Verse 29
They are gone over the passage "They have passed the strait" - The strait here mentioned is that of Michmas, a very narrow passage between two sharp hills or rocks, (see 1 Samuel 14:4 , 1 Samuel 14:5 ;), where a great army might have been opposed with advantage by a very inferior force. The author of the Book of Judith might perhaps mean this pass, at least among others: "Charging them to keep the passages of the hill country, for by them there was an entrance into Judea; and it was easy to stop them that would come up, because the passage was strait for two men at the most," Judith 4:7. The enemies having passed the strait without opposition, shows that all thoughts of making a stand in the open country were given up, and that their only resource was in the strength of the city.
Their lodging - The sense seems necessarily to require that we read למו lamo , to them, instead of לנו lanu , to us. These two words are in other places mistaken one for the other.
Thus Isaiah 44:7 , for למו lamo , read לנו lanu , with the Chaldee; and in the same manner Psalm 64:6 , with the Syriac, and Psalm 80:7 , on the authority of the Septuagint and Syriac, besides the necessity of the sense.
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