Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 2:1

"Why do the nations rage, And the peoples meditate a vain thing?" — Psalms 2:1 (ASV)

Why do the heathen rage? — Better, Why did nations band together, or muster? The Hebrew word occurs only here as a verb, but derivatives occur in Psalm 4:14 and Psalm 64:2: in the first, referring to a festive crowd; in the second, to a conspiracy allied with some evil intent. This fixes the meaning here as band together, possibly as in Aquila’s translation, with the added sense of tumult. The Septuagint has “grown restive,” like horses; the Vulgate has “raged.”

Imagine. — Better, meditate, or plan. Literally, as in Psalm 1:2, only here in a bad sense, mutter, referring to the whispered treasons passing to and fro among the nations, “a maze of mutter’d threats and mysteries.” In Old English, “imagine” was used in a bad sense; thus Chaucer, “he had no desire to be imaginatif” — that is, suspicious. The verb in this clause, as in the next, is in the present, the change being expressive: Why did they plot? what do they hope to gain by it?