⁴ tn Grk “trap him in word.”

² tn Grk “trap him in word.”

³ tn Grk “to trap him in a saying.”

⁶ tn Heb “you were a trap to Mizpah.”

¹ tn Heb “and the traps of the doers of evil.”

¹ tn Heb “be a trap and a snare to you.”

² tn The verb לָכַד (lakhad) means “to capture, trap, overpower.” Here it is passive; cf. NIV, TEV “are trapped,” NASB, NKJV “caught,” ESV, NRSV “taken captive.”

¹ tn Heb “his rope.” The suffix must be a genitive expressing that the trap was for him, to trap him, and so an objective genitive.

⁵ tn Heb “bird trap of a bird catcher,” or “snare of a fowler” (so KJV).

⁶ tn Heb “snares of death” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); CEV “deadly traps.”

² tn Heb “his trap.” The pronominal suffix is objective genitive here as well.

² sn A snare would be a trap, an allurement to ruin. See Exod 23:33.

³ tn Or “be trapped like the devil was”; Grk “fall into the trap of the devil.” The parallel in 2 Tim 2:26 supports the rendering given in the text.

² sn Or like a thief, see Luke 12:39-40. The metaphor of a trap is a vivid one. Most modern English translations traditionally place the words “like a trap” at the end of v. 34, completing the metaphor. In the Greek text (and in the NRSV and REB) the words “like a trap” are placed at the beginning of v. 35. This does not affect the meaning.

² tc The MT reads “traps, fire, and brimstone,” but the image of God raining traps, or snares, down from the sky is bizarre and does not fit the fire and storm imagery of this verse. The noun פַּחִים (pakhim, “traps, snares”) should be emended to פַּחֲמֵי (pakhame, “coals of [fire]”). The rare noun פֶּחָם (pekham, “coal”) occurs in Prov 26:21 and Isa 44:12; 54:16.

³ sn “Snare” is an implied comparison; fearing people is like being in a trap—there is no freedom of movement or sense of security.

³ sn The word is related to “shrewdness” (cf. 1:4). The simpleton will learn at least where the traps are and how to avoid them.

² tc Heb “hand” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV). Some mss and versions have it as “trap,” which may very well represent an interpretation too.

² tn Heb “snare” (מוֹקֵשׁ, moqesh), a word used for a trap for catching birds. Here it is a figure for the cause of Egypt’s destruction.

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.”