22:47 The Lord is alive! 4
My protector 5 is praiseworthy! 6
The God who delivers me 7 is exalted as king! 8
22:3 My God 9 is my rocky summit where I take shelter, 10
my shield, the horn that saves me, 11 my stronghold,
my refuge, my savior. You save me from violence! 12
22:7 In my distress I called to the Lord;
I called to my God. 13
From his heavenly temple 14 he heard my voice;
he listened to my cry for help. 15
23:1 These are the final words of David:
“The oracle of David son of Jesse,
the oracle of the man raised up as
the ruler chosen by the God of Jacob, 16
Israel’s beloved 17 singer of songs:
23:3 The God of Israel spoke,
the protector 18 of Israel spoke to me.
The one who rules fairly among men,
the one who rules in the fear of God,
12:7 Nathan said to David, “You are that man! This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I chose 22 you to be king over Israel and I rescued you from the hand of Saul.
So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty pieces of silver. 23
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 Elsewhere the construction חַי־יְהוָה (khay-yÿhvah) as used exclusively as an oath formula, but this is not the case here, for no oath follows. Here the statement is an affirmation of the
5 tn Heb “my rocky cliff,” which is a metaphor for protection.
6 tn Or “blessed [i.e., praised] be.”
7 tn Heb “the God of the rock of my deliverance.” The term צוּר (tsur, “rock”) is probably accidentally repeated from the previous line. The parallel version in Ps 18:46 has simply “the God of my deliverance.”
8 tn The words “as king” are supplied in the translation for clarification. In the Psalms the verb רוּם (rum, “be exalted”) when used of God, refers to his exalted position as king (Pss 99:2; 113:4; 138:6) and/or his self-revelation as king through his mighty deeds of deliverance (Pss 21:13; 46:10; 57:5, 11).
7 tc The translation (along with many English versions, e.g., NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT) follows the LXX in reading אֱלֹהִי (’elohi, “my God”) rather than MT’s אֱלֹהֵי (’elohe, “the God of”). See Ps 18:2.
8 tn Or “in whom.”
9 tn Heb “the horn of my salvation,” or “my saving horn.”
10 tn The parallel version of the song in Ps 18 does not include this last line.
10 tn In this poetic narrative the two prefixed verbal forms in v. 7a are best understood as preterites indicating past tense, not imperfects. Note the use of the vav consecutive with the prefixed verbal form that follows in v. 7b.
11 tn Heb “from his temple.” Verse 10, which pictures God descending from the sky, indicates that the heavenly, not earthly, temple is in view.
12 tn Heb “and my cry for help [entered] his ears.”
13 tn Heb “the anointed one of the God of Jacob.”
14 tn Or “pleasant.”
16 tn Heb “rock,” used as a metaphor of divine protection.
19 tn Heb “have uncovered the ear of.”
20 tn Heb “a house.” This maintains the wordplay from v. 11 (see the note on the word “house” there) and is continued in v. 29.
21 tn Heb “has found his heart.”
22 tn Heb “anointed.”
25 tn Heb “fifty shekels of silver.” This would have been about 20 ounces (568 grams) of silver by weight.