Leviticus 26:17

26:17 I will set my face against you. You will be struck down before your enemies, those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when there is no one pursuing you.

Leviticus 26:37

26:37 They will stumble over each other as those who flee before a sword, though ¹  there is no pursuer, and there will be no one to take a stand ²  for you before your enemies.

Deuteronomy 28:25

Curses by Defeat and Deportation

28:25 “The Lord will allow you to be struck down before your enemies; you will attack them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions and will become an object of terror ³  to all the kingdoms of the earth.

Deuteronomy 28:48

28:48 instead in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty ⁴  you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. They ⁵  will place an iron yoke on your neck until they have destroyed you.

Joshua 7:8

7:8 If only we had been satisfied to live on the other side of the Jordan! O Lord, what can I say now that Israel has retreated ⁶  before its enemies?

Joshua 7:1

Achan Sins and is Punished

7:1 But the Israelites disobeyed the command about the city’s riches. ⁷  Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, ⁸  son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, stole some of the riches. ⁹  The Lord was furious with the Israelites. ¹⁰ 

Joshua 8:33-34

8:33 All the people, ¹¹  rulers, ¹²  leaders, and judges were standing on either side of the ark, in front of the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord. Both resident foreigners and native Israelites were there. ¹³  Half the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and the other half in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the Lord’s servant had previously instructed to them to do for the formal blessing ceremony. ¹⁴  8:34 Then ¹⁵  Joshua read aloud all the words of the law, including the blessings and the curses, just as they are written in the law scroll.

Psalms 44:10

44:10 You made us retreat ¹⁶  from the enemy.

Those who hate us take whatever they want from us. ¹⁷ 

¹ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) is used in a concessive sense here.

² tn The term rendered “to stand up” is a noun, not an infinitive. It occurs only here and appears to designate someone who would take a powerful stand for them against their enemies.

³ tc The meaningless MT reading זַעֲוָה (za’avah) is clearly a transposition of the more commonly attested Hebrew noun זְוָעָה (zÿva’ah, “terror”).

⁴ tn Heb “lack of everything.”

⁵ tn Heb “he” (also later in this verse). The pronoun is a collective singular referring to the enemies (cf. CEV, NLT). Many translations understand the singular pronoun to refer to the Lord (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV).

⁶ tn Heb “turned [the] back.”

⁷ tn Heb “But the sons of Israel were unfaithful with unfaithfulness concerning what was set apart [to the Lord].”

⁸ tn 1 Chr 2:6 lists a “Zimri” (but no Zabdi) as one of the five sons of Zerah (cf. also 1 Chr 7:17, 18).

⁹ tn Heb “took from what was set apart [to the Lord].”

¹⁰ tn Heb “the anger of the Lord burned against the sons of Israel.”

¹¹ tn Heb “All Israel.”

¹² tn Or “elders.”

¹³ tn Heb “like the resident alien, like the citizen.” The language is idiomatic, meaning that both groups were treated the same, at least in this instance.

¹⁴ tn Heb “as Moses, the Lord’s servant, commanded to bless the people, Israel, formerly.”

¹⁵ tn Or “afterward.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “you caused us to turn backward.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “plunder for themselves.” The prepositional phrase לָמוֹ (lamo, “for themselves”) here has the nuance “at their will” or “as they please” (see Ps 80:6).