Structurally it is best to consider this verse as consisting of three lines, like verse 9: He bowed the heavens/and came down/thick darkness was under his feet. Here the second parallel line is used to carry the action forward. In some cases it may be necessary to make the sequence of events more explicit by saying, for example, “Then he came swiftly down toward earth,” or “After that he suddenly came down,” or “Having bent the heavens like a hunter bends a bow, he came down.”

The picture in verses 10-15 is that of a thunderstorm. The verb translated bowed may mean “to stretch” (as in Psa 104.2, “stretched out the heavens like a tent”). Here the idea is that of bending down, or else “spread apart [like curtains].” New Jerusalem Bible has “parted”; New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh “bent.” Bowed the heavens is a figure that may require some adjustment in the direction of a simile; for example, “he opened the sky as a person opens a curtain” (compare Contemporary English Version) or “he tore the sky apart as a person tears a cloth.”

Came down: God is portrayed as making an opening in the firmament and descending to earth in order to save David.

The thick darkness … under his feet refers to dark clouds (see Nahum 1.3, where the clouds are the carpet on which God rests his feet). The darkness associated with it is to hide him from sight (as in Psa 97.2; 1 Kgs 8.12; Exo 19.16; 20.21).

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .