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LXX Psalms

Septuagint

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Psalm 17

1 For the end, of David the servant of the Lord; the words which he spoke to the Lord, even the words of this Song, in the day in which the Lord delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul. 2 And he said, I will love you, Lord, my strength. 3 The Lord is my firm support, and my refuge, and my deliverer; my God is my helper, I will hope in him; he is my defender, and the horn of my salvation, and my helper. 4 I will call upon the Lord with praises, and I shall be saved from my enemies. 5 The pangs of death surrounded me, and the torrents of ungodliness troubled me exceedingly.⁠ 6 The pangs of hell came all around me: the snares of death overtook me. 7 And when I was afflicted I called upon the Lord, and cried to my God: he heard my voice out of his holy temple, and my cry shall enter before him, even into his ears. 8 Then the earth shook and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains were disturbed, and were shaken, because God was angry with them. 9 There went up a smoke in his fierce anger, and fire burst into a flame at his presence: coals were kindled at it. 10 And he bowed the heaven, and came down: and thick darkness was under his feet. 11 And he mounted on cherubs and flew: he flew on the wings of winds. 12 And he made darkness his secret place: all around him was his tabernacle, even dark water in the clouds of the air. 13 At the brightness before him the clouds passed, hail and coals of fire. 14 The Lord also thundered from heaven, and the Highest uttered his voice. 15 And he sent forth his weapons, and scattered them; and multiplied lightnings, and routed them. 16 And the springs of waters appeared, and the foundations of the world were exposed, at your rebuke, Lord, at the blasting of the breath of your fierce anger. 17 He sent from on high and took me, he drew me to himself out of many waters. 18 He will deliver me from my mighty enemies, and from those that hate me; for they are stronger than I. 19 They overtook me in the day of my affliction: but the Lord was my stay against them. 20 And he brought me out into a wide place: he will deliver me, because he has pleasure in me. He will deliver me from my mighty enemies, and from those that hate me. 21 And the Lord will repay me according to my righteousness; even according to the purity of my hands he will repay me. 22 For I have kept the way of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God. 23 For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his ordinances from me. 24 And I shall be blameless with him, and shall keep myself from my iniquity. 25 And the Lord shall repay me according to my righteousness, and according to the purity of my hands before his eyes. 26 With the holy you will be holy; and with the innocent man you will be innocent. 27 And with the excellent man you will be excellent; and with the perverse you will show perverseness. 28 For you will save the lowly people, and will humble the eyes of the proud. 29 For you, Lord, will light my lamp: my God, you will lighten my darkness. 30 For by you I shall be delivered from a troop; and by my God I will pass over a wall. 31 As for my God, his way is perfect: the oracles of the Lord are tried in the fire; he is a protector of all those that hope in him. 32 For who is God but the Lord? and who is a God except our God? 33 It is God that clothes me with strength, and has made my way blameless: 34 who strengthens my feet as stag's feet, and sets me upon high places. 35 He instructs my hands for war: and you have made my arms as a brass bow. 36 And you have given me the shield of my salvation: and your right hand has helped me, and your correction has upheld me to the end; yes, your correction itself shall instruct me. 37 You have made room for my goings under me, and my footsteps did not fail. 38 I will pursue my enemies, and overtake them; and I will not turn back until they are consumed. 39 I will dash them to pieces and they shall not be able to stand: they shall fall under my feet. 40 For you have clothed me with strength for war: you have beaten down under me all that rose up against me. 41 And you have made my enemies turn their backs before me; and you have destroyed those that hated me. 42 They cried, but there was no deliverer: even to the Lord, but he did not listen to them. 43 I will grind them as dust before the wind: and I will beat them small as the mud of the streets. 44 Deliver me from the gainsayings of the people: you shall make me head of the Gentiles: a people whom I did not know served me, 45 at the hearing of the ear they obeyed me: the strange children lied to me. 46 The strange children grew old, and fell away from their paths through lameness. 47 The Lord lives; and blessed be my God; and let the God of my salvation be exalted. 48 It is God that avenges me, and has subdued the nations under me; 49 my deliverer from angry enemies: you shall set me on high above those that rise up against me: you shall deliver me from the unrighteous man. 50 Therefore I will confess to you, Lord, among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.⁠ 51 God magnifies the deliverances of his king; and deals mercifully with David his anointed, and his seed, for ever.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare LXX Psalm 17:5 and Acts 2:24

Septuagint · New Testament

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Summary

Acts 2 uses the Greek Septuagint translation of Psalm 17, describing being surrounded by death and Hades. The phrase “pains of death,” used to describe what is loosed, reflects the Greek translation of Hebrew that can mean either cords or birth pain.

Passages

LXX Psalm 17:5

Septuagint
3 The Lord is my firm support, and my refuge, and my deliverer; my God is my helper, I will hope in him; he is my defender, and the horn of my salvation, and my helper. 4 I will call upon the Lord with praises, and I shall be saved from my enemies. 5 The pangs of death surrounded me, and the torrents of ungodliness troubled me exceedingly. 6 The pangs of hell came all around me: the snares of death overtook me. 7 And when I was afflicted I called upon the Lord, and cried to my God: he heard my voice out of his holy temple, and my cry shall enter before him, even into his ears.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Psalms

Acts 2:24

New Testament
22 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man clearly attested to you by God with powerful deeds, wonders, and miraculous signs that God performed among you through him, just as you yourselves know— 23 this man, who was handed over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you executed by nailing him to a cross at the hands of Gentiles. 24 But God raised him up, having released him from the pains of death because it was not possible for him to be held in its power. 25 For David says about him, ‘I saw the Lord always in front of me, for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken. 26 Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced; my body also will live in hope,
70–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Acts

References

"... A second example of Luke’s reliance on the specific nuances of the Septuagint is not a direct citation but an allusion. In Peter’s speech at Pentecost (Acts 2:14-36) ... Peter says, “Him God has raised! He has loosed the pangs of death, because he could not be held by it” (Acts 2:24). However, accustomed we may have become to the phrase “pangs of death,” it is nevertheless odd, especially when found as the object of the verb “to loose”. Why is it odd? Because the Greek term “pangs” refers particularly to the agony or throes of birth, thus, “birth pangs.” How does it come to be connected to the experience of death? ... the Hebrew verb habal (to bind or pledge) has two noun forms, each pointed differently. Pointed as hebel, it means “cord / rope / line,” and this is the meaning that makes the most sense of 2 Samuel 22:6, “the cords of death have encircled me,” and of Psalm 18:5 and 6, “the cords of death encompassed me…the cords of Sheol entangled me.” Pointed as habel, however, the Hebrew also has the sense of pain or travail, such as is experienced at birth (e.g., Job 39:3; Isaiah 66:7) ..."
Luke Timothy Johnson, Septuagintal Midrash in the Speeches of Acts, The Père Marquette Lecture in Theology 2002 (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 2002), 15–16.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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LXX Psalm 17:5 and Acts 2:24

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