Then the Danites went their way: The Danites do not consider Micah and his men as dangerous, so they simply turn and continue their route. Then renders the Hebrew waw conjunction here. Revised English Bible‘s “With that” is a good model since it shows that the Danites simply dismiss Micah. The literal expression went their way means they simply continued their journey, paying no attention to Micah.

And when Micah saw that they were too strong for him renders an independent clause in Hebrew, literally “and Micah saw that….” Micah realized that he and his men were not powerful enough to defeat the Danites. In this context the verb saw means “realized” (Contemporary English Version) or “understood.” The Hebrew adjective rendered strong comes from the same root that is translated “strengthen” in verse 16.28. The pronoun him refers to Micah. Even though Micah is accompanied by his own men, the narrator speaks of Micah in the singular, thus showing his weakness in comparison to the large number of Danite soldiers. They were too strong for him may be rendered as a comparison by saying “they were stronger than he was.” Once again the narrator pokes fun at Micah, since it is only now he realizes his small group of men can do nothing against 600 men.

He turned and went back to his home: Turned renders the same Hebrew verb used in verse 18.21. The Hebrew verb translated went back is the keyword shuv (“return”), which occurs throughout this book (see verse 2.19). In the beginning of this story, Micah “restored” (shuv) the stolen money to his mother (verse 17.3-4), so this verb forms an inclusio around the story. His home is literally “his house,” yet another repetition (see verse 17.4).

A translation model for this verse is:

• With that, the Danites continued on their way. And Micah, realizing that he and his men were not powerful enough to defeat them, turned around and went back home.

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 .