This verse is a good example of Hebrew’s love of repetition, as almost every phrase here has occurred previously.

And the five men who had gone to spy out the land …: See verse 18.14. Once again, the focus shifts back to the five Danite spies, obviously the leaders of the group. They were not brave heroes, but rather lowly Israelites set on robbing and defaming their own countrymen.

The Hebrew verb rendered went up (ʿalah) has a military sense here (see verse 1.1).

And entered and took is literally “they came there [and] they took.” Surprisingly, the Hebrew verbs here occur without the waw conjunction. The verb took links this episode back to the beginning of this whole story when Micah confessed to his mother that he “took” her silver (verse 17.2). Now the Danites in turn rob Micah! Translators should render took in the same way as in verse 17.2 to preserve the link back to Micah’s initial theft, since part of the message here is that Micah is being paid back for his bad actions.

The graven image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the molten image: See verse 17.3, verse 5. The order of the items in this list varies slightly from the order in verse 18.14. The separate mention of graven image and molten image would lead us to believe that these are indeed two rather than one image.

While the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men armed with weapons of war renders an independent clause in Hebrew, which is literally “and the priest was standing by the entrance of the gate and the six hundred men armed with weapons of war.” This clause repeats previous expressions, and this repetition along with the picture presented here make it highly ironic. The young Levite stands helplessly as he watches the Danites confiscate the objects of worship. They came to ask about his “welfare/peace” (verse 18.15), but now they take away his livelihood with instruments of war. The priest refers to the young Levite whom Micah installed as his priest (see verse 17.12), even if he is not a true priest. Here again the narrator chooses his words with care, as the mere mention of the priest evokes strong irony. Translators should be careful to render the text as it stands and not put “the Levite” in place of the priest. For stood by the entrance of the gate, see verse 18.16; for six hundred men armed with weapons of war, see verse 18.11.

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 .