Mazmur 18:36-41

18:36 You widen my path; ¹ 

my feet ²  do not slip.

18:37 I chase my enemies and catch ³  them;

I do not turn back until I wipe them out.

18:38 I beat them ⁴  to death; ⁵ 

they fall at my feet. ⁶ 

18:39 You give me strength ⁷  for battle;

you make my foes kneel before me. ⁸ 

18:40 You make my enemies retreat; ⁹ 

I destroy those who hate me. ¹⁰ 

18:41 They cry out, but there is no one to help them; ¹¹ 

they cry out to the Lord, ¹²  but he does not answer them.

[18:36]  ¹ tn Heb “you make wide my step under me.” “Step” probably refers metonymically to the path upon which the psalmist walks. Another option is to translate, “you widen my stride.” This would suggest that God gives the psalmist the capacity to run quickly.

[18:36]  ² tn Heb “lower legs.” On the meaning of the Hebrew noun, which occurs only here, see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena (SBLDS), 112. A cognate Akkadian noun means “lower leg.”

[18:37]  ³ tn 2 Sam 22:38 reads “destroy.”

[18:38]  ⁴ tn Or “smash them.” 2 Sam 22:39 reads, “and I wiped them out and smashed them.”

[18:38]  ⁵ tn Heb “until they are unable to rise.” 2 Sam 22:39 reads, “until they do not rise.”

[18:38]  ⁶ sn They fall at my feet. For ancient Near Eastern parallels, see O. Keel, The Symbolism of the Biblical World, 294-97.

[18:39]  ⁷ tn Heb “clothed me.” See v. 32.

[18:39]  ⁸ tn Heb “you make those who rise against me kneel beneath me.”

[18:39]  sn My foes kneel before me. For ancient Near Eastern parallels, see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 268.

[18:40]  ⁹ tn Heb “and [as for] my enemies, you give to me [the] back [or “neck”].” The idiom “give [the] back” means “to cause [one] to turn the back and run away.” Cf. Exod 23:27.

[18:40]  ¹⁰ sn Those who hate me. See v. 17, where it is the Lord who delivered the psalmist from those who hated him.

[18:41]  ¹¹ tn Heb “but there is no deliverer.”

[18:41]  ¹² tn Heb “to the Lord.” The words “they cry out” are supplied in the translation because they are understood by ellipsis (see the preceding line).

[18:41]  sn They cry out. This reference to the psalmist’s enemies crying out for help to the Lord suggests that the psalmist refers here to enemies within the covenant community, rather than foreigners. However, the militaristic context suggests foreign enemies are in view. Ancient Near Eastern literature indicates that defeated enemies would sometimes cry out for mercy to the god(s) of their conqueror. See R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 271.