Judges 5:30-31

5:30 ‘No doubt they are gathering and dividing the plunder ¹  –

a girl or two for each man to rape! ² 

Sisera is grabbing up colorful cloth, ³ 

he is grabbing up colorful embroidered cloth, ⁴ 

two pieces of colorful embroidered cloth,

for the neck of the plunderer!’ ⁵ 

5:31 May all your enemies perish like this, O Lord!

But may those who love you shine

like the rising sun at its brightest!” ⁶ 

And the land had rest for forty years.

[5:30]  ¹ tn Heb “Are they not finding, dividing the plunder?”

[5:30]  ² 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.

[5:30]  ³ tn Heb “the plunder of dyed cloth is for Sisera.”

[5:30]  ⁴ tn Heb “the plunder of embroidered cloth.”

[5:30]  ⁵ tn The translation assumes an emendation of the noun (“plunder”) to a participle, “plunderer.”

[5:31]  ⁶ tn Heb “But may those who love him be like the going forth of the sun in its strength.”