Judges 5:30

The verse has suffered from corrupt repetitions: spoilfour times, divers coloursthree times. Omitting the superfluous words we may restore the text as follows:

Are they not finding, dividing the spoil?

a wench or two for each man;

a spoil of dyed garments for Sisera;

a broidered cloth or two for my neck(?).

A wench or two: the word (only here in this sense in the O.T.) is used by Mesha in his inscription of the women captured from the Israelites (Moab. St. l. 17). Spoil of dyed garmentslit. -booty of dyes," i.e. dyed stuffs. A broidered cloth or two, the construction is the same as in line 2; for the word cf. Ezekiel 16:10; Ezekiel 16:13; Ezekiel 16:18; Psalms 45:14; strictly it means variegated work, either woven or embroidered, see Exodus 38:23; spoils of this kind were much valued, cf. 2 Samuel 1:24. The end of the last line is obscure: the text runs for the necks of the spoil, as though these rich stuffs would be used to caparison the animals led in the triumph of the captors! The parallelism suggests a personal reference corresponding to Sisera; so LXX -for his neck as a spoil." Ewald ingeniously proposed for the last word queen(Psalms 44:9; Nehemiah 2:6), changing only one letter. On the whole it seems preferable to omit the word, and read for my neckor for his neck; but there can be no certainty about the restoration.