The Referent of God (Elohim) in Ps. 45:7

Back to Psalm 45

Introduction

The Hebrew text of Psalm 45:7a reads as follows:

כִּסְאֲךָ֣ אֱ֭לֹהִים עוֹלָ֣ם וָעֶ֑ד

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. (ESV)

At first reading, the problem lies not in the text or grammar of the verse, but in its addressee. One would expect the psalmist to be speaking to YHWH as "elohim," but the psalmist is (apparently) speaking to the king. Likely due to this theological difficulty, solutions appeal to alternate texts, alternate grammatical construals, as well as ways to understand a remarkable reference to a human king.

Psalm 45 is an ode to an unnamed king, praising him for his idealised royal attributes. In the statement above (v. 7a), the psalmist appears to address this king as elohim ("God"). This form of address for a Judahite king is striking, since the Hebrew Bible normally reserves this title for YHWH or, usually disparagingly, for the national deities of other nations. The Hebrew Bible consistently characterises the king as a human who, though serving as sub-regent of YHWH, is himself not divine. For this reason, many commentators believe this to be the most exegetically problematic verse in Psalm 45, indeed "one of the most celebrated cruces interpretum in the OT."

This idealogical difficulty has prompted several different interpretations of v. 7, each resulting in a different translation:

Textual

• Option 1: Corrupt text
  • a) Original: vb. ‏יהיה (it will be)
  • b) Re-vocalisation of כִּסְאֲךָ (your throne) as a verb כִּסֵּאֲךָ (he has enthroned you)

Grammatical

• Option 2: Elohim as the subject of the sentence. ("God is your throne forever and ever.")
• Option 3: Elohim as a modifier
  • a) Elohim as part of bound phrase, a genitive ("Your divine throne endures for ever and ever." [RSV])
  • b) Elided noun ("Your throne is [the throne of] God forever and ever," or "Your throne is like God’s throne, eternal." [NEB])

Addressee

• Option 4: Elohim as a vocative
  • a) YHWH as the addressee (Tg.: "The throne of your glory, O YHWH, endures forever and ever.")
  • b) The king as the addressee ("Your throne, God, is forever and ever.")
  • c) The Messiah as the addressee

For a thorough prose treatment of this problem, see also Murray J. Harris, "The Translation of Elohim in Psalm 45:7–8," TynBul 35 (1984), available open-access.

Argument Maps

Corrupt text

Original text was יהיה (it will be)

Some have proposed that the original text was not the n. אֱלֹהִים (God), but the vb. ‏יהיה (it will be). This reading proposes that the MT is the result of a misreading of the vb. as the divine name ‏יהוה (YHWH), which was in turn changed to אֱלֹהִים (God) in a hypothesised Elohistic redaction of the Psalter. Diachronically:

1. Original: vb. ‏יהיה ("Your throne will be forever and ever.")
2. Misread: divine name יהוה ("Your throne, YHWH, [is] forever and ever.")
3. Elohistic redactor: replaced the divine name with אלהים ("Your throne, God, [is] forever and ever.")

With this emendation, the text reads כִּסְאֲךָ יִהְיֶה עוֹלָם וָעֶד ("Your throne will be forever and ever").

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[Original text read יִהְיֶה ("will be")]: The vb. was misread by the elohistic redactor as the divine name יהוה. #dispreferred.
 - <No MS witnesses or early versions>: None of the MSS or ancient versions reflect this reading.
 + <Orthographic similarity>: The words “will be” (יהיה) and the Tetragrammaton (יהוה) look very similar (Bruston, 92 🄲; Giesebrecht). #dispreferred.
  _ <Not a known scribal problem>: Textual witnesses do not provide additional examples of confusing the tetragrammaton with the verb יהיה (Allis, 242 🄰).
  _ <Elohim as a relative, not absolute, preference>: The presence of the divine name (43x) in the Elohistic Psalter suggests that the redactor was not forced to replace the divine name with elohim (Allis, 245 🄰).
   _ <V. 8 elohim>: The "formule étrange" in the following verse ("God, your God") suggests the editorial work on an original "YHWH your God" (Bruston, 92 🄲). #dispreferred
 + <Avoids "doctrinal" problem>: The interpretation removes the difficulty of attributing divinity to the king. #dispreferred
 + <Ideological consistency>: The idea of an eternal royal throne is elsewhere associated with the Davidic covenant, and is therefore appropriate in this context. #dispreferred
  + [Example]: 2 Sam 7:16 כִּֽסְאֲךָ֔ יִהְיֶ֥ה נָכ֖וֹן עַד־עוֹלָֽם ("your throne will be established forever"). #dispreferred
   _ <Syntax is different>: 2 Sam 7:16 (and similar verses), unlike Ps. 45:7a, use the vb. כון ("to establish"), so the syntactical difference somewhat weakens the ideological parallel (Allis, 253 🄰).
    + [יהיה נכון (will be established)]: 2 Sam 7:16; 1 Kgs 2:45; 1 Chron 17:14.

