1 Tawarikh 28:9

28:9 “And you, Solomon my son, obey ¹  the God of your father and serve him with a submissive attitude and a willing spirit, ²  for the Lord examines all minds and understands every motive of one’s thoughts. If you seek him, he will let you find him, ³  but if you abandon him, he will reject you permanently.

Mazmur 26:2

26:2 Examine me, O Lord, and test me!

Evaluate my inner thoughts and motives! ⁴ 

Mazmur 2:1

Psalm 2 ⁵ 

2:1 Why ⁶  do the nations rebel? ⁷ 

Why ⁸  are the countries ⁹  devising ¹⁰  plots that will fail? ¹¹ 

[28:9]  ¹ tn Heb “know.”

[28:9]  ² tn Heb “with a complete heart and a willing being.”

[28:9]  ³ tn Heb “he will allow himself to be found by you.”

[26:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “evaluate my kidneys and my heart.” The kidneys and heart were viewed as the seat of one’s volition, conscience, and moral character.

[2:1]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn The interrogative לָמָּה (lamah, “why?”) is understood by ellipsis in the second line.

[2:1]  ⁹ tn Or “peoples” (so many English versions).

[2:1]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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.