2 Samuel 22:2-4

22:2 He said:

“The Lord is my high ridge, ¹  my stronghold, ²  my deliverer.

22:3 My God ³  is my rocky summit where I take shelter, ⁴ 

my shield, the horn that saves me, ⁵  my stronghold,

my refuge, my savior. You save me from violence! ⁶ 

22:4 I called ⁷  to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, ⁸ 

and I was delivered from my enemies.

[22:2]  ¹ tn Traditionally “is my rock”; CEV “mighty rock”; TEV “is my protector.” This metaphor pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28.

[22:2]  ² tn Traditionally “my fortress”; TEV “my strong fortress”; NCV “my protection.”

[22:3]  ³ 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.

[22:3]  ⁴ tn Or “in whom.”

[22:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “the horn of my salvation,” or “my saving horn.”

[22:3]  ⁶ tn The parallel version of the song in Ps 18 does not include this last line.

[22:4]  ⁵ tn In this song of thanksgiving, where David recalls how the Lord delivered him, the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense (cf. CEV “I prayed”), not an imperfect (as in many English versions).

[22:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “worthy of praise, I cried out [to] the Lord.” Some take מְהֻלָּל (mÿhullal, “worthy of praise”) with what precedes and translate, “the praiseworthy one,” or “praiseworthy.” However, the various epithets in vv. 1-2 have the first person pronominal suffix, unlike מְהֻלָּל. If one follows the traditional verse division and takes מְהֻלָּל with what follows, it is best understood as substantival and as appositional to יְהוָה (yÿhvah, “Yahweh”), resulting in “[to the] praiseworthy one I cried out, [to the] Lord.”