2 Samuel 1:8

1:8 He asked me, ‘Who are you?’ I told him, ‘I’m ¹  an Amalekite.’

2 Samuel 2:20

2:20 Then Abner turned and asked, “Is that you, Asahel?” He replied, “Yes it is!”

2 Samuel 3:17

3:17 Abner advised ²  the elders of Israel, “Previously you were wanting David to be your king. ³ 

2 Samuel 11:19

11:19 He instructed the messenger as follows: “When you finish giving the battle report to the king,

2 Samuel 12:9

12:9 Why have you shown contempt for the word of the Lord by doing evil in my ⁴  sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and you have taken his wife as your own! ⁵  You have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

2 Samuel 16:8

16:8 The Lord has punished you for ⁶  all the spilled blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you rule. Now the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. Disaster has overtaken you, for you are a man of bloodshed!”

2 Samuel 19:6-7

19:6 You seem to love your enemies and hate your friends! For you have as much as declared today that leaders and servants don’t matter to you. I realize now ⁷  that if ⁸  Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, ⁹  it would be all right with you. 19:7 So get up now and go out and give some encouragement to ¹⁰  your servants. For I swear by the Lord that if you don’t go out there, not a single man will stay here with you tonight! This disaster will be worse for you than any disaster that has overtaken you from your youth right to the present time!”

2 Samuel 22:29

22:29 Indeed, ¹¹  you are my lamp, ¹²  Lord.

The Lord illumines ¹³  the darkness around me. ¹⁴ 

2 Samuel 22:36

22:36 You give me ¹⁵  your protective shield; ¹⁶ 

your willingness to help enables me to prevail. ¹⁷ 

2 Samuel 22:41

22:41 You make my enemies retreat; ¹⁸ 

I destroy those who hate me.

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¹ tc The present translation reads with the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss “and I said,” rather than the Kethib which has “and he said.” See the LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate, all of which have the first person.

² tn Heb “the word of Abner was with.”

³ tn Heb “you were seeking David to be king over you.”

⁴ tc So the Qere; the Kethib has “his.”

⁵ tn Heb “to you for a wife.” This expression also occurs at the end of v. 10.

⁶ tn Heb “has brought back upon you.”

⁷ tn Heb “today.”

⁸ tc The translation follows the Qere, 4QSam^a, and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading לוּ (lu, “if”) rather than MT לֹא (lo’, “not”).

⁹ tc The Lucianic Greek recension and Syriac Peshitta lack “today.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “and speak to the heart of.”

¹¹ tn Or “for.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki) is asseverative here.

¹² tc Many medieval Hebrew mss, some LXX mss, and the Syriac Peshitta support reading תָּאִיר (ta’ir, “you cause to shine”) before the words “my lamp.” See Ps 18:28. The metaphor, which likens the Lord to a lamp or light, pictures him as the psalmist’s source of life. For other examples of “lamp” used in this way, see Job 18:6; 21:17; Prov 13:9; 20:20; 24:20. For other examples of “light” as a symbol for life, see Job 3:20; 33:30; Ps 56:13.

¹³ tc The Lucianic Greek recension and Vulgate understand this verb to be second person rather than third person as in the MT. But this is probably the result of reading the preceding word “Lord” as a vocative under the influence of the vocative in the first part of the verse.

¹⁴ tn Heb “my darkness.”

¹⁵ tn Another option is to translate the prefixed verb with vav consecutive with a past tense, “you gave me.” Several prefixed verbal forms with vav consecutive also appear in vv. 38-44. The present translation understands this section as a description of what generally happened when the author charged into battle, but another option is to understand the section as narrative and translate accordingly.

¹⁶ tc Ps 18:35 contains an additional line following this one, which reads “your right hand supports me.” It may be omitted here due to homoioarcton. See the note at Ps 18:35.

tn Heb “and you give me the shield of your deliverance”; KJV, ASV “the shield of thy (your NRSV, NLT) salvation”; NIV “your shield of victory.” Ancient Near Eastern literature often refers to a god giving a king special weapons. See R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 260-61.

¹⁷ tn Heb “your answer makes me great.” David refers to God’s willingness to answer his prayer.

¹⁸ 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.” See Exod 23:27 and HALOT 888 s.v. II ערף.