And they went out into the field …: This verse describes a celebration at the end of the grape harvest which included a religious ritual in the local temple. Because there seems to be a change in time and location, Contemporary English Version starts a new paragraph here and sets the scene by beginning with “The time came for the grape harvest.” The subject of this action-packed sentence (containing eight verbs) is the pronoun they, which may refer not only to the leaders of Shechem, but also to all the townspeople, including Gaal and his brothers. Good News Translation says “They all,” but some languages will prefer “the people of Shechem” or “all the people.” The Hebrew verb rendered went out probably means the people went outside their city walls, since this is where the fields normally were. In some languages it may be necessary to say “left the town and went.” The Hebrew word for field is a general term, but in this context it refers to a field that was planted with grapevines. Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version specify “vineyards” here, a word that comes later in the verse, but we might say “farms,” “plantations,” “gardens,” or “farms where they had planted their grapes.”
And gathered the grapes from their vineyards and trod them is literally “and they gathered their vineyards and they trod.” In Hebrew the word for grapes does not appear, but Revised Standard Version adds it for naturalness in English. Gathered may be rendered “picked,” “brought in,” “cut off,” or “harvested.” Grapes are small round fruits that grow in bunches on vines (see verse 8.2). Grapevines are often planted in rows close together, and these farms are called vineyards. Their vineyards refers to the same location as the field. Translators can use the same expression for both phrases if necessary. Grapes are very sweet and can be eaten fresh or dried into raisins for later consumption. They are also used to make vinegar and more importantly, wine, a standard drink in Israel that played an important role in their everyday life and culture (see verse 9.13). To make wine, first people gathered or picked the grapes. Then they placed the grapes in a large pit that was hollowed out of a rock (see verse 6.11). Then they trod or trampled the grapes with their feet to remove the juice. Sometimes there were presses that squeezed out the juice. Once the juice flowed out of the grapes, it was collected, strained, and put in containers. With time, this sweet juice fermented or changed into wine, which was often stored in goat skin containers.
In many cultures around the world, grapes cannot be grown due to the climate, so this fruit and the process involved in making wine is not known. Contemporary English Version explains the process well by rendering these two clauses and the previous one as “and the people of Shechem went into their vineyards and picked the grapes. They put the grapes in their wine-pits and walked on them to squeeze out the juice in order to make wine.” However, not every language will need as much detail. It might suffice to say “and the people of Shechem went to their fields, picked the grapes, squeezed them, and made wine.”
And held festival is literally “and they made praises.” In light of the following clause, they could have praised their god. However, this clause could just refer to a big celebration. Contemporary English Version says they “threw a big party,” which seems to explain what happened, but its level of language seems slightly inappropriate. It is better to say “they celebrated,” “they held a big celebration,” or “they held a feast.”
And went into the house of their god: Either as part of the initial celebration, or as the celebration continued, the people entered the house of their god, which refers to the temple of the god Baal-berith (see verse 9.4). God renders the general Hebrew term ʾelohim. It needs to be clear that this temple was not the Israelites’ normal place of worship. Today excavations at the site of Shechem reveal remains of such a temple, probably constructed at a later date. In some languages translators may say “and they went to the house of their fetish.”
And ate and drank: The eating and drinking were probably part of the religious celebration. The verb ate obviously refers to eating at a feast, so it may be rendered “ate well” or “had lots of food.” The object of drank is not water, but the wine they had prepared. This may be made explicit in the translation if necessary. Eating and drinking seem to be simultaneous actions, and translators can present them in any acceptable order in their language.
And reviled Abimelech: It is not very clear why the people of Shechem suddenly began to lose confidence in Abimelech, leading them to curse him. They seem to easily shift their allegiance from one person to another. Because of this sudden development in the story, the conjunction and may be rendered “At that point,” “Then,” or “All of a sudden.” The Hebrew verb translated reviled means “curse.” Good News Translation‘s “made fun of” seems too weak for their contempt described here. Contemporary English Version seems correct to see a link between the eating and drinking and the cursing of Abimelech: “There was a lot of eating and drinking, and before long they were cursing Abimelech.” There is probably an intentional wordplay here since the Hebrew words for festival (literally “praises”) and reviled (“cursed”) sound alike, even while expressing opposites.
Translation models for this verse are:
• All the people of Shechem went to their vineyards to pick grapes. Then they made wine and held a great celebration, eating and drinking in the temple of their god, and soon they were cursing Abimelech.
• At harvest time the people of Shechem went to their farms to pick their grapes. They trampled them, made wine, and began to celebrate. They went into the temple of their god, and ate and drank. At that point they began to say evil things about Abimelech.
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 .