Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - 2 Samuel 22:21 - 22:21

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - 2 Samuel 22:21 - 22:21


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

21 Jehovah rendered to me according to my righteousness,

According to the cleanness of my hands He recompensed me.

22 For I have observed the ways of Jehovah,

And have not wickedly departed from my God.

23 For all His rights are before my eyes;

And His statutes,-I do not depart from them.

24 And I was innocent towards Him,

And kept myself from mine iniquity.

גָּמַל signifies to do to a person good or evil, like the Greek εὖ and κακῶς πράττειν τινά. The righteousness and cleanness of hands, i.e., the innocence, which David attributed to himself, were not perfect righteousness or holiness before God, but the righteousness of his endeavours and deeds as contrasted with the unrighteousness and wickedness of his adversaries and pursuers, and consisted in the fact that he endeavoured earnestly and sincerely to walk in the ways of God and to keep the divine commandments. מִן רָשַׁע, to be wicked from, is a pregnant expression, signifying to depart wickedly from God. לְנֶגְדִּי, i.e., as a standard before my eye. In the psalm we find עִמֹּו תָמִים, innocent in intercourse with the Lord, instead of לֹו תָמִים (see Deu 18:13); and for the fact itself, David's own testimony in 1Sa 26:23-24, the testimony of God concerning him in 1Ki 14:8, and the testimony of history in 1Ki 15:5. מֵעֲוֹנִי, from mine iniquity, i.e., from the iniquity which I might have committed.