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2 Samuel 22 · a question people ask

"With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd" (22:27). Does God play tricks on people?

In the text

These lines set how the LORD shows himself beside the kind of person he deals with: "With the merciful you will show yourself merciful. With the perfect man you will show yourself perfect" (22:26), "With the pure you will show yourself pure. With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd" (22:27). In the last pair, crooked is iqqesh, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "twisted, perverted", and for the verb, show yourself shrewd, Brown-Driver-Briggs gives the form used here as "with the twisted thou dost deal tortuously". The next verse goes on: "You will save the afflicted people, but your eyes are on the arrogant, that you may bring them down" (22:28). The song doesn't say that God deceives anyone. Proverbs has the same shape: "Surely he mocks the mockers, but he gives grace to the humble" (Proverbs 3:34).

The verses

“With the merciful you will show yourself merciful. With the perfect man you will show yourself perfect. With the pure you will show yourself pure. With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd. You will save the afflicted people, but your eyes are on the arrogant, that you may bring them down.”
2 Samuel 22:26-28 · World English Bible
“Surely he mocks the mockers, but he gives grace to the humble.”
Proverbs 3:34 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 2 Samuel 22

2 Samuel 22: The LORD is my rock

David's song calls the LORD his rock and fortress with the Hebrew words for the rock he went down to while Saul sought him and the stronghold he stayed in (1 Samuel 23:25, 22:4). It ends "to David and to his offspring, forever more" (22:51), and Paul gives its praise among the nations, also Psalm 18's, as written of Christ's work (Romans 15:8-9).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions