Translation commentary on 2 Samuel 21:22

This verse constitutes a summary statement about the four cases detailed in the previous verses. For this reason it should probably stand as a separate paragraph. And some languages may have a special term that is used to introduce such summary accounts.

It may be helpful in many languages to be more precise by identifying These four as “These four Philistines” (Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente) or “These four Philistine soldiers” (Bible en français courant).

Descended from the giants: see the comments on this expression earlier, and compare verses 16, 18, and 20.

Fell: this euphemistic verb may be replaced by a more direct statement in most languages. Many translators will say simply “died.” Or it will be possible to turn the whole sentence around and say “David and his men killed….”

The word hand is used twice in this verse in the sense of “power,” but it will probably be more natural to avoid a literal rendering in this case. In many cases the most natural equivalent may be something like “They were all killed by David and his men” (New Century Version) or avoiding the passive “David and his soldiers killed these four men” (Contemporary English Version).

His servants: or as elsewhere in such contexts, “his soldiers” or “his men” (Revised English Bible). Compare, for example, verse 15 above.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

Translation commentary on 2 Samuel 22:1

This verse resembles the last part of the Hebrew title of Psa 18. It describes the occasion on which David wrote the psalm. It concerns David’s victories over his enemies and his escape from King Saul (see 1 Sam 23.7-14). The basic structure of this verse is reversed in Good News Translation, since this seems more natural in English. The expression the words of this song or “these words” (Good News Translation) need to come toward the end of the verse, since the actual words follow in the text.

These words are very much like those of Psa 18.1b (with the exception of the word for the hand [of Saul], which is a different word in the Psalm). And there David is called “the servant of the LORD,” a phrase that does not occur here. The composition is called a song (literally the words of this song).

Spoke: since this is called a song, it may be preferable in many languages to use the verb “sang” in place of this verb (so Good News Translation, New International Version, New Century Version).

Delivered: the verb used here literally means “to snatch away,” but it is often used in parallel with the verb “save” and has essentially the same meaning. Some other ways of saying this are “rescued” and “liberated.”

The word rendered hand (literally “palm”) really refers to the “power” of Saul and of David’s other adversaries. This is the meaning that should be translated in many languages. But others may take the hand as a representative of the person as a whole and speak of being delivered from Saul and from his other enemies. Note that Good News Translation reverses the order so that Saul is mentioned first, since he was the principal enemy of David during the period when this song was written. It then speaks of David’s “other enemies.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

Translation commentary on 2 Samuel 22:2 - 22:3

Depending on how the psalm is introduced in the previous verse, it may be advisable to drop the words He said at the beginning of this verse. This will be determined by what is most natural in the receptor language.

These verses describe the protection provided by Yahweh, using six different images:

(1) Rock (Hebrew selaʿ), that is, a boulder or large rock, a place where one can defend oneself (see also Psa 31.2; 42.9; 71.3).
(2) Fortress (see Psa 31.2, 3; 71.3; 91.2; 144.2), a place that cannot be conquered; it may be a natural formation such as a circle of large rocks, or it may be one built as a defense against enemy forces.
(3) Rock (Hebrew tsur, a term that frequently occurs in parallel lines with selaʿ in Hebrew poetry; here it is probably a synonym of the first word selaʿ). So it is acceptable to translate it by the same word in the receptor language.
(4) Shield, a protective device used in warfare to ward off enemy arrows and spears,
(5) The horn of my salvation, a figurative expression for strength and power, used of God only here and in Psa 18.2 (but see also Luke 1.69), probably owing its meaning to the horns of a bull (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh translates “my mighty champion”); of my salvation can be rendered by a verbal expression, “that saves me.”
(6) Stronghold, a place of safety, either natural (like a cave) or man-made; this is very similar in meaning to the second item, fortress; in some languages it will be possible to distinguish them only by considering the first man-made and the second natural.

It is possible to consider and my deliverer as the second line and The LORD is my rock, and my fortress as the first line. In this case my deliverer makes specific what is called my rock and my fortress in the first line. The set of parallel lines in verse 3 repeats essentially the same thought, in that there is only a piling up of “strength” images. Good News Translation has not managed to keep my deliverer and has therefore lost part of the parallelism. The repetitious nature of the parallelism is reflected in Good News Translation, which uses two images, “fortress” and “shield,” and reduces the others to “protector,” “protection,” “safe,” “protects,” and “defends.”

