 Kgs 19 against the MT (Isa 36:5; 37:9, 20). Since the addition of “foreign” to this text in Isaiah by a later scribe would be more likely than its deletion, the MT reading should be accepted.

[37:26]  ⁶¹ tn Having quoted the Assyrian king’s arrogant words in vv. 23-24, the Lord now speaks to the king.

[37:26]  ⁶² tn Heb “Have you not heard?” The rhetorical question expresses the Lord’s amazement that anyone might be ignorant of what he is about to say.

[37:26]  ⁶³ tn Heb “formed” (so KJV, ASV).

[37:26]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “and it is to cause to crash into heaps of ruins fortified cities.” The subject of the third feminine singular verb תְהִי (tÿhi) is the implied plan, referred to in the preceding lines with third feminine singular pronominal suffixes.

[37:27]  ⁶⁵ tn Heb “short of hand”; KJV, ASV “of small power”; NASB “short of strength.”

[37:27]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “they are plants in the field and green vegetation.” The metaphor emphasizes how short-lived these seemingly powerful cities really were. See Ps 90:5-6; Isa 40:6-8, 24.

[37:27]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “[they are] grass on the rooftops.” See the preceding note.

[37:27]  ⁶⁸ tc The Hebrew text has “scorched before the standing grain” (perhaps meaning “before it reaches maturity”), but it is preferable to emend קָמָה (qamah, “standing grain”) to קָדִים (qadim, “east wind”) with the support of 1Q Isa^a; cf. J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:657, n. 8.

[37:28]  ⁶⁹ tc Heb “your going out and your coming in and how you have raged against me.” Several scholars have suggested that this line is probably dittographic (note the beginning of the next line). However, most English translations include the statement in question at the end of v. 28 and the beginning of v. 29. Interestingly, the LXX does not have this clause at the end of v. 28 and the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a does not have it at the beginning of v. 29. In light of this ambiguous manuscript evidence, it appears best to retain the clause in both verses.

[37:29]  ⁷⁰ tc Heb “and your complacency comes up into my ears.” The parallelism is improved if שַׁאֲנַנְךָ (sha’anankha, “your complacency”) is emended to שְׁאוֹנְךָ (shÿ’onÿkha, “your uproar”). See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 237-38. However, the LXX seems to support the MT and Sennacherib’s cavalier dismissal of Yahweh depicts an arrogant complacency (J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 1:658, n. 10).

[37:29]  ⁷¹ sn The word-picture has a parallel in Assyrian sculpture. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 238.

[37:30]  ⁷² tn At this point the word concerning the king of Assyria (vv. 22-29) ends and the Lord again addresses Hezekiah and the people directly (see v. 21).

[37:30]  ⁷³ tn Heb “and this is your sign.” In this case the אוֹת (’ot, “sign”) is a future reminder of God’s intervention designated before the actual intervention takes place. For similar “signs” see Exod 3:12 and Isa 7:14-25.

[37:30]  ⁷⁴ sn This refers to crops that grew up on their own (that is, without cultivation) from the seed planted in past years.

[37:30]  ⁷⁵ tn Heb “and in the second year” (so ASV).

[37:30]  ⁷⁶ tn Heb “in the third year” (so KJV, NAB).

[37:30]  ⁷⁷ tn The four plural imperatival verb forms in v. 30b are used rhetorically. The Lord commands the people to plant, harvest, etc. to emphasize the certainty of restored peace and prosperity.

[37:31]  ⁷⁸ tn Heb “The remnant of the house of Judah that is left will add roots below and produce fruit above.”

[37:32]  ⁷⁹ tn Heb “the zeal of the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].” In this context the Lord’s “zeal” refers to his intense devotion to and love for his people which prompts him to protect and restore them.

[37:33]  ⁸⁰ tn Heb “there” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV). In terms of English style “here” is expected in collocation with “this” in the previous line.

[37:33]  ⁸¹ tn Heb “[with] a shield” (so ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[37:35]  ⁸² tn Heb “for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.”

[37:36]  ⁸³ tn Traditionally, “the angel of the Lord” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[37:36]  ⁸⁴ tn The word “troops” is supplied in the translation for smoothness and clarity.

[37:36]  ⁸⁵ tn This refers to the Israelites and/or the rest of the Assyrian army.

[37:36]  ⁸⁶ tn Heb “look, all of them were dead bodies”; NLT “they found corpses everywhere.”