2 Samuel 22:21
in 2 Samuel 22The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness; He has repaid me according to the cleanness of my hands.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Jehovah rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.
KJV
The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness: according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.
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This verse in 2 Samuel 22
Commentary
3 notes on this verseGod had recompensed him, though not for his righteousness, as if that had merited any thing at the hand of God, yet according to his righteousness, which he was well pleased with, and had an eye to.
This site's exposition
rewarded me according to my righteousness
on 2 Samuel 22:21-23
The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness stands beside chapters eleven and twelve of this same book, where David took another man's wife and had her husband killed, and the honest reader feels the tension before any commentator names it. Two readings hold the verses together: some place the song's composition early, from the years before Bathsheba, when the claim to clean hands still matched David's conduct against Saul, and Albert Barnes reads it so. Others take righteousness here as covenant loyalty, a life given on the whole to God's statutes and judgments rather than a claim of a record without fault, and Matthew Henry reads it that way, righteousness he was well pleased with rather than righteousness that earned anything.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness: according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me. See Gill on Psa 18:20.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| יִגְמְלֵ֥נִי | yigmeleni | he dealt with me | H1580 → | |
| יְהוָ֖ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| כְּצִדְקָתִ֑י | ketzidkati | according to righteousness my | H6666 → | 157 times |
| כְּבֹ֥ר | kevor | according to [the] cleanness of | H1252 → | |
| יָדַ֖י | yadai | hands my | H3027 → | 1618 times |
| יָשִׁ֥יב | yashiv | he repaid | H7725 → | 1056 times |
| לִֽי׃ | li | to <the> me |
יִגְמְלֵ֥נִיhe dealt with me
yigmeleniH1580 →
יְהוָ֖הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
כְּצִדְקָתִ֑יaccording to righteousness my
ketzidkatiH6666 →157 times
כְּבֹ֥רaccording to [the] cleanness of
kevorH1252 →
יָדַ֖יhands my
yadaiH3027 →1618 times
יָשִׁ֥יבhe repaid
yashivH7725 →1056 times
לִֽי׃to <the> me
li
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
James 4:8Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
it leads to
- Psalms 145:18
The LORD is near to all who call on Him, to all who call out to Him in truth.
- Hebrews 10:22
let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
- Malachi 3:7
Yet from the days of your fathers, you have turned away from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of Hosts. “But…
- Zechariah 1:3
So tell the people that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Return to Me, declares the LORD of Hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of Hosts.’
- Isaiah 55:6–7
Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.
- Psalms 145:18
Through
Psalms 24:4He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear deceitfully.
it leads to
- Matthew 5:8
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
- Psalms 51:10
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
- James 4:8
Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
- Matthew 5:8
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About 2 Samuel
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.