2Sam. 23:1: Text and notes in copyable format below.
________________________
23:1
“Now these are the last words of
David:
“Faithful is¹
David the son of Jesse,
And
faithful is¹
the
mighty man—the one rising²
on high³
Messiahª
Almĩghty
of Jacob,
And
the Delightfulⁿ One of
Psalms of
Israel”
(MISB, 2Sam. 23:1).
(Link to MISB:
http://www.torahtimes.org/NewTranslation/bibleframe.html)
This passage is an important
Messianic Prophecy, that is usually overlooked. I learned about it from Michael
Rydelnik who contributed “The Messianic Hope” to a series of books. The author
is Jewish and uses “Yeshua” on his dedication page. Rydelnik introduced me to
Immauel Tov, “Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible”, also Jewish. It is quite
clear from this little book that both Jewish and Christian understanding of
Messianic Prophecy is in the DARK AGES by comparison to what is really in the
Hebrew Text. I already knew this from my studies of Jonah and Hosea 5-6.
However, this book raises what can be discovered to a whole new level. My
restoration of this text goes quite a bit farther than Rydelnik, perhaps due to
the fact that his work was produced in the shadow of evangelical oversight while
I myself don't have to look over my shoulder to see that I dot every tradition
and cross every philosophical t of the Christian world.
In order to truly appreciate David’s
words, they have to be read poetically, and meditated on for a while. In this
passage, I have provided the complete Hebrew text. You mouse over the first
letter in each phrase, and also text critical notes on individual words. This
cannot be reproduced here. So here is a direct link to the text:
http://www.torahtimes.org/NewTranslation/BasicBooks/2_samuel.html#23:1a
Be sure to use Mozillia Firefox.
o. The “faithful is” reading is according to Rahlfs LXX. First, the LXX quality of this text is very good with the other words of the clause. There is no paraphrasing, and it is word for word literal. Second, there is no Christian theological ax to grind on this word. It is quite easy to explain that the LXX had נאמן in the Hebrew exemplar. For that is the only natural way to have “faithful is” in the LXX. It is also easier to explain the MT reading by the deletion of just one Hebrew letter: ן. It is much more difficult to accuse the LXX of adding a letter to the Hebrew so that they could mistranslate it. There is no serious motive for it, as the messianic reading survives even in the MT here. To rid the text of the Messianic application requires multiple changes, and even then it is not sucessful. There is motive for a Jewish scribe to drop the final nun, and that is to create synthetic parallelism with the next clause leading into the next so as to imply that all the clauses apply only to David, and not to the Messiah. See the notes there, because changes were required there also to rid the prophecy of its Messianic application!
1. The evidence against the MT in this case is greater than in the first, at least reading BHS it is. And it is the harder reading for Jews, because if the text has “declares” then David is the one speaking, and the mighty man cannot be the Messiah! Now David, of course was a mighty man, and his co-mighty men are listed at the end of the chapter. However, accepting “faithful” here preserves the double sense (entendre), with David’s clear intent to redirect us from himself to the coming Messiah. For David himself was “faithful” to the end, with one exception, that cost him his house, and because of this he looks to Messiah’s faithfulness for his redemption.
2. The active participle with the definite article is preferred here, first because the LXX reading is active, second because a variant from Qumran is the active hiphil, third because the difference is only a matter of vowel pointing. The passive huphal pointing of the MT text appears to be to get the phrase to apply only to David as he was raised up by the Almighty to his position. While this is true, the active participle agrees more with the Messianic nature of the passge. Messiah raised his own body from the grave. Messiah is the only one to come down from heaven, and to ascend back to heaven because of who he is. Messiah was David’s hope. And David expected Messiah to be Yahweh in human form. The Malakh YHWH passages show this.
3. Sometimes the LXX is proved right over the MT, sometimes wrong, and sometimes one cannot tell, yet the evidence will seem to lean one way or the other. It is the business of Jewish scribes to erase Messianic prophecies (which we see all the time in their English translatons, Masoretic vowel pointing, and accenting, and sometimes they have somehow altered the consonantal text in their favor, either deliberately or by happy accident of entropy), and Christian scribes to erase the Torah in their copying of NT MSS (re: Rev. 22:14) by adding or altering. Therefore, the judgment goes against the non-Messianic interpretation and in favor of the harder reading for Jews, and against Christians on text critical decisions concerning the Torah, which is the harder reading for them. I have made decisions according to this paradigm. However, if someone does not like it, then only the vowel points on this one word need be corrected to preserve the Messianic application of the next clause, and all the other MT readings can stand as they are.
a. The word “Messiah” has been repointed here from the MT text to reflect the absolute state rather than the construct state. Messiah is the object of the preceding clause. As it is poetry, the direct object marker is not needed. The difference is that He is not just the “messiah of the Almighty”, which would be David, or any other anointed person or priest. Rather he is the “Messiah! Almighty of Jacob”. The words Almighty and Jacob are in the construct state here which as a unit stands in adjectival relationship to the title Messiah in the absolute state.
n. Is David promoting himself here, or is he exalting the Messiah? Did he, or did he not write about Messiah in the Pslams (songs) of Israel? Some may wish us to take this in reference to David only. Some to both David and Messiah. David himself, again, is trying to redirect us to the Messiah. Messiah is the delightful (or sweet) subject of the Pslams, because David knew who He was. He was directed by the Spirit to put in odd words to drop hints about the Messiah. The hints are not hard to get or difficult if one’s eyes are open, and ears are hearing.