אָרַב

Deuteronomy 19:11 וְאָ֤רַב and he will lie in wait

If, however, a man hates his neighbor and lies in wait, attacks him and kills him, and then flees to one of these cities,

Joshua 8:2 אֹרֵ֛ב an ambush

And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set up an ambush behind the city.”

Here: Literally "one lying in wait," a verb form used as a group noun: a concealed force. God himself prescribes a human stratagem this time.

Joshua 8:4 אֹרְבִ֤ים [are] lying in wait

with these orders: “Pay attention. You are to lie in ambush behind the city, not too far from it. All of you must be ready.

Joshua 8:7 מֵהָ֣אוֹרֵ֔ב from the ambush

you are to rise from the ambush and seize the city, for the LORD your God will deliver it into your hand.

Here: 'From the one lying in wait.' The verb form is used as a group noun for the hidden force and the place where it hides. The picture is men crouching unseen until the signal comes.

Joshua 8:12 אֹרֵ֗ב an ambush

Now Joshua had taken about five thousand men and set up an ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city.

Here: Literally 'one lying in wait', a verb form used as a noun for a hidden force. Joshua set them '(as) an ambush'. The singular treats the whole group as one unit.

Joshua 8:14 אֹרֵ֥ב an ambush

When the king of Ai saw the Israelites, he hurried out early in the morning with the men of the city to engage them in battle at an appointed place overlooking the Arabah. But he did not know that an ambush had been set up against him behind the city.

Joshua 8:19 וְהָאוֹרֵ֡ב and the ambush

and as soon as he did so, the men in ambush rose quickly from their position. They rushed forward, entered the city, captured it, and immediately set it on fire.

Here: A singular participle (a verb used as a noun) meaning 'the lurker' or 'the one lying in wait'. It treats the whole hidden force of v. 12 as one unit. The 'and' moves the camera from Joshua's gesture to the men waiting behind the city.

Joshua 8:21 הָֽאֹרֵב֙ the ambush

When Joshua and all Israel saw that the men in ambush had captured the city and that smoke was rising from it, they turned around and struck down the men of Ai.

Here: Literally "the one lying in wait," used as a collective noun for the hidden detachment posted west of Ai (vv. 2, 9, 12). It means the troops, not the event.

Judges 9:25 מְאָרְבִ֗ים ambushers

The leaders of Shechem set up an ambush against Abimelech on the hilltops, and they robbed all who passed by them on the road. So this was reported to Abimelech.

Here: "Ambushers, men lying in wait." These were men stationed in hiding to pounce on whoever passed. The same root comes back in vv. 32–43, where Abimelech lies in ambush against Shechem. The ambushers end up ambushed.

Judges 9:32 וֶאֱרֹ֖ב and lie in wait

Now then, tonight you and the people with you are to come and lie in wait in the fields.

Judges 9:34 וַיֶּאֶרְב֣וּ and they lay in wait

So Abimelech and all his troops set out by night and lay in wait against Shechem in four companies.

Judges 9:43 וַיֶּאֱרֹ֖ב and he lay in wait

So he took his men, divided them into three companies, and lay in wait in the fields. When he saw the people coming out of the city, he rose up against them and attacked them.

Judges 16:2 וַיֶּאֶרְבוּ־ and they lay in wait

When the Gazites heard that Samson was there, they surrounded that place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They were quiet throughout the night, saying, “Let us wait until dawn; then we will kill him.”

Judges 16:9 וְהָאֹרֵ֗ב and the ambusher

While the men were hidden in her room, she called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But he snapped the bowstrings like a strand of yarn seared by a flame. So the source of his strength remained unknown.

Judges 16:12 וְהָאֹרֵ֖ב and the ambusher

So Delilah took new ropes, tied him up with them, and called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But while the men were hidden in her room, he snapped the ropes off his arms like they were threads.

Judges 20:29 אֹֽרְבִ֔ים ambushers

So Israel set up an ambush around Gibeah.

Judges 20:33 וְאֹרֵ֧ב and [the] ambusher of

So all the men of Israel got up from their places and arrayed themselves at Baal-tamar, and the Israelites in ambush charged from their positions west of Gibeah.

Judges 20:36 הָ֣אֹרֵ֔ב the ambusher

Then the Benjamites realized they had been defeated. Now the men of Israel had retreated before Benjamin because they were relying on the ambush they had set against Gibeah.

Here: Literally 'the ambusher', a singular participle used for the whole hidden force (v. 29 'set ambushers around Gibeah'; v. 33 they burst out of hiding).

Judges 20:37 וְהָאֹרֵ֣ב הָאֹרֵ֔ב and the ambusher, the ambusher

The men in ambush rushed suddenly against Gibeah; they advanced and put the whole city to the sword.

Judges 20:38 הָאֹרֵ֑ב the ambusher

The men of Israel had arranged a signal with the men in ambush: When they sent up a great cloud of smoke from the city,

Here: A participle, literally 'the one lying in wait', used as a group noun for the ambush force hidden near Gibeah (v. 33). The main pause in the verse's chanting marks fall here.

Judges 21:20 וַאֲרַבְתֶּ֥ם and you will lie in wait

So they commanded the Benjamites: “Go, hide in the vineyards

1 Samuel 15:5 וַיָּ֖רֶב and he lay in wait

Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley.

