2 Samuel 22-23
Amplified Bible
David’s Psalm of Rescue
22 David spoke the words of this song to the Lord when the Lord rescued him from the hands of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. 2 He said:
“The Lord is my rock and my fortress [on the mountain] and my rescuer;(A)
3
[a]My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge,
My Savior—You save me from violence.(B)
4
“I call on the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
And I am saved from my enemies.
5
“For the waves of death encompassed me;
The torrents of [b]destruction overwhelmed and terrified me.
6
“The cords of Sheol surrounded me;
The snares of death confronted me.
7
“In my distress I called upon the Lord;
I cried out to my God,
And from His temple [in the heavens] He heard my voice;
My cry for help came into His ears.
8
“Then the earth shook and quaked,
The foundations of the heavens trembled
And were shaken, because He was angry.
9
“Smoke went up out of His nostrils,
And devouring fire from His mouth;
Coals were kindled by it.
10
“He bowed the heavens also, and came down
With thick darkness under His feet.
11
“He rode on a cherub and flew;
He appeared upon the wings of the wind.
12
“He made darkness [c]canopies around Him,
A mass of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
13
“Out of the brightness before Him
Coals of fire were set aflame.
14
“The Lord thundered from heaven,
And the Most High uttered His voice.
15
“He sent out arrows and scattered them;
Lightning, and confused them.
16
“The channels of the sea appeared,
The foundations of the world were uncovered
At the rebuke of the Lord,
At the blast of the breath of His nostrils.
17
“He sent from above, He took me;
He drew me out of great waters.
18
“He rescued me from my strong enemy,
From those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.
19
“They came upon me in the day of my calamity,
But the Lord was my support.
20
“He also brought me out to an open place;
He rescued me because He delighted in me.
21
“The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness;
According to the cleanness of my hands He has rewarded me.
22
“For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
And have not acted wickedly against my God.
23
“For all His judgments (legal decisions) were before me,
And from His statutes I did not turn aside.
24
“I was also blameless before Him,
And kept myself from wrongdoing.
25
“Therefore the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
According to my cleanness in His sight.
26
“With the loving and loyal You show Yourself loving and loyal,
With the blameless You show Yourself blameless.
27
“With the pure You show Yourself pure,
With the perverted You show Yourself astute.
28
“And You save the afflicted people;
But Your eyes are on the haughty whom You abase (humiliate).
29
“For You, O Lord, are my lamp;
The Lord illumines and dispels my darkness.
30
“For by You I can run upon a troop;
By my God I can leap over a wall.
31
“As for God, His way is blameless and perfect;
The word of the Lord is tested.
He is a shield to all those who take refuge and trust in Him.
32
“For who is God, besides the Lord?
And who is a rock, besides our God?(C)
33
“God is my strong fortress;
He sets the blameless in His way.
34
“He makes my feet like the doe’s feet [firm and swift];
He sets me [secure and confident] on my high places.
35
“He trains my hands for war,
So that my arms can bend (pull back) a bow of bronze.
36
“You have also given me the shield of Your salvation,
And Your help and gentleness make me great.
37
“You enlarge my steps under me,
And my feet have not slipped.
38
“I pursued my enemies and destroyed them,
And I did not turn back until they were consumed (eliminated).
39
“I consumed them and shattered them, so that they did not rise;
They fell under my feet.
40
“For You have surrounded me with strength for the battle;
You have subdued under me those who stood against me.
41
“You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me [in retreat],
And I destroyed those who hated me.
42
“They looked, but there was no savior for them—
Even to the Lord [they looked], but He did not answer them.
43
“Then I beat them as [small as] the dust of the earth;
I crushed and stamped them as the mire (dirt, mud) of the streets.
44
“You also have rescued me from strife with my [own] people;
You have kept me as the head of the nations.
People whom I have not known served me.
45
“Foreigners pretend obedience to me;
As soon as they hear [me], they obey me.
46
“Foreigners lose heart;
They come trembling out of their strongholds.
47
“The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock,
And exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation.
48
“It is God who executes vengeance for me,
And brings down [and disciplines] the peoples under me,
49
Who also brings me out from my enemies.
You even lift me above those who rise up against me;
You rescue me from the violent man.
50
“For this I will give thanks and praise You, O Lord, among the nations;
I will sing praises to Your name.
51
“He is a tower of salvation and great deliverance to His king,
And shows lovingkindness to His anointed,
To David and his offspring forever.”
David’s Last Song
23 Now these are the last words of David.
David the son of Jesse declares,
The man who was raised on high declares,
The anointed of the God of Jacob,
And the sweet psalmist of Israel,
2
“The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me,
And His word was on my tongue.
