1 Samuel 2:9

2:9 He watches over ¹  his holy ones, ² 

but the wicked are made speechless in the darkness,

for it is not by one’s own strength that one prevails.

Ayub 21:30

21:30 that the evil man is spared

from the day of his misfortune,

that he is delivered ³ 

from the day of God’s wrath?

Mazmur 18:29

18:29 Indeed, ⁴  with your help ⁵  I can charge against ⁶  an army; ⁷ 

by my God’s power ⁸  I can jump over a wall. ⁹ 

[2:9]  ¹ tn Heb “guards the feet of.” The expression means that God watches over and protects the godly in all of their activities and movements. The imperfect verbal forms in v. 9 are understood as indicating what is typically true. Another option is to translate them with the future tense. See v. 10b.

[2:9]  ² tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading the plural (“his holy ones”) rather than the singular (“his holy one”) of the Kethib.

[21:30]  ³ tn The verb means “to be led forth.” To be “led forth in the day of trouble” means to be delivered.

[18:29]  ⁴ tn Or “for.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki) is asseverative here.

[18:29]  ⁵ tn Heb “by you.”

[18:29]  ⁶ tn Heb “I will run.” The imperfect verbal forms in v. 29 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 [Heb “cause to run”] an army.”

[18:29]  ⁷ tn More specifically, the noun גְּדוּד (gÿdud) refers to a raiding party or to a contingent of troops.

[18:29]  sn I can charge against an army. 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.

[18:29]  ⁸ tn Heb “and by my God.”

[18:29]  ⁹ sn I can jump over a wall. The psalmist uses hyperbole to emphasize his God-given military superiority.