2 Samuel 22:11

Hebrew Bible

8 The earth heaved and shook; the foundations of the sky trembled. They heaved because he was angry. 9 Smoke ascended from his nose; fire devoured as it came from his mouth; he hurled down fiery coals. 10 He made the sky sink as he descended; a thick cloud was under his feet. 11 He mounted a cherub and flew; he glided on the wings of the wind. 12 He shrouded himself in darkness, in thick rain clouds. 13 From the brightness in front of him came coals of fire. 14 The Lord thundered from the sky; the Most High shouted loudly. 15 He shot arrows and scattered them, lightning and routed them. 16 The depths of the sea were exposed; the inner regions of the world were uncovered by the Lord’s battle cry, by the powerful breath from his nose.

Psalm 18:7

Hebrew Bible

7 The earth heaved and shook. The roots of the mountains trembled; they heaved because he was angry. 8 Smoke ascended from his nose; fire devoured as it came from his mouth. He hurled down fiery coals. 9 He made the sky sink as he descended; a thick cloud was under his feet. 10 He mounted a winged angel and flew; he glided on the wings of the wind. 11 He shrouded himself in darkness, in thick rain clouds. 12 From the brightness in front of him came hail and fiery coals. 13 The Lord thundered in the sky; the Most High shouted. 14 He shot his arrows and scattered them, many lightning bolts and routed them. 15 The depths of the sea were exposed; the inner regions of the world were uncovered by your battle cry, Lord, by the powerful breath from your nose.

 Notes and References

"... Psalm 18 is not a poorly preserved copy of a written text of 2 Samuel 22; nor is 2 Samuel 22 a copy of Psalm 18. We do not have here a text that was initially preserved in written form in one version and as a copy of that text in the other version. We have two versions of a song - each preserved in writing somewhat independent of the other. The number of alternative readings between the two versions points definitively in that direction ... After the initial reduction of the versions to writing, genetic variants were produced as errors in the copying of the consonantal text. James Barr rightly noted: “One cannot, indeed, assume that all such differences between parallel texts are a result of textual corruption; some may go back to free variants in oral tradition.” Modification within different communities is the model that corresponds most naturally to the data introduced in the earliest (oral) stage. Two lines of evidence support this explanation. First, the presence of differences of pronunciation, morphology, grammar, and word choice suggests that we are looking at more than just a collection of the stylistic preferences of an individual. Second, given the nature of the text—that is, a thanksgiving hymn to be sung and appropriated in worship repeatedly—we might expect that local versions would develop ..."

Young, Theron "Psalm 18 and 2 Samuel 22: Two Versions of the Same Song" in Troxel, Ronald L., et al. (eds.) Seeking out the Wisdom of the Ancients: Essays Offered to Honor Michael V. Fox on the Occasion of His Sixty-Fifth Birthday (pp. 53-69) Eisenbrauns, 2005

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