And when the people saw him renders an independent clause in Hebrew, literally “and the people saw him.” There is great irony here, since the Hebrew word for people (ʿam) usually refers to the people of Israel, but here it refers to the Philistines (see comments on verse 2.4). The pronoun him may refer to Samson. If so, then this clause seems out of order. In the next verse (verse 16.25) the people call for Samson and he is led out of the prison, so some versions propose reversing 16.24 and 25 as in New American Bible. However, there is no textual support for this rearrangement. Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version solve the problem by combining 16.24-25. But there are other possibilities of interpretation. Instead of referring to Samson, the pronoun him could refer either to the god Dagon or to an impersonal “it,” referring, for example, to the capture of Samson. New Jerusalem Bible takes the first approach by saying “And as soon as the people saw their god.” For the second approach we could say “When the Philistine people realized they had Samson in their hands.” These last two options may be preferable to changing the order of the verses.

They praised their god: The pronoun they refers to the Philistine people. This time it is not their rulers, but they themselves who praise Dagon. The Hebrew verb rendered praised (halal) means “shout praise” or “sing praises,” most often to a deity. In some languages there will be a special verb to “praise” a god. The verb halal sounds like the verb meaning “begin” (chalal), which occurs in the previous episode (verse 16.19, 22), so it is likely this is a deliberate play on words.

For they said: For renders the Hebrew particle ki, which is an emphatic marker here, so it can be translated “indeed.” As in verse 16.23, the general verb said may be rendered “sang” or “chanted” in this context.

Our god has given our enemy into our hand: The Philistines begin their praise to Dagon singing the same line sung first by their leaders. See verse 16.23. However, this time the name of “Samson” does not appear, and the Hebrew word for enemy is singular.

The ravager of our country, who has slain many of us: The people add another line to highlight Samson’s power. It was common for people to vaunt the power of their enemies, since the greater their power, the greater the victory. The ravager, which refers to Samson, renders the participle of a Hebrew verb meaning “destroy,” “ruin,” or “totally devastate.” The Philistines speak of their country (literally “land”), using the same Hebrew word (ʾerets) designating the Promised Land throughout the Old Testament, which heightens the irony here (see verse 1.2). Contemporary English Version understands the ravager of our country to mean the destroyer of their crops by saying “Samson ruined our crops.” However, while it is true that Samson destroyed their crops (see verse 15.5), his massacre of myriads of Philistines seems more impressive. Thus it is better to stay close to the text, as in New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh: “who devastated our land.” This preserves the irony associated with the mention of “the land.”

Who has slain many of us is literally “and who has multiplied [or, increased] our pierced/slain ones.” Indeed, Samson was responsible for killing hundreds, if not thousands, of Philistines. The people glorify Samson’s feats as they praise their god who has supposedly helped them capture this fearsome enemy. Translators can stay close to the Hebrew by saying “who has multiplied our dead.” Another possible model is “who has killed [or, slaughtered] so many of us.” The Hebrew word for slain (chalal) sounds like the word for praised (halal), apparently yet another wordplay.

The Hebrew for this whole line can be divided into two lines:

weʾet macharib ʾartsenu (literally “and the-one-who-has-devastated our-land”)
waʾasher hirbah ʾet-chalalenu (literally “and-who has-multiplied our-pierced/slain-ones”)

In these short lines there is rhythm and rhyme, as well as a play on words since the Hebrew word meaning “devastate” (charab) in the first line sounds like the word meaning “multiply” (rabah) in the second.

Translators should attempt to render the words of this song as poetry, and use a poetic format as well. Possible translation models for this verse are:

• The people saw their god and began to praise him, singing:
“Our god has given our enemy into our hands:
the devastator of our land,
the killer of so many of us!”

• When the people realized they were victorious, they praised their god, singing over and over:
“Into our power our god has given our enemy,
the one who destroyed our land,
the one who slaughtered so many of us.”

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 .