There are also two elements in these verses that are not figurative: my deliverer and I take refuge. These may be translated “the one who delivers me” and “I hide” or “I escape.”

Good News Translation uses figurative and nonfigurative language: metaphor (“strong fortress”), simile (“like a shield”), abstract noun (“my protection”), descriptive title (“my protector”), and verbal phrases (“defends me and keeps me safe”). Variety of expression and clarity of meaning, in poetic form, should be the aim.

In these two verses there are five alternatives from which the translator must choose: (a) to keep the literal translation of the Hebrew (if and only if the meanings are clear and the figures natural); (b) to substitute other known figures from the receptor language; (c) to keep the figure, but modified to a simile, explaining its meaning through the introduction of a verb; (d) to replace the figures with nonfigurative expressions; or finally (e) to combine two or more of the foregoing. Some examples are “The LORD protects me like a rock and a fortress,” or “The LORD guards me as a rock or fortress protects people,” or “My God, you are like a rock that defends me,” or “You defend me like a shield.”

Horn of my salvation denoted the place where a person could obtain asylum or protection from enemies (Exo 21.13-14; 1 Kgs 1.50-51; 2.28). Translators may recall that Luke 1.69 also speaks of “a horn of salvation.” This expression can almost never be translated literally without providing the reader with detailed explanations. In this case it is best to follow solution (d) above, using a nonfigurative expression as in Good News Translation (“he defends me”); for example, “he saves me from my enemies” or “he keeps my enemies from harming me.” Revised English Bible speaks of “my … sure defender,” while Contemporary English Version has “my powerful weapon.”

The text of 2 Samuel here contains additional words not in Psa 18, and my refuge, my savior; thou savest me from violence. These supplementary images reinforce the ones already given. The word refuge is found in other Old Testament passages, where it is translated “way of escape” (Job 11.20) and “flight” (Amos 2.14). It carries the basic idea of retreating or fleeing in order to escape danger.

The Hebrew noun rendered violence has a wide range of meanings, and the context frequently helps determine the translation. The general meaning is violence against human life. This same noun occurs in verse 49 in the expression “men of violence,” which is parallel to “my enemies” and “my adversaries.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

Translation commentary on 2 Samuel 22:4

This verse sums up the purpose of the entire psalm. The relation between the two parallel lines is that of consequence. David calls upon Yahweh, and as a result he is saved from my enemies. If the translator wishes to help the reader understand the function of the verse in the poem as a whole, it will be necessary to consider carefully how this can be done in terms of the receptor language. This may be done by putting the final line first; for example, “Praise the LORD! I call out, and so he saves me from my enemies.”

I call upon the LORD should not be rendered by a term that means to shout at someone. Also in many languages it is necessary to indicate the purpose of the calling; for example, “I call to the LORD for help” or “I call to the LORD, ‘Help me!’ ”

Who is worthy to be praised: these six words in English translate a single word in the Hebrew, which is the first word in the verse and is a passive participle of the verb “to praise.” Good News Translation translates it as “Praise the LORD!” and places it at the end of the verse. Its relation to what follows in the Hebrew is not quite clear, and changes in the text have been proposed. But New English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and others take it as Revised Standard Version has, who is worthy to be praised or “who should be praised,” which may be rendered “people [or, everybody] should praise him.” New American Bible has “ ‘Praised be the LORD,’ I exclaim.” Some commentators connect it with the preceding word (the last word in verse 3), “my stronghold, worthy of praise,” but this clearly is not the division found in the Masoretic Text.

Worthy to be praised must often be recast as an active construction, and in this context it may be necessary to shift the subject to the first person; for example, “I praise the LORD” or “I say the LORD is good.”

In translating the conjunction and, which joins the “calling” and the “saving” in this verse, translators should be careful to avoid the impression that the writer is speaking of two unconnected events. Revised English Bible uses the transition word “then.” Another way of showing the relationship more clearly is that of Bible en français courant, “as soon as I call on him [the LORD] for help, I am delivered from my enemies.”

