1 [Acts 4. 25.] Wherefore did the heathen rage, and the nations imagine vain things? 2 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers gathered themselves together, against the Lord, and against his Christ; 3 saying, Let us break through their bonds, and cast away their yoke from us.
4 He that dwells in the heavens shall laugh them to scorn, and the Lord shall mock them. 5 Then shall he speak to them in his anger, and trouble them in his fury. 6 But I have been made king by him on Sion his holy mountain, 7 declaring the ordinance of the Lord: the Lord said to me, [Acts 13. 33; Heb. 1. 5.] Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee. 8 Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the ends of the earth for thy possession. 9 Thou shalt 1rule them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces as a potter's vessel.
10 Now therefore understand, ye kings: be instructed, all ye that judge the earth. 11 Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice in him with trembling. 12 2Accept correction, lest at any time the Lord be angry, and ye should perish from the righteous way: whensoever his wrath shall be suddenly kindled, blessed are all they that trust in him.
- 1 v. 9 Gr. tend them as a shepherd. Rev. 2. 27.
- 2 v. 12 Note. - This rendering or a similar one the Jews maintain.
About this text. This is Sir Lancelot Brenton’s 1851 translation of the Septuagint — the Greek Old Testament the Orthodox Church reads, rather than the Hebrew text behind most English Bibles. It is in the public domain. Words in italics are ones Brenton supplied that the Greek does not have; he marked them so that a reader could tell the difference, and they are kept that way here. The numbered notes are his own. Its English is Victorian, and does not match the modern English of the New Testament pages on this site.
On the numbering. The Psalms are numbered here as the Septuagint numbers them, which is how Orthodox service books cite them. From Psalm 10 onward that is one behind a Hebrew-numbered Bible: Psalm 50 here is the Psalm 51 of most English Bibles. The Septuagint also carries a hundred and fifty-first Psalm, which those Bibles do not.