8:3 Joshua and the whole army marched against Ai. 1 Joshua selected thirty thousand brave warriors and sent them out at night.
8:24 When Israel had finished killing all the men 2 of Ai who had chased them toward the desert 3 (they all fell by the sword), 4 all Israel returned to Ai and put the sword to it. 8:25 Twelve thousand men and women died 5 that day, including all the men of Ai.
5:13 He catches 11 the wise in their own craftiness, 12
and the counsel of the cunning 13 is brought to a quick end. 14
19:11 The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools; 15
Pharaoh’s wise advisers give stupid advice.
How dare you say to Pharaoh,
“I am one of the sages,
one well-versed in the writings of the ancient kings?” 16
19:12 But where, oh where, are your wise men? 17
Let them tell you, let them find out
what the Lord who commands armies has planned for Egypt.
19:13 The officials of Zoan are fools,
the officials of Memphis 18 are misled;
the rulers 19 of her tribes lead Egypt astray.
1 tn “And Joshua and all the people of war arose to go up [against] Ai.”
2 tn Heb “residents.”
3 tn Heb “in the field, in the desert in which they chased them.”
4 tc Heb “and all of them fell by the edge of the sword until they were destroyed.” The LXX omits the words, “and all of them fell by the edge of the sword.” They may represent a later scribal addition.
5 tn Heb “fell.”
6 tn Heb “for from the
7 tc The translation follows the LXX in reading the first person pronoun. The MT, followed by many English versions, has a second person masculine singular pronoun, “your.”
8 tn Heb “hardened his spirit” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NIV “made his spirit stubborn.”
9 tn Heb “made his heart obstinate” (so KJV, NASB); NRSV “made his heart defiant.”
10 tn Heb “into your hand.”
11 tn The participles continue the description of God. Here he captures or ensnares the wise in their wickedly clever plans. See also Ps 7:16, where the wicked are caught in the pit they have dug – they are only wise in their own eyes.
12 sn This is the only quotation from the Book of Job in the NT (although Rom 11:35 seems to reflect 41:11, and Phil 1:19 is similar to 13:6). Paul cites it in 1 Cor 3:19.
13 tn The etymology of נִפְתָּלִים (niftalim) suggests a meaning of “twisted” (see Prov 8:8) in the sense of tortuous. See Gen 30:8; Ps 18:26 [27].
14 tn The Niphal of מָהַר (mahar) means “to be hasty; to be irresponsible.” The meaning in the line may be understood in this sense: The counsel of the wily is hastened, that is, precipitated before it is ripe, i.e., frustrated (A. B. Davidson, Job, 39).
15 tn Or “certainly the officials of Zoan are fools.” אַךְ (’akh) can carry the sense, “only, nothing but,” or “certainly, surely.”
16 tn Heb “A son of wise men am I, a son of ancient kings.” The term בֶּן (ben, “son of”) could refer to literal descent, but many understand the word, at least in the first line, in its idiomatic sense of “member [of a guild].” See HALOT 138 s.v. בֶּן and J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:371. If this is the case, then one can take the word in a figurative sense in the second line as well, the “son of ancient kings” being one devoted to their memory as preserved in their literature.
17 tn Heb “Where are they? Where are your wise men?” The juxtaposition of the interrogative pronouns is emphatic. See HALOT 38 s.v. אֶי.
18 tn Heb “Noph” (so KJV); most recent English versions substitute the more familiar “Memphis.”
19 tn Heb “the cornerstone.” The singular form should be emended to a plural.