22:30 Indeed, 4 with your help 5 I can charge 6 against an army; 7
by my God’s power 8 I can jump over a wall. 9
1 tc 4QSama and the LXX lack the word “God,” probably due to harmonization with the more common biblical phrase “the
2 tn Traditionally, “the
3 tn The translation assumes that the disjunctive clause is circumstantial-causal, giving the reason for David’s success.
4 tn Or “for.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki) is asseverative here.
5 tn Heb “by you.”
6 tn Heb “I will run.” The imperfect verbal forms in v. 30 indicate the subject’s potential or capacity to perform an action. Though one might expect a preposition to follow the verb here, this need not be the case with the verb רוּץ (ruts; see 1 Sam 17:22). Some emend the Qal to a Hiphil form of the verb and translate, “I put to flight [literally, “cause to run”] an army.”
7 tn More specifically, the noun refers to a raiding party or to a contingent of troops (see HALOT 177 s.v. II גְדוּד). The picture of a divinely empowered warrior charging against an army in almost superhuman fashion appears elsewhere in ancient Near Eastern literature. See R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 228.
8 tn Heb “by my God.”
9 tn David uses hyperbole to emphasize his God-given military superiority.