This is the final verse of the scene with Sisera’s mother. This dialogue represents what her wise companions are saying, but also what Sisera’s mother is thinking or saying to herself. She takes her son’s delay as a sign that he has been victorious. She thinks he is so busy gathering the spoils of victory that he has not returned home quickly. It is unthinkable for her that he has been defeated or hurt. The Hebrew word for spoil occurs four times here, and the word rendered dyed stuffs or dyed work occurs three times. There is much irony here since Sisera’s mother dreams of all the material goods she will gain, when in fact, her son is dead.

Are they not finding and dividing the spoil?: This is another rhetorical question that conveys the irony of the situation. It can be rendered as a positive statement by saying “They must be gathering together the spoil and dividing it.” The pronoun they refers to Sisera and his troops, which Contemporary English Version makes explicit. Finding and dividing the spoil refers to two activities that soldiers carry out once they have defeated their enemies. First they find the most valuable goods. For finding … the spoil, Good News Translation says “finding things to capture,” which conveys the idea, but does not reflect natural English. Contemporary English Version is better with “finding treasures.” Once the goods are found, the victorious soldiers divide them among themselves, that is, take “their shares” (Revised English Bible). New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh reverses the order, which is also acceptable: “They must be dividing the spoil they have found.” For spoil see verse 5.19. If the target language does not have a word for spoil, translators may say “They must be looking for valuables/goods/loot to bring back [home].” This is the first of four times that this word occurs in the verse. The repetition shows what is foremost in the mind of Sisera’s mother. If this creates too much repetition in the translation, translators can be briefer than the Hebrew, but should try to keep the same emphasis.

A maiden or two for every man: In this line Sisera’s mother goes further in her speculation, as she thinks about the women that Sisera is capturing to bring home. This is another sad aspect of war. Soldiers often take women captives to become their wives, concubines, or even slaves. The Hebrew here is both unusual and derogatory, literally “one womb, two wombs.” In many languages such a rendering, which underlines the use of women as sexual objects, would be too shocking, but translators should try to find terms that might shock. Certainly the word maiden is not a good rendering here. In some languages even a word such as “girl” would show that these women captives are not being considered with respect. The Israelites were expressly forbidden to take such captives (Deut 21.10-14), but in Sisera’s culture this seems to have been the norm. For every man is literally “for [the] head of a warrior,” meaning that each soldier will capture one or two women to bring home for himself. We can say “Yes, each soldier will get one or maybe even two slave girls.” Good News Translation says “a woman or two for every soldier,” which is a good model.

Spoil of dyed stuffs for Sisera: This is the first of several repetitive lines, characteristic of such songs. The general term spoil is followed by the specification dyed stuffs, which renders a single word in Hebrew. In many cultures cloth is treated with special dyes to give it various colors. Due to the hard work involved, this cloth is usually highly valued and very expensive. Indeed, this appears to be the same type of cloth used in the Tabernacle (see, for example, Exo 26.36). If a word for dyed does not exist, translators might say “cloth of many colors” or “beautiful, expensive cloth.”

Spoil of dyed stuffs embroidered: This parallel line further specifies that the cloth is embroidered, a word that is repeated and expanded in the next line. Embroidered means the cloth was finely stitched with decorative patterns or figures. It is also possible that beads or other precious objects were sewn onto the material. In many cultures this kind of stitching is well known. If not, translators can say “finely sewn,” or they can emphasize the value of such material by saying it is “very beautiful and expensive.”

Two pieces of dyed work embroidered for my neck as spoil: The “one-two” theme seen above is repeated here. In Hebrew the numeral two is often not overt, but seen in the dual form of the noun. With its first mention above, the noun rendered embroidered is singular, but here is dual (or plural). Revised Standard Version thus makes explicit two pieces of dyed work embroidered. Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version ignore these differences and make no reference to two pieces of cloth. However, this is part of the poetic style, and if possible, should be preserved.

For my neck as spoil presents problems of interpretation. Some see the text as saying literally “for necks of spoil,” a phrase that is grammatically parallel to “for head of a warrior.” Both phrases begin with the Hebrew preposition l- (“for”) and are made up of two nouns linked in a genitive construction. Like Revised Standard Version, New International Version says “for my neck,” which would mean that the beautiful material is for Sisera’s mother. New Jerusalem Bible and New American Bible are similar with “for me.” Good News Translation translates this line and the previous one as “embroidered pieces for the neck of the queen,” a translation that has no basis. Contemporary English Version thinks the beautiful cloth is for the women captives, while Parole de Vie thinks it is for Sisera’s neck. Still others, following the parallel phrase “for head of a warrior,” think the word spoil has in view those who took the spoil, thus “two lengths of brocade to grace the victor’s neck” (Revised English Bible). However, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project gives a {B} rating to the reading “for the necks of the booty,” saying the booty can refer to the female slaves or the captured animals. Translators will have to make a choice on what reading to follow here. They may place an alternative in a footnote.

There is much rhythm and repetition in this verse, even in the sounds in Hebrew, which has the repetitive pairs racham rachmathayim (“one womb, two wombs”) and riqmah … riqmathayim (“embroidered cloth, two embroidered cloths”). Though it will be impossible to render these sound effects in a way close to the Hebrew, translators are encouraged to seek for ways to make these lines rhythmic and poetic.

Translation models for this verse are:

• ‘They must be gathering the booty and dividing it:
A girl or two for each warrior,
and colored cloth for Sisera,
finely sewn colored cloth,
a piece or two pieces for me.’*
* The Hebrew is uncertain. Some think the text says “for my neck,” others “for the neck of each victor” or “for the neck of each woman captive.”

• ‘They must be looking for treasure to bring home:
One or two slave girls for every soldier!
Beautiful dyed cloth for Sisera,
one piece or two pieces of very fine cloth for the victors to wear.’

Quoted with permission from Zogbo, Lynell and Ogden, Graham S. A Handbook on Judges. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2019. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .