Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer
Church of Manhattan, KS
25 Jan 2015, 25 Dec 2022
The Apostle Paul clearly states in Romans, we are ultimately saved by God’s grace and not by anything we do, yet here in 2 Samuel 22, we see a counterbalance to that truth, that David saw his request for salvation, his right attitude, and his disciplined effort to fight, as part-and-parcel of God’s salvation.
On the one hand we can’t be lazy and say, “Let us go on sinning that grace may increase” (Rom. 6), and yet on the other hand we can’t be pompous and say, “I saved myself by my actions” (Eph. 2:8-9) David shows us the balance in 2 Samuel 22:
God is indeed the one who saves us, and all glory goes to Him, but at the same time God calls us to active participation in His work of salvation.
Another way of saying it is that salvation is not a commodity that can be merely given or earned and then put in storage, salvation is a right relationship between God and a human, and relationships by definition are about two persons interacting personally in a present, active way.
We looked at the first of these interactions from the humans side in the previous sermon: In the first six verses of Psalm 18, David indicates that one of the reasons God saved him was that David called out to the Lord for salvation.
David’s cry is not what saved him, verses 7-17 make that pretty clear – God is the one with the power to save, but in God’s providence, David’s cry was the point in time when God began intervening to save David, and so David’s prayer to God was an important part of David’s salvation, and it is is for ours too.
Ultimately, we know that even the will to call upon the Lord for salvation (Phil. 2:13) and the faith that Jesus will save is a gift from God - and not a work which originates from us (Eph. 2:8), but that prayer of faith is an important part of us being saved, not only only at the moment of conversion, but all throughout our Christian life as we recognize dangers to our soul and body that we need God to save us from.
The next area of our activity in God’s process of salvation is highlighted in 2 Sam. 22:19-27. God saved David because David was “in the right.”
TRANSLATION (NAW):
17 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. He snatched me up because He delighted in me. Yahweh
will deal with me according to my righteousness; indeed, He will
make a return to me according to [the] cleanness of my hands. For I
have kept the ways of Yahweh, and I have not detached from my God.
For all His judgments correspond with me, and, as for His
statutory-laws, I do not turn away from them, so I have integrity
{with} Him, and I keep myself from my iniquity. And Yahweh has made
a return to me according to my righteousness - according to the
cleanness {of my hands} corresponding to His eyes. With one who is
godly, You will be godly, {and} with a mortal of integrity, You will
show integrity. With one who is purified, You will show Yourself
pure, yet with one who is crooked, You will show Yourself
convoluted. {For You} Yourself will cause to save a lowly people.
Your eyes are also upon the haughty; You will bring them low.
After the first-person verbs of the first 7 verses (“I will take refuge... I will call... I was overwhelmed... I cried out for help”),
the next 14 verses down to v.21 are organized around third-person action verbs (“The earth trembled... He parted the heavens... He rode the cherub... He thundered... He shot lightenings... He delivered...”),
now in verses 20 through 32, the grammar changes to be organized around the word “for/because,” which begins phrases in seven of those verses. I believe that these causal words introduce two more things that David did which were important parts of his interaction with God’s salvation.
The first of these two things is introduced in verses 20-28, “because He delighted in me... according to the cleanness of my hands... because I kept the ways of Jehovah... because all His judgments were in front of me... The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness” Here, David claims that his righteousness, obedience, and cleanness were factors in his salvation.
Is that hard for you Reformed theologians to take? It does present a theological challenge to me, but I want to be honest with God’s word. What does it actually say?
Well, one thing it doesn’t mean is, it doesn’t mean that David was o.k. and not in need of God’s salvation. Verses 17-19 make it clear that David desperately needed to be saved by God.
In v.19, his enemies are nearby, looking for an opportunity to pounce on him;
In v.18, those enemies are too strong for David to defend against on his own, and
In v.17, the picture is that David is in rapidly-rising water, in imminent danger of drowning.
He needs salvation! And so do we all.
David needs (or needed, depending on whether you interpret the Hebrew grammar in the past or future tense in English) that “large/broad/spacious/roomy” place in v.20, because he was in a tsr “distressful/tight spot” in v.7 (cf. tsr in Psalm 118:5, and sgr = dead-end in Psalm 31:8).
And David needs ‘snatching out’ because in v.17 he is in deep/increasing/many waters. And this wasn’t the first time he prayed for such deliverance. He prayed for the same thing in Psalm 6:4 (“Return, Yahweh! Snatch away my soul; save me because of Your lovingkindness”).
