Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church of Manhattan, KS 18 Jan 2015, 18 Dec 2022
Omitting greyed-out text should bring delivery time down to 45 minutes.
Then David uttered to Yahweh the words of this song during the time that Yahweh caused him to escape from the control of all his enemies and from the control of Saul, and he said, “Yahweh, You are my rock-mountain and my stronghold and my deliverer for me. My God, You are my landmark-rock in which I will take refuge, my shield and horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my escape, my savior. You will save me from violence. He being praiseworthy, I will call Yahweh, and from my enemies I will be saved. For, crashing-waves of death drowned me; torrents of ungodliness overwhelmed me; pains of Sheol surrounded me; deathly noose-snares confronted me. During my distress, I would call Yahweh – indeed to my God I would call, and from His temple He would hear my voice, and my hollering [would make it] into His ears. Then the earth crashed and buckled; the foundations of the heavens trembled. Indeed, they crashed themselves because He was angry. Smoke went up in His anger, and fire from His mouth was consuming; coals burned out of Him! Then He parted the heavens and came down, and the fog was under His feet. He also rode upon a cherub, and flew and was seen upon wings of wind. He also placed darkness around Himself - pavilions of the cloudmass of waters, the density of stormclouds. Out of the brightness corresponding to Him, coals of fire burned. Yahweh caused it to thunder from the heavens, and the Most High put forth His voice. He also shot arrows – lightening, and made a commotion among them, and caused them to scatter. Then the beds of the sea were made visible; {and} the foundations of the world were laid bare by the rebuke of Yahweh - from the blast of the spirit of His anger. He will send from on high, {and} He will take me; He will pull me out of increasing waters. He will cause to deliver me from my strong enemy - from the ones who hate me - because they were stronger than me. They will confront me in my day of calamity, but Yahweh has became my support, and He has brought me out to freedom.
The text of 2 Samuel 22 is almost word-for-word the same as Psalm 18. This Psalm was probably written a little earlier in David’s reign before his sons started fighting for being the next king. Verse 1 suggests that Saul has passed away and that David had experienced significant victories on every front, so there were practically no enemies left to fight.
But in verse two, David seems to be recalling the kind of rocky mountains of southern Judea in which he had safely hid during the earlier years when King Saul and his army were trying to hunt him down.
“But whilst David took refuge in rocks, he placed his hopes of safety not in their inaccessible character, but in God the Lord, the eternal spiritual rock, whom he could see in the earthly rock, so that he called Him his true castle.” ~Keil & Delitzsch
This is the first of the Psalms which calls God a “rock and a fortress.” Now, when David calls God his “rock,” don’t think “rock” like a pebble that you can put into your pocket. The first Hebrew word here sala’ means a mountain made of rock, big enough to get lost in, big enough to hide in, big enough to carve caves in or to use as a fortress.
Later on in the verse, David uses another Hebrew word tsur, which is translated “rock” or “strength” - and which literally means “pressed together,”
I would interpret the tsur rock to mean “extruded rock” which is visible above the surface of the ground (and which may have been used as a landmark for David’s men to find him in his hideout cave)
or perhaps it refers to a “narrow place” among rocks where one could safely hide (1 Chron. 11:15), because, no matter how big an army came after you, the constricted passage would limit the enemy to sending only one soldier through at a time, so you could defend yourself against only one man at a time.
Not only was this tsur-rock a safe place, it was also a Biblical symbol of provision, for it was one of these rock formations in Horeb that Moses struck to get water for the thirsty Israelites (Ex. 17:6, Psalm 78:15).
The metsudah – a structure that holds a person fast in it – was the Hebrew word used in 1 Samuel 22 to describe the cave of Adullam in which David found protection from Saul.
But these rocky fortresses were merely a symbol in David’s mind for a much greater divine refuge. These mountain hideouts were not ultimately David’s trust; David was trusting in God to deliver him from his enemies. He says in v.2, “Akhasah/I will trust/I will take refuge1 in Him,” because, as he had affirmed earlier in Psalm 2:12 “Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.”2
Verse 2 introduces several other names for God:
We also encountered the magin/buckler/portable shield already in Psalm 3:3 & 7:10 as a symbol for God’s protection wherever you go,
and we encounter the mishgav/high tower/stronghold in Psalm 9:9 as a symbol of God being a safe place you can retreat to: “Yahweh will be a stronghold for the one who is beaten down, a stronghold for times that include trouble.”
But what is this “horn3 of salvation”?
The word literally means “horn” like what cattle have sticking out of their heads. The horn of a bull is his main offensive weapon, and he uses his horns successfully to defend himself. But a second meaning for “horn” is derived from that when people sawed the horns off of a bull, hollowed them out and stored oil in them or blew through them to make the musical instrument called a “horn.”
This (and its copy in Psalm 18) is the only other place in the Old Testament where this “horn of salvation” shows up. Here, God is the horn, and it is in a military context, whether as a symbol of a powerful weapon or as a war-trumpet announcing the arrival of fresh troops to rescue brothers-in-arms.
The “horn of salvation” also shows up once in the New Testament, in Luke 1:68-78, where Zachariah, the father of John the Baptizer prophesied, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he has visited and redeemed his people, And has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David... That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant... that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life... salvation [coming] unto his people by the remission of their sins, Through the tender mercy of our God...”
Clearly Zachariah in the New Testament is quoting this psalm, yet he saw the application of David’s military tactical terms about weapons and strongholds and terrain features in the light of a much larger spiritual conflict in which the enemy is not Saul but sin and rebellion against God which brings spiritual darkness and death, and in which “salvation from all our enemies” means “forgiveness of sin,” “holiness and righteousness” which come through the “tender mercies of God,” and results in “serving God without fear.”
You who are soldiers deployed in harm’s way may get to experience the military application of David’s psalm here, that God is a shield, strength, a place you can fight successfully from, and a place of refuge,
but all of us can apply it ultimately in the way that Zachariah did to God’s victories over sin and death in the advent of Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection, the advances of His kingdom in the hearts of mankind, and His second coming and judgment and setting all things aright. As we take refuge in Jesus by faith and follow Him, we will be freed from the control of sin, we will experience victories over sin, we will be protected from experiencing the fullness of God’s wrath against sin, and we will ultimately be delivered into a glorified eternity without sin or death.
In light of the fact that God is our strength, our rock, our stronghold, our deliverer, our God, our refuge, our shield, horn of salvation, and high tower, the LORD is more awesome than any Marvel comic hero, He is worthy of praise, and He is the one to whom we must turn to save us from our enemies.
