And they crushed and oppressed the children of Israel that year: The pronoun they refers to the Philistines and the Ammonites (see verse 10.7). Obviously Israel’s enemies from all around were pressing in on them. The Hebrew verbs rendered crushed and oppressed express this notion. These words in Hebrew sound the same, differing by only one letter. The storyteller is deliberately creating a word picture of the enemy’s domination and great cruelty. The Hebrew verb for crushed means “shatter,” and the verb for oppressed (also occurring in verse 9.53) can mean “crush,” “bruise,” or “shatter” (in reference to bowls or clay objects). Translators could try to match the wordplay here by using verbs with evocative sounds, for example, “battered and shattered” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or “oppressed and suppressed.” Alternatively, translators can use adverbs (for example, “severely oppressed”) or special ideophones to express this extreme domination. For the Hebrew expression rendered the children of Israel, see verse 1.1, where it is translated “the people of Israel.” Revised Standard Version has probably chosen to render this expression literally here to evoke some of the pity present in the original text. Translators can imitate this style if it evokes a similar idea. The same expression is rendered the people of Israel later in this verse. The phrase that year appears in the Hebrew text just before the phrase eighteen years, so it causes problems for interpretation. Many versions omit this phrase or combine it with eighteen years (Good News Translation, Revised English Bible, New American Bible), but others retain it (Revised Standard Version/New Revised Standard Version, New International Version). However, keeping this phrase implies that the Philistines and Ammonites oppressed the Israelites particularly severely during one year, which does not seem to be the case. Contemporary English Version thinks that year is a direct reference to the year that Jair died by rendering this whole clause as “So the same year that Jair died, Israel’s army was crushed by these two nations.” Parole de Vie connects this verse closely with the previous one by saying “From that moment on and during the next 18 years, they mistreated and crushed under their power all the Israelites….” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project renders that year as “at that time.” Translators can decide on one interpretation and render its meaning in a natural way.

For eighteen years they oppressed all the people of Israel: For naturalness Revised Standard Version adds they oppressed, which does not occur in Hebrew. All the people of Israel is literally “all the children of Israel.” Translators can make their own choice as to how to render the expression here.

That were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead describes the Israelites who were oppressed by the Philistines and the Ammonites, so it is odd to refer to the Amorites. According to scholars, the Ammonites were the descendants of the Amorites (see verse 1.34), so this could explain why they are mentioned here. Beyond the Jordan refers to the east side of the Jordan as made explicit in Good News Translation (see verse 5.17). Gilead was a territory on the east side of the Jordan River in the territory of Manasseh. Which is in Gilead modifies the phrase the land of the Amorites. The Amorites previously controlled the land eventually given to the tribe of Manasseh. The Israelites living in that territory were oppressed by the Ammonites, who lived south of them.

Contemporary English Version provides a helpful model for this verse:

• So the same year that Jair died, Israel’s army was crushed by these two nations. For eighteen years, Ammon was cruel to the Israelites who lived in Gilead, the region east of the Jordan River that had once belonged to the Amorites.

Another possible model is:

• From that time on, for the following eighteen years, these enemies oppressed and crushed all the Israelites who lived in Gilead on the other side of the Jordan River in the region that had once belonged to the Amorites.

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 .