Judges 9:32

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Now therefore, up by night, you and the people who are with you, and lie in wait in the field:

World English Bible · Public Domain

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וֶאֱרֹ֖ב

ʼârab

H693

“and · lie in wait”

Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular

Appears 41× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Deuteronomy 19:11

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 156

to lie in wait, ambush, lurk - (Qal) - to lie in wait - ambush (participle as subst) - (Piel) ambushers, liers-in-wait (plural participle) - (Hiphil) to lay an ambush

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

9: words
9: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וֶאֱרֹ֖ב to lie in wait H693 occurs in 39 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
3 nouns
1 pronoun
1 preposition
1 adverb
1 particle

Verb forms

ק֣וּם Qal · Imperative
וֶאֱרֹ֖ב Qal · Imperative

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 20 words from the Hebrew and 18 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 9 Hebrew tokens and 16 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Judges 9:32 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Proverbs 1:11–16 If they say, "Come with us, Let's lay in wait for blood; Let's lurk secretly for the innocent without cause;
Proverbs 4:16 For they don't sleep, unless they do evil. Their sleep is taken away, unless they make someone fall.
Romans 3:15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood.
Job 24:14–17 The murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy. In the night he is like a thief.
Psalms 36:4 He plots iniquity on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good; He doesn't abhor evil.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Judges 9:32 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְעַתָּה֙ ק֣וּם לַ֔יְלָה אַתָּ֖ה וְהָעָ֣ם אֲשֶׁר אִתָּ֑ךְ וֶאֱרֹ֖ב בַּשָּׂדֶֽה

Now therefore, up by night, you and the people who are with you, and lie in wait in the field:

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Judges 9:32 Septuagint · lemma form

καί νῦν ἀναἵστημι νύξ σύ καί ὁ λαός ὁ μετά σύ καί ἐνεδρεύω ἐν ὁ ἀγρός

And now rise up by night, you and the people with you, and lay wait in the field.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

וּכְעַן קוּם בְּלֵילְיָא אַתְּ וְעַמָא דְעִמָךְ וּכְמוֹן בְּחַקְלָא:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Judges 9:32 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Jdg 9:32 Now therefore up by night, thou and the people that [is] with thee, and lie in wait in the field:

Ver. 32. Thou and the people that is with thee.] Those thou hast ready: lose not the present opportunity. In bello non datur bis errare, in war there is no use of after wise.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(32) Lie in wait in the field.—To surprise the Shechemites when they went out to finish their vintage operations, which they would do securely under the protection of Gaal’s forces.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And it shall be, that in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, thou shalt rise early, and set upon the city,.... For being with his forces advanced near to it by a march in the night, he would be able by sunrising to attack the city before the inhabitants were up to defend it, and so surprise them:

and, behold, when he and the people that is with him come out against thee; that is, Gaul, and the men with him, as many as he upon a surprise can get together:

thou mayest do to them as thou shalt find occasion; as the situation of things would direct him, and he, in his wisdom, and according to his ability, and as opportunity offered, would see plainly what was fit and right to be done; Zebul did not pretend to advise him further, but left the rest to his discretion, as things should appear to him.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Keil & Delitzsch

C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch

At the same time he called upon Abimelech to draw near, with the people that he had with him, during the night, and to lie in wait in the field (ארב, to place one's self in ambush), and the next morning to spread out with his army against the town; and when Gaal went out with his followers, he was to do to him "as his hand should find," i.e., to deal with him as he best could and would under the circumstances. (On this formula, see at Sa1 10:7; Sa1 25:8.)

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

General Information:

Zebul's messengers continue talking to Abimelech.

Now

This does not mean "at this moment," but is used to draw attention to the important point that follows.

an ambush

"to hide and attack them suddenly"

do whatever you can to them

This means that they can do what they want to destroy the followers of Gaal.

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Judges, in the Historical, opens this verse with 9 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʼârab (“to lie in wait”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word ʼârab carries the sense “to lie in wait.” How does it shape the verse?
Deuteronomy 19:11 shares the word «to lie in wait» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
The verb «ק֣וּם» is Qal Imperative. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 16 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 8 words in this verse.
9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.