Save "On the noun אִישׁ in Judges 20:46
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(מו) וַיְהִי֩ כׇל־הַנֹּ֨פְלִ֜ים מִבִּנְיָמִ֗ן עֶשְׂרִים֩ וַחֲמִשָּׁ֨ה אֶ֥לֶף אִ֛ישׁ שֹׁ֥לֵֽף חֶ֖רֶב בַּיּ֣וֹם הַה֑וּא אֶת־כׇּל־אֵ֖לֶּה אַנְשֵׁי־חָֽיִל׃

Thus the Benjaminite fighters who fell that day numbered 25,000, all of them brave men.

(The above rendering comes from the RJPS translation, an adaptation of the NJPS translation. Before accounting for this rendering, I will analyze the plain sense of the Hebrew term containing אִישׁ.)


Here אִישׁ is employed both as a counting unit and as a vehicle for further elaboration about the referent. Gender is not at issue.


As for rendering into English, the NJPS rendering as ‘Thus the total number of Benjaminites who fell that day came to 25,000 fighting men’ is awkward English, in that the counting unit is split off from the entity being measured. Meanwhile, the term fighting men has become passé in contemporary English. The revised rendering addresses both issues at once. (There is no warrant for rendering in gendered terms; in a military context, the referents’ gender can go without saying.)

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