2 Samuel 22:15

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

He sent out arrows, and scattered them; Lightning, and confused them.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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ויהמם

hâmam

H2000

“and · to confuse · them”

Conjunction + Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural

Appears 16× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Exodus 14:24

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root [compare H1949 , H1993 ]

TWOT: 507

to move noisily, confuse, make a noise, discomfit, break, consume, crush, destroy, trouble, vex - (Qal) - to move noisily - to confuse, discomfit, vex

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

6: words
5: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is ויהמם to confuse H2000 — appearing just 16 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

ויהמם to confuse H2000 occurs in 14 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

4 verbs
2 nouns

Verb forms

וַיִּשְׁלַ֥ח Qal · Sequential Imperfect
וַיְפִיצֵ֑ם Hiphil · Sequential Imperfect
ויהמם Hiphil · Sequential Imperfect
וַיָּהֹֽם Hiphil · Sequential Imperfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

ויהמם to confuse H2000 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 11 words from the Hebrew and 15 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 6 Hebrew tokens and 10 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to 2 Samuel 22:15 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Deuteronomy 32:23 I will heap evils on them; I will spend my arrows on them:
Joshua 10:10 Yahweh confused them before Israel, and he killed them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them by the way of the ascent of Beth Horon, and struck them to Azekah, and to Makkedah.
Habakkuk 3:11 The sun and moon stood still in the sky, At the light of your arrows as they went, At the shining of your glittering spear.
Psalms 7:12–13 If a man doesn't relent, he will sharpen his sword; He has bent and strung his bow.
Psalms 18:14 He sent out his arrows, and scattered them; Yes, great lightning bolts, and routed them.
Psalms 45:5 Your arrows are sharp. The nations fall under you, with arrows in the heart of the king's enemies.
Psalms 144:6–7 Throw out lightning, and scatter them. Send out your arrows, and rout them.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew 2 Samuel 22:15 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיִּשְׁלַ֥ח חִצִּ֖ים וַיְפִיצֵ֑ם בָּרָ֖ק ויהמם וַיָּהֹֽם

He sent out arrows, and scattered them; Lightning, and confused them.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 2 Samuel 22:15 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ἀποστέλλω βέλος καί σκορπίζω αὐτός ἀστραπή καί ἐκἵστημι αὐτός

And he sent forth arrows, and scattered them, and he flashed lightning, and dismayed them.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

וּשְׁלַח מָחָתֵיהּ כְּגִירִין וּבַדְרִינוּן בַּרְקִין וְשַׁגְשִׁינוּן:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on 2 Samuel 22:15 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

15. scattered them] “Them” obviously refers to the enemies whose destruction was the object of this divine interposition (2Sa_22:4).

discomfited them] A word denoting the confusion of a sudden panic, and used specially of supernatural defeat. Cp. Exo_14:24 (E. V. troubled); Jos_10:10; Jdg_4:15; 1Sa_7:10.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt show thyself unsavoury. See Gill on Psa 18:26.

.

2 Samuel 22:28

sa2 22:28

sa2 22:28

sa2 22:28And the afflicted people thou wilt save: but thine eyes are upon the haughty, that thou mayest bring them down. See Gill on Psa 18:27.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

15. Sends arrows — Jehovah’s arrows are the forked lightnings, as indicated in the next line of the parallelism.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

2 Samuel, in the Historical, opens this verse with 6 words (5 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is hâmam (“to confuse”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “to confuse” (hâmam) shape what this verse is saying?
How does Exodus 14:24, which shares the word «to confuse», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “to confuse” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
«וַיִּשְׁלַ֥ח» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges and John Gill's Exposition read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 6 Hebrew ↔ 10 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 3 words in this verse.
“to confuse” occurs 2× in this single verse.
5 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 6 words in this verse.