2 Samuel 22:26

You prove to be loyal ¹  to one who is faithful; ²  you prove to be trustworthy ³  to one who is innocent. ⁴ 

"To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless,

"With the kind You show Yourself kind, With the blameless You show Yourself blameless;

"To the faithful you show yourself faithful; to those with integrity you show integrity.

You stick by people who stick with you, you're straight with people who're straight with you,

On him who has mercy you will have mercy; to the upright you will be upright;

With the loyal you show yourself loyal; with the blameless you show yourself blameless;

"With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; With a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless;

You prove to be loyal ¹  to one who is faithful; ²  you prove to be trustworthy ³  to one who is innocent. ⁴ 

¹ tn The imperfect verbal forms in vv. 26-30 draw attention to God’s characteristic actions. Based on his experience, the psalmist generalizes about God’s just dealings with people (vv. 26-28) and about the way in which God typically empowers him on the battlefield (vv. 29-30). The Hitpael stem is used in vv. 26-27 in a reflexive resultative (or causative) sense. God makes himself loyal, etc. in the sense that he conducts or reveals himself as such. On this use of the Hitpael stem, see GKC 149-50 §54.e.

² tn Or “to a faithful follower.” A חָסִיד (khasid, “faithful follower”) is one who does what is right in God’s eyes and remains faithful to God (see Pss 4:3; 12:1; 16:10; 31:23; 37:28; 86:2; 97:10).

³ tn Or “innocent.”

⁴ tc Heb “a warrior of innocence.” The parallel text in Ps 18:25 reads, probably correctly, גֶּבֶר (gever, “man”) instead of גִּבּוֹר (gibor, “warrior”).