1 Samuel 22:8 לְאֹרֵ֖ב to an ambusher

Is that why all of you have conspired against me? Not one of you told me that my own son had made a covenant with the son of Jesse. Not one of you has shown concern for me or revealed to me that my son has stirred up my own servant to lie in wait against me, as is the case today.”

1 Samuel 22:13 לְאֹרֵ֖ב to an ambusher

And Saul asked him, “Why have you and the son of Jesse conspired against me? You gave him bread and a sword and inquired of God for him so that he could rise up against me to lie in wait, as he is doing today.”

2 Chronicles 20:22 מְ֠אָֽרְבִים ambushers

The moment they began their shouts and praises, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir who had come against Judah, and they were defeated.

Here: "Ambushers": a participle that means people who lie in wait, not an abstract tactic. The verse never says who they were (see the debates).

Ezra 8:31 וְאוֹרֵ֖ב and from an ambusher

On the twelfth day of the first month we set out from the Ahava Canal to go to Jerusalem, and the hand of our God was upon us to protect us from the hands of the enemies and bandits along the way.

Here: 'And an ambusher', someone who hides and waits beside a road, like a highway robber. It rhymes with 'oyev ('oyev ve'orev), which makes the phrase stick in the ear.

Job 31:9 אָרָֽבְתִּי׃ I have lain in wait

If my heart has been enticed by my neighbor’s wife, or I have lurked at his door,

Here: 'I lay in wait.' This is the word for bandits and soldiers hiding in ambush. It pictures a man watching the door for the husband to leave so he can get in.

Psalm 10:9 יֶאֱרֹ֬ב יֶ֭אֱרֹב he lies in wait

He lies in wait like a lion in a thicket; he lurks to seize the oppressed; he catches the lowly in his net.

Here: He crouches out of sight, waiting to strike. The tense describes what he habitually does, and the word picks up the 'ambush' (maʾrab) of verse 8.

Psalm 59:3 אָֽרְב֡וּ they lie in wait

See how they lie in wait for me. Fierce men conspire against me for no transgression or sin of my own, O LORD.

Here: The ordinary Hebrew word for hiding in wait to strike, used of soldiers in military ambushes (Joshua 8; Judges 9) and of murderers. The verb form shows the ambush is already in place: 'they have set themselves in ambush'.

Proverbs 1:11 נֶאֶרְבָ֥ה let us lie in wait

If they say, “Come along, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause,

Here: "Let us lie in ambush." The "let us" form makes it a group plan. The word is the standard term for setting a planned ambush for an attack, as in robbery on the roads or a military trap. The same verb comes back against them in verse 18.

Proverbs 1:18 יֶאֱרֹ֑בוּ they lie in wait

But they lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush their own lives.

Here: The verb for a planned ambush, used for murder planned in advance (Deut 19:11). The verb form describes what such men always do, a general truth. It is the same verb the gang used in its invitation in 1:11.

Proverbs 7:12 תֶאֱרֹֽב׃ she lies in wait

Now in the street, now in the squares, she lurks at every corner.

Here: "She lies in ambush": a word for soldiers and bandits waiting hidden to strike. The verb form describes what she habitually does. It turns the whole scene into a hunt with the young man as prey.

Proverbs 12:6 אֱרָב־ [are] to lie in wait for

The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them.

Here: A verb form with no person or tense attached (an infinitive): 'to-ambush'. The line gives no verb of its own, so it reads either as 'their words are an ambushing for blood' or, as the YLT has it, as their actual words quoted: 'Lie in wait for blood!'

Proverbs 23:28 תֶּֽאֱרֹ֑ב she lies in wait

Like a robber she lies in wait and multiplies the faithless among men.

Proverbs 24:15 תֶּאֱרֹ֣ב you lie in wait

Do not lie in wait, O wicked man, near the dwelling of the righteous; do not destroy his resting place.

Here: To crouch hidden and wait for the moment to strike, the word for a military ambush or a robber's lurking. It recalls the gang of Proverbs 1:11 ('let us lie in wait for blood'). Followed by le-, it means lying in wait against a target, not just loitering nearby.

Jeremiah 51:12 הָאֹֽרְבִ֑ים the ambushers

Raise a banner against the walls of Babylon; post the guard; station the watchmen; prepare the ambush. For the LORD has both devised and accomplished what He spoke against the people of Babylon.

Here: Troops hidden to catch defenders who come out or people who try to escape, as in the ambush at Ai (Joshua 8).

Lamentations 3:10 אֹרֵ֥ב lying in wait

He is a bear lying in wait, a lion hiding in ambush.

Here: A participle, meaning an ongoing state: 'lurking, waiting in ambush.' The verb is used for soldiers hidden to attack a city (Josh 8; Judg 9) and for murderers waiting for a victim (Ps 10:9; Prov 1:11). The danger is planned and hidden, not a chance meeting.

Lamentations 4:19 אָ֥רְבוּ they lay in wait

Those who chased us were swifter than the eagles in the sky; they pursued us over the mountains and ambushed us in the wilderness.

Here: "They lay in ambush." The enemy is not only faster but ahead of them, already hiding where the fugitives had to go. Lamentations 3:10 uses the same verb for God himself as "a bear lying in wait."

Micah 7:2 יֶאֱרֹ֔בוּ they lie in wait

The godly man has perished from the earth; there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt one another with a net.

Here: The verb for hiding in ambush, used of bandits, armies and lions. The form describes an ongoing habit: they keep lying in wait. It is the same wording as the gang's plan in Proverbs 1:11, 18.