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28 Out the window she peers.
Sisera’s mother wails from behind the latticework.
“Why is his chariot so late in coming?
Why do I still not hear the clatter of his chariots?”

29 The wise women among her ladies answer,
but she keeps saying to herself,

30 “Aren’t they just finding and dividing the plunder?
A womb[a]—no—two wombs for every man.
Dyed goods as plunder for Sisera, dyed fabrics as spoils,
embroidered dyed material,
fancy embroidered fabric for my neck, plunder.”[b]

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Footnotes

  1. Judges 5:30 This word, which many translations euphemize as girl, is the Hebrew word for womb. A euphemistic translation masks the callousness of Sisera’s mother, who knows that her son and his men would be finding women to rape after a victory. She expects to receive a share of the plunder from these predators.
  2. Judges 5:30 The translation my neck is an alternate reading of the Hebrew text. The main reading of the Hebrew text is necks of plunder.