What are those enemies Jesus will save us from? In v.4, David begins his testimony about particular occasions in his life and the life of his nation in which God brought deliverance:
Some of the same words in this testimony are also used in Psalm 140:5, describing different kinds of traps from which David was delivered: “The proud have hid a pit-snare for me, and cords [“cords/ropes” is another way that the word for “pangs/sorrows” can be translated]; they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set noose-snares for me.” This could represent various stratagems Saul or the Canaanite nations employed to hunt David down4.
But ultimately what this enemy threatens is death. “Death” is mentioned twice in verses 5-6, plus “Sheol,” the realm of death. Of course, in the immediate context, Goliath, Saul, Absolom and many others tried to kill David, and his close brushes with death were understandably overwhelming experiences, but this is applicable way beyond David’s personal experiences, because death is an enemy common to us all. It is the result of sin, from the sin of Satan to the sin of Adam in rebelling against God and, as a result, we become overwhelmed with the horrors of a world filled with death, decay, destruction, ungodliness, and pain.
I watched the movie To End All Wars with some of my older kids, and even though we had a ClearPlay filter on to filter out the bad language and the worst of the violence, by the time the credits were rolling, we were just sitting in silence, stunned by the horrors of death and suffering that the soldiers went through in that Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. Some of us were even crying. What do we do with these feelings?
When David saw the evil threats around him, it was his custom to go to the only source of solutions he knew was powerful enough to fix things, and that was the LORD.
All the verbs in v.7 are in the Hebrew imperfect tense, which generally doesn’t denote a single action in the past, so I’m interpreting them as habitual actions.
David did this more than once before he was saved from all his enemies. He sets an example for us as to what to do when we see trouble: Cry out to God. Ask God to bring deliverance.
And as David asserts in v.7, when we pray; God hears. There is never a time when you tried to get God’s attention that He didn’t listen to you. Every time, when David hollered for help from God, the cry made it into the ears of God.
This is remarkable when you think of it. Recently I put an idea into the suggestion box of a large non-profit organization. I figured maybe if enough other people raised the same issue maybe something might be done about it in a couple of years, so when I got a phone call less than a week later in which the president of the organization took the time to talk with me about the issue, I was floored. That just doesn’t happen very often in human organizations.
But when you call to God in your distress, the signal goes all the way to the top of the chain of command. God hears and responds from His temple in heaven (there was no earthly temple in David’s time). And what a response!
“...the mountains trembled... Smoke... and fire... He came down and there was fog... darkness... dense stormclouds... hail... thunder... lightening... commotion... wind...”
The verbs shift in this section to mostly historical vav-consecutives, so I’m interpreting them as past events:
Much of this seems to recall times prior to David when God answered the prayers of Israelites in distress with earthquakes and storm-like conditions5:
The plagues of Egypt included “darkness” and storms and “hail mixed with fire,” and through these miraculous natural disasters summoned by the prayers of Moses, God brought deliverance for the enslaved children of Israel. (Ex. 9:24)
At the parting of the Red Sea, when God arranged the final step of deliverance from the Egyptian army, there was an earthquake according to Psalm 77:15-20. The “bed of the Sea was laid bare” so that the Israelites could walk through it on dry land, and then Exodus 14:24-27 reports that, “At the morning watch, the LORD looked down on the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud and brought the army of the Egyptians into confusion. He caused their chariot wheels to swerve, and He made them drive with difficulty; so the Egyptians said, ‘Let us flee from Israel, for the LORD is fighting for them against the Egyptians.’ Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their horsemen.’ So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state at daybreak, while the Egyptians were fleeing right into it; then the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.” (NASB) What an awesome deliverance from God in response to prayer!6
Later, during the time of Joshua, God sent a great hailstorm to help the Israelites conquer an alliance of five Amorite kings. That was when Joshua prayed for more daylight in order to finish off the enemies, so God caused the sun to stand still for a bit, “And the LORD discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Bethhoron, and smote them to Azekah, and unto Makkedah.... and as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Bethhoron, the LORD cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword.” (Joshua 10:11, KJV) Another awesome deliverance by God in response to prayer!
Later on, there also seems to have been an earthquake sent by God during the time of the Judges to help the Israelites under Deborah and Barak to route the Canaanites (Judges 5:4). “And Deborah said unto Barak, ‘Up; for this is the day in which the LORD hath delivered Sisera into thine hand: is not the LORD gone out before thee?’ So Barak went down from mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him. And the LORD discomfited Sisera, and all his chariots, and all his host, with the edge of the sword before Barak...” (Judges 4:14-15, KJV)
Then during the time of the prophet Samuel, while the Israelites were worshipping God at what later became known as Ebenezer, the Philistines snuck up and surrounded the unarmed Israelites who had gathered for worship. “And the children of Israel said to Samuel, ‘...keep crying out to Yahweh our God so He will save us from the control of the Philistines!’ So Samuel... cried out to Yahweh in behalf of Israel, and Yahweh answered him! So, there was Samuel, offering up the whole burnt offering while the Philistines engaged in battle with Israel, and then Yahweh rumbled with a loud voice on that day against the Philistines and made a commotion among them, so that they were routed in front of Israel!” (1 Sam. 7:8-10, NAW) God undertook for His people when they cried out to Him for deliverance!
Shortly after that, Nahash the king of Ammon threatened to poke out the eyes of all the Israelite men in the town of Jabesh-gilead. The people lifted up their voices weeping, and God heard. He raised up Saul to organize the Israelites for battle. “...Saul appointed three captains to the people, and, during the morning guard-duty, they went into the midst of the army-camp and struck down Ammonites… Then Saul said, ‘...Yahweh has accomplished salvation in Israel!’” (1 Sam. 11:11-13, NAW)
Even later during David’s lifetime, God sent a great earthquake to throw the Philistines into confusion as the Israelites under King Saul and his son Jonathan fought to defend themselves against the advances of the pagan Canaanites. Even though the Israelites had been stripped of all their weapons, “...Jonathan said to the guy carrying his gear, ‘Come up behind me, for Yahweh has given them into the hands of Israel!’ … [And as he started fighting the Philistines] there was an earthquake throughout the army-camp, through the field, and through all of the people. The army-station and the demolition-crews – even they quaked, and the ground shuddered, because it was a earthquake from God! And Saul's watchmen in Gibeah-of-Benjamin looked and saw the crowd dispersing and going here and there!... (1 Sam. 14:12-16, NAW). And there was a great deliverance for Israel from the oppression of the Philistines because Jonathan trusted the Lord.
