Hebrew noun (masculine) · H3993
מַאֲרָב
maarabmah-ar-awb'
ambush
5 uses in the Hebrew text, one for each word STEP Bible has tagged with this key
Concordance spelling: maʼărâb
Word page · Part of the concordance, one page for every word of the Hebrew and Greek text. Strong's H3993is this word's number in James Strong's 1890 index of the King James Bible.
- 4 of 39Old Testament books
- 4spellings
The definition in full
Strong's key (1890) · H3993
an ambuscade
The King James renders it: lie in ambush, ambushment, lurking place, lying in wait.
James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890), public domain. Strong indexed the King James text, and this site quotes his entry as that index.
Summary
maarab is rendered "ambush". It stands 5 times in the Hebrew text, across four books.
- Two of the uses stand in 2 Chronicles, more than in any other book.
- Its first use in canonical order opens the ledger below.Joshua 8:9So Joshua sent them out, and they went to the place of ambush and lay in wait between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai. But Joshua spent that night among the people.
- The Greek text spells it four different ways.
The first use
So Joshua sent them out, and they went to the place of ambush and lay in wait between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai. But Joshua spent that night among the people.
Joshua 8:9הַמַּאְרָ֔ב
The first use, in the order of the Old Testament's books.
Where the word stands
Two of the word's five uses are in 2 Chronicles.
What the word means
Each meaning, and the words it is translated by
How the Greek text is glossed, word by word
- the ambush3
- and the ambush1
- in an ambush of1
The words built on the same word-part
Each word below begins with the same letters this one begins with. A shared word-part shows a family. It does not settle what any one of them means, so each word carries its own uses on its own page. Scholars call that shared part the stem.
All 5, in canonical order
Every use, in order
Every use, grouped by book, with its verse.
4 spellings and their grammar
STEP Bible tags every word of the Hebrew and Greek text with its spelling and its grammar. Both lists below count the rows printed underneath, written out in English, with the code beside each one as it was tagged.
How it is spelled
- הַמַּאְרָ֔ב2
- בְּמַאְרַ֬ב1
- הַמַּאְרָֽב׃1
- וְהַמַּאְרָ֖ב1
The grammar of each form
- the definite article (“the”) + noun · masculine singular3HTd/Ncmsa
- conjunction (“and”) + the definite article (“the”) + noun · masculine singular1HC/Td/Ncmsa
- preposition + noun · masculine singular · in construct (“…of”)1HR/Ncmsc
Joshua
one use
So Joshua sent them out, and they went to the place of ambush and lay in wait between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai. But Joshua spent that night among the people.
- הַמַּאְרָ֔בhama'ravthe definite article (“the”) + noun · masculine singulartagged: the ambush
Judges
one use
Now Gaal son of Ebed went out and stood at the entrance of the city gate just as Abimelech and his men came out from their hiding places.
- הַמַּאְרָֽב׃hama'ravthe definite article (“the”) + noun · masculine singulartagged: the ambush
2 Chronicles
two uses
Now Jeroboam had sent troops around to ambush from the rear, so that while he was in front of Judah, the ambush was behind them.
- הַמַּאְרָ֔בhama'ravthe definite article (“the”) + noun · masculine singulartagged: the ambush
- וְהַמַּאְרָ֖בvehama'ravconjunction (“and”) + the definite article (“the”) + noun · masculine singulartagged: and the ambush
Psalms
one use
He lies in wait near the villages; in ambush he slays the innocent; his eyes watch in stealth for the helpless.
- בְּמַאְרַ֬בbema'ravpreposition + noun · masculine singular · in construct (“…of”)tagged: in an ambush of
Where it leads
How the numbers are counted
Every count on this page comes from STEP Bible's tagged Hebrew and Greek text, the same text the ledger prints. A use is counted once each time the tagging marks a word with this key.
Spellings are counted as the Greek text spells them, with the sentence's own punctuation taken off the word first, so a form that ends a clause is not counted as a second spelling.
The family is read from the lexicon by the stem the two words share, with the accents off, and a person or a place named on the stem is left out.