Psalms Chapter 2 verse 1 Holy Bible
Why do the nations rage, And the peoples meditate a vain thing?
read chapter 2 in ASV
Why are the nations so violently moved, and why are the thoughts of the people so foolish?
read chapter 2 in BBE
Why are the nations in tumultuous agitation, and [why] do the peoples meditate a vain thing?
read chapter 2 in DARBY
Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
read chapter 2 in KJV
Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
read chapter 2 in WBT
Why do the nations rage, And the peoples plot a vain thing?
read chapter 2 in WEB
Why have nations tumultuously assembled? And do peoples meditate vanity?
read chapter 2 in YLT
Psalms 2 : 1 Bible Verse Songs
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 1. - Why do the heathen rage? The psalmist writes with a vision before his eyes. He "sees Jehovah upon his throne, and Messiah entering upon his universal dominion. The enemies of both on earth rise up against them with frantic tumult, and vainly strive to east off the fetters of their rule." Hence his sudden outburst. "What ails the heathen (goim)," he says. "that they rage?" or "make an uproar" (Kay), or "assemble tumultuously" (margin of Authorized Version and Revised,Version)? What are they about? What do they design? And why do the people - rather, the peoples, or "the masses" (Kay) - imagine (or, meditate) a vain thing? It must be "a vain thing;" i.e. a purpose which will come to naught, if it is something opposed to the will of Jehovah and Messiah. The vision shows the psalmist Jew and Gentile banded together against the gospel of Christ. Its scope is not exhausted by the exposition of Acts 4:26, but extends to the whole struggle between Christianity on the one hand, and Judaism and paganism on the other. "The peoples" still to this day "imagine a vain thing" - imagine that Christianity will succumb to the assaults made upon it - will fade, die away, and disappear.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(1) Why do the heathen rage?--Better, Why did nations band together, or muster? The Hebrew occurs only here as a verb, but derivatives occur in Pss. 4:14, Psalm 64:2: in the first, of a festive crowd; in the second, of a conspiracy allied with some evil intent. This fixes the meaning here, band together, possibly as in Aquila's translation, with added sense of tumult. The LXX. have "grown restive," like horses; Vulg., "have raged."Imagine.--Better, meditate, or plan. Literally, as in Psalm 1:2, only here in bad sense, mutter, referring to the whispered treasons passing to and fro among the nations, "a maze of mutter'd threats and mysteries." In old English "imagine" was used in a bad sense; thus Chaucer, "nothing list him to be imaginatif" i.e., suspicious. The verb in this clause, as in the next, is in the present, the change being expressive: Why did they plot? what do they hope to gain by it?