I could not find a historical account in the Bible of a time when David himself prayed and God answered with an earthquake or by pulling David out of a body of water, or anything like that, but 2 Samuel 21 does indicate that there were many other battles during David’s reign not recorded in detail in the Bible, so this Psalm may be describing one of those battles, or David may be rolling together all the mighty deliverances in his memory of Israel’s history in this Psalm.
There is, however a Psalm from earlier in David’s life with a lot of similarities, and that is Psalm 142, which says it was composed by David in the cave, presumably the cave of Adullam when he was trying to escape from Saul’s attempts to murder him. David wrote in Psalm 142, “I cry out to the LORD with my voice... I declare before Him my trouble. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me... They have secretly set a snare for me... I cried out to You, O LORD: I said, ‘You are my refuge, My portion in the land of the living. Attend to my cry, For I am brought very low; Deliver me from my persecutors, For they are stronger than I. Bring my soul out of prison, That I may praise Your name; The righteous shall surround me, For You shall deal bountifully with me.’” David’s testimony now in 2 Samuel 22 (which he wrote afterward) is that when He prayed for God to deliver him, God responded and saved him from his enemies, and now David has full assurance that God will continue to deliver him from all his enemies, even the ultimate enemies of sin and eternal separation from God.
Ultimately, however, the enemies we need to be saved from come from within our own hearts, and the wrath we need to be saved from comes from God against our sin. This is illustrated in a couple other Old Testament episodes from which this psalm borrows key words:
In Numbers 11, there is a briefly-described incident using the same words found in 2 Samuel 22, where God’s wrath falls against the “mixed multitude” on the outskirts of the Israelite camp in the desert: Numbers 11:1-2 “And when the people complained, it displeased the LORD: and the LORD heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp. And the people cried unto Moses; and when Moses prayed unto the LORD, the fire was quenched.” Moses asked God to stop punishing people, and God stopped. That is an awesome situation to be in, yet the Apostle John said we can take that same role, “If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life...” (1 John 5:16, NASB)
In another incident, the words of v.9 show up7 when God came down and wiped out 70,000 Israelites as a punishment for disobedience. In 1 Chronicles 21:6, when David saw the angel of the Lord standing between the “heavens” and the earth with sword “extended” to kill still more, David cried out to the Lord for deliverance and offered a sacrifice, and the angel sheathed his sword and killed no more. That sacrifice which is the ultimate appeasement of God’s wrath is the death of Jesus on the cross. That is the central aspect of the salvation He offers, the appeasement of God’s wrath against our sins that justly deserve death. When we ask God to forgive us of our sins and save us from His wrath, He does so because of Jesus’ death on the cross.
Jesus’ deliverance in the face of the other threats we face flows from this central accomplishment of saving us from the wrath of God. When we ask Jesus to save us from other problems we face in our day-to-day life, He hears and responds with deliverance in those areas too.
Admittedly, He does not answer every prayer with a dramatic lightening-storm and earthquake. But he has done so occasionally since the time of the Psalms,
such as the darkness and earthquake that occurred when Jesus died on the cross to deliver us from sin and death,
or the time that Paul was in prison for preaching the Gospel in Philippi and was freed by an earthquake (which also led to the conversion of the jailer!).
Even in our day it can happen: In 1993, Mark Zouk related in the movie Ee-taow: The Next Chapter a time when he was serving as a missionary in a Mouk village in Papua New Guinea. As he described the earthquake during Pentecost in the book of Acts to those villagers, an earthquake occurred right then, shaking the Mouk village, and they figured it was just God showing that He could do it again!
But whether God responds to your prayer for deliverance with a dramatic earthquake and pyrotechnics or whether His deliverance comes more slowly and quietly, the point of this passage is to paint a vivid and powerful picture that illustrates that God actively responds to prayers for salvation.
The awesome power of God described in these verses should impress us. This is the kind of power God has at His disposal to save you:
In v.9 David portrays God as having some of the same characteristics of the fire-breathing leviathan of Job 41,
Verse 10 mentions cherubim.
Mankind has known about cherubim since Adam and Eve were prevented from returning to the Garden of Eden by this class of angels.
The Hebrews knew them as the images associated with the special presence of God on the mercy seat of their covenantal ark (Exodus 25),
and later apocalyptic literature portrays these mighty angels surrounding God’s throne in heaven (Ezekiel 10, Rev. 4).
They are awe-inspiring beings which presumably can fly like their cousins the seraphim (Isa. 6:2-6).
Now, God doesn’t need help to fly, but David is painting a picture intended to inspire awe, so I think he is describing one of the most awe-inspiring of God’s creations and then portraying God as Master even of that creature,
and in v. 11 he says that God “flew” (da-ah) – a Hebrew word only used for eagles in the Bible,
and in verses 12-15 he uses words that elsewhere describe mighty thunderstorms. Our God is awesome, and He delights in swooping in and saving His people!
Isaiah 31:5. “Like birds flying, so Jehovah of Hosts will surely provide protection over Jerusalem and He will deliver, and by lingering over he will rescue.”
We need salvation not only from immediate threats in our day-to-day life but also from the wrath of God on judgment day. Many of the words of this Psalm are found in end-time judgment scenarios
like Ps. 2 “Kiss the son lest His anger be kindled against you and you perish in the way.”
and Isaiah 24 17-21 “Terror and the trench and the trap are upon you, inhabitant of the earth! And it will be that he who flees from the sound of the terror shall fall into the trench, and he who gets up out of the middle of the trench shall be caught in the trap. For the windows from on high have been opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble. The earth is utterly broken, the earth is completely split apart, the earth is violently shaken. The earth staggers like a drunk; She sways like a hammock; Her sin is heavy upon her, and she falls, and she will never again stand. On that day the LORD will bring accountability upon the host of the heights, in the heights, and the kings of the earth, upon the earth.”
In verse 17, the larger picture of salvation comes clear. The verb structure changes from vav-consecutive-imperfects (which are usually interpreted in the past tense) to regular imperfects (which are usually interpreted in the future). Verse 17 says that God “will send” – who would God “send” to be our “deliverer”? Jesus! “For God so loved the world that He SENT His only-begotten son... that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:16-17).
David had a singular foe in King Saul as well as many other foes that hated him. Likewise we today have a singular foe in Satan and many other foes in this world which could beat our heads in, if it weren’t for God’s role in restraining them and protecting us.
