22:30 Indeed, 7 with your help 8 I can charge 9 against an army; 10
by my God’s power 11 I can jump over a wall. 12
22:34 He gives me the agility of a deer; 13
he enables me to negotiate the rugged terrain. 14
22:35 He trains 15 my hands for battle; 16
my arms can bend even the strongest bow. 17
22:36 You give me 18 your protective shield; 19
your willingness to help enables me to prevail. 20
22:37 You widen my path; 21
my feet 22 do not slip.
22:38 I chase my enemies and destroy them;
I do not turn back until I wipe them out.
22:1 23 David sang 24 to the Lord the words of this song when 25 the Lord rescued him from the power 26 of all his enemies, including Saul. 27
18:14 Joab replied, “I will not wait around like this for you!” He took three spears in his hand and thrust them into the middle of Absalom while he was still alive in the middle of the oak tree. 28
18:1 David assembled the army that was with him. He appointed leaders of thousands and leaders of hundreds.
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 “delivered.”
5 tn Or “wherever he went.”
6 tc The MT is repetitious here: “He placed in Edom garrisons; in all Edom he placed garrisons.” The Vulgate lacks “in all Edom”; most of the Greek tradition (with the exception of the Lucianic recension and the recension of Origen) and the Syriac Peshitta lack “he placed garrisons.” The MT reading appears here to be the result of a conflation of variant readings.
7 tn Or “for.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki) is asseverative here.
8 tn Heb “by you.”
9 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.”
10 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.
11 tn Heb “by my God.”
12 tn David uses hyperbole to emphasize his God-given military superiority.
13 tc Heb “[the one who] makes his feet like [those of] a deer.” The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew
14 tn Heb “and on my high places he makes me walk.” The imperfect verbal form emphasizes God’s characteristic provision. The psalmist compares his agility in battle to the ability of a deer to negotiate rugged, high terrain without falling or being injured. Habakkuk uses similar language to describe his faith during difficult times. See Hab 3:19.
15 tn Heb “teaches.”
16 tn The psalmist attributes his skill with weapons to divine enabling. Egyptian reliefs picture gods teaching the king how to shoot a bow. See O. Keel, Symbolism of the Biblical World, 265.
17 tn Heb “and a bow of bronze is bent by my arms.” The verb נָחֵת (nakhet) apparently means “to pull back; to bend” here (see HALOT 692 s.v. נחת). The bronze bow referred to here was probably laminated with bronze strips, or a purely ceremonial or decorative bow made entirely from bronze. In the latter case the language is hyperbolic, for such a weapon would not be functional in battle.
18 tn Another option is to translate the prefixed verb with vav consecutive with a past tense, “you gave me.” Several prefixed verbal forms with vav consecutive also appear in vv. 38-44. The present translation understands this section as a description of what generally happened when the author charged into battle, but another option is to understand the section as narrative and translate accordingly.
19 tc Ps 18:35 contains an additional line following this one, which reads “your right hand supports me.” It may be omitted here due to homoioarcton. See the note at Ps 18:35.
20 tn Heb “your answer makes me great.” David refers to God’s willingness to answer his prayer.
21 tn Heb “step.” “Step” probably refers metonymically to the path upon which the psalmist walks. Another option is to translate, “you widen my stride.” This would suggest that God gives him the capacity to run quickly.
22 tn Heb “lower legs.” On the meaning of the Hebrew noun, which occurs only here, see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena (SBLDS), 112. A cognate Akkadian noun means “lower leg.”
23 sn In this long song of thanks, David affirms that God is his faithful protector. He recalls in highly poetic fashion how God intervened in awesome power and delivered him from death. His experience demonstrates that God vindicates those who are blameless and remain loyal to him. True to his promises, God gives the king victory on the battlefield and enables him to subdue nations. A parallel version of the song appears in Ps 18.
24 tn Heb “spoke.”
25 tn Heb “in the day,” or “at the time.”
26 tn Heb “hand.”
27 tn Heb “and from the hand of Saul.”
28 tn There is a play on the word “heart” here that is difficult to reproduce in English. Literally the Hebrew text says “he took three spears in his hand and thrust them into the heart of Absalom while he was still alive in the heart of the oak tree.” This figure of speech involves the use of the same word in different senses and is known as antanaclasis. It is illustrated in the familiar saying from the time of the American Revolution: “If we don’t hang together, we will all hang separately.” The present translation understands “heart” to be used somewhat figuratively for “chest” (cf. TEV, CEV), which explains why Joab’s armor bearers could still “kill” Absalom after he had been stabbed with three spears through the “heart.” Since trees do not have “chests” either, the translation uses “middle.”
29 tc The LXX (with the exception of the recensions of Origen and Lucian) repeats the description as follows: “Just as a female bear bereft of cubs in a field.”