2 Samuel 22 Introduction

Structure and Formatting

This chapter continues the supplemental information about David’s reign as king of Israel that the author provides at the end of the book. It is the third part of that information, a song by David about Yahweh’s deliverance.

Some translations set each line of poetry farther to the right than the rest of the text to make it easier to read. The ULT does this with the words of this song in 22:2–51.

This song is also recorded in the Bible as Psalm 18. That shows that the people of Israel used it in their own worship after David had composed and sung it.

Translation Issues in This Chapter

Hebrew poetry

The verses of this song by David continually present two phrases that mean basically the same thing. The second emphasizes the meaning of the first by repeating the same idea with different words. Hebrew poetry was based on this kind of repetition, and it would be good to show this to your readers in many cases by including both phrases in your translation rather than combining them. If you do that, it may be clearer in your language to connect the phrases with a word other than “and” in order to show that the second phrase is repeating the first one, not saying something additional. But you may find that in some cases it is appropriate to combine the two phrases. For example:

• both phrases

22:24 And I have been blameless toward him, and I have kept myself from my iniquity. “And I have been blameless toward him, yes, I have kept myself from my iniquity.”

22:22 For I have kept the ways of Yahweh, and I have not been wicked from my God. “For I have kept the ways of Yahweh, no, I have not been wicked from my God.”

• combined into one

22:7 In my distress I called to Yahweh, and to my God I called “In my distress I called out to Yahweh, my God”

Extended metaphor

In verses 8–15, David describes Yahweh coming to help him as being like the greatest natural forces that people of his culture knew, which were an earthquake (verse 8), a volcano (verse 9), and a thunderstorm (verses 10–15). He describes each of these forces in poetic language. In other words, after stating his topic, which is how Yahweh delivered him (verse 7), David then depicts it with multiple images that communicate multiple ideas. Think about how you might show in your translation that verses 8–15, while describing three different things, all illustrate the same topic.