22:1 4 David sang 5 to the Lord the words of this song when 6 the Lord rescued him from the power 7 of all his enemies, including Saul. 8
1 tn Heb “house,” both here and in v. 12.
2 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the servant) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 tn Heb “your servant.”
4 sn In this long song of thanks, David affirms that God is his faithful protector. He recalls in highly poetic fashion how God intervened in awesome power and delivered him from death. His experience demonstrates that God vindicates those who are blameless and remain loyal to him. True to his promises, God gives the king victory on the battlefield and enables him to subdue nations. A parallel version of the song appears in Ps 18.
5 tn Heb “spoke.”
6 tn Heb “in the day,” or “at the time.”
7 tn Heb “hand.”
8 tn Heb “and from the hand of Saul.”
9 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.