And when these went into Micah’s house and took … renders an independent clause in Hebrew, but it repeats previous events (see verse 18.17), so like Revised Standard Version, many versions cast it as a dependent temporal clause (New Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation). This repetition conveys yet another note of irony. The demonstrative pronoun these refers to the five Danite spies, so we can say “these men” (New International Version) or “these Danites.” The Hebrew verbs rendered went into and took are the same ones translated “entered” and “took” in verse 18.17.

The graven image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the molten image lists the religious items in the same way as in verse 18.17. See verse 17.3, verse 5.

The priest said to them, “What are you doing?”: Micah’s priest sees the Danite spies confiscating the sacred objects, so he protests. Again the mention of the priest instead of “the Levite” may express irony (see verse 18.17). The general verb said may be rendered “protested” in this context. What are you doing? is not a real question, but a cry of distress and protest, so we might say “You can’t do that!” or “Don’t you dare do that!” However, it is clear that the priest can do nothing to prevent the Danites from taking whatever they want. The Hebrew verb rendered are … doing is a participle, so a verb form expressing ongoing action should be used. Contemporary English Version is quite dramatic here: “ ‘Hey!’ the priest shouted. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ ”

A translation model for this verse is:

• When the spies entered Micah’s house and removed the ephod and other sacred objects, the priest screamed, “You can’t do that!”

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 .