Revocalise כִּסְאֲךָ (your throne) to a verb

A second emendation proposal involves only the re-vocalisation of כִּסְאֲךָ (your throne) to כִּסֵּאֲךָ (he has enthroned you), a denominative piel verb from the same root כסא. The resulting translation is: "The eternal and everlasting God has enthroned you!"

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[Re-vocalisation of כסאך]: The noun כִּסְאֲךָ (your throne) should be re-vocalised to a verb (כִּסְאֲךָ) from the denominative from the root כסא. #dispreferred.
 + <Meaning>: This reading has "manifest good sense." (Dahood, 273: 🄲)#dispreferred
 - <Unattested verb>: This verb "to enthrone" is not found elsewhere in the OT. 
  _ <Hebrew verbal system>: Hebrew and Ugaritic are able to create denominative verbal forms from nouns. (Dahood, 273: 🄲)#dispreferred
 - <Ancient versions>: This reading is unattested in the ancient versions.
 - <Emendation>: This reading requires vocalic emendation.

Elohim as subject or predicate

It is also syntactically possible that the n. אֱלֹהִים (God) functions as the subject or the predicate nominative of the sentence:

Elohim is the grammatical subject

"God is your throne forever and ever." (subject) This reading results in a metaphor that draws a comparison between God and the royal authority of the king. The sense is that the authority, power, and right to rule are founded upon God.

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["Elohim" is subject]: The term ''elohim'' is the subject of the sentence. #dispreferred
 + <Syntactically permissible>: The word order allows this interpretation. #dispreferred
 + <Similar metaphors>: God is described as a refuge and fortress (Ps 91:2) or as dwelling place (Deut 33:27). #dispreferred
  _ <Conceptually difficult>: The concept of "God" and of "throne" (=dynasty) are too dissimilar, and such a metaphor is found nowhere else in the Psalter (Harris, 72 🄰). 
 - <Ancient versions>: There is no support from ancient versions. 

Elohim is the predicate nominative

"Your throne is God forever and ever." (predicate nominative)

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["Elohim" is predicate nominative]: The term ''elohim'' renames the subject כִּסְאֲךָ ("your throne"). #dispreferred
 + <Syntactically permissible>: The word order allows this interpretation. #dispreferred
 - <Ideologically difficult>: "It seems unfitting to assert that any human throne, however כסא be interpreted, belongs to the category of divine beings ('is God')" (Harris, 72 🄰).
 - <Ancient versions>: There is no support from ancient versions. 

Elohim as modifier

Elohim as genitive

The first modifier possibility reads elohim as a genitival modifier of the noun phrase כִּסְאֲךָ, "Your throne of God [is] forever and ever." This modification could refer to the divine quality of the throne, the divine origin of the throne, the divine source of the throne, etc. Cf. RSV: Your divine throne endures for ever and ever.

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[Modifier of n. phrase כִּסְאֲךָ]: The term ''elohim'' in v. 7 modifies the n. phrase כִּסְאֲךָ (your throne). #dispreferred
 + <Avoids ideological problem>: The ideological problem of addressing the king as "God" is avoided if the term "elohim" is applied to the throne instead of the king. (RSV: "Your divine throne endures for ever and ever"; GNT; Bratcher and Reyburn, 425 🄲). #dispreferred
 - <Grammar>: It is highly unlikely to have a genitive after an otherwise determined noun.

Supply an elided noun כִּסֵּא ("throne of")

The second modifier possibility supplies an implicit, or elided, כִּסֵּא ("throne of") just before elohim. The resulting translation reads, "Your throne [is the throne of] God."