The lesson that God will intervene with salvation when we cry out to Him to deliver us is still applicable today, and we need to remember it into the future.
We are not delivered by our own strength. God is our salvation. But we are not delivered without calling upon Him for salvation. He wants us to ask for it (James 4:2).
Jeremiah 33:2-3 "Thus says the LORD who made the earth, the LORD who formed it to establish it, the LORD is His name, 'Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things…'” (NASB)
Brothers and sisters, let us keep calling upon Jesus to save us and make us right with God!
Then we can say with absolute confidence, as the Apostle Paul did to Timothy: “the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (2 Tim. 4:18, KJV)
Let me stop here, and hopefully in the next few weeks we can look at the rest of the conditions and reasons relating to God’s salvation, but for now, remember that God has the power to save and He will save us when we call upon Him.
Ps.17 LXX |
2Sa22 LXX |
Brenton |
Douay |
KJV |
NAW |
2Sa.22 MT |
Ps.18 MT |
1 Εἰς τὸ τέλος· τῷ παιδὶ κυρίου τῷ Δαυιδ, ἃ ἐλάλησεν τῷ κυρίῳ τοὺς λόγους τῆς ᾠδῆς ταύτης ἐν ἡμέρᾳ, [ᾗ] ἐρρύσατο αὐτὸν κύριος ἐκ χειρὸς πάντων τῶν ἐχθρῶν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐκ χειρὸς Σαουλ, καὶ εἶπεν Ἀγαπήσω σε, κύριε ἡ ἰσχύς μου. |
1 Καὶ ἐλάλησεν Δαυιδ τῷ κυρίῳ τοὺς λόγους τῆς ᾠδῆς ταύτης ἐν [ᾗ] ἡμέρᾳ ἐξείλατο αὐτὸν κύριος ἐκ χειρὸς πάντων τῶν ἐχθρῶν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐκ χειρὸς Σαουλ, |
1 And David spoke to the Lord the words of this song, in the day [in which] the Lord rescued him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul. |
1 And David spoke to the Lord the words of this canticle, in the day that the Lord delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul, |
1 And David spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul: |
1 Then David uttered to Yahweh the words of this song during the time that Yahweh caused him to escape from the control of all his enemies and from the control of Saul, |
(א)B |
א ... לְדָוִד אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַיהוָה אֶת דִּבְרֵי הַשִּׁירָה הַזֹּאת בְּיוֹם הִצִּיל יְהוָה אוֹתוֹ מִכַּף כָּל אֹיְבָיו וּמִיַּד שָׁאוּל. |
2 κύριος
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2 καὶ εἶπεν Κύριε, πέτρα μου καὶ ὀχύρωμά μου καὶ ἐξαιρούμενός με ἐμοί, |
2
And |
2 And he said: The Lord is my rock, and my strength, and my saviour X. |
2 And he said, The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer X; |
2 and he said, “Yahweh, You are my rock-mountain and my stronghold and my deliverer for me. |
וַיֹּאמַר
...
ג
|
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3 ὁ θεός μου φύλαξ [ἔσται] μου, πεποιθὼς ἔσομαι ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ, ὑπερασπιστής μου καὶ κέρας σωτηρίας μου, ἀντιλήμπτωρ μου καὶ καταφυγή μου σωτηρίας μου, ἐξ ἀδίκου σώσεις με. |
3 my God; he shall [be to meG] my guard, I will trust in him: he is my protector, and the horn of my salvation, my helper, and my sure refuge; thou shalt save me from the unjust man. |
3
X God is my
strong one, in him will I trust: my shield, and the horn of my
salvation: [he]
lift |
3
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3 My God, You are my landmark-rock in which I will take refuge, my shield and horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my escape, my savior. You will save me from violence. |
(ג) אֱלֹהֵי צוּרִי אֶחֱסֶה בּוֹ מָגִנִּי וְקֶרֶן יִשְׁעִי מִשְׂגַּבִּי וּמְנוּסִי מֹשִׁעִי מֵחָמָס תֹּשִׁעֵנִי. |
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3 αἰνῶν ἐπικαλέσομαι κύριον καὶ X ἐκ τῶν ἐχθρῶν μου σωθήσομαι. |
4 αἰνετὸν ἐπικαλέσομαι κύριον καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἐχθρῶν μου σωθήσομαι. |
4 I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, and I shall be saved from my enemies. |
4 I will call on the Lord who is worthy to be praised: and I shall be saved from my enemies. |
4 I will call on the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies. |
4 He being praiseworthy, I will call Yahweh, and from my enemies I will be saved. |
ד מְהֻלָּל אֶקְרָא יְהוָה וּמִן אֹיְבַי אִוָּשֵׁעַ. |
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4 X περιέσχον με ὠδῖνες θανάτου, καὶ χείμαρροι ἀνομίας ἐξετάραξάν με |
5 ὅτι περιέσχον με συντριμμοὶ θανάτου, χείμαρροι ἀνομίας ἐθάμβησάν με· |
5 For the troubles of death compassed me, the floods of iniquity amazed me: |
5 For the pangs of death have surrounded me: the floods of Belial have made me afraid. |
5 When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid; |
5 For, crashing-waves of death drowned me; torrents of ungodliness overwhelmed me; |
ה כִּי Iאֲפָפֻנִי Jמִשְׁבְּרֵי מָוֶת נַחֲלֵי בְלִיַּעַל יְבַעֲתֻנִי. |
ה X אֲפָפוּנִי חֶבְלֵי מָוֶת וְנַחֲלֵי בְלִיַּעַל יְבַעֲתוּנִי. |
5 ὠδῖνες ᾅδου περιεκύκλωσάν με, προέφθασάν με παγίδες θανάτου. |
6 ὠδῖνες θανάτου ἐκύκλωσάν με, προέφθασάν με σκληρότητες θανάτου. |
6 the pangs of death surrounded me, the agonies of death prevented me. |
6 The cords of hell compassed me: the snares of death prevented me. |
6 The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me; |
6 pains of Sheol surrounded me; deathly noose-snares confronted me. |
ו חֶבְלֵי שְׁאוֹל סְבָבוּנִי קִדְּמוּנִי מוֹקְשֵׁי מָוֶת. |
|
6 καὶ ἐν τῷ θλίβεσθαί με ἐπεκαλεσάμην τὸν κύριον καὶ πρὸς τὸν θεόν μου ἐκέκραξα· X ἤκουσεν ἐκ ναοῦ ἁγίου αὐτοῦ φωνῆς μου, καὶ ἡ κραυγή μου ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ εἰσελεύσεται εἰς τὰ ὦτα αὐτοῦ. |
7 ἐν τῷ θλίβεσθαί με ἐπικαλέσομαι κύριον καὶ πρὸς τὸν θεόν μου βοήσομαι· καὶ ἐπακούσεται ἐκ ναοῦ αὐτοῦ φωνῆς μου, καὶ ἡ κραυγή μου ἐν τοῖς ὠσὶν αὐτοῦ.