But why would God want to do such a thing?
Verses 20-25 contain three statements marked by the Hebrew causal word: כִּי, answering the “Why” question.
The first is in the second half of v.20: “Because He delighted in me” (כִּי חָפֵץ בִּי)
The Hebrew word for “delighted” (khapheitz) has a root meaning of “leaning toward,” and most of the times it is used in the Pentateuch, it describes a man “being attracted to” a woman he wants to marry.
Joshua and Caleb also used that word in the book of Numbers to describe God showing special interest in His people: “If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this [promised] land” (Numbers 14:8).
Psalm 37:23 “The steps of a man are ordered by the LORD, And He delights in his way.” (NKJV)
Psalm 51:6 “You delight in truth in the innards, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.” (NAW)
Isaiah 56:4 “For thus says Yahweh to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths and choose that with which I am pleased and those who have a strong-grip in my covenant” (NAW)
Jeremiah 9:24b “... I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight," says the LORD. (NKJV) And that is why God took pleasure in bringing justice against sin upon His Messiah through his scourging and crucifixion and death, in order to bring lovingkindness to sinners:
Isaiah 53:10 “And His beating pleased Yahweh. He caused grief if His soul would place itself for a sin-offering” (NAW)
Micah 7:18 “Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy.” (NKJV)
In verse 21, David says that the Lord deals with (or rewarded) David “according to [his - David’s] righteousness.” This statement clearly relates David’s state of being “right” or “just,” with how God treats him. But how did David get that justified/righteous condition?
In Psalm 13, David spoke of God “dealing” out salvation to David as a result of God’s lovingkindness and mercy (khesed).
Compare that with Psalm 35:27-28 “Let them shout for joy and be glad, Who favor my righteousness; And let them say continually, ‘Let the LORD be magnified, Who delights [חפץ] in the peace of His servant.’ And my tongue shall speak of Your righteousness And of Your praise all the day long.”
Now, wait a minute, David, first you said it was your own righteousness, and then you said God should be praised because it was God’s righteousness. Which is it? The only way to resolve this is to see it as God’s righteousness given to David so that God is rightly praised for any righteousness David has.
I recently got an email from PayPal saying that someone had just deposited $500 into my account. At first I thought it was a scam, but then I read the note from the depositor, saying it was a gift, and I recognized his name. Now, am I the possessor of $500 in PayPal credit? Yes. But not because I earned it; I simply came into possession of it because of something someone else did. In a similar way, David can have righteousness but still give the praise to God because it was God’s action which led to David coming into possession of that righteousness.
The 17th century Puritan commentator Andrew Willet explained it this way: “[I]n the faithfull, there is a double righteousnesse: there is a perfect righteousnesse, which is Christ’s, imputed unto them by faith, whereby they are justified; and [there is] an imperfect righteousnesse, which is their obedience, the fruits of their faith: and hereby they are not justified, but thereby they testifie and shew forth their faith.”
In Philippians 3:12-15 we also see these two concepts: The Apostle Paul says, “Not that I have already... become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude…” He assumes Christians are “perfect” in terms of being “called of God in Christ Jesus,” but he confesses that in this world they are not perfect in the absolute sense yet.
There are only two other verses in the O.T. that use the Hebrew word bor for “cleanness1,” found in v.21 here, and both of those other passages speak of someone who did not start out being clean, but then was cleansed:
Job 22:30 “He [God] will even deliver one who is not innocent; Yes, he will be delivered by the cleanness of your hands.” – speaking of substitutionary atonement
Isaiah 1:24-26 “Therefore, declares the Lord Jehovah of Hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, “Oh, I will be relieved from my enemies and be avenged from my foes. And I will turn my hand upon you and I will smelt away your dross according to cleanness, and I will run off all your alloy. And I will cause to turn your judges like the first, and your counselors like the beginning. Then afterwards, it will be called for you the righteous city – faithful town.” (NAW) God relieves himself of certain enemies by washing away their sins and making them righteous!
This leads us to have confidence in God’s salvation for us, which otherwise would be a hope-beyond-hope. We can be certain that the LORD will no longer deal with His redeemed ones according to the sin which they have committed; instead He will deal with them according to the new condition of righteousness and cleanness which He Himself has given them!
