18:29 Indeed, 1 with your help 2 I can charge against 3 an army; 4
by my God’s power 5 I can jump over a wall. 6
1 tn Or “for.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki) is asseverative here.
2 tn Heb “by you.”
3 tn Heb “I will run.” The imperfect verbal forms in v. 29 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 [Heb “cause to run”] an army.”
4 tn More specifically, the noun גְּדוּד (gÿdud) refers to a raiding party or to a contingent of troops.
sn I can charge against an army. 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.
5 tn Heb “and by my God.”
6 sn I can jump over a wall. The psalmist uses hyperbole to emphasize his God-given military superiority.