And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel drew up the battle line against them at Gibe-ah: In Hebrew these two sentences are parallel, almost as if they were lines of poetry. They read literally:

And he went out the man of Israel to the battle with Benjamin.
And they arrayed with them the man of Israel battle at the Gibeah.

As is often the case in poetry, the second line is more specific. In the first line the Israelites go to fight the Benjaminites, but in the second line they form a battle line specifically against the people of Gibeah.

The men of Israel (literally “the man of Israel”) is repeated, and so is the word battle.

The Hebrew verb rendered went out (yatsaʾ) is used ironically here, since it is the same verb used by the evil men of Gibeah, when they cried, “Bring out the man…” (verse 19.22).

The Hebrew verb expressed in the phrase drew up the battle line is often used for arranging items or even words. Here it applies to arranging troops for battle. This phrase may be rendered “got into battle positions” or “arranged themselves for battle.”

Translators will have to decide if they want to maintain the parallel lines and the repetition of this verse. New International Version renders these lines in a natural way, saying “The men of Israel went out to fight the Benjaminites and took up battle positions against them at Gibeah.” Good News Translation takes another approach, but also renders the verse well with “They went to attack the army of Benjamin, and placed the soldiers in position facing the city.” Other possible models are:

• So the Israelites went to fight against Benjamin, lining up to fight against the town of Gibeah.

• Then the Israelite soldiers went to fight the Benjaminites. They took position to launch their attack against the people of Gibeah.

Quoted with permission from Zogbo, Lynell and Ogden, Graham S. A Handbook on Judges. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2019. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .