Discovery BoxPsalms 18:29 
Context18:29 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
Psalms 62:3
Context62:3 How long will you threaten 7 a man?
All of you are murderers, 8
as dangerous as a leaning wall or an unstable fence. 9
Psalms 91:4
Context91:4 He will shelter you 10 with his wings; 11
you will find safety under his wings.
His faithfulness is like a shield or a protective wall. 12
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.
7 tn The verb form is plural; the psalmist addresses his enemies. The verb הוּת occurs only here in the OT. An Arabic cognate means “shout at.”
8 tn The Hebrew text has a Pual (passive) form, but the verb form should be vocalized as a Piel (active) form. See BDB 953-54 s.v. רָצַח.
9 tn Heb “like a bent wall and a broken fence.” The point of the comparison is not entirely clear. Perhaps the enemies are depicted as dangerous, like a leaning wall or broken fence that is in danger of falling on someone (see C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms [ICC], 2:69).
10 tn Heb “put a cover over you” (see Ps 5:11).
11 tc The Hebrew text has the singular, but the plural should be read. The final yod (י) of the suffix, which indicates the plural, has dropped off by haplography (note the yod [י] at the beginning of the next word).
12 tn Traditionally the Hebrew term סֹחֵרָה (sokherah), which occurs only here in the OT, has been understood to refer to a buckler or small shield (see BDB 695 s.v.). But HALOT 750 s.v., on the basis of evidence from the cognate languages, proposes the meaning “wall.”
