Hakim-hakim 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 

Hakim-hakim 7:12

7:12 Now the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people from the east covered the valley like a swarm of locusts. ⁶  Their camels could not be counted; they were as innumerable as the sand on the seashore.

Hakim-hakim 18:17

18:17 The five men who had gone to spy out the land broke in and stole ⁷  the carved image, the ephod, the personal idols, and the metal image, while the priest was standing at the entrance to the gate with the six hundred fully armed men. ⁸ 

[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.”

[7:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “Midian, Amalek, and the sons of the east were falling in the valley like locusts in great number.”

[18:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “went up, went in there, took.”

[18:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “six hundred men, equipped with the weapons of war.”