|
7
When I am afflicted I will call upon the Lord, and
will |
7
In my distress I will call upon the Lord, and
I will |
7
In my distress I called upon the LORD, and
|
7 During my distress, I would call Yahweh – indeed to my God I would call, and from His temple He would hear my voice, and my hollering [would make it] into His ears. |
(ז) בַּצַּר לִי Lאֶקְרָא יְהוָה וְאֶל אֱלֹהַי אֶקְרָא וַיִּשְׁמַע מֵהֵיכָלוֹ קוֹלִי וְשַׁוְעָתִיM בְּאָזְנָיו. |
ז בַּצַּר לִי אֶקְרָא יְהוָה וְאֶל אֱלֹהַי אֲשַׁוֵּעַN xיִשְׁמַע מֵהֵיכָלוֹ קוֹלִי וְשַׁוְעָתִי לְפָנָיו תָּבוֹא בְאָזְנָיו. |
7 καὶ
ἐσαλεύθη
καὶ ἔντρομος
ἐγενήθη ἡ γῆ,
καὶ τὰ θεμέλια
τῶν ὀρέων
Xἐταράχθησαν
καὶ ἐσαλεύθησαν,
ὅτι ὠργίσθη
αὐτ |
8
καὶ ἐταράχθη
καὶ ἐσείσθη
ἡ γῆ, [καὶ] τὰ
θεμέλια τοῦ
οὐρανοῦ συνεταράχθησαν
καὶ ἐσπαράχθησαν,
ὅτι ἐθυμώθη
[κύριος] αὐτ |
8
And the earth was troubled and quaked, [and] the foundations of
heaven were confounded and torn asunder, because [the Lord] was
wroth with |
8
X The earth
shook and trembled, the foundations of the |
8 Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth. |
8 Then the earth crashed and buckled; the foundations of the heavens trembled. Indeed, they crashed themselves because He was angry. |
ח וַתִּגְעַשׁP וַתִּרְעַשׁ הָאָרֶץ Qמוֹסְדוֹת הַשָּׁמַיִם יִרְגָּזוּ וַיִּתְגָּעֲשׁוּ כִּי חָרָה לוֹR. |
ח וַתִּגְעַשׁ וַתִּרְעַשׁ הָאָרֶץ וּמוֹסְדֵי הָרִים יִרְגָּזוּ וַיִּתְגָּעֲשׁוּ כִּי חָרָה לוֹ. |
8 ἀνέβη καπνὸς ἐν x ὀργῇ αὐτοῦ, καὶ πῦρ ἀπὸ προσώπου αὐτοῦ κατεφλόγισεν, ἄνθρακες ἀνήφθησαν ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ. |
9 ἀνέβη καπνὸς ἐν τῇ ὀργῇ αὐτοῦ, καὶ πῦρ ἐκ στόματος αὐτοῦ κατέδεται, ἄνθρακες ἐξεκαύθησαν ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ. |
9 There went up a smoke in his wrath, and fire out of his mouth devours: coals [were] kindled at it. |
9
A smoke went up |
9
There went up a smoke |
9 Smoke went up in His anger, and fire from His mouth was consuming; coals burned out of Him! |
ט עָלָה עָשָׁן Sבְּאַפּוֹ וְאֵשׁ מִפִּיו תֹּאכֵל גֶּחָלִים בָּעֲרוּ מִמֶּנּוּ. |
ט עָלָה עָשָׁן בְּאַפּוֹ וְאֵשׁ מִפִּיו תֹּאכֵל גֶּחָלִים בָּעֲרוּ מִמֶּנּוּ. |
9 καὶ ἔκλινεν οὐρανὸν καὶ κατέβη, καὶ γνόφος ὑπὸX τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ. |
10 καὶ ἔκλινεν οὐρανοὺς καὶ κατέβη, καὶ γνόφος ὑποκάτω τῶν ποδῶν αὐτοῦ. |
10 And he bowed the heavens, and came down, and there was darkness under his feet. |
10 X He bowed the heavens, and came down: and darkness was under his feet. |
10 He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet. |
10 Then He parted the heavens and came down, and the fog was under His feet. |
י וַיֵּט שָׁמַיִם וַיֵּרַד וַעֲרָפֶל תַּחַת רַגְלָיו. |
|
10 καὶ
ἐπέβη ἐπὶ
χερουβ |
11
καὶ ἐπεκάθισεν
ἐπὶ χερουβ |
11 And he rode upon the cherub[s] and did fly, and was seen upon the wings of the wind. |
11 And he rode upon the cherub[ims], and flew: and slid upon the wings of the wind. |
11 And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: and he was seen upon the wings of the wind. |
11 He also rode upon a cherub, and flew and was seen upon wings of wind. |
(יא) וַיִּרְכַּב עַל כְּרוּבU וַיָּעֹף וַיֵּרָאV עַל כַּנְפֵי רוּחַ. |
יא וַיִּרְכַּב עַל כְּרוּב וַיָּעֹף וַיֵּדֶא עַל כַּנְפֵי רוּחַ. |
11 καὶ
ἔθετο σκότος
ἀποκρυφὴν αὐτοῦ·
κύκλῳ αὐτοῦ
|
12
καὶ ἔθετο
σκότος [ἀποκρυφὴν
αὐτοῦ] κύκλῳ
αὐτοῦ, [ἡ] σκηνὴX
[αὐτοῦ] |
12
And he |
12
X He |
12
And he |
12 He also placed darkness around Himself - pavilions of the cloudmass of waters, the density of stormclouds. |
(יב) וַיָּשֶׁת חֹשֶׁךְW סְבִיבֹתָיו סֻכּוֹתX חַשְׁרַתY מַיִם עָבֵי שְׁחָקִים. |
יב
xיָשֶׁת
חֹשֶׁךְ סִתְרוֹ
סְבִיבוֹתָיו
סֻכָּתוֹ
חֶשְׁכַת
|
12 ἀπὸ τῆς τηλαυγήσεως ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ αἱ νεφέλαι διῆλθον, χάλαζα καὶ ἄνθρακες πυρός. |
13 ἀπὸ τοῦ φέγγους ἐναντίον αὐτοῦ ἐξεκαύθησαν ἄνθρακες πυρός. |
13 At the brightness before him coals of fire [were] kindled. |
13
|
13
|
13 Out of the brightness corresponding to Him, coals of fire burned. |
יג מִנֹּגַהּ נֶגְדּוֹ עָבָיו עָבְרוּ בָּרָד וְגַחֲלֵי אֵשׁ. |
|
13 καὶ ἐβρόντησεν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ κύριος, καὶ ὁ ὕψιστος ἔδωκεν φωνὴν αὐτοῦ· X X X X |
