2 Samuel 22:30

22:30 Indeed, ¹ with your help ²  I can charge ³  against an army; ⁴ 

by my God’s power ⁵  I can jump over a wall. ⁶ 

2 Samuel 18:23

18:23 But he said, ⁷  “Whatever happens, I want to go!” So Joab ⁸  said to him, “Then go!” So Ahimaaz ran by the way of the Jordan plain, and he passed the Cushite.

[22:30]  ¹ tn Or “for.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki) is asseverative here.

[22:30]  ² tn Heb “by you.”

[22:30]  ³ 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.”

[22:30]  ⁴ 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.

[22:30]  ⁵ tn Heb “by my God.”

[22:30]  ⁶ tn David uses hyperbole to emphasize his God-given military superiority.

[18:23]  ⁷ tn The words “but he said” are not in the Hebrew text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[18:23]  ⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.