2 Samuel 23:2-7

23:2 The Lord’s spirit spoke through me;

his word was on my tongue.

23:3 The God of Israel spoke,

the protector ¹  of Israel spoke to me.

The one who rules fairly among men,

the one who rules in the fear of God,

23:4 is like the light of morning when the sun comes up,

a morning in which there are no clouds.

He is like the brightness after rain

that produces grass from the earth.

23:5 My dynasty is approved by God, ² 

for he has made a perpetual covenant with me,

arranged in all its particulars and secured.

He always delivers me,

and brings all I desire to fruition. ³ 

23:6 But evil people are like thorns –

all of them are tossed away,

for they cannot be held in the hand.

23:7 The one who touches them

must use an iron instrument

or the wooden shaft of a spear.

They are completely burned up right where they lie!” ⁴ 

[23:3]  ¹ tn Heb “rock,” used as a metaphor of divine protection.

[23:5]  ² tn Heb “For not thus [is] my house with God?”

[23:5]  ³ tn Heb “for all my deliverance and every desire, surely does he not make [it] grow?”

[23:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “and with fire they are completely burned up in [the place where they] remain.” The infinitive absolute is used before the finite verb to emphasize that they are completely consumed by the fire.