This should lead us to place a high value on righteousness and moral cleanness. If God went to the trouble – to the extent of the crucifixion of His Son – in order to give us this gift of being righteous, then it is the proper response for us to protect moral purity as precious so that we stain these clean hands as little as possible (James 1:27) and so that we run to wash those hands in the blood of Jesus whenever they do get stained by sin (Rev. 7:14). It honors God’s gift of righteousness to seek cleansing from sin and keep yourself clean from sin.
In v. 22, it is stated positively (“I kept the ways of the Lord”) and then negatively (“I did not commit treason against God”),
and he repeats this again in v.23, “I kept God’s rules in front of me,” and negatively, “I did not ignore God’s decrees.”
V.24 does the same thing, leaving off the introductory “for/because,” stating positively, “I was upright,” and negatively, “I kept myself from iniquity.”
He then concludes in verse 25 that this was a factor in his salvation!
In v.22 David claims that he “kept” God’s ways and didn’t “depart” from God.
The “ways of the LORD” are God’s commandments which begin with loving Him:
Deut. 11:22 “...keep all this commandment which I am commanding you to do, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and hold fast to Him...” (NAW)
Joshua 22:5 “But take careful heed to do the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, to keep His commandments”
The second verb that David denies doing in v.22 is the same root as the word for “wicked,” although the root meaning has to do with “looseness/being detached/unfaithful to covenantal commitments,” and so many English versions combine both ideas with the translation “I did not wickedly depart.”
And yet, in Psalm 51, David admitted that He failed to keep God’s ways, and in Psalm 106:6 the psalmist admits that he did wickedly depart from God. What gives? I think David can only be characterizing the overall trend of his life. He is not saying that he never sinned, but he is saying that the overall trend of his desires and actions has been toward keeping God’s ways rather than playing “fast and loose” with departing from God.2
Such that God could say through the prophet Ahijah in 1 Kings 14:8 “...my servant David kept my commandments, and followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in mine eyes.” (cf. 1 Kings. 15:5)
We also see this with other folks in the Bible like Job, who said in Job 9:20 “If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.” but then in Job 34:5, he is quoted as saying “I am righteous: and God hath taken away my judgment.” (NKJV)
In v. 23, David properly recognizes the LORD as the ultimate law-giver and the ultimate Judge, and David claims that he used God’s laws as his standards, not disregarding any of God’s laws, and he used God’s verdicts as his own standard of judgment as to how to interpret those laws.
David is not claiming here to have perfectly obeyed all of God’s laws, he is just saying that he recognizes God’s authority. He didn’t do what our city commissioners or the Alabama Supreme Court did and move the 10 Commandments away from City Hall and from the Justice building; he recognized that they were the only good basis for governing his country.
This attitude of submission to the moral authority of God is not enough to take away the offense of your transgressions of God’s law and make you right with God, but it is the attitude which is characteristic of those who have been made right with God.
To be made right with God requires
first confessing that you have broken His commandments, confessing like Daniel did: “we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments.” (Daniel 9:5 NKJV) For “all have sinned” (Rom. 3:23).
And then being made right with God requires applying faith that Jesus, who made the laws we broke, became human and died on the cross to suffer in our place the penalty of breaking His laws, so that when He returns to judge everyone according to whether they kept or broke His law, He will declare that we have been made right with Him.
This leads us to a second level of meaning in this psalm in which David speaks prophetically from the perspective of Jesus Christ. At this second level of meaning, all the caveats and relativism melt away as the actually-perfectly-sinless Christ speaks and says to His Heavenly Father, “I have perfectly obeyed You on earth. I know You are absolutely pleased with me. Now use me as the perfect sacrifice to make right all whom we love!” (Isa. 42:1; Matt. 3:17)
Those who trust Jesus to do this for them still love God’s law-word and still want to learn it and obey it (Psalm 119:101-103 “I have restrained my feet from every evil way, That I may keep Your word. I have not departed from Your judgments, For You Yourself have taught me. How sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth!” NKJV)
This is how David could say that he is in sync with God’s judgments and statutes.
In verse 24, David admits that he has iniquity; he calls it “my iniquity” (It is unfortunate that the ESV followed the NIV in omitting the word “my.”), but in the context of v.22 he says that because he is tracking with God’s laws he has sound integrity – wholeness, which is the main meaning of the Hebrew word tamim. The concept of being morally “blameless” and “upright” is a byproduct of the central meaning of being “whole” and “complete.”
