Revelation 12:5, ruling the nations with an iron rod

The Hebrew of Psalm 2:9 reads tero'em, you will break them, with the iron rod. The Greek translation reads you will shepherd them, and John follows the Greek. The psalm speaks to the king as you; John speaks of the child in the third person and says he will rule all the nations. He also leaves out the smashed pottery, which he used in 2:27.

John gives the psalm's king to the newborn son, who is caught up to God's throne. Beale says the birth and the ascension are pressed together because ruling is what the child was born for. He reads the psalm's promise as begun at the ascension and complete at 19:15.

Beale calls the destiny of the child an allusion to Psalm 2:7-9 and reads the scene as Christ's resurrection and ascent. On 2:27 he discusses the wording. The unpointed Hebrew tr'm can be read from the verb to break or the verb to shepherd; the Septuagint, the Syriac and the Vulgate took it as shepherd. John may follow the Greek, or the Greek may preserve an older reading. Beale suggests the word was chosen because it can carry both care and destruction. The Hebrew in Sefaria is tero'em beshevet barzel. The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible says John cites Psalm 2:9; the CSB Study Bible and Wright call the words allusions to Psalm 2. The grade is drawn here: the phrase is nearly identical and could hardly come from elsewhere.