What Does Psalms 2:9 Mean?

(9) **Thou shalt break.**—The LXX. translated, “thou shalt pasture them,” understanding by the rod (Heb., *shevet*)*, *as in Leviticus 27:32, a shepherd’s crook. (Comp. Ezekiel 20:37; Micah 7:14.) Elsewhere the rod is a sceptre (Psalm 125:3); in Proverbs 22:15 it is a rod of correction. The use to be made of it—*to* *dash the nations in pieces, as one breaks a potter’s vessel*—points to the latter of these significations here. “Then shalt thou bring full low With iron sceptre bruised, and them disperse Like to a potter’s vessel shivered so.” (*Milton’s trans.*) Psalm 2:10 begins the fourth section of the poem. Subject princes are warned to be wise in time, and, as a religious duty as well as a political necessity, to submit to Jehovah. **Rejoice with trembling.**—Literally, *quake, *referring to the motion of the body produced by strong emotion, and therefore used both of joy and terror. Our version follows the LXX.; most of the old versions paraphrase the word: Chaldean, “pray”; Syriac,” cleave to him”; Arabic, “praise him.” It is historically interesting to remember that the words of this verse—*et nunc reges intelligite*—formed the legend of the medal struck in England after the execution of Charles I.