Once again, I do not think that David is claiming perfection. The verbs in the second half of verses 23 and 24 are in the Hebrew imperfect tense which is not past tense, but would be better translated as habitual action – “It is not my habit to put away His statutes from me; it is my habit to keep myself from breaking those statutes. I fail often, but my failures to do so are not what characterize my life. God has provided a substitute to atone for my sin and has quickened me with His Spirit to love Him and obey His word, and that is what gives me integrity and blamelessness.”
v.25 closes a chiasm which opened in v.21. Verses 21-25 all relate together. For instance, it is “because” there is “correspondence between me” [לְנֶגְדִּי] and “all His judgments” (v.23) that there is “correspondence” [לְנֶגֶד] between “His eyesight” and “my clean hands” (v.25).
There is no way to hide sin and fake clean hands in front of the searching gaze of the LORD, “For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes” (Jer. 16:17, NASB, cf. Psalm 5:5)
And, by the same token, there is no way to keep clean hands in God’s sight without a lifestyle of repentance from sin and active faith in His forgiveness. Isaiah put it like this: “Wash, make yourselves clean, cause the evil of your deeds to turn away from before my eyes; cease the evil. Learn the good, pursue justice, straighten out oppression; judge for the orphan; contend for the widow! Please move and let us reason,” says Yahweh, “Though your sins are like the scarlet, like the snow they will be whitened, Though bloody, like the crimson, like the wool they will become.” (Isa. 1:16-18, NAW) Repentance from sin and active faith in Jesus’ forgiveness results in spiritually clean hands!
21 Yahweh will deal with me according to my righteousness;
indeed, He will make a return to me according to [the] cleanness of my hands.
22 For I have kept the ways of Yahweh,
and I have not detached from my God.
23 For all His judgments correspond with me,
and, as for His statutory-laws, I do not turn away from them,
24 so I have integrity {with} Him,
and I keep myself from my iniquity.
25 And Yahweh has made a return to me according to my righteousness -
according to the cleanness {of my hands} corresponding to His eyes.
In v. 26, David says that God acts in a covenantally-faithful3 manner (showing mercy and faithfulness, the traits of God) when humans are “godly/merciful/kind/faithful” to His covenant. Likewise, God shows “integrity/blamelessness/uprightness” with those who mirror that character trait of His.
Suppose I had a tuning fork designed to vibrate at the rate of 440 vibrations per second, and I held it next to my mouth, and then I got my vocal chords moving at the rate of 440 vibrations per second. What would happen to that tuning fork? It would start giving off the same pitch that I was humming, right?
Now, suppose you walk into the room and observe that both me and the tuning fork are emitting the same pitch. Can you properly conclude that the tuning fork caused me to start humming that pitch? No, of course not, I was the one that made it make that pitch.
Now, what if the tuning fork were not able to vibrate at 440 Hertz. How much time would I bother to spend humming A-440 around a tuning fork that doesn’t do A-440? Not much, right? But a science and music geek could spend quite a bit of time playing with humming A-440 around an A-440 tuning fork. It’s just fun when something (or somebody) responds resonantly to you, isn’t it?
Analogies aren’t a perfect way to express the things of God, but that’s the best illustration I could think of to illustrate this principle that David brings out here in verses 25-26. First God has to regenerate us (Titus 3:5) so that we will resonate with His character traits, but once God does that and has a responsive person in His hands that gives off mercy and integrity and purity when He beams His mercy and integrity and purity at him, it is a joy for God to see the things He delights in, reflected back from a person who responds in like manner to Him! He’ll spend hours humming that 440 with you!
In v.27, the Hebrew passive participle4 for “pure” indicates that this person (with whom God resonates refined, bright, choice purity) didn’t start out pure; this person has passively been purified, and only then does he (or she) see God’s purity.
Finally, at the end of v.27, after three positive character qualities, the character of the fourth class of persons really stands out because it is a negative quality: “crooked/devious/froward.”
Another thing that stands out is that, unlike the previous three instances where God’s response is characterized by the exact same word, the same word is not used of God’s response to the fourth class of persons (perhaps to signify that God is not evil, so He does not resonate with evil people, He merely “wrestles with” or “opposes Himself” to them).
So how does God “show Himself shrewd/astute/tortuous/forward/convoluted” with those who have bent and twisted His law in rebellion against Him?
