2 Samuel 22:6-16

6 the sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death lay ahead of me.

7 In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God; and He heard my voice out of His temple, and my cry entered into His ears.

8 Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of heaven moved and shook, because He was wroth.

9 There went up a smoke out of His nostrils, and fire out of His mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.

10 He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under His feet.

11 And He rode upon a cherub, and flew; and He was seen upon the wings of the wind.

12 And He made darkness pavilions round about Him, dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.

13 Through the brightness before Him were coals of fire kindled.

14 The LORD thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered His voice.

15 And He sent out arrows and scattered them; lightning, and discomfited them.

16 And the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were laid bare at the rebuking of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of His nostrils.

2 Samuel 22:6-16 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.