2 Samuel 11:14-17

11:14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 11:15 In the letter he wrote: “Station Uriah in the thick of the battle and then withdraw from him so he will be cut down and killed.”

11:16 So as Joab kept watch on the city, he stationed Uriah at the place where he knew the best enemy soldiers ¹  were. 11:17 When the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, some of David’s soldiers ²  fell in battle. Uriah the Hittite also died.

Psalms 10:8-10

10:8 He waits in ambush near the villages; ³ 

in hidden places he kills the innocent.

His eyes look for some unfortunate victim. ⁴ 

10:9 He lies in ambush in a hidden place, like a lion in a thicket; ⁵ 

he lies in ambush, waiting to catch ⁶  the oppressed;

he catches the oppressed ⁷  by pulling in his net. ⁸ 

10:10 His victims are crushed and beaten down;

they are trapped in his sturdy nets. ⁹ 

Micah 2:1-2

Land Robbers Will Lose their Land

2:1 Those who devise sinful plans are as good as dead, ¹⁰ 

those who dream about doing evil as they lie in bed. ¹¹ 

As soon as morning dawns they carry out their plans, ¹² 

because they have the power to do so.

2:2 They confiscate the fields they desire,

and seize the houses they want. ¹³ 

They defraud people of their homes, ¹⁴ 

and deprive people of the land they have inherited. ¹⁵ 

Ephesians 5:7-11

5:7 Therefore do not be partakers with them, ¹⁶  5:8 for you were at one time darkness, but now you are ¹⁷  light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light – 5:9 for the fruit of the light ¹⁸  consists in ¹⁹  all goodness, righteousness, and truth – 5:10 trying to learn ²⁰  what is pleasing to the Lord. 5:11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather ²¹  expose them. ²² 

[11:16]  ¹ tn Heb “the valiant men.” This refers in context to the strongest or most valiant defenders of the city Joab and the Israelite army were besieging, so the present translation uses “the best enemy soldiers” for clarity.

[11:17]  ² tn Heb “some of the people from the servants of David.”

[10:8]  ³ tn Heb “he sits in the ambush of the villages.”

[10:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “his eyes for an unfortunate person lie hidden.” The language may picture a lion (see v. 9) peering out from its hiding place in anticipation that an unsuspecting victim will soon come strolling along.

[10:9]  ⁵ tn Or “in its den.”

[10:9]  ⁶ tn The verb, which also appears in the next line, occurs only here and in Judg 21:21.

[10:9]  ⁷ tn The singular form is collective (see v. 10) or refers to the typical or representative oppressed individual.

[10:9]  ⁸ tn Or “when he [i.e., the wicked man] pulls in his net.”

[10:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “he crushes, he is bowed down, and he falls into his strong [ones], [the] unfortunate [ones].” This verse presents several lexical and syntactical difficulties. The first word (יִדְכֶּה, yidekeh) is an otherwise unattested Qal form of the verb דָּכָה (dakhah, “crush”). (The Qere [marginal] form is imperfect; the consonantal text [Kethib] has the perfect with a prefixed conjunction vav [ו].) If the wicked man’s victim is the subject, which seems to be the case (note the two verbs which follow), then the form should be emended to a Niphal (יִדָּכֶה, yiddakheh). The phrase בַּעֲצוּמָיו (ba’atsumayv, “into his strong [ones]”), poses interpretive problems. The preposition -בְּ (bet) follows the verb נָפַל (nafal, “fall”), so it may very well carry the nuance “into” here, with “his strong [ones]” then referring to something into which the oppressed individual falls. Since a net is mentioned in the preceding verse as the instrument used to entrap the victim, it is possible that “strong [ones]” here refers metonymically to the wicked man’s nets or traps. Ps 35:8 refers to a man falling into a net (רֶשֶׁת, reshet), as does Ps 141:10 (where the plural of מִכְמָר [mikhmar, “net”] is used). A hunter’s net (רֶשֶׁת), is associated with snares (פַּח [pakh], מֹקְשִׁים, [moqÿshim]) and ropes (חֲבָלִים, khavalim) in Ps 140:5. The final word in the verse (חֶלְכָּאִים (khelka’im, “unfortunate [ones]”) may be an alternate form of חֵלְכָח (khelkhakh, “unfortunate [one]”; see vv. 8, 14). The Qere (marginal reading) divides the form into two words, חֵיל כָּאִים (khel ka’im, “army/host of disheartened [ones]”). The three verb forms in v. 10 are singular because the representative “oppressed” individual is the grammatical subject (see the singular עָנִי [’aniy] in v. 9).

[2:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Woe to those who plan sin.” The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “woe”; “ah”) was a cry used in mourning the dead.

[2:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “those who do evil upon their beds.”

[2:1]  ¹² tn Heb “at the light of morning they do it.”

[2:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “they desire fields and rob [them], and houses and take [them] away.”

[2:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and they oppress a man and his home.”

[2:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and a man and his inheritance.” The verb עָשַׁק (’ashaq, “to oppress”; “to wrong”) does double duty in the parallel structure and is understood by ellipsis in the second line.

[5:7]  ¹⁶ tn The genitive αὐτῶν (autwn) has been translated as a genitive of association because of its use with συμμέτοχοι (summetocoi) – a verb which implies association in the σύν- (sun-) prefix.

[5:8]  ¹⁷ tn The verb “you are” is implied in the Greek text, but is supplied in the English translation to make it clear.

[5:9]  ¹⁸ tc Several mss (Ì⁴⁶ D² Ψ Ï) have πνεύματος (pneumatos, “Spirit”) instead of φωτός (fwtos, “light”). Although most today regard φωτός as obviously original (UBS⁴ gives it an “A” rating), a case could be made that πνεύματος is what the author wrote. First, although this is largely a Byzantine reading (D² often, if not normally, assimilates to the Byzantine text), Ì⁴⁶ gives the reading much greater credibility. Internally, the φωτός at the end of v. 8 could have lined up above the πνεύματος in v. 9 in a scribe’s exemplar, thus occasioning dittography. (It is interesting to note that in both Ì⁴⁹ and א the two instances of φωτός line up.) However, written in a contracted form, as a nomen sacrum (pMnMs) – a practice found even in the earliest mss – πνεύματος would not have been easily confused with fwtos (there being only the last letter to occasion homoioteleuton rather than the last three). Further, the external evidence for φωτός is quite compelling (Ì⁴⁹ א A B D* F G P 33 81 1739 1881 2464 pc latt co); it is rather doubtful that the early and widespread witnesses all mistook πνεύματος for φωτός. In addition, πνεύματος can be readily explained as harking back to Gal 5:22 (“the fruit of the Spirit”). Thus, on balance, φωτός appears to be original, giving rise to the reading πνεύματος.

[5:9]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “in.” The idea is that the fruit of the light is “expressed in” or “consists of.”

[5:10]  ²⁰ tn BDAG 255 s.v. δοκιμάζω 1 translates δοκιμάζοντες (dokimazonte") in Eph 5:10 as “try to learn.”

[5:11]  ²¹ tn The Greek conjunction καὶ (kai) seems to be functioning here ascensively, (i.e., “even”), but is difficult to render in this context using good English. It may read something like: “but rather even expose them!”

[5:11]  ²² tn Grk “rather even expose.”