2 Samuel22:1–51

One song in two hands: 2 Samuel 22 and Psalm 18 verbal / quotation: confirmed

This is not a parallel; it is the same poem preserved twice, and the Verifier's lexeme counts make that measurable rather than impressionistic. קַרְסֻלָּי (qarçôl, H7166, "an ankle") occurs in exactly two verses in the canon, and they are 2 Samuel 22:37 and Psalm 18:36. The same is true in near degree of mishʻên (H4937, three verses), shûwr (H7791, four), and dâlag (H1801, five). JFB explains the divergences as authorial revision: "this, the first copy of the poem, was carefully revised and altered by David afterwards, when it was set to the music of the tabernacle." Ellicott is more cautious and treats several as scribal, "mere slips of the pen." K&D judges case by case, sometimes preferring the Samuel text (v. 8, v. 12) and sometimes the Psalm (v. 13, v. 15). We record all three positions and take none.

Psalm 18:36 · Psalm 18:29 · Psalm 18:18 · Psalm 18:2

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes across the parallel verses, headed by H7166 qarçôl, ankle (in 2 vv, which are this text and Psalm 18:36), plus H4937 mishʻên (in 3 vv), H7791 shûwr (in 4 vv), H1801 dâlag (in 5 vv), H6403 pâlaṭ (in 24 vv), H4686 mâtsûwd (in 21 vv), H4146 môwçâdâh (in 5 vv). A lexeme occurring in only two verses of the canon, and those two being these, is textual identity rather than resemblance.

Drawn out of the water, as Moses was verbal / quotation: confirmed

At v. 17 the rescue verb is יַמְשֵׁנִי (mâshâh, H4871, "to pull out, literally or figuratively"). The Verifier finds it in only three verses of the whole canon, and one of them is Exodus 2:10, where it supplies the etymology of the name Moses. Both K&D and Cambridge see the allusion independently. K&D: "ימשׁני, from משׁה ( Exodus 2:10 ), from which the name of Moses was derived, to whom there is probably an allusion made. As Moses was taken out of the waters of the Nile, so David was taken out of great (many) waters." Cambridge draws the further inference, that both men are drawn out in order to be sent back: "to be the deliverer of His people." That inference is theirs and is not carried by the lexeme.

Exodus 2:10 · Psalm 18:16

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H4871 mâshâh, to draw out (in 3 vv). The word occurs three times in the canon; Exodus 2:10 uses it to name Moses. A rare shared lexeme, not a quotation, and the typological inference drawn by K&D and Cambridge goes beyond it.

The foundations uncovered structural / thematic: confirmed

מוֹסְדוֹת (môwçâdâh, H4146, "a foundation") frames the theophany: at v. 8 the foundations of the heavens tremble, at v. 16 the foundations of the world are stripped bare. The Verifier counts the noun in five verses canon-wide and puts two of the others at Isaiah 40:21 and Jeremiah 51:26. The motif is shared (the base of things, either laid or unmade), but nothing here is a quotation and none of our voices claims one. What the commentators do tie v. 16 to is the Red Sea: Geneva, "He alludes to the miracle of the Red Sea"; Cambridge, "as of old at the passage of the Red Sea, when 'He rebuked the Red Sea, and it was dried up.'" That connection is thematic and stated by them, not established by a shared lexeme in the Verifier's list, and we do not upgrade it.

Isaiah 40:21 · Jeremiah 51:26 · Psalm 18:15

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H4146 môwçâdâh, foundation (in 5 vv), with Isaiah 40:21 and Jeremiah 51:26; also H639 ʼaph (in 269 vv) and H7307 rûwach (in 348 vv) with Psalm 18:15. A rare noun inside a shared motif of the world's base being laid or laid bare. No quotation is claimed in any direction, so the tier is deliberately held below verbal.