The book of Job explains: “He sets on high those who are lowly, And those who mourn are lifted to safety. He frustrates the devices of the crafty, So that their hands cannot carry out their plans. He catches the wise in their own craftiness, And the counsel of the cunning comes quickly upon them. They meet with darkness in the daytime, And grope at noontime as in the night.” (Job 5:11-14, NKJV, Eliphaz speaking)
In other words, wicked people will be surprised after thinking they would be better off disobeying God, because the exact opposite of what they expect comes to pass. God causes their rebellion to work against them, and, contrary to the expectations of the wicked who are in power, it is those who are humble before God who end up getting blessed, and it is the smart, rich, powerful folks who disobey God who get a raw deal in the end. God will wrestle back and surprise them with outcomes they didn’t expect, and they will come out hurting and shaking their heads saying, “God was smarter than me.”5
One of the ways God opposes the crooked is by removing common grace that keeps them from being as bad as they could possibly be and giving them over to uncontrolled wickedness: Romans 1:28 “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” (ESV)
But ultimately, God will oppose the crooked by fullness of judgment when Jesus returns: Isaiah 2:17 “And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and Jehovah alone will be exalted in that day.... when He rises up to terrify the earth.” (NAW)
Any one of us could be that crooked person, but for the grace of God that lifted us out of the “increasing waters.”
Will you OWN the righteousness God has given you through Jesus? Will you treasure as precious God’s mercy and faithfulness, the integrity of His word, and His cleansing from sin, or will you be like a broken, crooked tuning fork that will never resonate with the right pitch anymore because you don’t want God to tell you what to do? God will not be mocked by hypocrisy and rebellion. Only those who embrace His character qualities of faithfulness, integrity, and want to be purified from traits that are out-of-keeping with God’s character will enjoy the mercies and wholeness and brilliance of God.
Ps.17 LXX |
2Sa22 LXX |
Brenton |
Douay |
KJV |
NAW |
2Sa.22 MT |
Ps.18 MT |
17
ῥύσεταί
με ἐξ ἐχθρ |
18
ἐρρύσατό με
ἐξ ἐχθρ |
18 He delivered me from my strong enemie[sB], from them that hated me, for they were stronger than I. |
18 He delivered me from my most mighty enemy, [andC] from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me. |
18 He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me. |
18 He will cause to deliver me from my strong enemy - from the ones who hate me - because they were stronger than me. |
(יח) יַצִּילֵנִי מֵאֹיְבִי עָזD מִשֹּׂנְאַי כִּי אָמְצוּ מִמֶּנִּי. |
יח יַצִּילֵנִי מֵאֹיְבִי עָז וּמִשֹּׂנְאַי כִּי אָמְצוּ מִמֶּנִּי. |
18 προέφθασάν με ἐν ἡμέρᾳ κακώσεώς μου, καὶ ἐγένετο κύριος ἀντιστήριγμά μου |
19 προέφθασάν με ἐν ἡμέρᾳ θλίψεώς μου καὶ ἐγένετο κύριος ἐπιστήριγμά μου |
19 X The days of my affliction XE prevented me; but the Lord was X my stay. |
19
|
19 They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was X my stay. |
19 They will confront me in my day of calamity, but Yahweh has became my support, |
יט יְקַדְּמֻנִיF בְּיוֹם אֵידִי וַיְהִי יְהוָה Gמִשְׁעָן לִי. |
יְקַדְּמוּנִי בְיוֹם אֵידִי וַיְהִי יְהוָה לְמִשְׁעָן לִי. |
19 καὶ ἐξήγαγέν με εἰς πλατυσμόν, X ῥύσεταί με, ὅτι ἠθέλησέν X με. |
20 καὶ ἐξήγαγέν με εἰς πλατυσμὸν καὶ ἐξείλατό με, ὅτι εὐδόκησεν ἐν ἐμοί. |
20
And he brought me into |
20
And he brought me forth into |
20
He brought me forth also into |
20 and He has brought me out to freedom. He snatched me up because He delighted in me. |
