This verse uses many of the same terms of the preceding verses. Hebrew appreciates this repetitive style.

The initial Hebrew waw conjunction rendered And is better translated “So” (New Revised Standard Version), since the man has virtually no choice.

For he showed them the way into the city, see comments on verse 1.24.

And they smote the city with the edge of the sword: See comments on verse 1.8. Some languages may need a transition phrase to begin this clause, such as “So they went in and killed….”

But they let the man and all his family go: But renders well this contrastive use of the Hebrew waw conjunction. The order in the Hebrew text shows that the man and his family were exceptions, saying literally “but the man and his whole family, they sent away.” Some languages will prefer this order, which contrasts the fate of the city and the fate of this man. The Hebrew expression rendered all his family does not mean only his immediate family, but certainly his extended family as well. Thus New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh says “all his relatives,” and New Jerusalem Bible and New American Bible, “his whole clan.”

The Hebrew verb for let … go (shalach) is literally “sent away,” which may also be rendered “spared” or “let go untouched.” This verb will occur frequently in the accounts of the Israelite victories. These spies kept their word to the man, as the spies did in the Rahab story.

Models for the translation of this verse are:

• So the man showed them how to enter the town secretly and the Israelites entered the town and killed all the inhabitants. But they spared the man and his family, letting them go away free.

• Then the man told them how they could secretly get into the town, so they went in and killed everyone there. But as for the man and his family, they sent them away [unharmed].

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 .