And six hundred men of the tribe of Dan, armed with weapons of war, set forth from Zorah and Eshta-ol is literally “And they set out from there from the family of the Danites from Zorah and from Eshtaol six hundred men armed with weapons of war.” The Hebrew waw conjunction rendered And introduces the response of the men of Dan, so it may be translated “So” (Good News Translation), “Then” (New International Version), or “And so.” As often noted, numerals in Hebrew are rounded figures and often symbolic. Here six hundred is a multiple of three, a common number in the story of Samson, who was, of course, also a Danite. As elsewhere, this figure can be written out in words and put in parentheses as a number (600) for ease of reading. Men may be rendered more specifically as “soldiers” or “warriors.” The tribe of Dan is literally “the family of the Danites” (compare verse 18.1). Here the Hebrew word for “family” has the sense of tribe (see verse 17.7).

Armed with weapons of war describes the 600 Danite soldiers. Armed with renders a passive participle of the Hebrew verb meaning “wear [clothes/armor]” (see verse 3.16, where it is translated “girded”). Weapons of war is literally “utensils of war.” The Hebrew word for weapons is very general, and the word for war comes from the root meaning “go to battle.” In many languages it may be better to cast this phrase as a full clause by saying “they all carried weapons of war” or “they took up their weapons for the battle.” Contemporary English Version has “strapped on their weapons.” Good News Translation‘s “ready for battle” does not seem specific enough. It would be better to speak of weapons or say more specifically “armed for battle.”

The Hebrew verb rendered set forth means “pull up tent pegs and move on” or “set out on a journey.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “departed,” and Good News Translation uses “left.” Contemporary English Version says “left … with their families,” adding a reference to verse 18.21. However, the addition of “with their families” does not seem justified here.

For Zorah and Eshta-ol, see verse 13.25 and verse 18.2.

A translation model for this verse is:

• So six hundred (600) armed Danite warriors set out from the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol.

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 .