(כ) וַיֹּצֵאH לַמֶּרְחָב אֹתִי יְחַלְּצֵנִי כִּי חָפֵץ בִּי. |
כ וַיּוֹצִיאֵנִי לַמֶּרְחָב יְחַלְּצֵנִי כִּי חָפֵץ בִּי. |
20 καὶ ἀνταποδώσει μοι κύριος κατὰ τὴν δικαιοσύνην μου [καὶ] κατὰ τὴν καθαριότητα τῶν χειρῶν μου ἀνταποδώσει μοι, |
21 καὶ ἀνταπέδωκέν μοι κύριος κατὰ τὴν δικαιοσύνην μου, κατὰ τὴν καθαριότητα τῶν χειρῶν μου ἀνταπέδωκέν μοι, |
21 And the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness; [evenI] according to the purity of my hands did he recompense me. |
21 The Lord will reward me according to my justice: [and] according to the cleanness of my hands he will render to me. |
21 The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness: according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me. |
21 Yahweh will deal with me according to my righteousness; indeed, He will make a return to me according to [the] cleanness of my hands. |
כא יִגְמְלֵנִיJ יְהוָה כְּצִדְקָתִי Kכְּבֹר יָדַי יָשִׁיב לִיL. |
כא
יִגְמְלֵנִי
יְהוָה |
21 ὅτι ἐφύλαξα τὰς ὁδοὺς κυρίου καὶ οὐκ ἠσέβησα ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ μου, |
22 ὅτι ἐφύλαξα ὁδοὺς κυρίου καὶ οὐκ ἠσέβησα ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ μου, |
22 Because, I kept the ways of the Lord, and did not wickedly depart from my God. |
22 Because I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. |
22 For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. |
22 For I have kept the ways of Yahweh, and I have not detached from my God. |
כב כִּי שָׁמַרְתִּי דַּרְכֵי יְהוָה וְלֹא רָשַׁעְתִּי מֵאֱלֹהָיM. |
כב כִּי שָׁמַרְתִּי דַּרְכֵי יְהוָה וְלֹא רָשַׁעְתִּי מֵאֱלֹהָי. |
22 ὅτι πάντα τὰ κρίματα αὐτοῦ ἐνώπιόν μου, καὶ τὰ δικαιώματα αὐτοῦ οὐκ ἀπέστησα ἀπ᾿ ἐμοῦ. |
23 ὅτι πάντα τὰ κρίματα αὐτοῦ κατεναντίον μου, καὶ τὰ δικαιώματα αὐτοῦ, οὐκ ἀπέστην ἀπ᾿ αὐτῶν. |
23 For all his judgments and his ordinances were before me: I departed not from them. |
23
For all his judgments are in my
sight: and his precepts I have not removed
from |
23 For all his judgments were before me: and as for his statutes, I did not depart from them. |
23 For all His judgments correspond with me, and, as for His statutory-laws, I do not turn away from them, |
(כג)
כִּי
כָל מִשְׁפָּטָוN
לְנֶגְדִּיO
וְחֻקֹּתָיו
|
כג
כִּי כָל מִשְׁפָּטָיו
לְנֶגְדִּי
וְחֻקֹּתָיו
|
23 καὶ ἔσομαι ἄμωμος μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ καὶ xφυλάξομαι ἀπὸ τῆς ἀνομίας μου. |
24 καὶ ἔσομαι ἄμωμος αὐτῷ καὶ προφυλάξομαι ἀπὸ τῆς ἀνομίας μου. |
24 And I shall be blameless before him, and will keep myself from my iniquity. |
24
And I shall be perfect
|
24 I was also upright before him, and have kept myself from mine iniquity. |
24 so I have integrity {with} Him, and I keep myself from my iniquity. |
כד וָאֱהִי תָמִים עִמּוֹ וָאֶשְׁתַּמֵּרx מֵעֲוֹנִי. |
|
24 καὶ ἀνταποδώσει μοι κύριος κατὰ τὴν δικαιοσύνην μου καὶ κατὰ τὴν καθαριότητα· τῶν χειρῶν μου ἐνώπιον τῶν ὀ φθαλμῶν αὐτοῦ. |
25 καὶ ἀποδώσει μοι κύριος κατὰ τὴν δικαιοσύνην μου καὶ κατὰ τὴν καθαριότητα [τῶν χειρῶν] μου ἐνώπιον τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν αὐτοῦ . |
25 And the Lord will recompense me according to my righteousness, and according to the purity [of my hands] in his eye-sight. |
25 And the Lord will recompense me according to my justice: and according to the cleanness [of my hands] in the sight of his eyes. |
25 Therefore the LORD hath recompensed me according to my righteousness; according to my cleanness in his eyeX sight. |
25 And Yahweh has made a return to me according to my righteousness - according to the cleanness {of my hands} corresponding to His eyes. |
(כה) וַיָּשֶׁב יְהוָה לִי כְּצִדְקָתִי כְּבֹרִיR לְנֶגֶד עֵינָיו. |