14 ἐβρόντησεν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ κύριος, καὶ ὁ ὕψιστος ἔδωκεν φωνὴν αὐτοῦ |
14
The Lord thundered out of heaven, and the Most High |
14 The Lord shall thunder from heaven: and the most high shall give forth his voice. |
14
The LORD thundered from heaven, and the most High |
14 Yahweh caused it to thunder from the heavens, and the Most High put forth His voice. |
יד יַרְעֵםAB ACמִן שָׁמַיִם יְהוָה וְעֶלְיוֹןAD יִתֵּן קוֹלוֹ. |
יד וַיַּרְעֵם בַּשָּׁמַיִם יְהוָה וְעֶלְיוֹן יִתֵּן קֹלוֹ בָּרָד וְגַחֲלֵי אֵשׁ. |
14 καὶ ἐξαπέστειλεν XAE βέλη καὶ ἐσκόρπισεν αὐτοὺς καὶ ἀστραπὰς ἐπλήθυνεν καὶ συνετάραξεν αὐτούς. |
15 καὶ ἀπέστειλεν βέλη καὶ ἐσκόρπισεν αὐτούς, ἀστραπὴν καὶ ἐξέστησεν αὐτούς. |
15 And he sent forth arrows, and scattered them, [and he flashedAF] lightning, and dismayed them. |
15 XAG He shot arrows and scattered them: lightning, and consumed them. |
15 And he sent out arrows, and scattered them; lightning, and discomfited them. |
15 He also shot arrows – lightening, and made a commotion among them, and caused them to scatter. |
טו וַיִּשְׁלַח חִצִּים וַיְפִיצֵםAH בָּרָקAI וַיְהֻמֵּםAJ. |
טו וַיִּשְׁלַח חִצָּיו וַיְפִיצֵם וּבְרָקִים רָב וַיְהֻמֵּם. |
15 καὶ ὤφθησαν αἱ πηγαὶ τῶν ὑδάτων, καὶ ἀνεκαλύφθη τὰ θεμέλια τῆς οἰκουμένης ἀπὸ ἐπιτιμήσεώς σου, κύριε, ἀπὸ ἐμπνεύσεως πνεύματος ὀργῆς σου. |
16 καὶ ὤφθησαν ἀφέσεις θαλάσσης, [καὶ] ἀπεκαλύφθη θεμέλια τῆς οἰκουμένης ἐν τῇ ἐπιτιμήσει κυρίου, ἀπὸ πνοῆς πνεύματος θυμοῦ αὐτοῦ. |
16 And the channels of the sea were seen, [and] the foundations of the world were discovered, at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of his angerAK. |
16 And the overflowings of the sea X appeared, [and] the foundations of the world were laid open at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of the spirit of his wrath. |
16 And the channels of the sea X appeared, the foundations of the world were discovered, at the rebuking of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of his nostril[s]. |
16 Then the beds of the sea were made visible; {and} the foundations of the world were laid bare by the rebuke of Yahweh - from the blast of the spirit of His anger. |
(טז) וַיֵּרָאוּ אֲפִקֵי יָם יִגָּלוּAL מֹסְדוֹת תֵּבֵל בְּגַעֲרַתAM יְהוָה מִנִּשְׁמַת רוּחַ אַפּוֹ. |
טז וַיֵּרָאוּ אֲפִיקֵי מַיִם וַיִּגָּלוּ מוֹסְדוֹת תֵּבֵל מִגַּעֲרָתְךָ יְהוָה מִנִּשְׁמַת רוּחַ אַפֶּךָ. |
16 ἐξαπέστειλεν ἐξ ὕψους [καὶ] ἔλαβέν με, προσελάβετό με ἐξ ὑδάτων πολλῶν. |
17 ἀπέστειλεν ἐξ ὕψους [καὶ] ἔλαβέν με εἵλκυσέν με ἐξ ὑδάτων πολλῶν |
17 He sent from above [and] took me; he drew me out of many waters. |
17 He sent from on high, [and] took me, and drew me out of many waters. |
17 He sent from above, he took me; he drew me out of many waters; |
17 He will send from on high, {and} He will take me; He will pull me out of increasing waters. |
(יז) יִשְׁלַח מִמָּרוֹם AN יִקָּחֵנִי יַמְשֵׁנִי מִמַּיִם רַבִּים. |
יז יִשְׁלַח מִמָּרוֹם יִקָּחֵנִי יַמְשֵׁנִי מִמַּיִם רַבִּים. |
1LXX=hope
2cf. Psalms 5:11; 7:1; 11:1; 16:1; 17:7; 18: 30; 25:20; 31:1,19; 34:8,22; 36:7; 37:40; 57:1; 61:4; 64:10; 71:1; 91:4; 118:8,9; 141:8; 144:2.
3Hannah, the mother of the Prophet Samuel is the first person in the Bible to use this imagery. When God gave her first child to her, she said in 1 Sam 2:1, “My heart rejoices in the LORD, my horn is exalted in the LORD: my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in thy salvation.”
4“Christ, as prefigured in Dauid... beeing made sinne and a curse for vs, did feele the sorrowes and torment of hell...” ~Andrew Willett
5In other places, coals of fire and smoke are associated with the presence of God, such as during God’s covenant-making ceremony with Abraham (Gen. 15:12-17) when God arrived under cover of “darkness” and the “smoking” lamp passed through the animal sacrifices or during God’s covenant-making ceremony with the nation of Israel at Mt. Sinai where there was lots of smoke and thunder and lightening and earthquakes and foggy clouds (Exodus 19:16-18, Deut. 4:11, 9:15), or even in Isaiah’s and Ezekiel’s visions of heaven (Isa. 6, Ezek. 1:13 and 10:2).
