know and understand with certainty that the Lord your God will not continue to drive these nations out from before you; but they will be a snare and trap to you, and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which the Lord your God has given you.

But the woman said to him, “See here, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off (eliminated) those who are mediums and spiritists from the land. So why are you laying a trap for my life, to cause my death?”

“A snare catches him by the heel,
And a trap snaps shut on him.

“A noose is hidden for him on the ground,
And a trap for him on the path.

He has dug a pit and hollowed it out,
And has fallen into the [very] pit which he made [as a trap].

May their table [with all its abundance and luxury] become a snare [to them];
And when they are in peace [secure at their sacrificial feasts], may it become a trap.

Keep me from the jaws of the trap which they have set for me,
And from the snares of those who do evil.

But [when these people set a trap for others] they lie in wait for their own blood;
They set an ambush for their own lives [and rush to their destruction].

For the Lord will be your confidence, firm and strong,
And will keep your foot from being caught [in a trap].

“Then He shall be a sanctuary [a sacred, indestructible shelter for those who fear and trust Him];
But to both the houses of Israel [both the northern and southern kingdoms—Israel and Judah, He will be] a stone on which to stumble and a rock on which to trip,
A trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Those who cause a person to be condemned with a [false] word,
And lay a trap for him who upholds justice at the [city] gate,
And defraud the one in the right with meaningless arguments.

‘For wicked men are found among My people,
They watch like fowlers who lie in wait;
They set a trap,
They catch men.

“The one who flees from the terror
Will fall into the pit,
And the one who gets up out of the pit
Will be taken and caught in the trap;
For I shall bring upon it, even upon Moab,
The year of their punishment,” says the Lord.

“I set a trap for you and you also were caught, O Babylon,
And you did not know it;
You have been found and also seized
Because you have struggled against the Lord.”

Does a bird fall into a trap on the ground when there is no bait in it?
Does a trap spring up from the ground when it has caught nothing at all? [Of course not! So it is that Israel has earned her impending judgment.]

If your right eye makes you stumble and leads you to sin, tear it out and throw it away [that is, remove yourself from the source of temptation]; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

If your right hand makes you stumble and leads you to sin, cut it off and throw it away [that is, remove yourself from the source of temptation]; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

“But be on guard, so that your hearts are not weighed down and depressed with the giddiness of debauchery and the nausea of self-indulgence and the worldly worries of life, and then that day [when the Messiah returns] will not come on you suddenly like a trap;

And David says,

“Let their table (abundance) become a snare and a trap,
A stumbling block and a retribution to them.

but we preach Christ crucified, [a message which is] to Jews a stumbling block [that provokes their opposition], and to Gentiles foolishness [just utter nonsense],

And he must have a good reputation and be well thought of by those outside the church, so that he will not be discredited and fall into the devil’s trap.

But I have a few things against you, because you have there some [among you] who are holding to the [corrupt] teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, [enticing them] to eat things that had been sacrificed to idols and to commit [acts of sexual] immorality.