2 Samuel 22:5

22:5 The waves of death engulfed me;

the currents ¹  of chaos ²  overwhelmed me. ³ 

2 Samuel 20:1

Sheba’s Rebellion

20:1 Now a wicked man ⁴  named Sheba son of Bicri, a Benjaminite, ⁵  happened to be there. He blew the trumpet ⁶  and said,

“We have no share in David;

we have no inheritance in this son of Jesse!

Every man go home, ⁷  O Israel!”

[22:5]  ¹ tn The noun נַחַל (nakhal) usually refers to a river or stream, but in this context the plural form likely refers to the currents of the sea (see vv. 15-16).

[22:5]  ² tn The noun בְלִיַּעַל (bÿliyya’al) is used here as an epithet for death. Elsewhere it is a common noun meaning “wickedness, uselessness” (see HALOT 133-34 s.v. בְּלִיַּעַל). It is often associated with rebellion against authority and other crimes that result in societal disorder and anarchy. The phrase “man/son of wickedness” refers to one who opposes God and the order he has established. The term becomes an appropriate title for death, which, through human forces, launches an attack against God’s chosen servant.

[22:5]  ³ tn In this poetic narrative context the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense, not an imperfect. (Note the perfect verbal form in the parallel/preceding line.) The verb בָּעַת (ba’at) sometimes by metonymy carries the nuance “frighten,” but the parallelism (note “engulfed” in the preceding line) favors the meaning “overwhelm” here.

[20:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “a man of worthlessness.”

[20:1]  ⁵ tn The expression used here יְמִינִי (yÿmini) is a short form of the more common “Benjamin.” It appears elsewhere in 1 Sam 9:4 and Esth 2:5. Cf. 1 Sam 9:1.

[20:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “the shophar” (the ram’s horn trumpet). So also v. 22.

[20:1]  ⁷ tc The MT reads לְאֹהָלָיו (lÿ’ohalav, “to his tents”). For a similar idiom, see 19:9. An ancient scribal tradition understands the reading to be לְאלֹהָיו (le’lohav, “to his gods”). The word is a tiqqun sopherim, and the scribes indicate that they changed the word from “gods” to “tents” so as to soften its theological implications. In a consonantal Hebrew text the change involved only the metathesis of two letters.