22:45 Foreigners are powerless before me; 1
when they hear of my exploits, they submit to me. 2
22:46 Foreigners lose their courage; 3
they shake with fear 4 as they leave 5 their strongholds. 6
22:47 The Lord is alive! 7
My protector 8 is praiseworthy! 9
The God who delivers me 10 is exalted as king! 11
1 tn For the meaning “to be weak; to be powerless” for the verb כָּחַשׁ (kakhash), see Ps 109:24. Verse 46, which also mentions foreigners, favors this interpretation. Another option is to translate “cower in fear” (see Deut 33:29; Pss 66:3; 81:15).
2 tn Heb “at a report of an ear they submit to me.” The report of David’s exploits is so impressive that those who hear it submit to his rulership without putting up a fight.
3 tn Heb “wither, wear out.”
4 tc The translation assumes a reading וְיַחְרְגוּ (vÿyakhrÿgu, “and they quaked”) rather than the MT וְיַחְגְּרוּ (vÿyakhgÿru, “and they girded themselves”). See the note at Ps 18:45.
5 tn Heb “from.”
6 tn Heb “prisons.” Their besieged cities are compared to prisons.
7 tn Elsewhere the construction חַי־יְהוָה (khay-yÿhvah) as used exclusively as an oath formula, but this is not the case here, for no oath follows. Here the statement is an affirmation of the
8 tn Heb “my rocky cliff,” which is a metaphor for protection.
9 tn Or “blessed [i.e., praised] be.”
10 tn Heb “the God of the rock of my deliverance.” The term צוּר (tsur, “rock”) is probably accidentally repeated from the previous line. The parallel version in Ps 18:46 has simply “the God of my deliverance.”
11 tn The words “as king” are supplied in the translation for clarification. In the Psalms the verb רוּם (rum, “be exalted”) when used of God, refers to his exalted position as king (Pss 99:2; 113:4; 138:6) and/or his self-revelation as king through his mighty deeds of deliverance (Pss 21:13; 46:10; 57:5, 11).