Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - 2 Samuel 22:5 - 22:5

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - 2 Samuel 22:5 - 22:5


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

5 For breakers of death had compassed me,

Streams of wickedness terrified me.

6 Cords of hell had girt me about,

Snares of death overtook me.

7 In my distress I called Jehovah,

And to my God I called;

And He heard my voice out of His temple,

And my crying came into His ears.

David had often been in danger of death, most frequently at the time when he was pursued by Saul, but also in Absalom's conspiracy, and even in several wars (cf. 2Sa 21:16). All these dangers, out of which the Lord delivered him, and not merely those which originated with Saul, are included in 2Sa 22:5, 2Sa 22:6. The figure “breakers or waves of death” is analogous to that of the “streams of Belial.” His distress is represented in both of them under the image of violent floods of water. In the psalm we find מָוֶת חֶבְלֵי, “snares of death,” as in Psa 116:3, death being regarded as a hunger with a net and snare (cf. Psa 91:3): this does not answer to well to the parallel נַחֲלֵי, and therefore is not so good, since שְׁאֹול חֶבְלֵי follows immediately. בְלִיַּעַל (Belial), uselessness in a moral sense, or worthlessness. The meaning “mischief,” or injury in a physical sense, which many expositors give to the word in this passage on account of the parallel “death,” cannot be grammatically sustained. Belial was afterwards adopted as a name for the devil (2Co 6:15). Streams of wickedness are calamities that proceed from wickedness, or originate with worthless men. קִדֵּם, to come to meet with a hostile intention, i.e., to fall upon (vid., Job 30:27). הֵיכָל, the temple out of which Jehovah heard him, was the heavenly abode of God, as in Psa 11:4; for, according to 2Sa 22:8., God came down from heaven to help him.