Mazmur 2:1

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 

Mazmur 73:16

73:16 When I tried to make sense of this,

it was troubling to me. ⁸ 

Mazmur 104:23

104:23 Men then go out to do their work,

and labor away until evening. ⁹ 

Mazmur 109:4

109:4 They repay my love with accusations, ¹⁰ 

but I continue to pray. ¹¹ 

Mazmur 118:13

118:13 “You aggressively attacked me ¹²  and tried to knock me down, ¹³ 

but the Lord helped me.

Mazmur 119:4

119:4 You demand that your precepts

be carefully kept. ¹⁴ 

Mazmur 119:45

119:45 I will be secure, ¹⁵ 

for I seek your precepts.

[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.

[73:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “and [when] I pondered to understand this, troubling it [was] in my eyes.”

[104:23]  ⁹ tn Heb “man goes out to his work, and to his labor until evening.”

[109:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in place of my love they oppose me.”

[109:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and I, prayer.”

[118:13]  ¹² tn Heb “pushing, you pushed me.” The infinitive absolute emphasizes the following verbal idea. The psalmist appears to address the nations as if they were an individual enemy. Some find this problematic and emend the verb form (which is a Qal perfect second masculine singular with a first person singular suffix) to נִדְחֵיתִי (nidkheti), a Niphal perfect first common singular, “I was pushed.”

[118:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “to fall,” i.e., “that [I] might fall.”

[119:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “you, you commanded your precepts, to keep, very much.”

[119:45]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and I will walk about in a wide place.” The cohortative with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive gives a further consequence of the anticipated positive divine response (see vv. 43-44). Another option is to take the cohortative as expressing the psalmist’s request. In this case one could translate, “and please give me security.”