וַיְהִ֗י בִּֽהְי֣וֹת יְהוֹשֻׁ֘עַ֮ בִּֽירִיחוֹ֒ וַיִּשָּׂ֤א עֵינָיו֙ וַיַּ֔רְא וְהִנֵּה־אִישׁ֙ עֹמֵ֣ד לְנֶגְדּ֔וֹ וְחַרְבּ֥וֹ שְׁלוּפָ֖ה בְּיָד֑וֹ וַיֵּ֨לֶךְ יְהוֹשֻׁ֤עַ אֵלָיו֙ וַיֹּ֣אמֶר ל֔וֹ הֲלָ֥נוּ אַתָּ֖ה אִם־לְצָרֵֽינוּ׃
Once, when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a figure standing before him, drawn sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and asked him, “Are you one of us or of our enemies?”
(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 the use of אִישׁ describes how Joshua construed the referent—namely, as a presumably sentient participant in a situation involving himself. It would be incorrect to infer from this word alone that Joshua perceived his interlocutor to be an adult male person. Rather, that conclusion comes from the ancillary description וְחַרְבּוֹ שְׁלוּפָה בְּיָדוֹ “drawn sword in hand.”
This is an instance of the application of אִישׁ to refer to supernatural messengers or guides (see also Gen 18:2, 16, 22; 19:5[?], 10, 12, 16; 32:25; Judg. 13:11; Ezek. 9:2–3, 11; 10:2–3, 6; 40:3–6; 43:6; 47:3; Zech 1:8–10; 2:5–6; 5:9; Dan 9:21; 10:5–6, 18–20; 12:6–7). To put this biblical practice into perspective, let us observe that it is just one of many applications of אִישׁ to non-human entities (including also animals, inanimate objects, and abstract sets).
While אִישׁ prototypically denotes a human and non-womanly participant (i.e., an adult male person), its primary meaning relates to participation in situations. This fact allows for its frequent application to other entities.
In all such cases, this noun’s usage can be readily explained in terms of its classic situating function. Occasionally the need arose to mentally situate and keep track of non-human entities; and when that function needed to be communicated, אִישׁ was available to be applied to such referents—performing the same prototypical situating function as for persons.
As for rendering such usages into English, the NJPS rendering as man is nowadays construed to mean “adult male person.” When אִישׁ is applied to a supernatural being, the rendering man is no longer appropriate, because the meaning of man has become too gendered and human-oriented (see my Notes on Gender in Translation, s.v. “Man and Its Special Function,” pp. 5–6); it has lost the ability to indicate situatedness in such a context of use. Hence RJPS employs another label that has similarly vague semantic content, more akin to the original meaning of man.