Notes for Psm 2:7-9

d. Or son; also in verse 12.

e. Or have begotten you.

f. Or will break them with a rod of iron.

1. Even Solomon's accession is rather sparse in details (see 1 Ki 1:44-47).

2. John Goldingay (Psalms, Vol 1: Psalms 1-41 (Baker commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms: Grand Rapids: Baker, 2006) 100) suggests that Yahweh's declaration, "Today I have become your Father" is "performative, that is, it is 'an utterance that performs the act it describes, e.g., 'I now pronounce you husband and wife.'" Just as the utterance by the minister of "you are now husband and wife" instantaneously actualizes the marriage, so the pronouncement by God, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father" instantaneously actualizes the "begetting." In contrast, Peter Craigie (Psalms 1-50 (Word Biblical Commentary, 19 (Waco, Tx: Word, 1983), 67) thinks that this "is metaphorical language; it means more than simply adoption, which has legal overtones, and implies that a 'new birth' of a divine nature took place during the coronation." We cannot find a basis sufficient in Scriptures to lean with Craigie.

3. George E. Mendenhall, The Ten Generation: The Origins of the Biblical Tradition (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974) 95; italics added.