6Multiple commentators also noted similarity between David’s words here and God’s awesome display at Mt. Sinai. e.g. Keil & Delitzsch: “The theophany under which David depicts the deliverance he had experienced, had its type in the miraculous phenomenon which accompanied the descent of God upon Sinai (Es. 19:18), and which suggested, as in the song of Deborah, the idea of a terrible storm.”
7 Although they could just as well be applied to God’s visitation on Mt. Sinai at the giving of the law, so I don’t want to be dogmatic about this allusion.
AMy
original chart includes the NASB, NIV, and ESV, but their copyright
restrictions have forced me to remove them from the
publicly-available edition of this chart. (NAW is my translation.)
When a translation adds words not in the Hebrew text, but does not
indicate it has done so by the use of italics or greyed-out text, I
put the added words in [square brackets]. When one version chooses a
wording which is different from all the other translations, I
underline it. When a version chooses a translation which, in
my opinion, either departs too far from the root meaning of the
Hebrew word or departs too far from the grammar form of the original
text, I use strikeout. And when a version omits a
word which is in the original text, I insert an X. (I also place an
X at the end of a word if the original word is plural but the
English translation is singular.) I occasionally use colors to help
the reader see correlations between the various editions and
versions when there are more than two different translations of a
given word. The only known Dead Sea Scrolls containing 2 Samuel 21
are 4Q51 Samuela (containing parts of verses 1-17 and
dated between 50-25 BC) and 1Q7 (containing parts of verses 16-19
and dated c. 150 BC). No DSS of Chronicles has been discovered.
Where the DSS is legible and in agreement with the MT, the MT is
colored purple. Where the DSS supports
the LXX (or Vulgate) with omissions or text not in the MT, I have
highlighted with
yellow the LXX and its translation into English, and where I
have accepted that into my NAW translation, I have marked it with
{pointed brackets}.
In the parallel Greek and Hebrew readings
from Psalm 18, I have colored orange
the words which are spelled differently and colored grey
the words which are not in the 2 Sam. text. In most cases, the
orange words are synonyms for the words in the 2 Sam. 22 text. It is
clear that the differences between them are not the result of
accidental copy errors, but rather are a result of a purposeful
editing process. Tsumura commented that in almost every case the
Psalms edition uses standardized Hebrew spelling with full spellings
of long vowel consonants, so it was written to be read,
whereas the 2 Samuel edition would sound practically the same but
was written to be heard. The 2 Sam. 22 text seems to be the
earlier edition, and Ps. 18 the later edition.
B“The heading is formed precisely according to the introductory formula of the song of Moses in Deut. 31:30” ~Keil & Delitzsch
C2 Sam. 22:1 reads “palm” instead of Psalm 18’s synonym “hand” here and omits the phrase, “I love You, O LORD my strength,” which is in Psalm 18. Curiously, the Syriac and Lucian Rescription retain that phrase in their versions of 2 Sam. 22. Various interpretations of the conjunction at the beginning of this word have been proposed, depending on whether Saul should be lumped together with David’s enemies (“as,” “especially”) or treated separately (“and”).
DVaticanus reads ωδη (“ode”) instead of κυριε (“lord”). The LXX majority follows the MT, though.
ETsumura pointed out that the LXX was right in translating “LORD” vocatively instead of as a predicate nominative. David “spoke this to the LORD” (v.1), so he would have referred to Him in second person rather than third, as the end of v.3 explicitly bears out.
FSpelled without abbreviation in 2 Sam. 22 and in the Cairo manuscript (elohim instead of el).
GVaticanus adds an extra “me” not in the LXX. Greek versions interpreted the Hebrew Tsur as “guard” in terms of confinement of the occupant from getting out, whereas most others interpret it as confinement of outsiders from getting in, but the Hebrew word can support both interpretations.
HKeil & Delitzsch believed that the imperfect verbs in this verse were “to denote what continually happens,” and Tsumura agreed, saying, “[T]he yqtls in v.4 should be taken as his present conviction.” The verbs switch to perfect tense (past action) in vs. 5-6.
IOnly three other instances of this verb in the O.T. besides this Psalm: Psalm 40:12 (evil), Psalm 116:3 (pangs of death), and Jonah 2:5 (waters).
JSyriac seems to be following the text of Psalm 18, rendering this verb חבלא and inserting a vav conjunction before the next verb.
KPsalm 116:3 closely parallels verses 5-7 here, but with more terse language (Tsumura).
LThe verbs switch back to imperfects for this verse.
MOnce again the Syriac follows the text of Psalm 18, which inserts “would come before Him.”
N2 Sam 22:7 repeats אֶקְרָא here, but it’s a synonym. It also doesn’t have the liphney (“before His face”), but this is implied by the following phrase.
OThis seems to be an addition from Douay, since the Vulgate does not say “them.”
PQere suggests the Hithpael spelling וַיִּתְגָּעַשׁ, but it doesn’t make a significant difference in meaning. There are lots of synonyms in Hebrew for shaking sorts of motion. When I surveyed all seven verses with this particular verb (וַתִּגְעַשׁ), I concluded that the English word “crashed” would fit every instance, which includes the motion of storm-tossed water, drunkenness, and destruction. The very next verb is only one letter different in spelling, and I think that “buckled” works well for it, since it includes the crouching of legs as well as the collapsing motion of physical features before a superior force.
QThe Psalm text adds an “and” here, and the LXX, Syriac, some Targums, and some Hebrew manuscripts of 2 Sam. 22 also have an “and” here. This doesn’t change the meaning, but the next word is different: 2 Sam 22 reads “heavens,” whereas Psalm 18 reads “mountains.” There are also a couple of Hebrew manuscripts of 2 Sam. 22 which read “mountains,” along with the Syriac and Vulgate of 2 Samuel 22. This seems to be another instance of the Syriac following the Psalm text form rather than the 2 Sam. MT text form.
RThe Greek and Syriac interpret this as God’s anger against the heavens and earth, interpreting the singular pronoun in the Hebrew to refer to both of them, but it seems more likely that the singular pronoun is referring to God, literally, “there was anger belonging to Him.”
SAlthough the parallelism with “mouth” might indicate the literal translation of aph to be “nose,” the beth prepositional prefix “in/by/with” fits better with the figurative translation of “anger.” All the English translations translated the preposition as though it were mem instead of beth, but the Septuagint rendered it the way I did.
