Psalms 18:37-42

18:37 I chase my enemies and catch ¹  them;

I do not turn back until I wipe them out.

18:38 I beat them ²  to death; ³ 

they fall at my feet. ⁴ 

18:39 You give me strength ⁵  for battle;

you make my foes kneel before me. ⁶ 

18:40 You make my enemies retreat; ⁷ 

I destroy those who hate me. ⁸ 

18:41 They cry out, but there is no one to help them; ⁹ 

they cry out to the Lord, ¹⁰  but he does not answer them.

18:42 I grind them as fine windblown dust; ¹¹ 

I beat them underfoot ¹²  like clay ¹³  in the streets.

[18:37]  ¹ tn 2 Sam 22:38 reads “destroy.”

[18:38]  ² tn Or “smash them.” 2 Sam 22:39 reads, “and I wiped them out and smashed them.”

[18:38]  ³ tn Heb “until they are unable to rise.” 2 Sam 22:39 reads, “until they do not rise.”

[18:38]  ⁴ sn They fall at my feet. For ancient Near Eastern parallels, see O. Keel, The Symbolism of the Biblical World, 294-97.

[18:39]  ³ tn Heb “clothed me.” See v. 32.

[18:39]  ⁴ tn Heb “you make those who rise against me kneel beneath me.”

[18:40]  ⁴ tn Heb “and [as for] my enemies, you give to me [the] back [or “neck”].” The idiom “give [the] back” means “to cause [one] to turn the back and run away.” Cf. Exod 23:27.

[18:40]  ⁵ sn Those who hate me. See v. 17, where it is the Lord who delivered the psalmist from those who hated him.

[18:41]  ⁵ tn Heb “but there is no deliverer.”

[18:41]  ⁶ tn Heb “to the Lord.” The words “they cry out” are supplied in the translation because they are understood by ellipsis (see the preceding line).

[18:42]  ⁶ tn Heb “I pulverize them like dust upon the face of the wind.” The phrase “upon the face of” here means “before.” 2 Sam 22:43 reads, “like dust of the earth.”

[18:42]  ⁷ tc Ps 18:42 reads, “I empty them out” (Hiphil of ריק), while 2 Sam 22:43 reads, “I crush them, I stomp on them” (juxtaposing the synonyms דקק and רקע). It is likely that the latter is a conflation of variants. One, but not both, of the verbs in 2 Sam 22:43 is probably original; “empty out” does not form as good a parallel with “grind, pulverize” in the parallel line.

[18:42]  ⁸ tn Or “mud.”