2 Samuel 22:6-7

22:6 The ropes of Sheol ¹  tightened around me; ² 

the snares of death trapped me. ³ 

22:7 In my distress I called to the Lord;

I called to my God. ⁴ 

From his heavenly temple ⁵  he heard my voice;

he listened to my cry for help. ⁶ 

[22:6]  ¹ tn “Sheol,” personified here as David’s enemy, is the underworld, place of the dead in primitive Hebrew cosmology.

[22:6]  ² tn Heb “surrounded me.”

[22:6]  ³ tn Heb “confronted me.”

[22:7]  ⁴ tn In this poetic narrative the two prefixed verbal forms in v. 7a are best understood as preterites indicating past tense, not imperfects. Note the use of the vav consecutive with the prefixed verbal form that follows in v. 7b.

[22:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “from his temple.” Verse 10, which pictures God descending from the sky, indicates that the heavenly, not earthly, temple is in view.

[22:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “and my cry for help [entered] his ears.”