There is an important turn in the story here, since the Israelite leaders direct the Benjaminites to go themselves to get the other 200 wives they need.

And they commanded the Benjaminites, saying: The Hebrew waw conjunction rendered And is better translated “So” (New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible) in this context. The verb commanded may be rendered “instructed” (New Revised Standard Version, New International Version) or “ordered.” The Benjaminites (literally “the sons [or, children] of Benjamin”) refers to the surviving Benjaminite soldiers who did not yet have wives.

Go and lie in wait in the vineyards are the first instructions given to the Benjaminites. The common Hebrew verb rendered Go may be expanded to “Go to Shiloh” (Contemporary English Version). The Hebrew verb translated lie in wait is the same one rendered “men in ambush” in verse 9.25 and verse 20.29 (see comments there). Here it may be translated “hide” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version). The Benjaminites are instructed to hide in the vineyards, fields of grapes, which were usually on the edge of towns (see verse 9.27). The mention of vineyards suggests that the festival mentioned in verse 21.19 was connected with celebrations at the end of the grape harvest, normally held at the end of the saummer. The idea of vineyards links this story back to several previous ones, when the men of Shechem gathered grapes from vineyards before reviling Abimelech (verse 9.27), and especially, when Samson went into vineyards, where he broke his Nazirite vow (verse 14.5; verse 15.5). Here the audience anticipates there will be yet more “wrongdoing.”

Revised English Bible uses indirect speech for this verse, saying “They told the Benjaminites to go and hide in the vineyards.” Other possible models are:

• So they told the Benjaminites to hide in the vineyards near Shiloh.

• So they ordered the Benjaminites, saying, “Go to Shiloh and set an ambush in the fields of grapes.

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 .