And the people of Israel inquired of the LORD: See the comments on verse 1.1 and verse 20.18. This is the third time in this subsection that the Israelites inquired of the LORD. One wonders about the tone of these repetitive appeals to the LORD. At this point, are the Israelites a hundred percent sincere and justified in attacking the Benjaminites? Perhaps this is another expression of the spiritual and moral ambiguity that characterizes the last part of this book.

For the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days: For (so also New Revised Standard Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) renders the Hebrew waw conjunction here. Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version, and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh take this clause and the next one as an explanation of why the people were able to make inquiries of the LORD at Bethel. They also place these clauses within parentheses, but this punctuation can be misleading. Good News Translation combines 20.27-28 and places the background information at the beginning, which is another way to handle it.

The ark of the covenant of God is only mentioned here in the book of Judges, where it seems to emphasize that at this point in time the Israelites were worshiping and carrying out sacrifices as prescribed by Moses. This ark was a box-shaped object containing God’s Law. According to the various descriptions, its cover had two cherubim or angels made out of gold on top, and it was believed that the presence of God resided on top between the two cherubim (see Exo 25.10-22). This ark (which has nothing to do with the boat built by Noah) was built during the time of Moses and carried by the priests wherever the Israelites traveled (Deut 31.9), which was true throughout the period of Joshua (verse 3.3) and the judges, and into the time of the kings. Because this phrase makes specific reference to the covenant of God, which was the agreement between God and the Israelites, many translations say “the box of the alliance with God” or “the box of the pact with God.” Good News Translation says “God’s Covenant Box.” Contemporary English Version has “the sacred chest,” which leaves out the important reference to covenant, so it should not be used as a model here. God is literally “the God,” but virtually all versions say “God” (see verse 6.36). The ark of the covenant of God is a rather rare expression, occurring also in verse 1 Sam 4.4; verse 2 Sam 15.24; verse 1 Chr 16.6. Certainly this expression should appear in the glossary, and translators should be careful to render it in the same way throughout the Old Testament.

The adverb there refers to Bethel, where evidently the ark of the covenant was kept. This can be made explicit if necessary, as in Good News Translation.

In those days refers to the time of the war between the Benjaminites and the other tribes of Israel. We may also say “at that time.” This phrase shows that there was a certain time gap between the writing down of these events and the time they actually happened. The narrator makes this side comment to clarify the situation to his audience who lived long after the events.

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 .