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 (Psalms 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.)
Psalms 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.