22:30 Indeed, 2 with your help 3 I can charge 4 against an army; 5
by my God’s power 6 I can jump over a wall. 7
1 tc The translation follows the Qere (“your servants”) rather than the Kethib (“your servant”).
2 tn Or “for.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki) is asseverative here.
3 tn Heb “by you.”
4 tn Heb “I will run.” The imperfect verbal forms in v. 30 indicate the subject’s potential or capacity to perform an action. Though one might expect a preposition to follow the verb here, this need not be the case with the verb רוּץ (ruts; see 1 Sam 17:22). Some emend the Qal to a Hiphil form of the verb and translate, “I put to flight [literally, “cause to run”] an army.”
5 tn More specifically, the noun refers to a raiding party or to a contingent of troops (see HALOT 177 s.v. II גְדוּד). The picture of a divinely empowered warrior charging against an army in almost superhuman fashion appears elsewhere in ancient Near Eastern literature. See R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 228.
6 tn Heb “by my God.”
7 tn David uses hyperbole to emphasize his God-given military superiority.