inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Judg 20:9)

Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)

The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).

For this verse, the Jarai and the Adamawa Fulfulde translation both use the inclusive pronoun, including everyone.

complete verse (Judges 20:9)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Judges 20:9:

  • Kupsabiny: “What we shall do to Gibeah is this: We shall cast lots in order to see who should start fighting that city.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Now we will do like this to Gibeah. Casting lots we will really go to attack.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “What we (incl.) shall-do, let us (incl.) cast-a-lot who among us (incl.) will-attack Gibea.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “This is what we must do to the people of Gibeah. First, we will cast lots/throw marked stones to determine which group should attack them.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Judges 20:9

But now this is what we will do to Gibe-ah: This clause underlines how determined the people of Israel are to deal with the tragedy of Gibeah. But now is literally “And now.” But renders well the Hebrew waw conjunction here to show the contrast between going home and staying to carry out some action. Another possibility is “So” as the people make certain resolutions. This is what we will do is literally “this [is] the thing we will do.” The pronoun we refers to the people in the assembly. Certainly one person is formulating the plans that everyone approves. To Gibe-ah is literally “to the Gibeah,” which may be a reference to the inhabitants of that town. We might say “But now, here is what we should do to the people of Gibeah.”

We will go up against it by lot: The verb go up is missing from the Hebrew text, but the word for against it is very similar to that verb. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project notes that the shorter Hebrew text could be interpreted as an exclamation and translated “against it by lot!” or it could be understood as an elliptic statement and rendered as in Revised Standard Version. The pronoun it refers to the town of Gibeah, but translators may specify “her inhabitants” if necessary. By lot indicates how the Israelites will decide who will go to fight and in what order. This phrase is yet another link to Israel’s past history, since it was by lot that the land was distributed among the tribes (Num 26.55; verse 33.54; verse 14.2). In ancient Hebrew culture, priests used objects known as Urim and Thummim to determine the LORD’s will (Exo 28.30; Lev 8.8; Deut 33.8), though exactly how this ritual was carried out remains uncertain. However, many cultures are familiar with a similar practice and will usually have an idiomatic way to express the idea. We might say “We will throw lots and choose some men to go and attack Gibeah.” Contemporary English Version puts the emphasis on discovering God’s will by saying “we’ll ask God who should attack Gibeah,” which gives an idea of what happened but does not seem specific enough. Again, this is part of the narrator’s ironic style that uses terms related to Israel’s glorious past to describe the events of this horrendous civil war.

A translation model for this verse is:

• So now, this is what we will do to the people of Gibeah. We will cast lots to decide who will go against the city.

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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Judges 20:9

20:9a Now this is what we will do to Gibeah:

This is what we will do to ⌊the people of⌋ Gibeah.
-or-
We are going to do something about Gibeah town ⌊and its people⌋ .

20:9b We will go against it as the lot dictates.

We will cast lots to decide who will attack them first.
-or-
We will go and punish them. To choose the order that we go, we will throw dice.

© 2023 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.