3
“The God of Israel,
The Rock of Israel spoke to me,
‘He who rules over men righteously,
Who rules in the fear of God,
4
Is like the morning light when the sun rises,
A morning without clouds,
When the fresh grass springs out of the earth
Through sunshine after rain.’
5
“Truly is not my house so [blessed] with God?
For He has made an everlasting covenant with me,
Ordered in all things, and secured.
For will He not cause to grow and prosper
All my salvation and my every wish?
Will He not make it grow and prosper?
6
“But the wicked and worthless are all to be thrown away like thorns,
Because they cannot be taken with the hand;
7
“But the man who touches them
Must be armed with iron and the shaft of a spear,
And they are utterly burned and consumed by fire in their place.”
His Mighty Men
8 These are the names of the mighty men (warriors) whom David had: Josheb-basshebeth, a Tahchemonite, chief of the [d]captains, also called Adino the Eznite (spear) because of the [e]eight hundred men killed [by him] at one time.(D) 9 Next to him was Eleazar the son of Dodo the son of Ahohi. He was one of the three mighty men with David when they taunted and defied the Philistines assembled there for battle, and the men of Israel had gone. 10 Eleazar stood up and struck down the Philistines until his hand was weary and clung to the sword. The Lord brought about a great victory that day; the people returned after him only to take the spoil [of the slain].
11 Next to Eleazar was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. The Philistines were gathered into an army where there was a plot of ground full of lentils, and the people [of Israel] fled from the Philistines. 12 But he took his stand in the center of the plot and defended it and struck down the Philistines; and the Lord brought about a great victory.
13 Then three of the thirty chief men went down and came to David at harvest time in the cave of Adullam, while an army of Philistines was encamped in the Valley of Rephaim. 14 David was then in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. 15 And David had a craving and said, “Oh that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!” 16 So the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines, and drew water from the well of Bethlehem by the gate, and carried and brought it to David. But he would not drink it, but poured it out [in worship] to the Lord. 17 And he said, “Far be it from me, O Lord, that I should drink this. [Is it not the same as] the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?” So he would not drink it. These things the [f]three mighty men did.
18 Now Abishai the brother of Joab the son of Zeruiah was chief of the [g]thirty. He wielded his spear against three hundred men and killed them, and gained a reputation beside the three. 19 He was the most honored of the thirty, so he became their commander; however, he did not attain to the [greatness of the] three.
20 Then Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done many notable acts, killed two [famous] warriors of Moab. He also went down and killed a lion in the middle of a pit on a snowy day. 21 And he killed an Egyptian, an impressive and handsome man. The Egyptian had a spear in his hand, but Benaiah went down to him with a club, snatched the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand and killed the man with his own spear. 22 These things Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did, and gained a reputation beside the three mighty men. 23 He was honored among the thirty, but he did not attain to the [greatness of the] three. David appointed him over his guard.
24 Asahel the brother of Joab was one of the thirty; then Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem, 25 Shammah of Harod, Elika of Harod, 26 Helez the Paltite, Ira the son of Ikkesh of Tekoa, 27 Abiezer of Anathoth, Mebunnai the Hushathite, 28 Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai of Netophah, 29 Heleb the son of Baanah of Netophah, Ittai the son of Ribai of Gibeah of the Benjamites, 30 Benaiah of Pirathon, Hiddai of the brooks of Gaash, 31 Abi-albon the Arbathite, Azmaveth the Barhumite, 32 Eliahba of Shaalbon, the sons of Jashen, Jonathan, 33 Shammah the Hararite, Ahiam the son of Sharar the Ararite, 34 Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai the son of Maacah, Eliam the son of Ahithophel of Giloh, 35 Hezro (Hezrai) of Carmel, Paarai the Arbite, 36 Igal the son of Nathan of Zobah, Bani the Gadite, 37 Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai of Beeroth, armor bearer of Joab the son of Zeruiah, 38 Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite, 39 Uriah the Hittite—thirty-seven in all.
Footnotes
- 2 Samuel 22:3 Lit the God of my rock.
- 2 Samuel 22:5 Heb Belial.
- 2 Samuel 22:12 Some mss read His covering.
- 2 Samuel 23:8 The exploits of these three warriors are outlined in vv 8-11.
- 2 Samuel 23:8 1 Chr 11:11 lists the number as three hundred, and the number here is thought by some to be a textual error or exaggeration. But there is nothing in the text to suggest a scribal error, and if 800 slain by one man seems incredible, 300—though a much smaller number—still strains credibility. Perhaps divine intervention is the explanation (cf v 12), or Josheb was actually commanding other men but was credited with the victory as if he were alone, a common way to describe military victories.
- 2 Samuel 23:17 I.e. Josheb-basshebeth, Eleazar, and Shammah.
- 2 Samuel 23:18 So two Hebrew mss and Syriac; MT three.
Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631. All rights reserved.
Bible Gateway Recommends
