Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 2:9

"Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter`s vessel." — Psalms 2:9 (ASV)

Thou shalt break.—The Septuagint translated, thou shalt pasture them, understanding by the rod (Hebrew, shevet), as in Leviticus 27:32, a shepherd’s crook. (Micah 7:14.) Elsewhere the rod is a scepter (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 meanings here.

“Then shalt thou bring full low
With iron sceptre bruised, and them disperse
Like to a potter’s vessel shivered so.” (Milton’s translation)

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 for joy and terror. Our version follows the Septuagint; 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.