There is no way of finding out what particular event or events verses 11-13 refer to.

In verse 11, at the Lord’s command (or else, as Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has it, “sent a message”), “many women carried the news” (see also Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). This translates the Masoretic text, which is a feminine plural participle of the verb “to carry news” (basar); see the feminine singular in Isaiah 40.9, applied to Zion. In other places women are cited as those who carried the news of victory or defeat; see Exodus 15.20-21; 1 Samuel 18.6-7.

Good News Translation, Revised Standard Version, New English Bible, and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy take verse 12a as the message carried by the women; New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version, and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch take verses 12-13 to be the message, and New American Bible and Bible en français courant take verses 12-14 as the message. There is no way of determining which is correct. In some languages it will be necessary to use a term pointing to the next line as containing the content of the news mentioned in line b. Punctuation such as a colon will not suffice in some languages for this purpose.

In verse 12a the Hebrew text is literally The kings of the armies, they flee, they flee! But it should be observed that it is not only the kings who flee, but their armies also, as Good News Translation and others make clear.

The women at home translates an obscure phrase which appears to mean “she who remains at home” (see the lexicon of Brown, Driver, and Briggs).

In Hebrew the enigmatic “If you (masculine plural) lie down between the sheep pens” appears as the first line of verse 13. New Jerusalem Bible translates “even for those of you who lie among the sheepfolds.” Some take the words to have been inserted here from Judges 5.16. It seems to be here a denunciation of those Israelites who did not go to battle but stayed behind in the safety of their homes or their camps. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible has “Would you remain at ease at the bivouac?”; Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “but you stayed back in hiding”; New Jerusalem Bible “While you are at ease in the sheepfolds”; and New English Bible “will you linger among the sheepfolds…?” Sheepfolds in some languages may be rendered as “the place where the sheep are kept.”

Good News Translation has put this within parentheses, as a prose line, and placed it after the other two lines of verse 13, in order to show its discontinuity from the immediately preceding and following lines. Bible en français courant similarly, translating “Will you remain resting in the camp?”

There are many interpretations of what is meant in verse 13b-c, by the wings of a dove covered with silver, its pinions with green gold. The most commonly accepted interpretation is that followed by Good News Translation as a description of the spoil that the women were dividing among themselves. Some take the dove to be a figure for Israel (see 74.19); so New Jerusalem Bible “the wings of the Dove are being covered with silver…,” with a footnote explaining that the Dove is a symbol for Israel (similarly Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). In verse 13c green gold probably means “yellow gold,” that is, “fine gold” (so Good News Translation, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). The New Jerusalem Bible translation of verses 12-13 (as the message carried by the women) is worth quoting: “The kings and their armies are in headlong flight; housewives are sharing in the spoils; even for those of you who lie among the sheepfolds there are wings of a dove sheathed in silver, its pinions in fine gold.”

In some languages it will be necessary to replace the Good News Translation colon at the end of verse 12b with a connective showing that the content of the things captured follows in the next line; for example, “… divided what was captured and these were figures of doves….”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .