2 Samuel 7:13

7:13 He will build a house for my name, and I will make his dynasty permanent.¹

2 Samuel 11:11

11:11 Uriah replied to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah reside in temporary shelters, and my lord Joab and my lord’s soldiers are camping in the open field. Should I go to my house to eat and drink and have marital relations² with my wife? As surely as you are alive,³ I will not do this thing!”

2 Samuel 19:37

19:37 Let me⁴ return so that I may die in my own city near the grave of my father and my mother. But look, here is your servant Kimham. Let him cross over with my lord the king. Do for him whatever seems appropriate to you.”

2 Samuel 22:19

22:19 They confronted⁵ me in my day of calamity,

but the Lord helped me.⁶

2 Samuel 22:22

22:22 For I have obeyed the Lord’s commands;⁷

I have not rebelled against my God.⁸

2 Samuel 22:29

22:29 Indeed,⁹ you are my lamp,¹⁰ Lord.

The Lord illumines¹¹ the darkness around me.¹²

2 Samuel 22:40-41

22:40 You give me strength for battle;¹³

you make my foes kneel before me.¹⁴

22:41 You make my enemies retreat;¹⁵

I destroy those who hate me.

2 Samuel 22:45

22:45 Foreigners are powerless before me;¹⁶

when they hear of my exploits, they submit to me.¹⁷

2 Samuel 23:2

23:2 The Lord’s spirit spoke through me;

his word was on my tongue.

¹tn Heb “and I will establish the throne of his kingdom permanently.”

²tn Heb “and lay.”

³tn Heb “as you live and as your soul lives.”

⁴tn Heb “your servant.”

⁵tn The same verb is translated “trapped” in v. 6. In this poetic narrative context the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense, not imperfect. Cf. NAB, NCV, TEV, NLT “attacked.”

⁶tn Heb “became my support.”

⁷tn Heb “for I have kept the ways of the Lord.” The phrase “ways of the Lord” refers here to the “conduct required” by the Lord (see HALOT 232 s.v. דֶרֶךְ). In Ps 25 the Lord’s “ways” are associated with his covenantal demands (see vv. 4, 9-10). See also Ps 119:3 (cf. vv. 1, 4), as well as Deut 8:6; 10:12; 11:22; 19:9; 26:17; 28:9; 30:16.

⁸tn Heb “I have not acted wickedly from my God.” The statement is elliptical, the idea being, “I have not acted wickedly and, in so doing, departed from my God.”

⁹tn Or “for.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki) is asseverative here.

¹⁰tc 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.

¹¹tc 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.

¹²tn Heb “my darkness.”

¹³tn Heb “you clothed me with strength for battle.”

¹⁴tn Heb “you make those who rise against me kneel beneath me.”

¹⁵tn 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.

¹⁶tn 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).

¹⁷tn 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.