Judges 5:30

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 

Judges 18:1

The Tribe of Dan Finds an Inheritance

18:1 In those days Israel had no king. And in those days the Danite tribe was looking for a place ⁶  to settle, because at that time they did not yet have a place to call their own among the tribes of Israel. ⁷ 

Judges 19:18

19:18 The Levite ⁸  said to him, “We are traveling from Bethlehem ⁹  in Judah to the remote region of the Ephraimite hill country. That’s where I’m from. I had business in Bethlehem in Judah, but now I’m heading home. ¹⁰  But no one has invited me into their home.

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¹ tn Heb “Are they not finding, dividing the plunder?”

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.

³ tn Heb “the plunder of dyed cloth is for Sisera.”

⁴ tn Heb “the plunder of embroidered cloth.”

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

⁶ tn Heb “an inheritance.”

⁷ tn Heb “because there had not fallen to them by that day in the midst of the tribes of Israel an inheritance.”

⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Levite) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁹ map For location see Map5-B1; Map7-E2; Map8-E2; Map10-B4.

¹⁰ tn Heb “I went to Bethlehem in Judah, but [to] the house of the LORD I am going.” The Hebrew text has “house of the LORD,” which might refer to the shrine at Shiloh. The LXX reads “to my house.”