The Reading
The Summary
Shemuel Bet Chapter 22
This chapter contains the “Song of David”, a lengthy poem whereby David expresses his gratitude to Hashem for the salvation and success he has experienced throughout his life. This chapter is remarkable in that it is the only one repeated in the Bible – it appears again, with a few slight stylistic modifications, in the Book of Tehillim.
As we have noted in the past, it is difficult to “summarize” poetry, since much of its power derives not from the content but from the beautiful and emotionally moving form through which that content is communicated. It is critical to read every word in order to appreciate the enduring richness of these sections. Nevertheless, we can attempt to identify a couple of the themes and ideas in the poem as well as make an observation or two about its format and context.
The Book of Shemuel begins and ends with a song. The prayer of Hanna on the occasion of the birth of the prophet Shemuel is the conclusion of the very first story of the book, and the final verse is a prayer that Hashem should uplift and strengthen His anointed king. Hanna realized that the spiritual and political decline in Israel was due to the lack of strong, centralized religious and governmental leadership, and turned to Hashem to provide this much-needed structure. She hoped this change would come about through her son Shemuel, which indeed it did – he anointed the first and second monarchs of Israel, with David being the final choice of the Almighty for the position.
In our chapter, we hear the words of the long hoped-for king that Hanna dreamed of but never actually had the opportunity to see. David offers his reflections on the role Divine providence has played in his ascendancy to power, successful military campaigns and establishment as ruler of the Jewish nation. Like Hanna, he dwells on Hashem as the transcendent, unknowable and all-powerful Creator who nonetheless “lowers Himself” and involves Himself in the affairs of human beings.
The clear connection between the two songs can be found in the final verse of David’s song “Great source of salvation is He to His king, and He bestows kindness upon his anointed one,” which reminds us of Hanna’s last verse “He will give strength to His king and uplift his anointed one.” This parallelism underscores the relationship between the two songs that form a kind of “frame” around the book of Shemuel as a whole. The two poems are like bookends on a shelf or like two slices of bread between which all of the “meat” of the narratives is sandwiched.
We can take the liberty of dividing David’s tribute into two sections. The first half focuses on Hashem’s protection and salvation of David from the attacks of his enemies, including Shaul. David considers his survival of these ordeals and challenges to be a direct consequence of his faithfulness to Hashem and the commandments of the Torah. Here David portrays himself more passively, as the beneficiary of Hashem’s kindness in times of trouble.
The second half of the song builds upon the first, although the focus shifts from “defense” – Hashem’s guarding of David from his opponents – to offense, David’s remarkable success on the battlefield and in consolidating his kingdom. Here, David describes himself as an active agent of change who is assisted by Divine intervention in his endeavors.
More than simply helping David “to make it through” various crises, Hashem has empowered and supported David’s efforts to secure and expand the borders of Israel, vanquish and subjugate his enemies, and usher in an era of stability and strength, both spiritually and politically, for the Jewish people as a whole. Hashem is not only David’s Savior and Deliverer; He is also the One Who has blessed David with the capacity to accomplish heroic and decisive victories on the battlefield and to advance his kingdom beyond what anyone could ever have imagined.
Proof that there are two halves to the song can be found towards the end. One of the stylistic flairs of the Tanakh is to use “chiastic” structures; this means speaking about topic A, moving to topic B, then again topic B, and ending with topic A. Topic A here would be the protection and salvation Hashem has provided David, and Topic B would be the political and military victories and other successful endeavors of David.
The song begins with Topic A and transitions to Topic B. Then finally, in verses 48-50 we see the signature form: David praises Hashem for avenging him of his enemies and subduing them (Topic B) and then concludes with “You extract me from my enemies clutches and lift me above those who rise against me, You save me from violent men,” which is a reversion to Topic A.
David closes with the idea that, because of all of the evidence of Divine providence in his life and career, he declares his gratitude to Hashem before all of the nations of the world.