2 Samuel 22

2 Samuel 22

Utley - Every human is fearful of death until they have a personal faith encounter with the God of life and love (cf. 1 John 4:7-21)! Satan does not control death but he does magnify the fear of death. Sheol (07585) she'ol is the underworld or the place to which people descend at death. The grave, death, the depths, the nether world, the underworld. Sheol was viewed as the place where departed spirits went after death. Sheol was envisioned as a dark region within the earth, the entrance to which was the grave with its steep slopes (cf. Ps 88:4-6). In Job 14:13-22, Job expressed the common view of life beyond death, namely, that in Sheol there is no contact with the living, only separation, but in Sheol there is a conscious awareness of the dreary existence. In Jonah 2:3 Jonah pictures himself in the belly of Sheol, its very center - in other words he is as good as dead. In Ps 22:6 Sheol, the underworld, the place of the dead, is personified as David’s enemy. Abaddon is used as a name for Sheol in Ps 88:11. In Ps 143:3 "dark places" is a synonym for Sheol, pictured as a dark place located deep in the ground. In the ancient Israelite view he joined his deceased ancestors in Sheol. In Isaiah 7:11, the phrase “Make it as deep as Sheol or make it high upwards” words suggest that Ahaz can feel free to go beyond the bounds of ordinary human experience. The phrase “path of life” stands in contrast to death/Sheol in Pr 2:18-19; 5:5-6; 15:24. Sheol, the place of death, is sometimes depicted as a raging sea (see Ps 18:4, 15-16). Sheol is the land of the dead localized in Hebrew thought in the earth’s core or the grave. “Sheol” in the Bible can be used four different ways: the grave, the realm of the departed [wicked] spirits or Hell, death in general, or a place of extreme danger (one that will lead to the grave if God does not intervene. (Note: Many of these comments on Sheol are summarized from over 100 comments on "Sheol" in the very helpful resource, NET Notes). In Hebrew thought, Sheol is the proper name of the subterranean world which was regarded as the land of the dead. In ancient Canaanite thought Death was a powerful god whose appetite was never satisfied. In the OT Sheol/Death, though not deified, is personified as greedy and as having a voracious appetite. See Pr 30:15-16; Isa 5:14. According to the OT, those who descend into the realm of death/Sheol are cut off from God’s mighty deeds and from the worshiping covenant community that experiences divine intervention (Ps 30:9; 88:10-12; Isa 38:18). The Hebrew term שָׁחַת (shakhat, “pit” = not same Hebrew word used in Pr 1:12-see below) is often used as a title for Sheol (see Ps 16:10, 49:9 - decay = pit; Ps 55:24; 103:4 = pit of destruction, where our physical body decays). 2 Samuel 22:7 "In my distress I called upon the LORD, Yes, I cried to my God; And from His temple He heard my voice, And my cry for help came into His ears. BGT 2 Samuel 22:7 ἐν τῷ θλίβεσθαί με ἐπικαλέσομαι κύριον καὶ πρὸς τὸν θεόν μου βοήσομαι καὶ ἐπακούσεται ἐκ ναοῦ αὐτοῦ φωνῆς μου καὶ ἡ κραυγή μου ἐν τοῖς ὠσὶν αὐτοῦ LXE 2 Samuel 22:7 When I am afflicted I will call upon the Lord, and will cry to my God, and he shall hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry shalt come into his ears. KJV 2 Samuel 22:7 In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears. NET 2 Samuel 22:7 In my distress I called to the LORD; I called to my God. From his heavenly temple he heard my voice; he listened to my cry for help. CSB 2 Samuel 22:7 I called to the LORD in my distress; I called to my God. From His temple He heard my voice, and my cry for help reached His ears. ESV 2 Samuel 22:7 "In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I called. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry came to his ears. NIV 2 Samuel 22:7 In my distress I called to the LORD; I called out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came to his ears. NLT 2 Samuel 22:7 But in my distress I cried out to the LORD; yes, I cried to my God for help. He heard me from his sanctuary; my cry reached his ears. NRS 2 Samuel 22:7 In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I called. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry came to his ears. NJB 2 Samuel 22:7 I called to Yahweh in my anguish, I cried for help to my God, from his Temple he heard my voice, my cry came to his ears! NAB 2 Samuel 22:7 In my distress I called upon the LORD and cried out to my God; From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry reached his ears. III YLT 2 Samuel 22:7 In mine adversity I call Jehovah, And unto my God I call, And He heareth from His temple my voice, And my cry is in His ears, my distress: Ps 116:4 Ps 120:1 Mt 26:38,39 Lu 22:44 Heb 5:7 hear: Ex 3:7 Ps 34:6,15-17 out: 1Ki 8:28-30 Ps 18:6 27:4 Jon 2:4,7 Hab 2:20 my cry: Jas 5:4 Related Passages: Psalm 18:6 In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple, And my cry for help before Him came into His ears. Psalm 116:4+ Then I called upon the name of the LORD: “O LORD, I beseech You, save my life!” Jeremiah 33:3+ ‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ Isaiah 65:24 “It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear. Psalm 120:1+ A Song of Ascents. In my trouble I cried to the LORD, And He answered me. Psalm 6:8-9 Depart from me, all you who do iniquity, For the LORD has heard the voice of my weeping. 9 The LORD has heard my supplication, The LORD receives my prayer. Psalm 28:2, 6 Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to You for help, When I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary.. ..6 Blessed be the LORD, Because He has heard the voice of my supplication. Psalm 11:4 The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD’S throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. THE PRAYER IN MIDST OF PERILS David has just described his distress - “waves of death” “torrents of destruction” “cords of the grave” “snares of death” In my distress (tsar; Lxx - thlibo in present tense) I called upon the LORD, Yes, I cried to my God - David is responding to his sense of impending death. My distress (another personal possessive pronoun! Even my distress is personal!) is rendered in the Septuagint with thlibo in the present tense which pictures people and circumstances continually pressing upon him, crowding against him, continually afflicting, oppressing, causing trouble. Woe! Reformation Study Bible on distress speaks of "Being in a narrow or tightly confined space is a common figure for distress. In v. 20 relief is described as being brought into a ‘‘broad place.‘" David's words remind me of the David's great Son Who "In the days of His flesh, offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety" (Heb 5:7+) "And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground." (Lk 22:44+) Alan Carr - When he lifted his cry to God, God heard him and moved in power to help him (2Sa 22:8ff)! This is the kind of blessing all those who know the Lord enjoy! His ears are ever opened to our cry, Jer 33:3; Isa 65:24. He invites us to flee to Him in the hour of trouble, Mt. 11:28; 1Pe. 5:7; Ps 55:22. When we do, we will find him to be all David declared Him to be and more! He truly is “all we need!”) CHS - "In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God." Prayer is that postern (back or side) gate which is left open even when the city is straitly besieged by the enemy; it is that way upward from the pit of despair to which the spiritual miner flies at once when the floods from beneath break forth upon him. Observe that he calls, and then cries; prayer grows in vehemence as it proceeds. Note also that he first invokes his God under the name of Jehovah, and then advances to a more familiar name, "my God;" thus faith increases by exercise, and he whom we at first viewed as Lord is soon seen to be our God in covenant. It is never an ill time to pray; no distress should prevent us from using the divine remedy of supplication. Above the noise of the raging billows of death, or the barking dogs of hell, the feeblest cry of a true believer will be heard in heaven.