Psalm 2: One Son, Two Languages
Author: Bobby Valentine | Filed under: Hebrew Bible, Holy Kiss, Jesus, Kingdom, Mission, Psalms
Psalm 2 is a familiar psalm and it plays a large role in the New Testament. I’ve read it many many times.
But sometimes we discover things and have to say “wow.” Psalm 2, an enthronement psalm, is written in Hebrew. All the words in the Psalm are in Hebrew. Except one.
When we read v.7, the text has Yahweh addressing the King (the newly anointed King, quotes Yahweh’s decree).
“He [Yahweh] said to me, “You are my son …” (2.7)
Here in the context of the enthronement ceremony in the temple, a son of David, occupant of the throne, is revealed as king to the nation of Israel.
Verse 10 and the following verses are not addressed to the assembled Israelites (though they hear the words). Rather they are addressed to the nations. In particular the words are addressed to the kings and rulers of the nations. They are called, indeed commanded, to serve and honor the new King of Israel. The Masoretic Text, followed by the ASV/NIV/ESV, tells these kings of the nations to,
“Kiss the [S]on lest he be angry …” (2.12)
The language in 2.12 changes in one single word. When the newly anointed King quotes Yahweh in v.7 he speaks Hebrew and uses the Hebrew word “ben” for “son.”
But when the foreign nations are addressed, the kings, the author of Psalm 2 switches to the cosmopolitan Aramaic language commanding them to “kiss the SON” in Aramaic. The word “son” changes from Hebrew to Aramaic, the word “bar!“
For centuries before the monarchy in Israel, the international language was Aramaic. It was the language of diplomatic government communication. So for example, when Pharaoh Akhenten received communications from about 1360 BCE to 1332 BCE from rulers in Mesopotamia, the Hittite Empire, Mitanni, even Canaan, the letters (tablets) are written in Aramaic not Egyptian. This collection is given the cool name of “the Amarna Letters.”
The Kings of the Nations do not know Hebrew. But they receive the shock of their lives, when they are commanded, not in Hebrew but in Aramaic … to Kiss the Son, the newly anointed King of Israel for he is (astonishingly!) the Lord of the Nations.
April 14th, 2025 at 8:02 am
Yes, indeed, a “wow”. Been trying for the last several years to read in a less casual manner, and instead read more purposefully. I’m not a scholar but I’m trying to employ a scholar’s eye, to notice details that are right in front of you and yet they often escape you without that “scholarly” effort.
Your blog here is a great example of how a detail, an easily missed detail, can amplify, clarify, and strengthen the meaning when it is noticed.