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[Elided n. כִּסֵּא]: The term ''elohim'' modifies an elided noun כִּסֵּא (throne of) (VanGemeren, 400  🄲). #dispreferred
 + <Avoids ideological problem>: The ideological problem of addressing the king as "God" is avoided if the term "elohim" is applied to the throne instead of the king. See RSV: "Your divine throne endures for ever and ever"; GNT; Bratcher and Reyburn, 425 🄲. #dispreferred
  + ["Divine" throne]: The concept of a king ruling on an earthly throne as God's representative is attested elsewhere in the HB, e.g. 1 Chron 28:5; 29:23. #dispreferred
 + <Syntax attested elsewhere>: Ellipsis of a noun (construct form) with an explicit qualifier is a known syntactical construction in Biblical Hebrew. #dispreferred
  + [Examples]: Gen 11:1; Deut 33:25; Jer 24:2; Ezek 41:22. #dispreferred
  _ [Dissimilar sense]: The above examples denote material or characteristic of an object ("is made of" or "contains"), but God is not the material of the throne nor the characteristic it possesses (Harris, 74 🄰).
 - <Missing preposition>: This rendering presupposes an ellipsis not only of כסא (''throne'') but of ככסא (''like the throne'') (Harris 1984:74 🄰).
 - <Ancient versions>: There is no support from ancient versions. 

Elohim as a vocative

The reading taken by the ancient versions and most modern English versions interprets elohim as a vocative of direct address.

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[Vocative]: The term ''elohim'' in v. 7 is a vocative of direct address.
 + <Ancient versions>: Most of the ancient versions support the vocative reading.
  + [Ancient versions]: LXX; Heb 1:8–9; Tg.; Jer.
 + <Syntax>: Vocative is the most natural reading of the syntax (Allis 1923:236 🄰).
  + [Syntax]: The preceding and following text addresses the king using 2ms forms.
 - <Missing the article>: For the noun to be vocative, it must take the definite article. (Podechard, 33 🄰). #dispreferred
  - <Anarthrous vocatives>: There are two undisputed vocatives in Ps 45, neither of which has the article (vv. 4, 11).
  - <Elohim as title>: When elohim in the voc. is used as a title, it does not take the article (Harris, 80 🄰).
   + [Examples]: Pss 5:11; 7:10; 25:22; 36:7; 42:2, etc.  
  <_ <Definite article in poetry>: The definite article is often omitted in poetic texts (including from vocatives). (Joüon/Muraoka 137g 🄶).
   + [Examples]: E.g. Ps 34:12; Isa 1:2; Joel 1:5.
 - <Missing lamed preposition>: For עוֹלָם to function as the predicate, it would be לְעֹלָם. (Dahood, 273). #dispreferred 
  + [Reason]: The noun phrase עולם ועד is found nowhere else in the HB as the predicate of a verbless sentence (functioning as an adv. acc. of time).  #dispreferred 
  - <Does not require the lamed preposition>: A preposition is "a more regular construction," but not necessary (Harris, 81 🄰).
   + [Substantive as predicate]: Noun-clauses frequently take a substantive as predicate, "either when no corresponding adjective exists . . . or when the attribute is intended to receive a certain emphasis" (GKC §141c 🄶; e.g. 2 Sam 2:23; Ps 52:3).
   + [Lamed dropped elsewhere]: The Psalter uses עולם and לעולם interchangeably (Ps 61:8; 66:7; 89:2, 3, 38).
   + [Parallels with adv.]: Temporal adverbs may stand as the predicate in a verbless sentence (Job 8:9; 2 Chron 12:15).

There are three possibilities for reading elohim as a vocative of direct address.

YHWH as addressee

The first understands the addressee here to be YHWH.

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[YHWH as addressee]: "Elohim" is a title of direct address to YHWH. #dispreferred
 + <Targum>: The Targum uses an abbreviation of the divine name instead of the normal Aramaic word for ''elohim''. #dispreferred
  + [Targum]: כּוּרְסֵי יְקָרָךְ יְיָ קַיָים לְעָלְמֵי עַלְמִין. #dispreferred
 + <Theological>: This reading avoids the theological problem of addressing the human ruler as "elohim."#dispreferred
  _ <Psalm 45 context>: The psalm as a whole praises the king in remarkably lofty language, reminiscent of descriptions elsewhere of YHWH.
   + [Examples]: v. 3 "your splendour and your majesty" (הוֹדְךָ֗ וַהֲדָרֶֽךָ); v. 18 "peoples will praise you forever and ever" (עַמִּ֥ים יְ֝הוֹדֻ֗ךָ לְעֹלָ֥ם וָעֶֽד).
 - <Addressee>: The surrounding text is addressed to the king, not YHWH; v. 8b in particular is jarring in this reading.

