Proverbs 1:18

1:18 but these men lie in wait for their own blood, ¹ 

they ambush their own lives! ² 

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 

Psalms 17:12

17:12 He ¹⁰  is like a lion ¹¹  that wants to tear its prey to bits, ¹² 

like a young lion crouching ¹³  in hidden places.

Psalms 35:7

35:7 I did not harm them, but they hid a net to catch me

and dug a pit to trap me. ¹⁴ 

Jeremiah 11:19

11:19 Before this I had been like a docile lamb ready to be led to the slaughter.

I did not know they were making plans to kill me. ¹⁵ 

I did not know they were saying, ¹⁶ 

“Let’s destroy the tree along with its fruit! ¹⁷ 

Let’s remove Jeremiah ¹⁸  from the world of the living

so people will not even be reminded of him any more.” ¹⁹ 

Jeremiah 18:18-20

Jeremiah Petitions the Lord to Punish Those Who Attack Him

18:18 Then some people ²⁰  said, “Come on! Let us consider how to deal with Jeremiah! ²¹  There will still be priests to instruct us, wise men to give us advice, and prophets to declare God’s word. ²²  Come on! Let’s bring charges against him and get rid of him! ²³  Then we will not need to pay attention to anything he says.”

18:19 Then I said, ²⁴ 

“Lord, pay attention to me.

Listen to what my enemies are saying. ²⁵ 

18:20 Should good be paid back with evil?

Yet they are virtually digging a pit to kill me. ²⁶ 

Just remember how I stood before you

pleading on their behalf ²⁷ 

to keep you from venting your anger on them. ²⁸ 

Matthew 26:3-4

26:3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people met together in the palace of the high priest, who was named Caiaphas. 26:4 They ²⁹  planned to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.

John 15:25

15:25 Now this happened ³⁰  to fulfill the word that is written in their law, ‘They hated me without reason.’ ³¹ 

[1:18]  ¹ sn They think that they are going to shed innocent blood, but in their blindness they do not realize that it is their own blood they shed. Their greed will lead to their destruction. This is an example of ironic poetic justice. They do not intend to destroy themselves; but this is what they accomplish.

[1:18]  ² tn Heb “their own souls.” The term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul”) is used as a metonymy (= soul) of association (= life). The noun נֶפֶשׁ often refers to physical “life” (Exod 21:23; Num 17:3; Judg 5:18; Prov 12:10; BDB 659 s.v. 3.c).

[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).

[17:12]  ¹⁰ tn Here the psalmist switches to the singular pronoun; he views his enemies collectively, or singles out a representative of the group, perhaps its leader.

[17:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “his likeness [is] like a lion.”

[17:12]  ¹² tn Heb “[that] longs to tear.”

[17:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “sitting.”

[35:7]  ¹⁴ tc Heb “for without cause they hid for me a pit of their net, without cause they dug for my life.” It appears that the words “pit” and “net” have been transposed. “Net” goes with the verb “hid” in the first line (see v. 8, as well as Pss 9:15; 31:4), while “pit” goes with the verb “dug” in the second line (see Ps 7:15).

[11:19]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “against me.” The words “to kill me” are implicit from the context and are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[11:19]  ¹⁶ tn The words “I did not know that they were saying” are not in the text. The quote is without formal introduction in the original. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[11:19]  ¹⁷ tn This word and its pronoun (לַחְמוֹ, lakhmo, “its bread”) is often emended to read “in/with its sap” = “in its prime” (either לֵחוֹ [lekho] or לֵחְמוֹ [lekhÿmo]); the latter would be more likely and the מוֹ (mo) could be explained as a rare use of the old poetic third plural suffix for the third singular; cf. GKC 258 §91.l for general use and Ps 11:7 and Job 27:23 for third singular use. Though this fits the context nicely the emendation is probably unnecessary since the word “bread” is sometimes used of other foodstuff than grain or its products (cf. BDB 537 s.v. לֶחֶם 2.a).

[11:19]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “cut it [or him] off.” The metaphor of the tree may be continued, though the verb “cut off” is used also of killing people. The rendering clarifies the meaning of the metaphor.

[11:19]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “so that his name will not be remembered any more.”

[18:18]  ²⁰ tn Heb “They.” The referent is unidentified; “some people” has been used in the translation.

[18:18]  ²¹ tn Heb “Let us make plans against Jeremiah.” See 18:18 where this has sinister overtones as it does here.

[18:18]  ²² tn Heb “Instruction will not perish from priest, counsel from the wise, word from the prophet.”

[18:18]  ²³ tn Heb “Let us smite him with our tongues.” It is clear from the context that this involved plots to kill him.

[18:19]  ²⁴ tn The words “Then I said” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity to show that Jeremiah turns from description of the peoples’ plots to his address to God to deal with the plotters.

[18:19]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the voice of my adversaries.”

[18:20]  ²⁶ tn Or “They are plotting to kill me”; Heb “They have dug a pit for my soul.” This is a common metaphor for plotting against someone. See BDB 500 s.v. כָּרָה Qal and for an example see Pss 7:16 (7:15 HT) in its context.

[18:20]  ²⁷ tn Heb “to speak good concerning them” going back to the concept of “good” being paid back with evil.

[18:20]  ²⁸ tn Heb “to turn back your anger from them.”

[26:4]  ²⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[15:25]  ³⁰ tn The words “this happened” are not in the Greek text but are supplied to complete an ellipsis.

[15:25]  ³¹ sn A quotation from Ps 35:19 and Ps 69:4. As a technical term law (νόμος, nomos) is usually restricted to the Pentateuch (the first five books of the OT), but here it must have a broader reference, since the quotation is from Ps 35:19 or Ps 69:4. The latter is the more likely source for the quoted words, since it is cited elsewhere in John’s Gospel (2:17 and 19:29, in both instances in contexts associated with Jesus’ suffering and death).