Then the people of Israel rose in the morning: The Hebrew waw conjunction rendered Then may also be translated “So” (Good News Translation) in this context. Once again the people of Israel is literally “the sons [or, children] of Israel,” as the Israelites are presented as a group of people moving together. There is no specific mention of their leaders here. Once again the Hebrew verb rendered rose (qum) marks an important event on the story line, as elsewhere in this book (see verse 2.10). Here it is obviously ambiguous, referring to getting up in the morning, as well as starting out on the journey, but mainly used to tie this part of the story back to all the other times when God “raised up” individual men and women to save Israel.

In the morning probably means “the following morning” or “the next day.” Revised English Bible suggests “at dawn,” but this rendering is probably not accurate, since the Hebrew phrase here is more general.

And encamped against Gibe-ah: The story may seem to move too quickly here for some readers. The Israelites could not have gotten up and encamped without moving from Bethel to Gibeah. Many languages will have to add verbs to show this movement from one place to another (see first model below). Encamped against Gibe-ah means they set up their camp near the town of Gibeah in order to attack it (see verse 6.4).

Translation models for this verse are:

• The following morning the Israelites got up and set off for Gibeah. When they arrived there, they set up their camp near the town.

• The next morning the Israelites arose and camped near Gibeah, planning to attack it.

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 .