2 Samuel 22:35

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

He teaches my hands to war, So that my arms do bend a bow of brass.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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וְנִחַ֥ת

nâchath

H5181

“and · to descend”

Conjunction + Verb, Piel, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular

Appears 10× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at 1 Samuel 2:10

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 1351

to go down, descend - (Qal) - to go down, descend - to descend, descend into (chastisement) (figuratively) - (Niphal) to come down into, penetrate - (Piel) to cause to descend, press down, stretch (a bow) - (Hiphil) to bring down

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 →

7: words
7: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is וְנִחַ֥ת to descend H5181 — appearing just 10 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וְנִחַ֥ת to descend H5181 occurs in 9 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
5 nouns

Verb forms

מְלַמֵּ֥ד Piel · Participle Active
וְנִחַ֥ת Piel · Sequential Perfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 16 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 7 Hebrew tokens and 12 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 22:35 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Psalms 144:1 Blessed be Yahweh, my rock, Who teaches my hands to war, And my fingers to battle:
Psalms 18:33–34 He makes my feet like deer's feet, And sets me on my high places.
Psalms 46:9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow, and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots in the fire.
Ezekiel 39:3 and I will strike your bow out of your left hand, and will cause your arrows to fall out of your right hand.
Ezekiel 39:9–10 Those who dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall make fires of the weapons and burn them, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the war clubs, and the spears, and they shall make fires of them seven years;

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 22:35 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

מְלַמֵּ֥ד יָדַ֖י לַמִּלְחָמָ֑ה וְנִחַ֥ת קֶֽשֶׁת נְחוּשָׁ֖ה זְרֹעֹתָֽי

He teaches my hands to war, So that my arms do bend a bow of brass.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 2 Samuel 22:35 Septuagint · lemma form

διδάσκω χείρ ἐγώ εἰς πόλεμος καί καταἄγνυμι τόξον χαλκοῦς ἐν βραχίων ἐγώ

He teaches my hands to war, and has broken a brazen bow by my arm.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

On this verse, The Pulpit Commentary discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓

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)

מַלֵיף יְדֵי לְמֶעְבַּד קְרָבָא וּמַתְקֵיף בְקֶשֶׁת נְחָשָׁא דַרְעִי:

(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 22:35 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 Biblical Illustrator

Joseph S. Exell

2Sa_22:35-43

He maketh my hands to war.

Faith winning victories

Dr. Campbell Morgan told me at Northfield of an instance of the kind. A poor man came to him after a service on Round Top, where the body of Mr. Moody lies, and said, Do you believe that when you are tempted, and say, Get thee behind me, Satan, the victory is won? Dr. Morgan, after a moment said, No, I do not. Then, said his interlocutor, you stop preaching Christ and deliverance from sin: for I have a temptation. I dont want to live with it; I dont want to be defeated; I would do the best I knew if I had the power, but I have not. If I cant say, Get thee behind me, and be sure of victory, what am I to do? Dr. Morgan said, Do you believe that Christ said it, and won? Yes, I believe He is the only One who could ever say it, and win. Then you go, and in the name of Christ say, Get thee behind me, Satan, when your hour of torture comes, and see which gets the victory. The next morning, says Dr. Morgan, as I drove up I met this man standing in the middle of the pathway in front of me. He looked at me with radiant face, standing square on his two feet, and said, Man, it works! He had found the Christ a present Deliverer as well as an abstract Saviour.

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Or, steel.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

35. so that a bow of steel, &c.] And mine arms bend a bow of bronze. The ability to bend a metal bow (cp. Job_20:24) was a mark of superior strength. Readers of the Odyssey will recall Ulysses’ bow, which none but himself could bend. (Hom. Od. xxi. 409).

Observe how David recognises that the advantages of physical strength and energy, important qualifications in times when the king was himself the leader of his people in battle, were gifts of God; yet that it was not these that saved him and made him victorious, but Jehovah’s care and help (2Sa_22:36 ff.).

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.

The Pulpit Commentary

Vers. 35-37.

He teaeheth my hands to war; And mine arms can bend a bow of bronze. And thou hast given me thy saving shield; And thy hearing of me hath made me great. Thou hast enlarged my steps under me; And my feet have not slipped.

Bow of bronze. In Job_20:24 we also read of bows made of this metal, or compound of metals, which was a far more ancient material for weapons than steel. The bending of such a bow was proof of great strength, and the last artifice of Penelope, to save herself from the suitors, was to promise her hand to the man who could bend Ulysses" bow. Thy hearing of me; in Psa_18:35, and Authorized Version and Revised Version here, "thy gentleness." The words in the Hebrew are very nearly alike, but the Septuagint notices the difference, and translates "hearing" in this place, but "chastisement" in the psalm. The Vulgate has "gentleness" or "mildness" here, and "discipline" in the psalm. The Syriac alone has "discipline" in both places. My feet; literally, ankle bones, the weakness of which causes men to totter.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

My arms to bend a copper bow. So that a copper bow can be bent by my arms because I have the strength to bend them. Dovid had bows hanging in his palace, and kings of other nations would come and see them and ask each other, Do you think that he can bend them? This is only to scare us. Dovid would hear them and would take them [the bows] and bend them in front of them [the kings]. The binding of a bow is denoted by the word חִתַּת and so [we find], "Your arrows have been shot into me".

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

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 7 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is nâchath (“to descend”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word nâchath carries the sense “to descend.” How does it shape the verse?
How does 1 Samuel 2:10, which shares the word «to descend», read alongside this verse?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
«מְלַמֵּ֥ד» is a Piel Participle Active verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how The Biblical Illustrator and Geneva Bible (1599) read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 7 Hebrew ↔ 12 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 10 words in this verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 7 words in this verse.