The king as addressee

The king as addressee is the most straightforward reading of the grammar and syntax, but the meaning is challenging.

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[Davidic king as addressee]: The term ''elohim'' in v. 7 is a vocative of direct address to the reigning monarch.
 + <Psalm 45 as ode to the king>: "It makes little sense to take ˒elohim as addressed to God; the poem is addressed to the king and his bride, not to God" (Bratcher and Rayburn, 425 🄲).
  + <Immediate context>: The preceding (v. 6) and following text (v. 8) addresses the king using 2ms forms.
 - <''Elohim'' only used for deities>:The term elohim is used for deities, and the Israelite king was never portrayed as a god. (VanGemeren 2008:399–400 🄲; Futato, 166 🄲).#dispreferred
    + <"Elohim" refers to YHWH>: The Tg. and some commentators take the referent of the voc. as YHWH, not the king.#dispreferred
    <_<Use of elohim in reference to YHWH>: The reference to YHWH as "God, your God" in the near context (v. 8) tempers the use of elohim for the human king, and "may reflect the poet's awareness of an extraordinary use of אֱלֹהִים in v. 7" (Harris, 85 🄰).
    <_<Elohim in reference to Messiah>: Some ancient versions may have read the vocative as a reference to a (quasi-)divine figure; e.g. Heb 1:8–9); a "messianic rereading that accentuates the transcendence of the King-Messiah" (Robert and Tournay, 434 🄲).
    <_<Honouring kings as "gods">: The reference to the king as "God" was not uncommon in the ANE and reflects an early stage of Israelite religion (Gunkel, 103).
     + [Egyptian parallel]: Egyptian texts often referred to the king as “god." (Walton, ZIBBC, 358 🄲) E.g. text about Rameses II: "No man is he who is among us, It is Seth great-of-strength, Baal in person; Not deeds of man are these his doings”; see Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 2:67 (NET note 🄲)
     + <Ps 45 as "secular" psalm>: Ps 45 is unique within the Psalter as an ode to the king (not addressed to YHWH).
    - <''Elohim'' can refer to non-deities>:
     + <Divine characteristics>: The king is called "elohim" because he shares divine characteristics such as "splendour and majesty" (vv. 4–5a; cf. Ps 96:9); "love of truth and righteousness" (vv. 5b, 8a; cf. Ps 33:5; 99:4), and justice (v. 7b; cf. Ps 67:4). 
     + <Lexical semantics>: The meaning of the term elohim is "relatively fluid" (Harris, 86 🄰). 
      + [Priests]: "Elohim" was used of priests who functioned as judges in the Israelite temple judicial system; see Exod 21:6; 22:8–9 (Walton, ZIBBC, 358 🄲).
      + [Moses "as God"]: Exod 4:16; 7:1.
      + [Eschatological Davidic king]: Isa 9:5 uses the title אֵל גִּבּוֹר, mighty God, in reference to the king.
      + [Post-mortem spirit]: 1 Sam 28:13 (Samuel); Isa 8:19 (?).
      + [Heavenly beings and judges]: Members of the divine council; Ps 8:6; 58:2 (elim); 82:1, 6; 97:7; 138:1.
     + <Relationship, not ontology>: "Deity was fundamentally understood as a relational designation and not an ontological one. To the degree they performed the right functions and roles, the designation “deity” could extend to include the dead, humans, and even cultic objects" (McClellan, 83).
     + <Hyperbole>: "In the highly poetic language of Psalm 45, the psalm-singer addresses the groom-king with a hyperbolic appellation that reflects the ancient Near Eastern culture" (NICOT 🄲)
      - <Possibility of theological impropriety>: Hyperbole is unlikely, because it would be "open to misinterpretation" Anderson, 349 🄲). #dispreferred
      + <Literary genre>: As a royal ode, Psalm 45 has an exuberant style generally; see v. 3 ("most attractive of all people"), v. 5 ("your splendour and your majesty"; see Ps 96:6), and v. 18 ("peoples will praise you forever and ever"). 
      + <Mesopotamian parallels>: By virtue of divine appointment, the ANE king represented the divine realm (Walton, ZIBBC, 358 🄲).  
       + [Assyria]: Assyrian official writes to his king, “The well-known proverb says: ‘Man is a shadow of god’. . . ‘The king is the perfect likeness of the god’”(Parpola, Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars, no. 207).  

