Psalm 110:3
From the Womb of the Morning
Messiah removedSix Hebrew letters. Read one way, a Son is begotten. Read another, a young man has dew.
Side by Side
The Older Text
Septuagint, translated before Messiah
With thee is dominion in the day of thy power, in the splendours of thy saints: I have begotten thee from the womb before the morning.
The Later Text
Masoretic, finished about 1,000 years after the cross
Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.
Your KJV reads: the later Hebrew, “the dew of thy youth.”
See what changed and why ↓What Your Bible Says
Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.
Psalm 110:3 KJV
Psalm 110 is the psalm the apostles quoted more than any other. Verse 1 seats Messiah at the right hand. Verse 4 makes Him a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Verse 3, in the King James, speaks of a willing people and a young man fresh as the morning dew.
What the Older Text Says
With thee is dominion in the day of thy power, in the splendours of thy saints: I have begotten thee from the womb before the morning.
Psalm 110:3, Septuagint
In the Greek, Yahuah speaks to the King and says, “I have begotten thee.” The verse is not about dew. It is about a Son and the Father who brought Him forth.
What Changed
The Hebrew letters did not change. The vowels did. The word read “thy youth” in the later text is spelled with the same six letters as “I have begotten thee” in Psalm 2:7:
I will declare the decree: Yahuah hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
Psalm 2:7 KJV
The translators before Messiah read those letters as Psalm 2:7 reads them. The scribes who added vowel marks centuries after the cross read them as “thy youth.” One reading gives a begotten Son. The other gives a young man’s dew.
Purpose of the Change
The effect is that the second great “I have begotten thee” in the Psalms disappears. Psalm 2:7 is left standing alone, and Psalm 110, the psalm of the King at the right hand, no longer calls Him a begotten Son.
Begotten Means a Beginning
Some teachers take the Greek “before the morning” and build a doctrine of “eternal generation”: a Son always being begotten, with no beginning. The word will not carry it. To beget is to bring forth. The one who begets is the source. The one begotten comes from him.
However early the begetting, it is still a begetting. The Father is the source, and the Son had a beginning. Scripture never calls the Father begotten.
The Bottom Line
The older text says “I have begotten thee.” The later vowels turned a Son into dew.
The One brought forth “before the morning” names Himself at the close of the Book: “I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star” (Revelation 22:16).
Dig Deeper The evidence, for anyone who wants it
The Six Letters
The Hebrew word is spelled yod, lamed, dalet, tav, yod, kaf. With one set of vowels it reads “I have begotten thee,” exactly as in Psalm 2:7. With the vowels the scribes added after the cross, it reads “thy youth.” The letters themselves allow both. The question is which reading the oldest witness gives, and the Greek, made before Messiah, read “begotten.”
Before the Morning Star
The Greek says literally “before the morning star.” The Hebrew word behind it means the dawn. Messiah later takes that very title for Himself: “the bright and morning star.” He is the bearer of the light that comes from His Father, the lamp that carries the Father’s glory.
Begotten in Acts
Paul quotes Psalm 2:7 and ties the begetting to the resurrection:
God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Yahushua again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.
Acts 13:33 KJV
The Father begets. The Father raises. The Son receives both from Him.
An Honest Note
This is a matter of vowels, not a rewritten Hebrew word. The letters on the page are the same in both readings, and the Hebrew of this verse is hard in other places too. The Greek also reads “with thee is dominion” where the later Hebrew reads “thy people shall be willing,” and “saints” where it reads “holiness.” The case here is not that the scribes forged letters. It is that the oldest reading of those letters found a begotten Son, and the later reading did not.