2 Samuel 22:24

22:24 I was blameless before him;

I kept myself from sinning. ¹ 

2 Samuel 22:29

22:29 Indeed, ²  you are my lamp, ³  Lord.

The Lord illumines ⁴  the darkness around me. ⁵ 

[22:24]  ¹ tn Heb “from my sin,” that is, from making it my own in any way. Leading a “blameless” life meant that the king would be loyal to God’s covenant, purge the government and society of evil and unjust officials, and reward loyalty to the Lord (see Ps 101).

[22:29]  ² tn Or “for.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki) is asseverative here.

[22:29]  ³ tc Many medieval Hebrew mss, some LXX mss, and the Syriac Peshitta support reading תָּאִיר (ta’ir, “you cause to shine”) before the words “my lamp.” See Ps 18:28. The metaphor, which likens the Lord to a lamp or light, pictures him as the psalmist’s source of life. For other examples of “lamp” used in this way, see Job 18:6; 21:17; Prov 13:9; 20:20; 24:20. For other examples of “light” as a symbol for life, see Job 3:20; 33:30; Ps 56:13.

[22:29]  ⁴ tc The Lucianic Greek recension and Vulgate understand this verb to be second person rather than third person as in the MT. But this is probably the result of reading the preceding word “Lord” as a vocative under the influence of the vocative in the first part of the verse.

[22:29]  ⁵ tn Heb “my darkness.”