וַיֹּאמְר֤וּ אֵלָיו֙ בְּנֵי־דָ֔ן אַל־תַּשְׁמַ֥ע קוֹלְךָ֖ עִמָּ֑נוּ פֶּֽן־יִפְגְּע֣וּ בָכֶ֗ם אֲנָשִׁים֙ מָ֣רֵי נֶ֔פֶשׁ וְאָסַפְתָּ֥ה נַפְשְׁךָ֖ וְנֶ֥פֶשׁ בֵּיתֶֽךָ׃
But the Danites replied, “Don’t do any shouting at us, or some desperate party might attack you, and you and your family would lose your lives.”
(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 — or in this case, its plural אֲנָשִׁים.)
In this noun phrase, the head noun אֲנָשִׁים plays its usual situating function on the discourse level: it marks its referent as essential for grasping the newly depicted situation.
Lit.
The raiding party is making an understated yet sinister self-reference. The underspecified nature of the reference (akin in English to “those involved”) makes it all the more frightening, because the threat is veiled.
The military context restricts both referents’ gender to being men; it goes without saying.
As for rendering into English, the NJPS ‘some desperate men’ nowadays puts undue emphasis on gender, which should go without saying. Although the Hebrew is couched in the plural, a singular formulation seems to be more idiomatic in English.