5:30 ‘No doubt they are gathering and dividing the plunder 9 –
a girl or two for each man to rape! 10
Sisera is grabbing up colorful cloth, 11
he is grabbing up colorful embroidered cloth, 12
two pieces of colorful embroidered cloth,
for the neck of the plunderer!’ 13
“What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?”
He said to them,
“If you had not plowed with my heifer, 27
you would not have solved my riddle!”
1 tn Or “found.”
2 tn Heb “he found.”
3 tn Heb “fresh,” i.e., not decayed and brittle.
4 tn Heb “he reached out his hand and took it.”
5 tn The Hebrew text adds “with it.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
3 tn Heb “to the sons of Benjamin.”
4 tc The translation is based on the reading מֵעִיר מְתִים (me’ir mÿtim, “from a city of men,” i.e., “an inhabited city”), rather than the reading מֵעִיר מְתֹם (me’ir mÿtom, “from a city of soundness”) found in the Leningrad Codex (L).
5 tn Heb “Also all the cities that were found they set on fire.”
4 tn Heb “Are they not finding, dividing the plunder?”
5 tn Heb “a womb or two for each man.” The words “to rape” are interpretive. The Hebrew noun translated “girl” means literally “womb” (BDB 933 s.v. I. רַחַם), but in this context may refer by extension to the female genitalia. In this case the obscene language of Sisera’s mother alludes to the sexual brutality which typified the aftermath of battle.
6 tn Heb “the plunder of dyed cloth is for Sisera.”
7 tn Heb “the plunder of embroidered cloth.”
8 tn The translation assumes an emendation of the noun (“plunder”) to a participle, “plunderer.”
5 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Gideon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
6 tn Heb “If I have found favor in your eyes.”
7 tn Heb “perform for me.”
6 tn Heb “He came to the Ephraimite hill country, to Micah’s house, making his way.”
7 tn Heb “And I am going to reside in a place I can find.”
8 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 tn Heb “but they did not find for them enough.”
9 tn Heb “But my lord.”
10 tn Heb “all this.”
11 tn Heb “saying.”
10 tn Heb “Look! He and the people who are with him will come out to you, and you will do to him what your hand finds [to do].”
11 tn Heb “If you really can tell it to me [during] the seven days of the feast and you find [its answer].”
12 tn Heb “changes.”
12 sn Plowed with my heifer. This statement emphasizes that the Philistines had utilized a source of information which should have been off-limits to them. Heifers were used in plowing (Hos 10:11), but one typically used one’s own farm animals, not another man’s.
13 tn Heb “who had not known a man with respect to the bed of a male.”