2 Samuel 22:4-14

4 I will send up my cry to the Lord, who is to be praised; so will I be made safe from those who are against me.

5 For the waves of death came round me, and the seas of evil put me in fear;

6 The cords of hell were round me: the nets of death came on me.

7 In my trouble my voice went up to the Lord, and my cry to my God: my voice came to his hearing in his holy Temple, and my prayer came to his ears.

8 Then the earth was moved with a violent shock; the bases of heaven were moved and shaking, because he was angry.

9 There went up a smoke from his nose, and a fire of destruction from his mouth: coals were lighted by it.

10 The heavens were bent, so that he might come down; and it was dark under his feet.

11 And he went through the air, seated on a storm-cloud: going quickly on the wings of the wind.

12 And he made the dark his tent round him, a mass of waters, thick clouds of the skies.

13 Before his shining light his dark clouds went past, raining ice and coals of fire.

14 The Lord made thunder in the heavens, and the voice of the Highest was sounding out.

2 Samuel 22:4-14 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO SECOND SAMUEL 22

This chapter contains a song or psalm, the same with the eighteenth psalm, and which, according to Jarchi, was composed by David in his old age, and, as Kimchi says, at the end or close of his days; but Abarbinel is of opinion that it was written in his youthful time, in the midst of his troubles, and was sung by him as often as he had a deliverance from any; and which may account for the several variations in it from the eighteenth psalm, which, the same writer observes, are seventy four; and are not to be ascribed to the difference of copies, or neglect of copiers: and very probably, towards the close of his days, he revised it, and made it fit for general use, and sent it with the rest of his psalms to the chief musician; but the particular consideration of it, and of the differences in it from Ps 18:1-50 are referred to the exposition of that book in its course.