Psalms 18:43
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
You have delivered me from the strivings of the people; and you have made me the head of the heathen: a people whom I have not known shall serve me.
American King James Version (AKJV)
You have delivered me from the strivings of the people; and you have made me the head of the heathen: a people whom I have not known shall serve me.
American Standard Version (ASV)
Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; Thou hast made me the head of the nations: A people whom I have not known shall serve me.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
You have made me free from the fightings of the people; you have made me the head of the nations: a people of whom I had no knowledge will be my servants.
Webster's Revision
Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; and thou hast made me the head of the heathen: a people whom I have not known shall serve me.
World English Bible
You have delivered me from the strivings of the people. You have made me the head of the nations. A people whom I have not known shall serve me.
English Revised Version (ERV)
Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; thou hast made me the head of the nations: a people whom I have not known shall serve me.
Definitions for Psalms 18:43
Clarke's Psalms 18:43 Bible Commentary
The strivings of the people - Disaffections and insurrections among my own subjects, as in the revolt of Absalom, the civil war of Abner in favor of Ish-bosheth, etc.
The head of the heathen - ראש גוים rosh goyim, "the chief," or "governor, of the nations;" all the circumjacent heathen people; all these were subdued by David, and brought under tribute.
A people whom I have not known - The people whom he knew were those of the twelve tribes; those whom he did not know were the Syrians, Philistines, Idumeans, etc. All these served him, that is, paid him tribute.
Barnes's Psalms 18:43 Bible Commentary
Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people - From the contentions of the people; or, from the efforts which they have made to overcome and subdue me. The allusion is to the efforts made by the people, under the guidance of their leaders. It is not "strivings" among his own followers, but the efforts, the strivings, the contentions of his enemies, who endeavored to obtain the mastery over him, and to subdue him.
Thou hast made me the head of the heathen - The head of the nations; that is, the nations round about. In other words, he had, by the divine aid, brought them into subjection to him, or so subdued them that they became tributary to him. The word "heathen" with us expresses an idea which is not necessarily connected with the original word. That word is simply nations - גוים gôyim. It is true that those nations were pagans in the present sense of the term, but that idea is not necessarily connected with the word. The meaning is, that surrounding nations had been made subject to him; or that he had been made to rule over them. David, in fact, thus brought the surrounding people under subjection to him, and made them tributary. In 2 Samuel 8 he is said to have subdued Philistia, and Moab, and Syria, and Edom, in all of which countries he put "garrisons," and all of which he made tributary to himself.
A people whom I have not known shall serve me - People that I had not before heard of. This is the language of confident faith that his kingdom would be still further extended, so as to embrace nations before unknown to him. His past victories, and the fact that his kingdom had been so established and was already so extended, justified the expectation that it would still be further enlarged; that the fame of his conquests would reach other nations, and that they would willingly yield themselves to him. After the victories which he had achieved, as celebrated in this psalm, that might be expected to follow as a matter of course. It is the triumphant exultation of a conqueror, and it seems to have been his expectation, not that his successors would extend the empire, but, that other nations would become voluntarily subject to him.
Wesley's Psalms 18:43 Bible Commentary
18:43 People - From contentions, and seditions, under Saul, and Ishbosheth, and Absalom. Heathens - Of the Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, Syrians, and others. Not known - Even barbarous and remote nations.