2 Samuel 22:30

Footnotes

1. 78 Or “for.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki) is asseverative here.
2. 79 Heb “by you.”
3. 80 Heb “I will run.” The imperfect verbal forms in v. 30 indicate the subject’s potential or capacity to perform an action. Though one might expect a preposition to follow the verb here, this need not be the case with the verb רוּץ (ruts; see 1 Sam 17:22). Some emend the Qal to a Hiphil form of the verb and translate, “I put to flight [literally, “cause to run”] an army.”
4. 81 More specifically, the noun refers to a raiding party or to a contingent of troops (see II גְדוּד). The picture of a divinely empowered warrior charging against an army in almost superhuman fashion appears elsewhere in ancient Near Eastern literature. See R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 228.
5. 82 Heb “by my God.”
6. 83 David uses hyperbole to emphasize his God-given military superiority.