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Judges 9:32

in Judges 9

Now then, tonight you and the people with you are to come and lie in wait in the fields.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Now therefore, up by night, thou and the people that are with thee, and lie in wait in the field:

KJV

Now therefore up by night, thou and the people that is with thee, and lie in wait in the field:

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This verse in Judges 9

Commentary

5 notes on this verse

This site's exposition

When Zebul the governor of the city heard

on Judges 9:30-33

Zebul holds the town for Abimelech and sends him word in secret, so the officer Gaal dismissed at verse 28 undoes him. The plan is the ambush of Joshua 8 in small compass: "lie in wait in the fields," rise at sunrise, let the city come out. No one asks God about any of it, and no priest, prophet or word from the LORD appears in the chapter's fifty-seven verses.

This site's exposition

lie in wait in the fields

Matthew Henry asks how Shechem could hope to succeed while the ruler of its own city served the enemy. They knew where Zebul stood, he says, and took no care to secure him. The ambush is planned from inside the walls.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

Now therefore up by night,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

How could the Shechemites hope to speed in their attempt when the ruler of their city was in the interests of their enemy? They knew it, and yet took no care to secure him. Gaal, that headed their faction, having been betrayed by Zebul, Abimelech's confidant, was most wretchedly bantered by him.

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

The consequence was that he allowed himself to be drawn into an ambush, was defeated, the city of Shechem destroyed and strewn with salt. The people took refuge in the stronghold, which was set on fire, and all in it perished.

The words behind it

9 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וְעַתָּה֙and therefore

    veatahH6258 →433 times

  • ק֣וּםarise

    kumH6965 →628 times

  • לַ֔יְלָהnight

    laylahH3915 →233 times

  • אַתָּ֖הyou

    ʾatahH859 →1094 times

  • וְהָעָ֣םand the people

    vehaamH5971 →1873 times

  • אֲשֶׁר־which

    ʾasher-H834 →5497 times

  • אִתָּ֑ךְ[is] with you

    ʾitakhH854 →929 times

  • וֶאֱרֹ֖בand lie in wait

    veeroH693 →41 times

  • בַּשָּׂדֶֽה׃in the field

    basadehH7704 →334 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

6 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Romans 3:15“Their feet are swift to shed blood;3 worksProverbs 4:16For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; they are deprived of slumber until they make someone fall.3 worksProverbs 1:11–16If they say, “Come along, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause,3 worksPsalms 36:4Even on his bed he plots wickedness; he sets himself on a path that is not good; he fails to reject evil.2 worksJob 24:14–17When daylight is gone, the murderer rises to kill the poor and needy; in the night he is like a thief.2 worksNehemiah 2:12I set out at night with a few men. I did not tell anyone what my God had laid on my heart to do for Jerusalem. The only animal with me was the one on which I was riding.1 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Romans 3:15

    “Their feet are swift to shed blood;

    it leads to

    • Proverbs 1:16

      For their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed blood.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Isaiah 59:7–8

      Their feet run to evil; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts; ruin and destruction lie in their wake.

    • Proverbs 6:18

      a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that run swiftly to evil,

  • Through

    Proverbs 4:16

    For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; they are deprived of slumber until they make someone fall.

    it leads to

    • Micah 2:1

      Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Psalms 36:4

      Even on his bed he plots wickedness; he sets himself on a path that is not good; he fails to reject evil.

    • Isaiah 57:20

      But the wicked are like the storm-tossed sea, for it cannot be still, and its waves churn up mire and muck.

  • Through

    Psalms 36:4

    Even on his bed he plots wickedness; he sets himself on a path that is not good; he fails to reject evil.

    it leads to

    • Proverbs 4:16

      For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; they are deprived of slumber until they make someone fall.

    • Isaiah 65:2

      All day long I have held out My hands to an obstinate people who walk in the wrong path, who follow their own imaginations,

About Judges

The Death of Gideon's Sons — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
The Death of Gideon's Sons — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Judges: the study guide →Read Judges 9 →

This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Judges 9 →