2 Samuel 7:23

And what, &c. For what, &c., a further reason for the last statement. Cp. Deuteronomy 4:7; Deuteronomy 4:32-38.

whom God went&c. Better, which their god went to redeem. Elôhîm, the Heb. word for God, is a plural noun, but regularly takes a singular verb when it denotes the true God. Here the verb "went" is in the plural, which indicates that the gods of the nations are meant to be included. The sense is, -Where can any nation be found, which has been delivered by the deity it worships, as Israel was delivered from Egypt by Jehovah?"

for you "You" can only refer to Israel, and an address to the people is quite out of place in David's prayer to God. We must either omit for youwith the LXX, or read for them, i.e. the nation, with the Vulgate.

for thy land This gives no satisfactory sense, and "the nations and their gods" at the end of the verse has no proper construction in the existing text. It is best to emend the text by the help of the LXX, compared with 1 Chronicles 17:21, and read to drive outin place of for thy land. The close of the verse will then stand thus; "and to do great things and terrible, to drive out nations and their gods before thy people, which thou redeemedst for thyself out of Egypt."

The construction, which began in the third person, in connexion with the relative clause, returns at the end of the verse to a direct address to God.

great things and terrible The miracles of the Exodus, the journey through the wilderness, the Entry into Canaan. Cp. Deuteronomy 10:21 for the phrase.