Discovery BoxJudges 5:30 
Context5:30 ‘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 16:5
Context16:5 The rulers of the Philistines went up to visit her and said to her, “Trick him! Find out what makes him so strong and how we can subdue him and humiliate 6 him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred silver pieces.”
Judges 17:2-3
Context17:2 He said to his mother, “You know 7 the eleven hundred pieces of silver which were stolen 8 from you, about which I heard you pronounce a curse? Look here, I have the silver. I stole 9 it, but now I am giving it back to you.” 10 His mother said, “May the Lord reward 11 you, my son!” 17:3 When he gave back to his mother the eleven hundred pieces of silver, his mother said, “I solemnly dedicate 12 this silver to the Lord. It will be for my son’s benefit. We will use it to make a carved image and a metal image.” 13
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 “subdue him in order to humiliate him.”
7 tn The words “You know” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
8 tn Heb “taken.”
9 tn Heb “took.”
10 tn In the Hebrew text the statement, “but now I am giving it back to you,” appears at the end of v. 3 and is spoken by the mother. But v. 4 indicates that she did not give the money back to her son. Unless the statement is spoken by the woman to the LORD, it appears to be misplaced and fits much better in v. 2. It may have been accidentally omitted from a manuscript, written in the margin, and then later inserted in the wrong place in another manuscript.
11 tn Traditionally, “bless.”
12 tn Heb “dedicating, I dedicate.” In this case the emphatic infinitive absolute lends a mood of solemnity to the statement.
13 tn Heb “to the LORD from my hand for my son to make a carved image and cast metal image.” She cannot mean that she is now taking the money from her hand and giving it back to her son so he can make an image. Verses 4-6 indicate she took back the money and used a portion of it to hire a silversmith to make an idol for her son to use. The phrase “a carved image and cast metal image” is best taken as referring to two idols (see 18:17-18), even though the verb at the end of v. 4, וַיְהִי (vayÿhi, “and it was [in the house of Micah]”), is singular.
