2 Samuel 22:36

22:36 You give me ¹  your protective shield; ² 

your willingness to help enables me to prevail. ³ 

2 Samuel 22:47

22:47 The Lord is alive! ⁴ 

My protector ⁵  is praiseworthy! ⁶ 

The God who delivers me ⁷  is exalted as king! ⁸ 

2 Samuel 22:3

22:3 My God ⁹  is my rocky summit where I take shelter, ¹⁰ 

my shield, the horn that saves me, ¹¹  my stronghold,

my refuge, my savior. You save me from violence! ¹² 

2 Samuel 23:5

23:5 My dynasty is approved by God, ¹³ 

for he has made a perpetual covenant with me,

arranged in all its particulars and secured.

He always delivers me,

and brings all I desire to fruition. ¹⁴ 

[22:36]  ¹ tn Another option is to translate the prefixed verb with vav consecutive with a past tense, “you gave me.” Several prefixed verbal forms with vav consecutive also appear in vv. 38-44. The present translation understands this section as a description of what generally happened when the author charged into battle, but another option is to understand the section as narrative and translate accordingly.

[22:36]  ² tc Ps 18:35 contains an additional line following this one, which reads “your right hand supports me.” It may be omitted here due to homoioarcton. See the note at Ps 18:35.

[22:36]  ³ tn Heb “your answer makes me great.” David refers to God’s willingness to answer his prayer.

[22:47]  ⁴ tn Elsewhere the construction חַי־יְהוָה (khay-yÿhvah) as used exclusively as an oath formula, but this is not the case here, for no oath follows. Here the statement is an affirmation of the Lord’s active presence and intervention. In contrast to pagan deities, he demonstrates that he is the living God by rescuing and empowering the psalmist.

[22:47]  ⁵ tn Heb “my rocky cliff,” which is a metaphor for protection.

[22:47]  ⁶ tn Or “blessed [i.e., praised] be.”

[22:47]  ⁷ tn Heb “the God of the rock of my deliverance.” The term צוּר (tsur, “rock”) is probably accidentally repeated from the previous line. The parallel version in Ps 18:46 has simply “the God of my deliverance.”

[22:47]  ⁸ tn The words “as king” are supplied in the translation for clarification. In the Psalms the verb רוּם (rum, “be exalted”) when used of God, refers to his exalted position as king (Pss 99:2; 113:4; 138:6) and/or his self-revelation as king through his mighty deeds of deliverance (Pss 21:13; 46:10; 57:5, 11).

[22:3]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Or “in whom.”

[22:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “the horn of my salvation,” or “my saving horn.”

[22:3]  ¹⁰ tn The parallel version of the song in Ps 18 does not include this last line.

[23:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “For not thus [is] my house with God?”

[23:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “for all my deliverance and every desire, surely does he not make [it] grow?”