The Messiah as addressee

Some traditions understand this royal figure not as a historical king, but as a prophetic reference to the promised eschatological ruler.

Interestingly, the Targum specifies the addressee of v. 7 as YHWH (see above), but identifies the praiseworthy king of Ps 45 as the messiah (v. 3, מַלְכָּא מְשִׁיחָא, "king, messiah").

It is important to recognise that this messianic interpretation and the Judahite king interpretation are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The prophesied messiah was described in distinctly royal (davidic) terms, so it is not difficult to imagine the words of Psalm 45 describing both an historical king and a prophesied future messianic king.

Conclusion (A)

The interpretation preferred here is that "elohim" is a vocative of direct address to the king. Although this is a rare form of address to a Judahite king, the preponderance of evidence (the syntax of the verse, the witness of the ancient versions, the lexical range of the word "elohim", and the literary genre of Psalm 45) points to this reading.

The purpose of this vocative of direct address to the king is a separate matter. If understood as conveying hyperbole, it might be translated into English as divine one, or if understood as a deliberate play on words, as ‘God’.

If understood with a messianic interpretation, then the purpose of the vocative would be to explicitly recognise the blurring of identity so often found in the Psalms between the king and God himself.

Research

Translations

Ancient

• LXX: ὁ θρόνος σου, ὁ θεός, εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ αἰῶνος,
  • NETS: Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
  • Aquila: ὁ θρόνος σου, θεὲ, εἰς αἰῶνα καὶ ἔτι
  • Symmachus: ὁ θρόνος σου, ὁ θεὸς, αἰώνιος καὶ ἔτι
  • Theodotion: ὁ θρόνος σου, ὁ θεὸς, εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ αἰῶνος
• Heb 1:8: πρὸς δὲ τὸν υἱόν· ὁ θρόνος σου ὁ θεὸς εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ αἰῶνος,
  • But to the Son [he said], "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever."
• Tg.: כּוּרְסֵי יְקָרָךְ יְיָ קַיָים לְעָלְמֵי עַלְמִין.
• Tg. (unpointed): כורסי יקרך ייי/אלהא בשמיא#1#/ קיים לעלמי עלמין. (The throne of your glory, O YHWH, endures forever and ever; [Variant: The throne of your glory, O God, is in heaven])
• Syr.: ܟܘܪܣܝܗ ܕܐܠܗܐ ܠܥܠܡ ܥܠܡܝܢ܂
• Jer.: thronus tuus Deus in saeculum et in aeternum

Modern

English

Elohim as Modifier

• RSV: Your divine throne endures for ever and ever.
• NEB: Your throne is like God’s throne, eternal.
• GNT: The kingdom that God has given you will last forever and ever.
• NJB: Your throne is from God, for ever and ever,

Elohim as Vocative

• KJV: Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever:
• ESV: Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
• Also, NASB, NIV, NLT, LEB, NET

Other

• Dahood: The eternal and everlasting God has enthroned you!
• CEV: You are God, and you will rule forever as king. FN: Or “God has made you king, and you will rule forever.”
• Kraus: "Your powerful throne" (if ˒elohim is superlative)

Spanish

Elohim as Modifier

• BHTI: Tu trono, como el de Dios, es eterno,
• VBL: Tu trono viene de Dios, y permanecerá para siempre.

Elohim as Vocative

• DHH94I: Tu reinado, oh Dios, es eterno,
• RVR95: Tu trono, Dios, es eterno y para siempre;

Secondary Literature

• Bruston: "Nous avons établi plus haut que le compilateur de deuxième livre des Psaumes, dont le XLV fait partie, a systématiquement effacé le nom de Jéhovah pour le remplacer par celui d'Elohim (Dieu). . . . Je suppose donc que le texte primitif portait יהוה sera: Ton trône subsistera a toujours."

• Allis: "The rendering, 'Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever,' is perfectly justifiable, grammatically. It is the 'doctrinal' implications involved in this rendering which make it improbable or impossible in the eyes of many scholars."

• Allis, cont.: "It is important therefore to observe that this emendation [to "will be"] . . . is a purely 'conjectural' emendation. Not a single instance of the confusion of these words has been cited by them in support of their theory. . . . It is remarkable that this should be the case, in view of the close resemblance between the two words, but being the case it goes a long way toward disproving the accidental confusion which forms the basis of the theory."

