2 Samuel 22:5-7 - David's Psalm Of Thanksgiving.

"For the breakers of death surrounded me;

Torrents of wickedness [Hebrew, 'of Belial'] terrified me;

Cords of Sheol surrounded me;

Snares of death came suddenly upon me.

In my distress I cried unto Jehovah,

And to my God I cried.

And he heard my voice out of his palace,

And my cry was in his ears."

Instead of breakers —waves dashing violently on rocks— Psalms 18:4 has "cords of death;" translated "sorrow" in the Authorized Version. But "cords of death" mean the fatal snares of the hunter, and are not in keeping with "torrents of wickedness." "Belial," literally, "worthlessness," is by many supposed, from the context to mean herd "destruction," that is, physical instead of moral wickedness. So in Nahum 1:11 "a counsellor of Belial" means a ruinous, destructive counsellor. Sheol is the world of the departed, and is equivalent to "death." Cried is the same verb twice used. In Psalms 18:6 it is altered, in the former part of the verse unto "I called"—a change probably suggested by the more fastidious taste of a later age. For temple we should translate palace, or heavenly temple. It is not the temple in Jerusalem, which was not yet built, but God's heavenly dwelling, that is meant. Instead of the terse ellipse, "And my cry in his ears," the full but heavy phrase, "My cry before him came into his ears," is substituted in Psalms 18:6 .