2 Samuel 22:3

22:3 My God ¹  is my rocky summit where I take shelter, ² 

my shield, the horn that saves me, ³  my stronghold,

my refuge, my savior. You save me from violence! ⁴ 

Psalms 35:2

35:2 Grab your small shield and large shield, ⁵ 

and rise up to help me!

Psalms 91:4

91:4 He will shelter you ⁶  with his wings; ⁷ 

you will find safety under his wings.

His faithfulness is like a shield or a protective wall. ⁸ 

Psalms 2:7

2:7 The king says, ⁹  “I will announce the Lord’s decree. He said to me: ¹⁰ 

‘You are my son! ¹¹  This very day I have become your father!

[22:3]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Or “in whom.”

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

[22:3]  ⁴ tn The parallel version of the song in Ps 18 does not include this last line.

[35:2]  ⁵ tn Two different types of shields are mentioned here. See also Ezek 38:4. Many modern translations render the first term (translated here “small shield”) as “buckler” (cf. NASB “buckler and shield”; the order is often reversed in the translation, apparently for stylistic reasons: cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV “shield and buckler”). The English term “buckler,” referring to a small round shield held on the arm to protect the upper body, is unfamiliar to many modern readers, so the term “small shield” was used in the present translation for clarity.

[91:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “put a cover over you” (see Ps 5:11).

[91:4]  ⁷ tc The Hebrew text has the singular, but the plural should be read. The final yod (י) of the suffix, which indicates the plural, has dropped off by haplography (note the yod [י] at the beginning of the next word).

[91:4]  ⁸ tn Traditionally the Hebrew term סֹחֵרָה (sokherah), which occurs only here in the OT, has been understood to refer to a buckler or small shield (see BDB 695 s.v.). But HALOT 750 s.v., on the basis of evidence from the cognate languages, proposes the meaning “wall.”

[2:7]  ⁹ tn The words “the king says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The speaker is the Lord’s chosen king.

[2:7]  ¹⁰ tn Or “I will relate the decree. The Lord said to me” (in accordance with the Masoretic accentuation).

[2:7]  ¹¹ sn ‘You are my son!’ The Davidic king was viewed as God’s “son” (see 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 89:26-27). The idiom reflects ancient Near Eastern adoption language associated with covenants of grant, by which a lord would reward a faithful subject by elevating him to special status, referred to as “sonship.” Like a son, the faithful subject received an “inheritance,” viewed as an unconditional, eternal gift. Such gifts usually took the form of land and/or an enduring dynasty. See M. Weinfeld, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East,” JAOS 90 (1970): 184-203, for general discussion and some striking extra-biblical parallels.