2 Samuel 22:19-29

19 They confronted me in the day of my calamity, But the Lord was my support.

20 He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me.

21 "The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me.

22 For I have kept the ways of the Lord, And have not wickedly departed from my God.

23 For all His judgments were before me; And as for His statutes, I did not depart from them.

24 I was also blameless before Him, And I kept myself from my iniquity.

25 Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to my cleanness in His eyes.

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

27 With the pure You will show Yourself pure; And with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd.

28 You will save the humble people; But Your eyes are on the haughty, that You may bring them down.

29 "For You are my lamp, O Lord; The Lord shall enlighten my darkness.

2 Samuel 22:19-29 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate read the cleanness of my hands in His sight (compare Psalm 18:24); Targum reads my cleanness before His word.