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Journey of a Passage

Psalm 2:7

"Thou art my Son"

The decree to the king is the same in every version in the library: "The LORD said to me: You are my son; today I have begotten you." It became one of the most quoted Old Testament verses in the New Testament.

Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The psalm as first composedPsalms composed over centuries (c. 10th–4th century BC; debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The psalm as first composed
Greek
  1. Greek Psalter (library: Giguet's French)Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Psalter
Latin
  1. Jerome's Gallican Psalter (Clementine Vulgate)c. AD 386–392, revised from the GreekTranslated from the Greek Psalter (Origen's Hexapla)
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. Psalms composed over centuries (c. 10th–4th century BC; debated)

    The psalm as first composed

    – No copy survives

    No original survives. About forty Psalms manuscripts from Qumran, Masada and Nahal Hever (c. 2nd century BC – 1st century AD) are the oldest copies.

  2. c. AD 386–392, revised from the Greek

    Jerome's Gallican Psalter (Clementine Vulgate)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Greek Psalter (Origen's Hexapla)

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    Dominus dixit ad me: Filius meus es tu; ego hodie genui te.

    Latin numbering: Psalm 2:7. Jerome revised this Latin Psalter from the Greek, so it is a witness to the Greek, not to the Hebrew.

  3. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The psalm as first composed

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    אֲסַפְּרָ֗ה אֶֽ֫ל חֹ֥ק יְֽהוָ֗ה אָמַ֘ר אֵלַ֥י בְּנִ֥י אַ֑תָּה אֲ֝נִ֗י הַיּ֥וֹם יְלִדְתִּֽיךָ׃

    I will tell of the decree: the LORD said to me, You are my son; today I have begotten you

    Hebrew numbering: Psalm 2:7.

  4. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.

  5. Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

    Greek Psalter (library: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Psalter

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    Le Seigneur m’a dit: Tu es mon fils; aujourd’hui je t’ai engendré.

    Greek numbering: Psalm 2:7. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text; not checked against Rahlfs' critical edition.

What changed, and why

In its setting the verse is a coronation formula: on the day of his enthronement the king of David's line is declared God's son (compare 2 Samuel 7:14; Psalm 89:26–27). Acts 13:33 applies it to the resurrection of Jesus, Hebrews 1:5 and 5:5 to his status above the angels, and the voice at Jesus' baptism (Mark 1:11) echoes it.

The real textual problem of Psalm 2 is at 2:12: Hebrew nashshequ-var, "kiss the son" (bar is the Aramaic word for son), is rendered by the Greek and Latin "lay hold of instruction" (Vulgate "Apprehendite disciplinam"). The site's Psalm 2 lesson discusses it.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedAll four library witnesses agree in 2:7.
  • Independently documentedActs 13:33 and Hebrews 1:5 quote Psalm 2:7.

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Psalm 2: "Thou Art My Son" →The nations rage against the LORD and his anointed (mashiah). God laughs from heaven and declares, "Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion." The king reports God's decree: "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee," with the nations as his inheritance. The poem ends with a warning to the kings of the earth to serve the LORD with fear and to "kiss the son," a phrase whose Hebrew is disputed.