And the men of Israel turned back against the Benjaminites is literally “And the men of Israel returned to the sons [or, children] of Benjamin.” The Israelites gave up the idea of chasing down and killing the remaining 600 Benjaminite soldiers hiding at Rimmon Rock, so they turned around and attacked other Benjaminites. Certainly, the 600 Benjaminites would be hard to capture, since they were hiding in rock formations, with empty, deserted land all around. Here the narrator comes back to the main story line. The Hebrew waw conjunction rendered And might be translated “Then,” “Meanwhile” (New Revised Standard Version), or “In the meantime.” Turned back renders the key Hebrew verb shuv. Despite this verb’s many meanings, here it means “return” or “go back” (see verse 2.19). The Benjaminites refers to those who did not make it to Rimmon Rock. Good News Translation calls them “the rest of the Benjaminites.” We might say “Then the Israelites went back to attack the rest of the Benjaminites.”

And smote them with the edge of the sword is a typical description of killing people during battle (see verse 1.8), using the same Hebrew verb meaning “strike down” in verse 20.45.

Men and beasts and all that they found: This phrase expresses the widespread destruction that the Israelites carried out. The Hebrew is somewhat difficult here, seeming to say literally “from [the] whole city to [the] animal[s] up to all those who were found.” This is certainly an idiomatic expression meaning “every person and every animal they found.” Revised English Bible says “the people in the towns and the cattle, every creature that they found.” Contemporary English Version is similar with “all the people and the animals.” We might say “They slaughtered all the people and animals in sight.”

And all the towns which they found they set on fire: Burning down captured towns was standard practice in those days (see verse 1.8). This could be a sign of vengeance, but it may also have been carried out to prevent the people from reconstructing and seeking revenge themselves. All the towns which they found refers to all the Benjaminite towns the Israelite soldiers came across. The verb found occurs twice in quick succession. The Israelite soldiers are described as scattering out and killing every living thing they see and destroying any Benjaminite town they find. Set on fire (literally “send forth with [the] fire”) uses the key Hebrew verb shalach, which is often found in passages dealing with the defeat of an enemy (see comments on verse 3.15). This sentence may be rendered “and every remaining town was set on fire” or “and every town they came across they set ablaze.”

There is a chiastic structure here which marks the end of this section.

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 .