2 Samuel 22:43-51

43 I beat them fine as the dust of the earth, I crushed them and stamped them down like the mire of the streets.

44 "Thou didst deliver me from strife with the peoples; thou didst keep me as the head of the nations; people whom I had not known served me.

45 Foreigners came cringing to me; as soon as they heard of me, they obeyed me.

46 Foreigners lost heart, and came trembling out of their fastnesses.

47 "The LORD lives; and blessed be my rock, and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation,

48 the God who gave me vengeance and brought down peoples under me,

49 who brought me out from my enemies; thou didst exalt me above my adversaries, thou didst deliver me from men of violence.

50 "For this I will extol thee, O LORD, among the nations, and sing praises to thy name.

51 Great triumphs he gives to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David, and his descendants for ever."

2 Samuel 22:43-51 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.