arav · lie in wait

What it means

arav (אָרַב) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “lie in wait”.

Wait in hiding to attack.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. To lie hidden waiting to attack.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• ambush ×21
• lie in wait ×7
• lies in wait ×5
• ambushes ×2
• lay in wait ×2
• lying in wait ×2
• I have lain in wait ×1
• plotting ×1

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Deuteronomy×1
• Joshua×7
• Judges×14
• 1 Samuel×2
• 2 Chronicles×1
• Ezra×1
• Job×1
• Psalms×3
• Proverbs×6
• Jeremiah×1
• Lamentations×2
• Hosea×1
• Micah×1

• Deuteronomy 19:11

  But if there is a man who hates his neighbor, and lies in wait for him and rises against him and strikes him mortally so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities,

• Joshua 8:2

  And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king; only its spoil and its livestock you may plunder for yourselves. Set for yourself an ambush against the city behind it.”

• Joshua 8:4

  He commanded them, saying, “See, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city. Do not go very far from the city, and be all of you ready.

• Joshua 8:7

  Then you shall rise up from the ambush and take possession of the city, and YHWH your Elohim will give it into your hand.

• Joshua 8:12

  He took about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city.

• Joshua 8:14

  And it came about, when the king of Ai saw it, that the men of the city hurried and rose early and went out to meet Israel in battle, he and all his people, at the appointed time before the Arabah; but he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.

• Joshua 8:19

  And the ambush rose quickly from its place, and they ran as soon as he stretched out his hand, and entered the city and took it; and they hurried and set the city on fire.

• Joshua 8:21

  When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that the smoke of the city was going up, they turned back and struck the men of Ai.

• Judges 9:25

  The lords of Shechem set against him men in ambush on the tops of the mountains, and they robbed everyone who passed by them on the road. And it was told to Abimelech.

• Judges 9:32

  Now then, rise by night, you and the people who are with you, and lie in ambush in the field.

• Judges 9:34

  Abimelech rose by night, with all the people who were with him, and they lay in ambush against Shechem in four companies.

• Judges 9:43

  He took the people, divided them into three companies, and lay in ambush in the field. He looked, and there were the people coming out of the city; and he rose against them and struck them.

• Judges 16:2

  It was told to the Gazites, “Samson has come here.” And they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city, and kept quiet all night, saying, “Until the light of morning; then we will kill him.”

• Judges 16:9

  Now the ambush was waiting for her in the room. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings as a strand of tow snaps when it smells fire. So his strength was not known.

• Judges 16:12

  So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And the ambush was waiting in the room. But he snapped them from off his arms like a thread.

• Judges 20:29

  So Israel set men in ambush against Gibeah all around.

• Judges 20:33

  And all the men of Israel rose up from their place and drew up at Baal-tamar, and the ambush of Israel burst out from its place, from the clearing of Geba.

• Judges 20:36

  So the sons of Benjamin saw that they were struck down. The men of Israel had given ground to Benjamin, because they trusted in the ambush that they had set against Gibeah.

• Judges 20:37

  And the ambush hurried and rushed against Gibeah; and the ambush marched and struck all the city with the edge of the sword.

• Judges 20:38

  Now the agreed signal between the men of Israel and the ambush was that they should send up from the city a great cloud of smoke.

• Judges 21:20

  And they commanded the sons of Benjamin, saying, “Go and lie in ambush in the vineyards,

• 1 Samuel 22:8

  For all of you have conspired against me, and there is no one who informs me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse, and none of you is sorry for me or informs me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie in wait, as it is this day.”

• 1 Samuel 22:13

  Saul said to him, “Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you gave him bread and a sword and inquired of Elohim for him, so that he would rise against me to lie in wait, as it is this day?”

• 2 Chronicles 20:22

  And at the time they began with shouts of joy and praise, YHWH set ambushes against the sons of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, who were coming against Judah; and they were struck down.

• Ezra 8:31

  And we set out from the river Ahava on the twelfth of the first month to go to Jerusalem; and the hand of our Elohim was upon us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and of the one lying in ambush along the way.

• Job 31:9

  If my heart has been enticed by a woman, and at the door of my neighbor I have lain in wait,

• Psalms 10:9

  He lies in wait in the hiding place like a lion in its lair; he lies in wait to seize the afflicted; he seizes the afflicted by dragging him into his net.

• Psalms 59:3

  For look, they lie in wait for my soul; the strong gather against me, not for my transgression nor for my sin, YHWH.

• Proverbs 1:11

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

• Proverbs 1:18

  And they lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush their own souls.

• Proverbs 7:12

  now in the street, now in the squares, and beside every corner she lies in wait.

• Proverbs 12:6

  The words of the wicked are lying in wait for blood, but the mouth of the upright will deliver them.

• Proverbs 23:28

  She also lies in wait like a robber, and increases the treacherous among men.

• Proverbs 24:15

  Do not lie in wait, wicked man, at the dwelling of the righteous; do not plunder his resting place;

• Jeremiah 51:12

  Against the walls of Babylon lift up a banner; strengthen the watch; set up watchmen; prepare the ambushes; for YHWH has both purposed and done what he spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.

• Lamentations 3:10

  A bear lying in wait he is to me, a lion in hiding places.

• Lamentations 4:19

  Swifter were our pursuers than the eagles of the heavens; on the mountains they chased us; in the wilderness they lay in wait for us.

• Hosea 7:6

  For they have brought near their heart like an oven in their plotting; all night their baker sleeps; in the morning it burns like a flaming fire.

• Micah 7:2

  The faithful one has perished from the earth, and there is no upright one among human beings; all of them lie in wait for blood; each hunts his brother with a net.

And 2 more times.