Here David continues to talk about his enemies. In some cases the pronoun They may need to be replaced by “My enemies” or “Those who oppose me.”

The word translated calamity is found frequently in Job and Proverbs and also in Deut 32.35, as well as in the parallel in Psa 18.18. It means “disaster” or, in a more abstract sense, “danger,” “peril” (Revised English Bible). In Deut 32.35 Good News Translation translates it “doom.” In the day of my calamity is generic, and some languages do not express the circumstances resulting from trouble in a nonspecific manner. Therefore it is sometimes necessary to say “when I was trapped” or “when they tied me up.” The words day of should not be understood as referring to a specific twenty-four-hour day. Rather the reference is to a period of time during which the writer is experiencing misfortune or danger.

The word translated stay is a noun meaning “support” (New American Bible) or “buttress” (Revised English Bible) and is used only here, in Psa 18.18, and in Isa 3.1. The noun comes from the verb “to lean on, to rely on” (see Isa 50.10). It may therefore perhaps be legitimate to translate the LORD was my stay as “I relied on the LORD,” although this changes the focus from Yahweh to David. A better rendering using a verbal expression is “The LORD took care of me” or “Yahweh was there to support me” (New Jerusalem Bible).

He brought me forth into a broad place: literally “He caused me to go forth into a roomy place” (the same noun occurs in Job 36.16 and Psa 31.8). This expression refers to rescuing someone from danger, which is thought of as a place in which the person is confined or hemmed in by trouble and distress (see the comments on “great distress” at 24.14). Some other renderings are “he sets me free, in a clear space” (Moffatt), “he brought me out to freedom” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), and “he took me to a safe place” (New Century Version).

Delivered means “saved.” It is not the same verb as translated in this way elsewhere in this chapter. But the meaning is not very different. This Hebrew verb basically means “to remove”; here it means “to remove from a situation of danger.”

Delighted in: see the comments on “I have no pleasure in you” (15.26) and “favors” (20.11), which reflect the same Hebrew verb. Some other ways of translating the meaning are “he was pleased with me” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or “he loves me” (New American Bible and New Jerusalem Bible). In some languages it will be important to put this verb in a present tense or habitual verb form rather than in a past tense, which may make it appear that the LORD’s delight had ended by the time these words were written.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .