13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. Your dominion endures throughout all generations. Yahweh is faithful in all his words, and loving in all his deeds.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom - See Psalm 10:16, note; Daniel 4:34, note. The meaning is, that the reign of God will continue forever and ever. It will never pass away as other dominions do; it will not change as dynasties do among people; it will not be overthrown as they are; its great principles will stand firm forever and ever. Compare the notes at Psalm 72:17.
Thy dominion endureth - There is neither age nor people in and over which God does not manifest his benignly ruling power. As the above verse begins with the letter מ mem, the next in the order of the alphabet shouid begin with נ nun: but that verse is totally wanting. To say it never was in, is false, because the alphabet is not complete without it; and it is an unanswerable argument to prove the careless manner in which the Jews have preserved the Divine records. Though the Syriac, Septuagint, Vulgate, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon, have a verse, not in the Hebrew text, that answers to the נ nun, which is found in no printed copy of the Hebrew Bible; yet one MS., now in Trinity College, Dublin, has it thus, I suppose by correction, in the bottom of the page: -
נאמן יהוה בכל דבריו וחסיד בכל מעשיו
Neeman Yehovah bechol debaraiv; vechasid bechol maasaiv.
"The Lord is faithful in all his words; and merciful in all his works."
Πιστος Κυριος εν τοις λογοις αυτου· και ὁσιος εν πασι τιος εργοις αυτου. - Septuagint.
Fidelis Dominus in omnibus verbis suis: et sanctus in omnibus operibus suis - Vulgate.
These two Versions, the Septuagint and Vulgate, are the same with the Hebrew given above. The Anglo-Saxon is the same: -
"True Lord in all words his, and holy in all works his."
The Latin text in my old Psalter is the same with the present printed Vulgate: "Fidelis Dominus in omnibus verbis suis, et sanctus in omnibus operibus suis."
Thus translated in the same MSS.: Lorde true in all his words: and holy in al his workes.
It is remarkable that the whole verse is wanting in the Vulgate, as published in the Complutenstan Polyglot, as also the Antwerp and Paris Polyglots, which were taken from it. It is wanting also in the Polyglot Psalter of Porus, because he did not find it in the Hebrew text.
Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,.... So it is opposed to all other kingdoms and monarchies, which have had or will have an end; as the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman; with all other states which will be on the spot when this kingdom is set up in its glory, and will continue for ever, Daniel 2:44; and the King of it is opposed to all other kings, who die, and their kingdoms are no more to them; but he never dies, he lives for evermore; he is the living God, and so an everlasting King: nor will his kingdom cease at the end of the thousand years, nor when delivered to the Father; only it shall be in a different place and form, and shall remain for ever; for his saints will reign for ever and ever, and he with them. Or it may be rendered, "a kingdom of all worlds" (e), or "ages"; Christ's kingdom reaching to all worlds; heaven, earth, and hell: or which, according to Arama, takes in the world above, below, and middle; and regards all times past, present, and to come:
and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations: in this world, and that to come; there is no end of it, Isaiah 9:7. This psalm is written alphabetically, as is observed on the title of it; but the letter "nun" is here wanting, the reason of which Kimchi professes his ignorance of: but Jarchi gives a reason for it, such an one as it is, which he has from the Talmud (f); because David, by a spirit of prophecy, foresaw the grievous fall of the people of Israel, the prophecy of which begins with this letter, Amos 5:2. Nor is the order always strictly observed in alphabetical psalms; in the thirty-seventh psalm the letter "ain" is wanting, and three in the twenty-fifth psalm. The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, supply this defect here, by inserting these words, "the Lord is faithful in all his words, and holy in all his works", as if they were begun with the word but they seem to be taken from Psalm 145:17, with a little alteration.
(e) "reguum omnium seculorum", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Musculus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius. (f) T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 4. 2.
*More commentary available at chapter level.