"The cleanness of my hands" and the company that phrase keeps verbal / quotation: confirmed

At vv. 21 and 25 David rests his case on כְּבֹר יָדַי (bôr, H1252, "purify," with yâd) and tsᵉdâqâh (H6666). The Verifier finds bôr in only five verses, and lists Job 22:30 among them alongside kaph (H3709, palm). The shared vocabulary is real; what the shared vocabulary does not settle is whether the claim is safe to make. Cambridge defends it as relative sincerity, "not … a perfect righteousness, but … sincerity and single-heartedness in his devotion to God," and appeals to 1 Samuel 26:23, 1 Kings 14:8 and 1 Kings 15:5. K&D says the same. Pulpit uses it as a dating argument. We record the lexical tie to Job 22:30 as a verbal link and note honestly that we have not verified the speaker or setting of that verse against its context, and so press nothing on it.

Job 22:30 · Psalm 18:20 · Psalm 18:24

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H1252 bôr, cleanness (in 5 vv, twice in the candidate) and H3709 kaph, palm (in 180 vv) with Job 22:30; H1580 gâmal (in 32 vv) and H1252 bôr with Psalm 18:20; H5048 neged (in 143 vv) with Psalm 18:24. H1252 is rare enough for a genuine verbal tie. It is not a quotation, and no direction of dependence is claimed.

Crooked toward the crooked structural / thematic: confirmed

Verse 27 turns the reciprocity principle inside out: וְעִם־עִקֵּשׁ תִּתַּפָּל, "and with the crooked (ʻiqqêsh, H6141) thou showest thyself twisted (pâthal, H6617)." K&D calls the form "still more anomalous" than the others and explains the theology by a cross-reference: "God shows himself so towards the perverse, by giving him up to his perverseness ( Romans 1:28 )." Cambridge cites the identical verse, and adds Leviticus 26:23-24 and the history of Balaam. The Hebrew-to-Hebrew basis (to Psalm 18:26) is a set of shared lexemes; the New Testament link cannot be a verbal one, since no Strong's number can be shared across Greek and Hebrew, and we tier it accordingly.

Psalm 18:26 · Romans 1:28

basis: Within Hebrew, Verifier: shared lexemes H1305 bârar (in 16 vv), H6141 ʻiqqêsh (in 11 vv), H6617 pâthal (in 5 vv) with Psalm 18:26. The link to Romans 1:28 is cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's basis is possible and it is not tiered verbal; K&D and Cambridge each cite Romans 1:28 independently as the matching pattern.

Praise among the nations: Paul's use of v. 50 structural / thematic: confirmed

Cambridge, on v. 50: "This verse is quoted by St Paul in Romans 15:9 (along with Deuteronomy 32:43 ; Psalm 117:1 ; Isaiah 11:10 ), to prove that the Old Testament anticipated the admission of the Gentiles to the blessings of salvation." K&D records the same apostolic use and the same companion texts, but prints the address as Romans 16:9, which looks like a slip of the pen in our public-domain copy. The substance is agreed by both; the reference is not, and we report the discrepancy rather than choosing silently. Because the link crosses from Greek into Hebrew, no shared Strong's number can serve as its basis, so we do not tier it verbal even though both voices describe an explicit citation.

Romans 15:9 · Psalm 117:1 · Deuteronomy 32:43

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew): no shared Strong's number is possible, so the tier is held below verbal. Recorded basis is the commentary itself: Cambridge and K&D both state that Paul quotes 2 Samuel 22:50, Cambridge at Romans 15:9 and K&D at Romans 16:9. We have not checked the Greek ourselves.

"In him will I trust" at Hebrews 2:13: flagged flagged: verify source

Cambridge, commenting on v. 3, writes of אֶחֱסֶה־בּוֹ (châçâh, H2620): "Better, in whom I take refuge : carrying on the metaphor of a hiding-place in the rocks. Quoted in Hebrews 2:13 ; cp. Psalm 94:22 ." No other voice in this brief records that citation, and the clause in question is one that appears in more than one Old Testament place, so the provenance of the New Testament quotation is genuinely disputed among commentators. The link crosses languages and therefore can carry no Strong's basis. We flag it, report Cambridge's claim as Cambridge's, and assert nothing.

Hebrews 2:13 · Psalm 94:22

basis: Cambridge alone, at 2 Samuel 22:3, states that the clause is "Quoted in Hebrews 2:13." No corroborating voice in this brief; cross-Testament, so no shared Strong's basis is possible; the source of the Hebrews quotation is disputed in the wider literature. Flagged for verification against the Greek, not asserted.