I am saved: this verb is found frequently in Scripture and means “to rescue, save, deliver from illness, physical danger, enemies, or death”—anything that threatens the well-being or life of the person using the term. In translation it is often necessary to make explicit the condition from which the person is being rescued or saved. In this context it is clearly from my enemies. In those languages where the passive form is not possible or advisable, it will be reasonable to say “you save me from my enemies” or “he saves me from my enemies,” depending on whether second or third person pronouns are being used.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

Translation commentary on 2 Samuel 22:5 - 22:6

With verse 5 begins the long body of the song in the form of a review of the past, or a flashback recalling God’s great deeds of mercy in rescuing David from a very dangerous situation. Although there is an occasional verse with parallelism, that is, repetition of the same idea, the text is made up of parallel lines that enable movement between lines and between verses so that the great moments of a story unfold. In this sense these poetic lines are somewhat narrative without becoming an epic. The translation team’s perception of the nature of the parallelism will help them to select those ways of speaking in their own language that will contribute to the intensifying effect, or the consequence, in the second of two parallel lines.

The parallelism in verses 5 and 6 is not typical. Both the a and b lines of each verse have a metaphor. The more typical structure is for the metaphor to occur in the second line, which is more vivid and intensive. However, verse 5 is a clear case of intensification; in line a the waves of death merely encompass, but in line b they turn into violent action. Good News Translation‘s rendering of the parallel in Psa 18.4 substitutes “danger of death” in line a, and thus intensifies line b with the figure “waves of destruction” and the active verb “rolled over me.” Here, however, Good News Translation retains the more literal rendering, “waves of death.” In some languages a literal rendering of verse 5 may give the impression that two different events are referred to. The waves of death and the torrents of perdition refer essentially to the same thing. Contemporary English Version has rendered verse 5 as follows:
Death, like ocean waves, surrounded me,
and I was almost swallowed by its flooding waters.

Verse 6 and the first two lines of verse 7 have parallel lines in which the second merely restates the first. There is no intensifying effect, nothing made more specific, and no consequence. The poet has simply chosen to introduce the flashback section by piling up images for the sake of emphasizing his threatened existence at some time in the past. With the second couplet in verse 7 begins the predominant structure of movement between parallel lines and between verses.

The expression the waves of death, and in fact the whole of verses 5 and 6, are similar to Jonah 2.3. However, in this context the expressions are clearly intended in a figurative sense.

In the four lines of these two verses, death … perdition … Sheol … death are all parallel, all indicating the danger of sudden death, either through sickness, or at the hands of enemies, or in battle. David thought that death was imminent; he was as good as dead.

It is generally assumed that the word translated perdition is a euphemism for Sheol (for which see the comments on 1 Sam 2.6). The Hebrew word is translated elsewhere in Revised Standard Version as “base” (1 Sam 1.16; see the comments there) and “worthless” (1 Sam 2.12). The dangers that threatened David with death are likened to waves, torrents, cords, and snares, all of which are metaphors for instruments of capture and destruction.

The four verbs are matched to the metaphors: (1) verse 5a, waves with encompassed, meaning “tie up, bind” (also Psa 18.6; 40.12; 116.3; “closed in” in Jonah 2.5); (2) verse 5b, torrents with assailed, meaning “fall upon, roll over, overwhelm”; some take the verb to mean “terrify”; (3) verse 6a, cords with entangled, meaning “be around,” that is, tie up (the same verb is translated in Revised Standard Version as “surround” in Psa 17.11); (4) verse 6b, snares with confronted, meaning “to face, to meet” (as in Psa 17.13).

In many languages it is not natural to refer to death as the waves of death. However, other images are often available: trap, snare, pit, and fire. One may sometimes say “the snares of death were around me” or “traps that kill were around me.”

Torrents of perdition may sometimes be translated by “great waters that destroy.” New Century Version speaks of “deadly rivers.”

Cords of Sheol may sometimes be replaced by such figures as “the traps of death catch me” or “the traps that kill take hold of me.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

Translation commentary on 2 Samuel 22:7

In my distress must sometimes be rendered as a clause; for example, “When I saw trouble,” or idiomatically, “When trouble took hold of me.” Distress is the same word used in 1 Sam 2.32.

The parallel in Psa 18.6 has “I cried” in line b, which translates a verb that is related to the noun my cry in line d (see the noun that also occurs in verse 42 of this song). But here in 2 Samuel the verb “I cried” has been replaced by I called, so that there is a twofold use of the verb “call.”

