Psalm 2 (English English vs. modern English)

The first thing that I (and hopefully everyone else) noticed about the Bay Psalm Book version of Psalm 2 is the physical shape of certain letters, as well as the spelling of certain words. They are obviously much different than the ones that we use in modern English. Though this physical difference is irrelevant to the contents of the Psalm, I think that it is an important indicator of how much things have changed since the Bay Psalm version was written. It illustrates the vastly different world that these people lived in, in comparison to the modern world that we live in. Despite these facts, it is important to note that the ultimate meaning of the text remains the same throughout the years, all the while, the context to which it applied constantly changed.

As mentioned above, the text of the two versions of psalm 2 ultimately have the same meaning. The only real difference between the two is how it is written, it is translated slightly differently. There are very few cases between the two texts that may present different ideas to the reader. In line 12 of Alter's version of the Psalm it reads "With purity be armed." (Alter 7) where as in the Bay version of the Psalm, the line reads "Kiss ye the Son." The two versions present different actions that the reader should take to be protected from God's fury. The modern version presents an idea that is not something "attested to in the the Bible" (Alter 7) as Alter says himself. The Bay version is less heavy than the Alter version of this line. Instead of asking the reader to be ready for "battle" it simply requests that they kiss the Son.

I think what will differentiate these two translations of the Psalm is the context in which they will be interpreted. For the audience that the Bay version was written for, the text is something that incited legitimate fear. This text is sort of a what happens to the good people and what happens to bad. It's mostly warning to the people of what will happen if they do disobey God. I believe that in modern day this Psalm would not be one widely used in the christian religion. In our modern world with our "God-like powers" we feel invincible and above everything around us. I think that we want to avoid this kind of scripture because it makes us confront not only our sins, but our mortality. So we focus on texts full of God's love... not his rage.