Discovery BoxPsalms 18:38-42
Context18:38 I beat them 1 to death; 2
they fall at my feet. 3
18:39 You give me strength 4 for battle;
you make my foes kneel before me. 5
18:40 You make my enemies retreat; 6
I destroy those who hate me. 7
18:41 They cry out, but there is no one to help them; 8
they cry out to the Lord, 9 but he does not answer them.
18:42 I grind them as fine windblown dust; 10
I beat them underfoot 11 like clay 12 in the streets.
Psalms 27:2
Context27:2 When evil men attack me 13
to devour my flesh, 14
when my adversaries and enemies attack me, 15
they stumble and fall. 16
John 18:6
Context18:6 So when Jesus 17 said to them, “I am he,” they retreated 18 and fell to the ground. 19
[18:38] 1 tn Or “smash them.” 2 Sam 22:39 reads, “and I wiped them out and smashed them.”
[18:38] 2 tn Heb “until they are unable to rise.” 2 Sam 22:39 reads, “until they do not rise.”
[18:38] 3 sn They fall at my feet. For ancient Near Eastern parallels, see O. Keel, The Symbolism of the Biblical World, 294-97.
[18:39] 4 tn Heb “clothed me.” See v. 32.
[18:39] 5 tn Heb “you make those who rise against me kneel beneath me.”
[18:40] 6 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] 7 sn Those who hate me. See v. 17, where it is the
[18:41] 8 tn Heb “but there is no deliverer.”
[18:41] 9 tn Heb “to the
[18:42] 10 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] 11 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.
[27:2] 13 tn Heb “draw near to me.”
[27:2] 14 sn To devour my flesh. The psalmist compares his enemies to dangerous, hungry predators (see 2 Kgs 9:36; Ezek 39:17).
[27:2] 15 tn Heb “my adversaries and my enemies against me.” The verb “draw near” (that is, “attack”) is understood by ellipsis; see the previous line.
[27:2] 16 tn The Hebrew verbal forms are perfects. The translation assumes the psalmist is generalizing here, but another option is to take this as a report of past experience, “when evil men attacked me…they stumbled and fell.”
[18:6] 17 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[18:6] 18 tn Grk “moved back” (but here a fairly rapid movement is implied).
[18:6] 19 sn When Jesus said to those who came to arrest him “I am,” they retreated and fell to the ground. L. Morris says that “it is possible that those in front recoiled from Jesus’ unexpected advance, so that they bumped those behind them, causing them to stumble and fall” (John [NICNT], 743-44). Perhaps this is what in fact happened on the scene; but the theological significance given to this event by the author implies that more is involved. The reaction on the part of those who came to arrest Jesus comes in response to his affirmation that he is indeed the one they are seeking, Jesus the Nazarene. But Jesus makes this affirmation of his identity using a formula which the reader has encountered before in the Fourth Gospel, e.g., 8:24, 28, 58. Jesus has applied to himself the divine Name of Exod 3:14, “I AM.” Therefore this amounts to something of a theophany which causes even his enemies to recoil and prostrate themselves, so that Jesus has to ask a second time, “Who are you looking for?” This is a vivid reminder to the reader of the Gospel that even in this dark hour, Jesus holds ultimate power over his enemies and the powers of darkness, because he is the one who bears the divine Name.