• Dahood: "has enthroned you. Vocalizing kissē'akā, a denominative piel from kissē', 'throne.' The only evidence for this proposal is its manifest good sense, its concordance with the Ugaritic-Hebrew proclivity for coining such verbs (Biblica 44 [1963], 204f.) and, negatively, the unsatisfactory nature of the numberless solutions which have been proffered on behalf of the crux interpretum."

• Gunkel: ". . . sondern haben aus ihr zu lernen, dass man nicht immer und überall in Israel so streng über den Unterschied des Göttlichen und Menschlichen gedacht hat. Gibt es doch auch sonst viele Stellen, in denen Gott und König im selben Atem genannt werden, wo der König mit Gott order seinem Engel verglichen, oder wo er Gottes Sohn genannt wird . . . Ein solches Wort wie das des Sängers zeigt uns also, dass es in älterer Zeit dem heidentum zuneigende Richtungen in Isreal gegeben hat, die gerade am Königshofe zu Hause waren."

• "This verse is the most problematic of the psalm. . . . The usage in Hebrews 1:8–9 (cf. NIV) shows how the NT applied the text to Jesus, but the OT text should also be read on its own. The strongest evidence is in favor of the elliptic reading of “throne”: “your throne [is a throne of] God.” Kingship in Israel was a derived, not a divine, kingship; therefore, the further definition “forever and forever” qualifies the kingship of David’s dynasty as by divine grant. C. F. Whitley (“Textual and Exegetical Observations on Ps 45:4–7,” ZAW 98 [1986]: 277–82) has argued in favor of “Thy throne, O Anointed One, is forever and ever.”

• NICOT: "In v. 6, the psalmist sings, Your throne, O God (ʾelōhîm), is for all time and beyond, apparently in reference to the groom-king. Since Psalm 45 is unique in using such language to refer to the human king, a number of commentators insist that the words are addressed to the Lord, who is the ultimate keeper of the throne of ancient Israel. The deification of the human king was a pervasive concept in the cultures of the ancient Near East. In Israel these ideas were adapted into a concept of the king being the “son of God,” an earthly representative of the Lord, chosen by the Lord to rule over the people Israel. In Ps. 2:7, for example, the psalmist declares: “I will tell of the decree of the Lord; he said to me, ‘You are my son, today I have begotton you.’ ” In the highly poetic language of Psalm 45, the psalm-singer addresses the groom-king with a hyperbolic appellation that reflects the ancient Near Eastern culture of which Israel was indisputably a part."

• NET note: "The king is clearly the addressee here, as in vv. 2-5 and 7-9. Rather than taking the statement at face value, many prefer to emend the text because the concept of deifying the earthly king is foreign to ancient Israelite thinking (cf. NEB “your throne is like God’s throne, eternal”). However, it is preferable to retain the text and take this statement as another instance of the royal hyperbole that permeates the royal psalms. Because the Davidic king is God’s vice-regent on earth, the psalmist addresses him as if he were God incarnate. God energizes the king for battle and accomplishes justice through him. A similar use of hyperbole appears in Isa 9:6, where the ideal Davidic king of the eschaton is given the title “Mighty God” (see the note on this phrase there). Ancient Near Eastern art and literature picture gods training kings for battle, bestowing special weapons, and intervening in battle. According to Egyptian propaganda, the Hittites described Rameses II as follows: “No man is he who is among us, It is Seth great-of-strength, Baal in person; Not deeds of man are these his doings, They are of one who is unique” (see Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 2:67). Ps 45:6 and Isa 9:6 probably envision a similar kind of response when friends and foes alike look at the Davidic king in full battle regalia. When the king’s enemies oppose him on the battlefield, they are, as it were, fighting against God himself."

• Robert and Tournay: "Les versions considèrent ici « Élohim » comme un vocatif; mais elles peuvent témoigner d'une relecture messianique qui accentue la transcendance du Roi-Messie."

• McClellan: “This suggests deity was fundamentally understood as a relational designation and not an ontological one. To the degree they performed the right functions and roles, the designation “deity” could extend to include the dead, humans, and even cultic objects. The ability to perform certain functions humans cannot normally perform is absolutely an aspect of that designation, but there is no reason that such abilities must be rooted in a unique ontology, particularly when there is no indication that ontology was a concept with any currency in Iron Age Israel or Judah. Those abilities, when they were attributed to humans, seem to have been rooted, rather, in special relationships to deity or in special dispensations from deity."

References

45:7