11:3 we will give ourselves up to you. While the elders of Jabesh clearly intend Nahash to understand their words as a surrender, the Hebrew verb employed is often used in the sense of soldiers “going out” to battle (8:20; 18:30; 2 Sam. 18:2–4, 6). When in v. 10 the men of Jabesh again promise to give up to the Ammonites, it is with some irony, because the Ammonites are still thinking of “surrender,” but the townspeople are planning to fight.