TThe meaning of arphel is not “darkness” (choshek) but “thickness.” It is generally in parallel with the anan cloud, so I think that “fog” is a more accurate rendering in English than “darkness.” Although it can carry the negative meaning of “ignorance” or “disorientation” that our English word “fog” also carries, it is sometimes associated with brightly-lit clouds.
ULXX, Vulgate, & Targums read “cherubin” instead of the Hebrew “cherub.” Syriac reads “cheru’a.” “Cherub” means “near,” but, like the Greek and Latin, it is transliterated into English as “cherub.” The Hebrew plural for “cherub” is “cherubim;” “cherubin” could be interpreted as a plural form, as it is in Arabic, or it could be interpreted as a proper noun without focus on actual meaning, which is why it gets transliterated instead of translated. Revelation seems to describe four of these creatures located around God’s heavenly throne.
VThe
MT of 2 Sam. 22 (and LXX and Cairo Geniza of Ps. 18) read, “and
he was seen” (וירא
), but the MT of Ps. 18 (and several Hebrew manuscripts, as
well as Targums, Syriac, and Vulgate versions of 2 Sam. 22) is “He
swooped (וידא)
upon wings of wind.” The sound (as well as the sight) of the
two words is very similar and therefore easy to confuse, although
neither creates a meaning which is contradictory to the idea of this
passage or of other Bible passages, cf.:
Rev. 1:7
“Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will
see Him…”
Mark 4:41b "Who can
this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!"
Acts 2:2 “And suddenly there came a sound
from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind”
Consider also when God met Abraham in Gen. 15:12
“Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon
Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him.”
(NKJV)
Exodus 19:9 “And the LORD said unto Moses,
‘Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may
hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever.’...”
And the blessing on Asher: Deut. 33:26-27 “There
is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in
thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy
refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust
out the enemy from before thee…” (KJV)
Isaiah
4:4-6 “when the Lord has washed away the filth of the
daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from her
midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. Then
Yahweh will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her
assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a
flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a
canopy. And the booth will be for shade by day from the heat,
and for a refuge and a shelter from storm and from rain.”
(NAW)
WThe Syriac and LXX follow Psalm 18 in inserting “His hiding place.”
XLXX & Syriac follow Psalm 18 in inserting the pronoun “His.”
YThe MT of 2 Sam. 22 reads חשׁרת “cloud/water-mass,” whereas the MT of Psalm 18 (as well as a couple of Hebrew manuscripts of 2 Sam. 22 plus the LXX and Syriac of 2 Sam. 22) reads חשׁכת (“darkness”). McCarter made the case that it could be translated “sieve,” and he convinced his skeptical disciple Tsumura, who wrote the Samuel commentaries for NICOT.
ZMT of Psalm 18 reads with the first two Hebrew letters switched = “passed over” instead of 2 Sam. 22 “kindled.”
AAJoshua
10:11 “And it happened, as they [the 5 kings of the
Amorites] fled before Israel and were on the descent of Beth Horon,
that the LORD cast down large hailstones from heaven on them as far
as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died from the
hailstones than the children of Israel killed with the sword.”
(NKJV)
Exodus 9:23 “And
Moses stretched out his rod toward heaven; and the LORD sent thunder
and hail, and fire darted to the ground. And the LORD rained hail on
the land of Egypt.” (NKJV)
ABSyriac
followed the Psalm 18 edition which begins with a vav
consecutive. The verb here is in its Hiphil form.
cf. 1
Sam. 2:9-10 "It is the way of His godly one
that He keeps, while He silences the wicked ones in the darkness...
Yahweh will rumble [against] them in the heavens..." (NAW)
Especially, note 1 Sam. 7, where God “thundered”
against the Philistines in response to Samuel’s prayer. Job
37:5 “God thunders marvellously with his voice...”
ACPsalm 18 uses the preposition “within” instead of “from” (2 Sam. 22:16 does the reverse, substituting –ב for –מ.)
ADThis term was used by Abraham when talking with Canaanites in Genesis 14:22 to identify Yahweh as the highest above all gods.
AECairo Geniza also omits the pronoun “his” attached to the noun “arrows” in Psalm 18.
AFVaticanus adds this verb here (so does the Syriac, using a word from Psalm 18 but not in the MT of 2 Sam. 22 - “multiplied”), but there is no verb for the second half of this verse in the MT or LXX majority or Vulgate of 2 Sam. 22.
AGSyriac also omits the vav consecutive found in the MT.
AHcf.
Gen.11:9 – the people “scattered” when God
confused their language at the tower of Babel,
cf. Num.
10:35 “Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered”
AITsumura called this construction “vertical grammar” where “arrows” and “lightening” are parallel.
AJThe Qere (וַיָּהֹם) recommends dropping the 3mp pronoun, but it is in Psalm 18. The root meaning seems to have to do with making a “hubbub” noise. Note how God did this among the Egyptian army at the Red Sea (Ex. 14:24), and again the day the sun stood still for Joshua to fight the Amorites (Josh 10:10), and later at the destruction of Sisera’s army before Barak and Debora (Judges 4:14).
AKThe Hebrew word for “nose/nostril” doubles as a word for “anger.” The two words are different in Greek, and the Greek translators chose the Greek word for “anger” rather than “nose.”
ALLXX, Syriac, and Vulgate all insert an “and” between these phrases, as it is in the MT of Psalm 18. Although the phrase “foundation of the world” (καταβολῆς κόσμου) in the N.T. seems to indicate the beginning of time at the creation of the world, the phrase here in Greek is plural rather than singular and uses totally different Greek words (τὰ θεμέλια τῆς οἰκουμένης). This is the only occurrence of this phrase in the O.T. It could fit the previous phrase as a parallelism and thus be continuing the thought of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt in the crossing of the Red Sea.
AMThe MT (and LXX) of Psalm 18 read “from your rebuke,” but the MT (and LXX and one of the Targums) of 2 Sam. 22 read, “by the rebuke.” However, the Syriac, Vulgate, one of the Targums, and the Lucian Rescription of the LXX, along with a few Hebrew manuscripts of 2 Sam. 22 read, “from the rebuke.” This makes no difference in meaning.
ANThe LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate all read as though there were a vav conjunction here. It doesn’t change the meaning at all, and it’s hard to tell whether the conjunction was original but lost in the MT or whether it was inserted upon translation for easier reading. The DSS of this chapter begins to be legible in spots beginning later in this verse, but it is no help in resolving this question.