2 Samuel 22:9

22:9 Smoke ascended from ¹  his nose; ² 

fire devoured as it came from his mouth; ³ 

he hurled down fiery coals. ⁴ 

2 Samuel 2:26

2:26 Then Abner called out to Joab, “Must the sword devour forever? Don’t you realize that this will turn bitter in the end? When will you tell the people to turn aside from pursuing their brothers?”

2 Samuel 9:7

9:7 David said to him, “Don’t be afraid, because I will certainly extend kindness to you for the sake of Jonathan your father. You will be a regular guest at my table.” ⁵ 

2 Samuel 11:25

11:25 David said to the messenger, “Tell Joab, ‘Don’t let this thing upset you. ⁶  There is no way to anticipate whom the sword will cut down. ⁷  Press the battle against the city and conquer ⁸  it.’ Encourage him with these words.” ⁹ 

2 Samuel 12:3

12:3 But the poor man had nothing except for a little lamb he had acquired. He raised it, and it grew up alongside him and his children. ¹⁰  It used to ¹¹  eat his food, ¹²  drink from his cup, and sleep in his arms. ¹³  It was just like a daughter to him.

[22:9]  ¹ tn Heb “within” or “[from] within.” For a discussion of the use of the preposition בְּ (bet) here, see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 163-64.

[22:9]  ² tn Or “in his anger.” The noun אַף (’af) can carry the abstract meaning “anger,” but the parallelism (note “from his mouth”) suggests the more concrete meaning “nose” here (most English versions, “nostrils”). See also v. 16, “the powerful breath of your nose.”

[22:9]  ³ tn Heb “fire from his mouth devoured.” In this poetic narrative the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense, not an imperfect. Note the two perfect verbal forms in the verse.

[22:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “coals burned from him.” Perhaps the psalmist pictures God’s fiery breath igniting coals (see Job 41:21), which he then hurls as weapons (see Ps 120:4).

[9:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “and you will eat food over my table continually.”

[11:25]  ⁹ tn Heb “let not this matter be evil in your eyes.”

[11:25]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “according to this and according to this the sword devours.”

[11:25]  ¹¹ tn Heb “overthrow.”

[11:25]  ¹² tn The Hebrew text does not have “with these words.” They are supplied in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[12:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “his sons.”

[12:3]  ¹⁴ tn The three Hebrew imperfect verbal forms in this sentence have a customary nuance; they describe past actions that were repeated or typical.

[12:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “from his morsel.”

[12:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and on his chest [or perhaps, “lap”] it would lay.”