6:6 When they arrived at the threshing floor of Nacon, 3 Uzzah reached out and grabbed hold of 4 the ark of God, 5 because the oxen stumbled. 6:7 The Lord was so furious with Uzzah, 6 he 7 killed him on the spot 8 for his negligence. 9 He died right there beside the ark of God.
15:32 When David reached the summit, where he used to worship God, Hushai the Arkite met him with his clothes torn and dirt on his head.
22:3 My God 24 is my rocky summit where I take shelter, 25
my shield, the horn that saves me, 26 my stronghold,
my refuge, my savior. You save me from violence! 27
22:7 In my distress I called to the Lord;
I called to my God. 28
From his heavenly temple 29 he heard my voice;
he listened to my cry for help. 30
22:30 Indeed, 31 with your help 32 I can charge 33 against an army; 34
by my God’s power 35 I can jump over a wall. 36
22:31 The one true God acts in a faithful manner; 37
the Lord’s promise is reliable; 38
he is a shield to all who take shelter in him.
1 tn The Hebrew verb נַעֲלָה (na’alah) used here is the Niphal perfect 3rd person masculine singular of עָלָה (’alah, “to go up”). In the Niphal this verb “is used idiomatically, of getting away from so as to abandon…especially of an army raising a siege…” (see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 244).
2 tn Heb “lifted.”
3 tn 1 Chr 13:9 has “Kidon.”
4 tn Or “steadied.”
5 tn Heb “and Uzzah reached out toward the ark of God and grabbed it.”
6 tn Heb “and the anger of the
7 tn Heb “God.”
8 tc Heb “there.” Since this same term occurs later in the verse it is translated “on the spot” here for stylistic reasons.
9 tc The phrase “his negligence” is absent from the LXX.
10 tn Heb “and now, O
11 tn Heb “as you have spoken.”
12 tn Heb “and your name might be great permanently.” Following the imperative in v. 23b, the prefixed verbal form with vav conjunctive indicates purpose/result.
13 tn Heb “saying.” The words “as people” are supplied in the translation for clarification and stylistic reasons.
14 tn Heb “the house.” See the note on “dynastic house” in the following verse.
15 tn Heb “the God.” The article indicates uniqueness here.
16 tn The translation understands the prefixed verb form as a jussive, indicating David’s wish/prayer. Another option is to take the form as an imperfect and translate “your words are true.”
17 tn Heb “and you have spoken to your servant this good thing.”
18 tn Heb “and the
19 tn Heb “sought” or “searched for.”
20 tn Heb “and David fasted.”
21 tn The three Hebrew verbs that follow in this verse are perfects with prefixed vav. They may describe repeated past actions or actions which accompanied David’s praying and fasting.
22 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the servant) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
23 tn Heb “your servant.”
24 tc The translation (along with many English versions, e.g., NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT) follows the LXX in reading אֱלֹהִי (’elohi, “my God”) rather than MT’s אֱלֹהֵי (’elohe, “the God of”). See Ps 18:2.
25 tn Or “in whom.”
26 tn Heb “the horn of my salvation,” or “my saving horn.”
sn Though some see “horn” as referring to a horn-shaped peak of a hill, or to the “horns” of an altar where one could find refuge, it is more likely that the horn of an ox underlies the metaphor (see Deut 33:17; 1 Kgs 22:11; Ps 92:10). The horn of the wild ox is frequently a metaphor for military strength; the idiom “exalt the horn” signifies military victory (see 1 Sam 2:10; Pss 89:17, 24; 92:10; Lam 2:17). In the ancient Near East powerful warrior-kings would sometimes compare themselves to a goring bull that uses its horns to kill its enemies. For examples, see P. Miller, “El the Warrior,” HTR 60 (1967): 422-25, and R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 135-36. 2 Sam 22:3 uses the metaphor of the horn in a slightly different manner. Here the Lord himself is compared to a horn. He is to the psalmist what the horn is to the ox, a source of defense and victory.
27 tn The parallel version of the song in Ps 18 does not include this last line.
28 tn In this poetic narrative the two prefixed verbal forms in v. 7a are best understood as preterites indicating past tense, not imperfects. Note the use of the vav consecutive with the prefixed verbal form that follows in v. 7b.
29 tn Heb “from his temple.” Verse 10, which pictures God descending from the sky, indicates that the heavenly, not earthly, temple is in view.
30 tn Heb “and my cry for help [entered] his ears.”
31 tn Or “for.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki) is asseverative here.
32 tn Heb “by you.”
33 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.”
34 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.
35 tn Heb “by my God.”
36 tn David uses hyperbole to emphasize his God-given military superiority.
37 tn Heb “[As for] the God, his way is blameless.” The term הָאֵל (ha’el, “the God”) stands as a nominative (or genitive) absolute in apposition to the resumptive pronominal suffix on “way.” The prefixed article emphasizes his distinctiveness as the one true God (see BDB 42 s.v. II אֵל 6; Deut 33:26). God’s “way” in this context refers to his protective and salvific acts in fulfillment of his promise (see also Deut 32:4; Pss 67:2; 77:13 [note vv. 11-12, 14]; 103:7; 138:5; 145:17).
38 tn Heb “the word of the
39 tc The Hebrew text is difficult here. The translation reads עֶבֶד אֲדֹנָי (’eved ’adoni, “the servant of my lord”) rather than the MT’s אֲרַוְנָה (’Aravnah). In normal court etiquette a subject would not use his own name in this way, but would more likely refer to himself in the third person. The MT probably first sustained loss of עֶבֶד (’eved, “servant”), leading to confusion of the word for “my lord” with the name of the Jebusite referred to here.