2 Samuel 5:10

5:10 David’s power grew steadily, for the Lord God who commands armies was with him.

2 Samuel 22:30

22:30 Indeed,with your help I can charge against an army;

by my God’s power I can jump over a wall.


tc 4QSama and the LXX lack the word “God,” probably due to harmonization with the more common biblical phrase “the Lord of hosts.”

tn Traditionally, “the Lord God of hosts” (KJV, NASB); NIV, NLT “the Lord God Almighty”; CEV “the Lord (+ God NCV) All-Powerful.”

tn The translation assumes that the disjunctive clause is circumstantial-causal, giving the reason for David’s success.

tn Or “for.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki) is asseverative here.

tn Heb “by you.”

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.”

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.

tn Heb “by my God.”

tn David uses hyperbole to emphasize his God-given military superiority.