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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 2 Samuel 22:47 - 22:47
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
47 Jehovah liveth, and blessed is my rock,
And the God of my refuge of salvation is exalted.
48 The God who giveth me vengeance,
And bringeth nations under me;
49 Who leadeth me out from mine enemies,
And exalteth me above mine adversaries,
Delivereth me from the man of violence.
The formula חַי־יְהֹוָה does not mean “let Jehovah live,” for the word יְחִי would be used for that (vid., 2Sa 16:16; 1Sa 10:24), but is a declaration: “the Lord is living.” The declaration itself is to be taken as praise of God, for “praising God is simply ascribing to Him the glorious perfections which belong to him; we have only to give Him what is His own” (Hengstenberg). The following clauses also contain simply declarations; this is evident from the word יָרוּם, since the optative יָרֹם would be used to denote a wish. The Lord is living or alive when He manifests His life in acts of omnipotence. In the last clause, the expression צוּר (rock) is intensified into יִשְׁעִי צוּר אֱלֹהֵי (the God of my refuge, or rock, of salvation), i.e., the God who is my saving rock (cf. 2Sa 22:3). In the predicates of God in 2Sa 22:48, 2Sa 22:49, the saving acts depicted by David in vv. 5-20 and 29-46 are summed up briefly. Instead of מֹורִיד, “He causes to go down under me,” i.e., He subjects to me, we find in the psalm וַיַּדְבֵּר, “He drives nations under me,” and מְפַלְטַי instead of מֹוצִיאִי; and lastly, instead of חָמָס אִישׁ in the psalm, we have here חֲמָסִים אִישׁ, as in Psa 140:2. Therefore the praise of the Lord shall be sounded among all nations.