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“I myself[a] have installed[b] my king
on Zion, my holy hill.”
The king says,[c] “I will announce the Lord’s decree. He said to me:[d]
‘You are my son.[e] This very day I have become your father.
Ask me,
and I will give you the nations as your inheritance,[f]
the ends of the earth as your personal property.

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 2:6 tn The first person pronoun appears before the first person verbal form for emphasis, reflected in the translation by “myself.”
  2. Psalm 2:6 tn Or perhaps “consecrated.”
  3. Psalm 2:7 tn The words “the king says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The speaker is the Lord’s chosen king.
  4. Psalm 2:7 tn Or “I will relate the decree. The Lord said to me” (in accordance with the Masoretic accentuation).
  5. Psalm 2:7 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.
  6. Psalm 2:8 sn I will give you the nations. The Lord promises the Davidic king universal dominion.