5:8 Blow the ram’s horn in Gibeah!
Sound the trumpet in Ramah!
Sound the alarm in Beth Aven! 1
Tremble in fear, 2 O Benjamin!
10:3 Very soon they will say, “We have no king
since we did not fear the Lord.
But what can a king do for us anyway?”
11:11 They will return in fear and trembling 3
like birds from Egypt,
like doves from Assyria,
and I will settle them in their homes,” declares the Lord.
1 sn See the note on the place name Beth Aven in 4:15.
2 tc The MT reads the anomalous אַחֲרֶיךָ בִּנְיָמִין (’akharekha binyamin, “behind you, O Benjamin”), a reading followed by many English versions. The LXX reads ἐξέστη (exesth) which might reflect an alternate textual tradition of הַחֲרִדוּ בִּנְיָמִין (hakharidu binyamin, “Tremble in fear, O Benjamin”); the verb form would be a Hiphil imperative 2nd person masculine plural from חָרַד (kharad, “to tremble, be terrified”; BDB 353 s.v. חָרַד). For discussion of this textual problem, see D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 5:236.
3 tn For the meaning of חָרַד (harad, “to tremble”) with prepositions of direction, see 11:10 above.