Then Jael Heber's wife took a tent-pin, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him, and struck the pin into his temples, and it pierced through into the ground; for he was in a deep sleep; so he swooned and died.
One writer suggested the following translation of the last part of Judges 4:18 and Judges 4:19. Instead of "she covered him with a rug. He said to her . . . then she covered him," she divided the Hebrew words differently. She came up with "she overwhelmed him with perfume. He grew faint and said to her . . . then [she] closed it [the container of milk] again." [Note: Elizabeth Wilkinson, "The Hapax Legomenon of Judges IV 18," Vetus Testamentum 33:4 (October 1983):512-13.] While this translation is provocative and possible, the problems with the traditional rendering are minimal and do not require this change.