2 Samuel 22:38-40 - David's Psalm Of Thanksgiving.

"I have pursued my enemies and destroyed them;

Neither did I turn again until I had consumed them.

And I have consumed them, and smitten them through, and they arose not;

Yea, they fell under my feet.

For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle;

Thou hast made them that rose against me to bow under me."

In the Psalms, for destroyed we find "overtaken," and the second "I have consumed them" is omitted. This exultation of David at the result of his wars is in accordance with the harsh treatment inflicted by him upon the vanquished. His enemies were God's enemies, whom he must consume. The "new commandment" of Christianity forbids and condemns this delight in conquest. Verses 41-43.—

"And mine enemies thou hast made to turn upon me their back,

Even those that hate me; and have utterly destroyed them.

They looked, but there was none to save,

Even to Jehovah, but he answered them not.

And I beat them small as the dust of the earth;

As the mire of the streets I stamped upon them, I trode them down."

Those that hate me. The sentence is to be completed from the previous clause, "my haters" and "my enemies" being equivalent. There are several small variations between the text here and in Psalms 18:1-50 ; such as "they cried" for they looked; and "I emptied them out" for I stamped upon them, the difference in both cases consisting in a single letter.