וְכֹל֩ אִ֨ישׁ יִשְׂרָאֵ֜ל הַמִּֽתְחַבְּאִ֤ים בְּהַר־אֶפְרַ֙יִם֙ שָֽׁמְע֔וּ כִּי־נָ֖סוּ פְּלִשְׁתִּ֑ים וַֽיַּדְבְּק֥וּ גַם־הֵ֛מָּה אַחֲרֵיהֶ֖ם בַּמִּלְחָמָֽה׃

When all of the others on Israel’s side who were hiding in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philistines were fleeing, they too pursued them in battle.

(The above rendering comes from the RJPS translation—an adaptation of the NJPS translation—showing a slight modification made in October 2023. Before accounting for this rendering, I will analyze the plain sense of the Hebrew term containing אִישׁ.)


See my comment at 13:6.

This is one of the instances where a “collective” usage of אִישׁ is clearly evident, from the mismatch in grammatical number (plural verb) in this clause and the next.


As for rendering into English, the NJPS ‘all the men of Israel’ recognizes a collective usage, but without a situational orientation. See my comment at Josh 10:24. Meanwhile, the fact that women are not in view can go without saying, because it is self-evident from the military context.