Deuteronomy 32:4

32:4 As for the Rock, ¹  his work is perfect,

for all his ways are just.

He is a reliable God who is never unjust,

he is fair ²  and upright.

Deuteronomy 32:30-31

32:30 How can one man chase a thousand of them, ³ 

and two pursue ten thousand;

unless their Rock had delivered them up, ⁴ 

and the Lord had handed them over?

32:31 For our enemies’ ⁵  rock is not like our Rock,

as even our enemies concede.

Deuteronomy 32:1

Invocation of Witnesses

32:1 Listen, O heavens, and I will speak;

hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

Deuteronomy 2:2

2:2 At this point the Lord said to me,

Psalms 18:1

Psalm 18 ⁶ 

For the music director; by the Lord’s servant David, who sang ⁷  to the Lord the words of this song when ⁸  the Lord rescued him from the power ⁹  of all his enemies, including Saul. ¹⁰ 

18:1 He said: ¹¹ 

“I love ¹²  you, Lord, my source of strength! ¹³ 

[32:4]  ¹ tc The LXX reads Θεός (qeos, “God”) for the MT’s “Rock.”

[32:4]  ² tn Or “just” (KJV, NAB, NRSV, NLT) or “righteous” (NASB).

[32:30]  ³ tn The words “man” and “of them” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[32:30]  ⁴ tn Heb “sold them” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[32:31]  ⁵ tn Heb “their,” but the referent (enemies) is specified in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[18:1]  ⁶ sn Psalm 18. In this long song of thanks, the psalmist (a Davidic king, traditionally understood as David himself) affirms that God is his faithful protector. He recalls in highly poetic fashion how God intervened in awesome power and delivered him from death. The psalmist’s experience demonstrates that God vindicates those who are blameless and remain loyal to him. True to his promises, God gives the king victory on the battlefield and enables him to subdue nations. A parallel version of the psalm appears in 2 Sam 22:1-51.

[18:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “spoke.”

[18:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “in the day,” or “at the time.”

[18:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “hand.”

[18:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and from the hand of Saul.”

[18:1]  ¹¹ tn A number of translations (e.g., NASB, NIV, NRSV) assign the words “he said” to the superscription, in which case the entire psalm is in first person. Other translations (e.g., NAB) include the introductory “he said” at the beginning of v. 1.

[18:1]  ¹² tn The verb רָחַם (rakham) elsewhere appears in the Piel (or Pual) verbal stem with the basic meaning, “have compassion.” The verb occurs only here in the basic (Qal) stem. The basic stem of the verbal root also occurs in Aramaic with the meaning “love” (see DNWSI 2:1068-69; Jastrow 1467 s.v. רָחַם; G. Schmuttermayr, “rhm: eine lexikalische Studie,” Bib 51 [1970]: 515-21). Since this introductory statement does not appear in the parallel version in 2 Sam 22:1-51, it is possible that it is a later addition to the psalm, made when the poem was revised for use in worship.

[18:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “my strength.” “Strength” is metonymic here, referring to the Lord as the one who bestows strength to the psalmist; thus the translation “my source of strength.”