His temple probably refers to heaven (as in Psa 11.4), from where God comes to David’s rescue (verses 10-11). But some interpreters see here a reference to the Temple in Jerusalem. In some languages this will have to be translated “his place,” which will conveniently retain the ambiguity. But if translators are convinced that the reference is to the earthly Temple, the translation may be “his house.” This, however, is not recommended, unless that is the normal expression for any dwelling place of God.

My voice is a substitute for speaking, and in some languages there is no noun for voice as such, but only a verb for speaking. Therefore this line may often be rendered “he heard me when I spoke to him.”

Line d, my cry came to his ears, makes specific the more general form in line c, heard my voice. Note that Good News Translation adds “for help,” which also moves in the direction of being more specific. Translators may find that this kind of movement may be made in the noun or in the verb.

The last line in Hebrew is “and my cry for help in his ears” (the parallel in Psa 18.6 has “and my cry for help to his face entered his ears”). Since his ears represent the person as a whole, it is possible to translate “came to him” or, more dynamically, “he listened to me [when I called out for help].”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

Translation commentary on 2 Samuel 22:8

In Hebrew the two verbs begin the first line, so that there is a bracketing structure in which earth and foundations of the heavens are enclosed at the beginning by reeled and rocked and at the end by trembled and quaked. The four verbs are similar in meaning, and the two lines are very similar, except for the earth being replaced by the more literary the foundations of the heavens.

This verse begins with a connecting word showing that the action is in response to a previous one, Then. It is important in translation to mark this connection, since it signals the start of a process that will continue until the end of verse 25.

The long description of Yahweh’s coming (verses 8-16) employs the kind of language associated with Yahweh’s appearance to his people on Mount Sinai (Exo 19.16-19; see also Judges 5.4-5; Psa 29.4-9; 144.5-6). The first picture is that of an earthquake, and there is a good alliterative effect in Hebrew, “the earth tegaʿash and tirʿash,” which certain translations try to reproduce: Revised Standard Version reeled and rocked; Knox “shivered and shook”; Traduction œcuménique de la Bible se troubla et trembla; Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch wankte und schwankte. In some languages an earth tremor is expressed idiomatically as “the mountain roared” or “the volcano snored.”

The foundations of the heavens: some commentators take earth in line a to refer to Sheol, but that meaning is more probable in Psa 18.7 than it is here. Here the foundations of the heavens seems to have the same sense as “pillars of heaven” in Job 26.11. The reference is to the distant mountains that support the dome of the heavens in the ancient understanding of the universe. And indeed the parallel in Psa 18.7 says “the foundations of the mountains.”

The verb translated trembled occurs also in 7.10, where it is translated “be disturbed,” and in 18.33, where it is rendered “was deeply moved.” The verb quaked translates the same Hebrew verb translated reeled in line a of this verse. This Hebrew verb refers to back-and-forth motion.

He was angry: Good News Translation transforms the pronoun he into the noun “God,” but it leaves the statement in the third person. Contemporary English Version, on the other hand, uses a second person form, “You were angry,” in harmony with the forms of direct address used in verse 3. See the comments on pronoun shifts in the introduction to this chapter.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

Translation commentary on 2 Samuel 22:9

This verse vividly portrays God as being very angry. The order in which smoke, fire, and coals occur suggests a progression. There is also the reflection of intensification in the order given. Translators may have to modify the imagery somewhat, but it is best to maintain the order, as progression is essential to the preparation and coming down of Yahweh to rescue David from his enemies.

The picture is that of a volcano in eruption: Smoke … fire … coals. Devouring fire may be rendered as “fire that burns things up” or “flame that destroys things.” It seems that both devouring fire and glowing coals issued out of Yahweh’s mouth. Some understand from him in line c to be “from it” and translate “and coals were kindled at it” (New Jerusalem Bible). Some languages make no distinction between nose and nostrils.

The nouns smoke, fire, and coals do not perform the events themselves. Rather, Yahweh performs actions upon them. Accordingly in some languages it is necessary to say, for example, “God made smoke go out of his nostrils and sent devouring fire and burning coals out of his mouth” or “God breathed out smoke and spat out hot fire and burning coals.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .