Psalms 2:6-10

2:6 “I myself ¹  have installed ²  my king

on Zion, my holy hill.”

2:7 The king says, ³  “I will announce the Lord’s decree. He said to me: ⁴ 

‘You are my son! ⁵  This very day I have become your father!

2:8 Ask me,

and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, ⁶ 

the ends of the earth as your personal property.

2:9 You will break them ⁷  with an iron scepter; ⁸ 

you will smash them like a potter’s jar!’” ⁹ 

2:10 So now, you kings, do what is wise; ¹⁰ 

you rulers of the earth, submit to correction! ¹¹ 

Psalms 5:2

5:2 Pay attention to my cry for help,

my king and my God,

for I am praying to you!

Psalms 24:7

24:7 Look up, ¹²  you gates!

Rise up, ¹³  you eternal doors!

Then the majestic king ¹⁴  will enter! ¹⁵ 

Psalms 44:4

44:4 You are my ¹⁶  king, O God!

Decree ¹⁷  Jacob’s ¹⁸  deliverance!

Psalms 74:12

74:12 But God has been my ¹⁹  king from ancient times,

performing acts of deliverance on the earth. ²⁰ 

[2:6]  ¹ tn The first person pronoun appears before the first person verbal form for emphasis, reflected in the translation by “myself.”

[2:6]  ² tn Or perhaps “consecrated.”

[2:7]  ³ tn The words “the king says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The speaker is the Lord’s chosen king.

[2:7]  ⁴ tn Or “I will relate the decree. The Lord said to me” (in accordance with the Masoretic accentuation).

[2:7]  ⁵ sn ‘You are my son!’ The Davidic king was viewed as God’s “son” (see 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 89:26-27). The idiom reflects ancient Near Eastern adoption language associated with covenants of grant, by which a lord would reward a faithful subject by elevating him to special status, referred to as “sonship.” Like a son, the faithful subject received an “inheritance,” viewed as an unconditional, eternal gift. Such gifts usually took the form of land and/or an enduring dynasty. See M. Weinfeld, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East,” JAOS 90 (1970): 184-203, for general discussion and some striking extra-biblical parallels.

[2:8]  ⁶ sn I will give you the nations. The Lord promises the Davidic king universal dominion.

[2:9]  ⁷ tc The LXX reads “you will shepherd them.” This reading, quoted in the Greek text of the NT in Rev 2:27; 12:5; 19:15, assumes a different vocalization of the consonantal Hebrew text and understands the verb as רָעָה (ra’ah, “to shepherd”) rather than רָעָע (ra’a’, “to break”). But the presence of נָפַץ (nafats, “to smash”) in the next line strongly favors the MT vocalization.

[2:9]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew term שֵׁבֶט (shevet) can refer to a “staff” or “rod,” but here it probably refers to the Davidic king’s royal scepter, symbolizing his sovereignty.

[2:9]  ⁹ sn Like a potter’s jar. Before the Davidic king’s awesome power, the rebellious nations are like fragile pottery.

[2:10]  ¹⁰ sn The speaker here is either the psalmist or the Davidic king, who now addresses the rebellious kings.

[2:10]  ¹¹ tn The Niphal has here a tolerative nuance; the kings are urged to submit themselves to the advice being offered.

[24:7]  ¹² tn Heb “lift up your heads.” The gates of the Lord’s dwelling place are here personified. The idiom “lift up the head” often means “be confident, bold” (see Judg 8:28; Job 10:15; Ps 83:2; Zech 1:21).

[24:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “lift yourselves up.”

[24:7]  ¹⁴ tn Or “king of glory.”

[24:7]  ¹⁵ tn Following the imperatives of the preceding lines, the prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose or result.

[44:4]  ¹⁶ sn The speaker changes here to an individual, perhaps the worship leader or the king. The oscillation between singular (vv. 4, 6) and plural (vv. 1-3, 5, 7-8) in vv. 1-8 may reflect an antiphonal ceremony.

[44:4]  ¹⁷ tc The LXX assumes a participle here (מְצַוֶּה [mÿtsavveh], “the one who commands/decrees”) which would stand in apposition to “my God.” It is possible that the MT, which has the imperative (צַוֵּה, tsavveh) form, has suffered haplography of the letter mem (ם). Note that the preceding word (אֱלֹהִים, ’elohim) ends in mem. Another option is that the MT is divided in the wrong place; perhaps one could move the final mem from אֱלֹהִים to the beginning of the next word and read מְצַוֶּה אֱלֹהָי (’elohay mÿtsavveh, “[You are my king,] my God, the one who decrees”).

[44:4]  ¹⁸ tn That is, Israel. See Pss 14:7; 22:23.

[74:12]  ¹⁹ tn The psalmist speaks as Israel’s representative here.

[74:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “in the midst of the earth.”