This verse concludes the set of episodes that began at 21.1. It forms an inclusio with verse 2.6 and is also very similar to verse 24.28.

And the people of Israel departed from there at that time: The Hebrew waw conjunction rendered And introduces a kind of summary statement or concluding remark. Translators should find a good transition here, for example, “So” (New Revised Standard Version). In some languages the time phrase at that time may be moved to the front, in which case, the conjunction could be omitted (New International Version). The people of Israel is literally “the sons [or, children] of Israel” (see verse 1.1). In 21.1-23 this phrase refers to all the tribes of Israel except Benjamin, but here it may point to all twelve tribes. Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, and Parole de Vie think it excludes the Benjaminites, so they refer to “the rest of the Israelites,” but many versions have simply “the Israelites” (New International Version, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). Since this verse gives concluding remarks, the latter interpretation may be more correct. Departed renders a form of the Hebrew verb meaning “go” that suggests the people went off in different directions. Revised English Bible and New Jerusalem Bible use the verb “dispersed.” From there seems to refer to Shiloh (see verse 20.12), but it may possibly refer to Bethel, the place of the assembly. We might say “from that town” or “from that place.” As noted above, the temporal phrase at that time may be placed near the beginning of the verse, for example, “So at that point [the rest of] the Israelites left that place.”

Every man to his tribe and family: Every man refers to all the Israelites present at the meeting. The Hebrew word for man (ʾish) can refer to men and women. As noted in verse 18.19, a tribe is a grouping larger than a family. In some languages where it is impossible to distinguish these two terms, translators might say “and each went back to his clan,” “and each returned to his own people,” or “and each went home.”

And they went out from there every man to his inheritance: This sentence repeats known information from 21.23. It does not signal a new step on the event line, but emphasizes what occurred. Thus translators need to find a transitional expression for and that does not insinuate a temporal sequence. The Hebrew verb rendered went out (yatsaʾ) again adds irony, since it is the same verb used by the men of Gibeah when they told the man from Ephraim to “Bring out” the Levite so they could have sex with him (verse 19.22), when Jephthah’s doomed daughter “came out” (verse 11.34), and when the dancers came out of the town of Shiloh (verse 21.21). Once again the mention of inheritance expresses bitter irony. At the beginning of the book the Israelites went to conquer the land, their inheritance (verse 2.6). Here at the end of the book, after a horrendous civil war and thousands of deaths on all sides, every person returns to his inheritance. Translators should attempt to convey this irony as best they can. For example, we might say “Yes, each man left that place and returned to the land he had inherited [from the LORD].”

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 .