IN THE TEXT
IN THE TEXT
An Aramaic Word in a Hebrew Poem (Psalm 2)
Psalm 2 ends with a command that has puzzled readers for centuries: “Kiss the son, or else he will become angry…” The word translated “son” is בַּר (bar) — and that’s the problem. Bar is the Aramaic word for son. The Hebrew word is בֵּן (ben). Aramaic words do appear in biblical poetry, but their presence is always significant, and here it’s unexplained.
This single word has generated more scholarly debate than almost any other in the Psalter. Is the text corrupt? Has a scribe accidentally transposed letters? Is bar being used here as a Hebrew word with a different meaning — “purity” or “grain”? Some ancient manuscripts rearrange the consonants of verses 11–12 entirely, producing a reading like “With trembling, kiss his feet” — which avoids the Aramaic problem but introduces new ones.
Scriptura dedicates a full exegetical analysis to the question. Our conclusion is careful: the most likely reading remains “Kiss the son.” This could be either to fit with the repetition of sounds in the poem or even because the audience for the psalm is foreign nations and kings. Either way, “son” is most likely what the psalmist originally meant.
