⁴ tn Heb “Prepare ambushes.”

¹ tn Heb “from the ambush.”

¹ tn Or “the place of ambush.”

² tn Heb “the men hiding in ambush.”

¹ tn Heb “he sits in the ambush of the villages.”

¹ tn Grk “lying in ambush against,” but this is a figurative extension of that meaning.

¹ tn Heb “set ambushers against.” This is probably idiomatic here for launching a surprise attack.

¹ tn Heb “and Jeroboam had caused to circle around an ambush to come from behind them.”

² tn Heb “did not know that an ambush for him was behind the city.”

¹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the men hiding in ambush) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹ tn Heb “are to ambush blood.” The infinitive construct אֱרָב (ʾerov, “to lie in wait”) expresses the purpose of their conversations. The proverb either compares their words to an ambush (cf. NAB, NRSV “are a deadly ambush”) or states what the content of their words is about.

¹ tn Grk “And.” Since this represents a response to the reported ambush, καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the logical sequence.

³ tn Heb “With his mouth a person speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he sets an ambush for him.”

¹ tn Heb “from the hand of the enemy and the one who lies in wait.” Some modern English versions render the latter phrase as “ambushes” (cf. NASB, NRSV).

³ sn Planning an ambush. The Jewish leadership had not forgotten the original plan of several years ago (see 23:16). They did not trust the Roman legal process, but preferred to take matters into their own hands.

⁴ sn Commands are addressed to the kings of the Medes to fully blockade the city by posting watchmen and setting soldiers in ambush to stop people from escaping the city (cf. 2 Kgs 25:4).

⁴ sn In the darkness. The enemies’ attack, the precise form of which is not indicated, is compared here to a night ambush by archers; the psalmist is defenseless against this deadly attack.

¹ sn Verses 33-36a give a condensed account of the battle from this point on, while vv. 36b-48 offer a more detailed version of how the ambush contributed to Gibeah’s defeat.

⁶ tn Heb “set a trap” (so NIV, NRSV). The meaning of the Hebrew word מָזוֹר (mazor; here translated “ambush”) is uncertain; it occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. The word probably refers to something “spread out” for purposes of entrapment, such as a net. Other possibilities include “trap,” “fetter,” or “stumbling block.”

² tc In place of “light” here the LXX has “his ambush,” perhaps reading אֹרְבוֹ (ʾor^evo) instead of אוֹרֵהוּ (ʾorehu, “his light”). But while that captures the idea of troops and warfare, the change should be rejected because the armies are linked with stars and light. The expression is poetic; the LXX interpretation tried to make it concrete.