Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

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 Sa1 14:4, Sa1 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 Isa 44:7, for למו lamo, read לנו lanu, with the Chaldee; and in the same manner Psa 64:6, with the Syriac, and Psa 80:7, on the authority of the Septuagint and Syriac, besides the necessity of the sense.