The previous verse seems to give a summary of the attack on Bethel, while the rest of this unit gives the details of the attack. For this reason Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version combine 1.22-23. However, in most languages this will not be necessary.

And the house of Joseph sent to spy out Bethel: And renders the Hebrew waw conjunction, which may also be translated “first” since this clause describes how the tribe of Joseph went about capturing Bethel. Once again the phrases house of Joseph and “house of God” (Bethel) seem to be placed together for a contrastive effect. If repeating the house of Joseph is unacceptable, the translator may simply use the pronoun “they.” See verse 1.22 for comments on the house of Joseph and Bethel.

Sent to spy out renders a single verb in Hebrew (tur), which is also used in Num 13–14. We could say “sent out spies to find out what they could about Bethel.” If a word for spy does not exist, translators might say “sent men out to observe/look around the city.” Many languages will need to make explicit “to see how they could capture it.”

(Now the name of the city was formerly Luz): Gen 28.19 gives this same information, noting that Jacob is the one who named the town Bethel. Once again Revised Standard Version puts background information in parentheses. See verse 1.10. New Jerusalem Bible says “In olden days, the name of the town was Luz.” We might also say “Previously, Bethel was known as Luz.” The name Luz is repeated at the end of this unit (verse 1.26), forming an inclusio.

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 .