Are There Two "Lords" in Tahilim 110:1? The Word Is Adon, "My Master," Not a Second Divine "Lord"

You were handed one of the most quoted lines in the whole book, and it looked like a riddle. "The LORD said unto my Lord." Two Lords. One in small capitals, one not. It made it sound like Yahuah was speaking to a second divine "Lord," a second person who is also God. But the riddle is made of English. The word behind the second "Lord" is not a divine title at all. It is Adon, which means master, and the line says Yahuah spoke to David's Master.

The word, in the oldest writing we have

Before English, and before the Square Script, it was written in an older form of the letters, the Paleo Script. Here it is in all three forms:

What the word actually means

Adon means master, owner, the one in charge. A servant calls his master adoni, "my master." A wife calls her husband adon. Abraham is called adon by his household. It is an ordinary word of rank and authority, and it is used of men all through the text.

The form Adonai grew up as a spoken substitute, a title people said out loud in place of the Name Yahuah so they would not pronounce it. So there are really two things wearing the same English coat: adon, a plain master, whether a man or Yahuah, and Adonai, the reverent title later put in the mouth instead of the Name. English printed both as "Lord" and let you think they were the same divine word. In Tahilim 110:1 the word is adoni, "my master."

Read it in the text

Tahilim 110:1 says: "The declaration of Yahuah to my Master: Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet." Read it slowly. Yahuah is the One speaking. The one He speaks to is called adoni, David's Master, the one David bows to. It is a King speaking to the King, Yahuah installing His Mashiyakh. It never said there were two beings both named "the LORD."

Barashith (Genesis) 24:12 says the servant prayed: "Yahuah, Alahym of my master Abraham, please cause it to happen before me this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham." There is the very same word, adoni, and no one thinks Abraham was a god. He was a master. That is what the word carries.

What "my Lord" did to it

Two moves did the damage. First, English used one word, "Lord," for the Name Yahuah, for the title Adonai, and for the plain word adon, master. Three different things, one costume. Second, printers marked one "LORD" in small capitals for the Name and left the other "Lord" ordinary, so Tahilim 110:1 looked like a conversation between two divine "Lords." A reader who had the real words in front of him would see something plain and strong: Yahuah speaking to His anointed Master, seating Him at the right hand. The mystery was manufactured by the translation, not by the text.

How this connects to the Turah

Here is the thread. The Turah, the instruction of Yahuah, opens with Yahuah alone as the Creator, and it commands that His Name and His place be given to no other. Restore adon to "master" and Tahilim 110:1 does not compete with that. It agrees with it: the one Yahuah is speaking, and He exalts a Master, the Mashiyakh, to His right hand, under His own authority. Blur the words into two "Lords" and you set the verse against the Turah, as if the Scriptures teach two who are both the Most High. Keep the words clean and the verse leads you straight back to what the Turah said from the first line: Yahuah is One, and He raises up His Master to reign.

Let us be honest about what is proven

Proven: adon means master or owner, and it is used of men throughout the text (Barashith 24:12). In Tahilim 110:1 the word for the second party is adoni, "my master," not the Name Yahuah. English rendered the Name, the substitute title Adonai, and the plain word adon all as "Lord."

Not overclaimed: this study does not settle every question about who the Master in Tahilim 110:1 is, or His full standing. The point is narrower and certain: the verse is not two beings both called "the LORD." It is Yahuah speaking to a Master He exalts.

Now sit with it

You were shown "the LORD said unto my Lord" and told to find two Gods in it. But one word was the Name Yahuah and the other was adon, master. The strangeness was in the English, not in what was written.

Go read Tahilim 110:1 with the real words. Then ask the question they never put to you:

If the second word simply means "master," and is used of men like Abraham, who taught you to read a second God into it, and why?

Words in this teaching (how to say them)