Then 10,000 troops chosen from all Israel made a frontal attack on Gibeah, and the battle became fierce; but the Benjamites did not know not that disaster was about to strike them.
Moreover, no man knows his time: like fish caught in a fatal net or birds caught in a snare, so people are trapped in a time of calamity, that falls upon them suddenly.
But calamity will come upon you. You won’t know how to charm it away. Disaster will fall on you, for which you cannot atone. Catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you.
“But watch out so your hearts are not weighed down by carousing, strong drink, and the worries of life. Do not let that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.
When they are saying, “Shalom and safety,” sudden destruction comes upon them like a woman having birth pains in the womb—there is no way they will escape.
So it came to pass when the king of Ai saw this, the men of the city hurried and rose up early, and went out to meet Israel in battle, he and all his people at the appointed place facing the Arabah. But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.