2 Samuel 22:10

22:10 He made the sky sink ¹  as he descended;

a thick cloud was under his feet.

2 Samuel 22:14

22:14 The Lord thundered ²  from the sky;

the sovereign One ³  shouted loudly. ⁴ 

2 Samuel 22:8

22:8 The earth heaved and shook; ⁵ 

the foundations of the sky ⁶  trembled. ⁷ 

They heaved because he was angry.

2 Samuel 21:10

21:10 Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest until the rain fell on them, ⁸  she did not allow the birds of the air to feed ⁹  on them by day, nor the wild animals ¹⁰  by night.

2 Samuel 18:9

18:9 Then Absalom happened to come across David’s men. Now as Absalom was riding on his ¹¹  mule, it ¹²  went under the branches of a large oak tree. His head got caught in the oak and he was suspended in midair, ¹³  while the mule he had been riding kept going.

[22:10]  ¹ tn The verb נָטָה (natah) can carry the sense “[to cause to] bend; [to cause to] bow down” (see HALOT 693 s.v. נָטָה). For example, Gen 49:15 pictures Issachar as a donkey that “bends” its shoulder or back under a burden (cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV “He bowed the heavens”; NAB “He inclined the heavens”). Here the Lord causes the sky, pictured as a dome or vault, to bend or sink down as he descends in the storm.

[22:14]  ² tn The shortened theme vowel indicates that the prefixed verbal form is a preterite.

[22:14]  ³ tn Heb “the Most High.” This divine title (עֶלְיוֹן, ’elyon) pictures God as the exalted ruler of the universe who vindicates the innocent and judges the wicked. See especially Ps 47:2.

[22:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “offered his voice.” In this poetic narrative context the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense, not an imperfect. Note the preterite form in the preceding line. The text of Ps 18:13 adds at this point, “hail and coals of fire.” These words are probably accidentally added from v. 12b; they do not appear in 2 Sam 22:14.

[22:8]  ³ tn The earth heaved and shook. The imagery pictures an earthquake, in which the earth’s surface rises and falls. The earthquake motif is common in Old Testament theophanies of God as warrior and in ancient Near eastern literary descriptions of warring gods and kings. See R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 160-62.

[22:8]  ⁴ tn Ps 18:7 reads “the roots of the mountains.”

[22:8]  ⁵ tn In this poetic narrative context the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense, not an imperfect. Note the three prefixed verbal forms with vav consecutive in the verse.

[21:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “until water was poured on them from the sky.”

[21:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “rest.”

[21:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “the beasts of the field.”

[18:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “the.”

[18:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “the donkey.”

[18:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “between the sky and the ground.”