Chesed to His anointed, and to his seed forever ancient/widely-held

⚙ The song ends on three words that cannot be kept inside David's lifetime: חֶסֶד (chêçêd, H2617), לִמְשִׁיחוֹ (mâshîyach, H4899, "anointed"), and וּלְזַרְעוֹ עַד־עוֹלָם (zeraʻ H2233 + ʻôwlâm H5769). K&D states the reading as old and settled: "The king whose salvation the Lord had magnified, was not David as an individual, but David and his seed for ever-that is to say, the royal family of David which culminated in Christ," and grounds it on the promise of 2 Samuel 7:12-16, "which is repeated almost verbatim in the last clause." Cambridge says the same of the phrase "to his seed for evermore." Ellicott closes his whole commentary on the chapter on "the fulfilment of the Divine promise of the perpetuity of his kingdom through the coming of Him 'in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed.'" Henry, who says almost nothing else about this chapter, says this: "All his joys and hopes close, as all our hopes should do, in the great Redeemer." What the Hebrew itself gives is a covenant word (chêçêd), a title (mâshîyach), and a duration (ʻad ʻôwlâm). The identification of the term of that duration is the apostolic reading, and it is the one our voices hold in common.

2 Samuel 7:12-16 · Psalm 18:50

"Because He delighted in me" ancient/widely-held

⚙ Verse 20 gives the ground of the rescue as כִּי־חָפֵץ בִּי (châphêts, H2654, "properly, to incline to"). Cambridge makes the philological observation and then the theological one in a single breath: "This was the ground of God's deliverance, and it now becomes the leading thought of the Psalm. Cp. ch. 2 Samuel 15:26 ; Psalm 22:8 ; and also Matthew 3:17 , where the Greek word for 'I am well pleased' is the same as that used in the Sept. ( εὐδοκεῖν ). The reference becomes doubly significant if it is borne in mind that the theocratic king was called God's son (ch. 2 Samuel 7:14 ; Psalm 2:7 )." That is a Septuagint-level lexical observation, not a Hebrew one, and we mark the limit: the tie runs through the Greek translation, so it cannot be tiered as a shared Strong's link. Within those limits it is a real and ancient reading, and Pulpit sharpens its pathos by noting that at 2 Samuel 15:26 David is no longer sure the delight still holds.

Matthew 3:17 · 2 Samuel 7:14 · Psalm 2:7

The breakers of death, and what rose out of them ancient/widely-held

⚙ Geneva glosses v. 5 with the plainest typological statement in this brief: "As David (who was the figure of Christ) was by God's power delivered from all dangers: so Christ and his Church will overcome most grievous dangers, tyranny and death." Cambridge supplies, at v. 6, the philological hinge that the ancient church used: חֶבְלֵי (chebel, H2256) "may no doubt mean pangs , as it is translated in the Sept. ( ὠδῖνες , cp. Acts 2:24 )." The Greek word at Acts 2:24, where Peter says God loosed the birth-pangs of death, is the same word the Septuagint used to render this noun. We name the limit precisely: the tie exists in the Greek translation, not in the Hebrew, where Cambridge himself thinks the hunter's cord is the better sense. What can be said without overreach is that the reading is old, that the apostolic preaching of the resurrection used this vocabulary, and that Geneva's figure-of-Christ gloss is the standard Reformation handling of David's deliverance songs.

Acts 2:24 · Psalm 18:4

Praise among the nations ancient/widely-held

⚙ Verse 50 promises praise בַּגּוֹיִם (gôwy, H1471, "a foreign nation"), and vv. 44 to 46 have already put nations David did not know under his hand. K&D reads the historical particular as a preview: Toi of Hamath (2 Samuel 8:10) "was an example, and his subjugation was a prelude of the future subjection of all the heathen to the sceptre of the Son of David, as predicted in Psalm 72." Cambridge adds that the nations brought under Israel's rule "may also be brought to the knowledge of Jehovah," and both record Paul's use of this very verse for exactly that point. The song's own logic supports the widening: the praise is sung where the conquest reached. Whether conquest is the right shape for that widening is the question Maclaren refuses to smooth over in the previous movement, and we leave both standing.

Romans 15:9 · 2 Samuel 8:10