o.yev denotes a hostile opponent, whether an individual adversary or a group faced in conflict, pursuit, or captivity.

The supplied verses consistently use the term for hostile opponents: individuals who oppose or pursue someone and groups confronted in battle, from whose hand people seek rescue, or to whom captives are handed over.

1. Hostile opponents in personal and public conflict · dominant

   The forms identify persons or groups set against another party. In 1 Kings 21:20, the singular construct form occurs in Ahab's address to Elijah as an adversary; in 1 Samuel 18:29, the singular absolute form marks Saul's continuing hostility toward David. Plural construct forms occur where Israel seeks deliverance from hostile forces in 1 Samuel 12:10 and where David pursues and destroys those opposing him in 2 Samuel 22:38.

   1 Kings 21:201 Samuel 18:291 Samuel 12:102 Samuel 22:381 Kings 8:48Lamentations 1:2

In the Anselm Paraphrase: The APB commonly presents the term with “enemy” or “enemies,” including personal hostility, military opposition, and captivity contexts. Because the English is a whole-verse paraphrase rather than a word-aligned translation, those renderings confirm the clauses' hostile relation without fixing a separate English equivalent in every instance.