NT Text: Luke 1:69
OT Source(s):
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Typology (Direct Type, Backward-Looking) + Longitudinal Theme
Significance: Zechariah's Benedictus — "He has raised up a horn of salvation (keras sōtērias) for us in the house of His servant David" (Luke 1:69) — employs the exact phrase from David's great thanksgiving hymn in 2 Samuel 22:3, where David praises Yahweh as "the horn of my salvation" (qeren yišʿî). The horn (qeren / keras) is a Hebrew metaphor for power and dominion drawn from the animal world; a raised horn signals triumphant strength. David used it of God as his personal deliverer; Zechariah applies the same image to the coming Messianic king of David's line. The phrase thus traces a trajectory from Yahweh as Israel's direct deliverer through the Davidic king as his vicarious representative to the ultimate son of David in whom God's saving power is personally embodied. The Benedictus interprets the coming of Jesus as the long-awaited actualization of what David's song had anticipated.