כה וַיָּשֶׁב יְהוָה לִי כְצִדְקִxי כְּבֹר יָדַי לְנֶגֶד עֵינָיו. |
25 μετὰ ὁσίου ὁσιωθήσῃ [καὶ] μετὰ ἀνδρὸς ἀθῴου ἀθῷος ἔσῃ |
26 μετὰ ὁσίου ὁσιωθήσῃ [καὶ] μετὰ ἀνδρὸς τελείου τελειωθήσῃ |
26 With the holy thou wilt be holy, [and] with the perfect man thou will be perfect, |
26 With the holy one thou wilt be holy: [and] with the valiant X perfect. |
26 With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful, [and] with the upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright. |
26 With one who is godly, You will be godly, {and} with a mortal of integrity, You will show integrity. |
כו עִם חָסִיד תִּתְחַסָּד Sעִם גִּבּוֹר תָּמִים תִּתַּמָּם. |
כו
עִם חָסִיד
תִּתְחַסָּד |
26 [καὶ] μετὰ ἐκλεκτοῦ ἐκλεκτὸς ἔσῃ καὶ μετὰ στρεβλοῦ διαστρέψεις. |
27 [καὶ] μετὰ ἐκλεκτοῦ ἐκλεκτὸς ἔσῃ καὶ μετὰ στρεβλοῦ στρεβλωθήσῃ. |
27 [and] with the excellent thou wilt be excellent, and with the froward thou will be froward. |
27 With the elect thou wilt be elect: and with the perverse thou wilt be perverted. |
27 With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself unsavoury. |
27 With one who is purified, You will show Yourself pure, yet with one who is crooked, You will show Yourself convoluted. |
כז עִם נָבָר תִּתָּבָר וְעִם עִקֵּשׁ תִּתַּפָּלT. |
כז עִם נָבָר תִּתְבָּרָר וְעִם עִקֵּשׁ תִּתְפַּתָּל. |
27 ὅτι
σὺ |
28 καὶ τὸν λαὸν τὸν πτωχὸν σώσεις καὶ ὀφθαλμοὺς X ἐπὶ μετεώρων ταπεινώσεις. |
28
And thou wilt save the poor people, and wilt bring down |
28 And the poor people thou wilt save: and [with] thy eyes thou shalt humble X the haughty. |
28 And the afflicted people thou wilt save: but thine eyes are upon the haughty, [that] thou mayest bring them down. |
28 {For You} Yourself will cause to save a lowly people. Your eyes are also upon the haughty; You will bring them low. |
כח וְאֶתU עַם עָנִי תּוֹשִׁיעַ וְעֵינֶיךָV עַל רָמִים תַּשְׁפִּיל. |
כח כִּי אַתָּה עַם עָנִי תוֹשִׁיעַ וְעֵינַיִםX X רָמוֹת תַּשְׁפִּיל. |
1It’s also a Hebrew word for “soap”
2Matthew Henry commented that David is primarily objecting to the false charges of Saul (1 Sam. 26:23), Absalom, Shemei, etc. regarding his integrity in becoming king. cf. Keil & Delitzsch, “the innocence, which David attributed to himself, were not perfect righteousness or holiness before God, but the righteousness of his endeavours and deeds as contrasted with the unrighteousness and wickedness of his adversaries and pursuers, and consisted in the fact that he endeavoured earnestly and sincerely to walk in the ways of God”
3 Notice the definition for the khesid in terms of what he does Deut. 33:8 Of Levi he [Moses] said, "Let Your Thummim and Your Urim belong to Your godly man, Whom You proved genuine at Massah… For they observed Your word and kept Your covenant. They shall teach Your ordinances to Jacob, And Your law to Israel. They shall put incense before You, And whole burnt offerings on Your altar.”
4I think this is the only occurrence of barar in the Niphal stem in the Bible. It seems quite reasonable to render it as a passive, as the ESV brings out. “Chosen” is also given as a secondary meaning gloss in Brown, Driver, and Briggs’ Hebrew-English Lexicon, and the Septuagint translated it that way.
5Verse 28 recalls this theme of the reversal of the positions of the powerful wicked and the lowly faithful in the Psalms of justice like Psalms 9:18; 10:2,9; 12:5; 14:6, etc. (cf. Job 22:29 & 1 Sam. 2:7, Isa. 2:11-17)
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 22
are 4Q51 Samuela (containing parts of verses 16-50 and
dated between 50-25 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 that are not in the 2 Samuel text. In most cases, the
orange words are synonyms for the words in the 2 Sam. 22 text.
BSyriac and Targum translations also pluralize this Hebrew singular, perhaps to match the plural in v.1?
CThis “and” is not in the Vulgate; it was inserted by Douay. There is an “and” here in the Syriac and in the Greek Lucian Rescription, however.
Dcf. Psalm 142:6 “Attend to my cry, For I am brought very low; Deliver me from my persecutors, For they are stronger than I.” (NKJV)
EThe majority text of the LXX reads like the MT: “they confronted me in the day of my affliction,” but the Vaticanus omits the word “in,” which changes the sentence.
Fcf. same verb in v5b, “...deathly noose-snares confronted me.”
GThe only other instance of this verb in the O.T. is Isaiah 3:1 “For behold, the Lord Yahweh of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and supply, all support of bread, and all support of water…” (NAW)
HIn the rest of the Psalms, the merkhav is the opposite of sgr “closed” (Ps. 31:8) and the opposite of tsr “tight spot” (Ps. 118:5) – which is exactly where David said he was at the beginning of v.7. This ‘snatching out’ matches the prayer in Ps. 6:4 (“Return, Yahweh! Snatch away my soul; save me because of Your lovingkindness”), and is synonymous to msh in v.17 of this Psalm, “He drew me out of deep water.”
IThis extra conjunction is in the Vaticanus, but not in the majority of LXX manuscripts.
Jcf. Psalm 7:4 “If I have repaid evil” and Psalm 13:6 “The Lord has dealt bountifully with me”
KThe oldest-known Greek manuscript (Vaticanus) as well as the more-recent Greek Lucian Rescription, the ancient Syriac, and the Latin Vulgate all read as though they were translating a vav conjunction here in the Hebrew. It doesn’t change the meaning, though.
Lcf. Hosea 12:14 yashiv lo and Gen. 50:15 yashiv nu – The only parallel uses in the O.T. clearly picture “payback.”
MDSS is obliterated here, but seems to have space for an extra word or two, but no extra word is suggested in any of the ancient manuscripts.
NThe Qere suggests emending the spelling of this word to the spelling found in Psalm 18 with an extra yod that makes the plural construct more obvious, but it is just a spelling convention, not a difference in meaning.
OIn v.21, both verbs are perfect/past tense, but in vs. 22-23, the first verb is an understood verb of being which I interpret as present tense, followed by an imperfect verb which I interpret as habitual action. I don’t see why most English versions translate it all in past tense. The LXX is not consistent because it translates the verbs of v. 22 as Aorist and the verbs of 23 as Future, and the NIV is also not consistent because it translates the understood verb of being in 22 as present (which I think is the best translation), but then it translates the understood verb of being in v.23 as past tense.
PThe MT’s pronoun ending here is feminine and singular (“her”), probably referring to the feminine “statutes” as a singular whole. LXX renders it plural (“them”), and a few Hebrew manuscripts render it (“him”). Psalm 18 renders this pronomial ending in the first person singular (“me”), as do the Vulgate and Syriac and a few Hebrew manuscripts of 2 Sam. 22.
QDSS is obliterated here, but its spacing definitively supports the Psalm 18 MT text עמו (“with him”) instead of the 2 Sam. MT text (“to him”), and so do the Syriac (עמה), Vulgate (cum), Lucian Rescription (μετ᾿), and a couple of Hebrew manuscripts. It doesn’t make for a difference in meaning, however.
RDSS is obliterated at this point, but its spacing supports the longer reading of the MT of Ps. 18 here (“of my hands”), as do the LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate. This verse recaps the phrases from v.21 as well as the word “leneged” from v.23.
SDSS inserts a vav conjunction here, as do the LXX, Vulgate, and Syriac. In the Psalms, the gbr seems to be consistently used as the opposite of God (viz. Ps. 128:4, 89:48, 37:23), although it is also used in other books to distinguish a male from a female.
Tcf. Deut. 32:5 "They have corrupted themselves; They are not His children, Because of their blemish: A perverse and crooked generation.”
UDSS is obliterated here, but it has too much space for the MT reading, yet just enough extra space for the Psalm 18 reading of the MT (“and you yourself”).
VSyriac & LXX omit the “your” (like it is omitted in the Psalm), but it is in the LXX, Vulgate, & Targums of 2 Sam. 22. cf. Prov. 6:16-17 “These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look…” (KJV)