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LXX Song of Songs

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 4

1 Look, you are fair, my companion; look, you are fair; your eyes are doves, beside your veil: your hair is as flocks of goats, that have appeared from Gilead. 2 Your teeth are as flocks of shorn sheep, that have gone up from the washing; all of them bearing twins, and there is not a barren one among them. 3 Your lips are as a thread of scarlet, and your speech is beautiful: like the rind of a pomegranate is your cheek without your veil. 4 Your neck is as the tower of David, that was built for an armory: a thousand shields hang upon it, and all darts of mighty men. 5 Your two breasts are as two twin fawns, that feed among the lilies. 6 Until the day dawn, and the shadows depart, I will betake myself to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense. 7 You are all fair, my companion, and there is no spot in you. 8 Come from Lebanon, my bride, come from Lebanon: you shall come and pass from the beginning of faith,⁠ from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards. 9 My sister, my spouse, you have ravished my heart; you have ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck. 10 How beautiful are your breasts, my sister, my spouse! how much more beautiful are your breasts than wine, and the smell of your garments than all spices! 11 Your lips drop honeycomb, my spouse: honey and milk are under your tongue; and the smell of your garments is as the smell of Lebanon. 12 My sister, my spouse is a garden enclosed; a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed. 13 Your shoots are a garden of pomegranates, with the fruit of choice berries; camphor, with spikenard: 14 spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon; with all woods of Lebanon, myrrh, aloes, with all chief spices: 15 a fountain of a garden, and a well of water springing and gurgling from Lebanon. 16 Awake, north wind; and come, south; and blow through my garden, and let my spices flow out. Let my relative come down into his garden, and eat the fruit of his choice berries.

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Compare Song of Solomon 4:8 and LXX Song of Songs 4:8

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

The Hebrew version of Song of Solomon calls the bride down from the peak of mount Amana. The Greek translation misunderstood it as the word for faithfulness and changed it to “the beginning of faith,” with the summit now a spiritual starting point.

Passages

Song of Solomon 4:8

Hebrew Bible · Song of Songs
7 You are altogether beautiful, my darling! There is no blemish in you! 8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride; come with me from Lebanon. Descend from the crest of Amana, from the top of Senir, the summit of Hermon, from the lions’ dens and the mountain haunts of the leopards. 9 You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride! You have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Song of Solomon

LXX Song of Songs 4:8

Septuagint
7 You are all fair, my companion, and there is no spot in you. 8 Come from Lebanon, my bride, come from Lebanon: you shall come and pass from the beginning of faith, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards. 9 My sister, my spouse, you have ravished my heart; you have ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Song of Songs

References

... Hebrew has two words shwr (homonyms), one meaning 'look, look down,' the other 'travel, journey, descend, climb down' (BDB 1003b; HALOT 1449b), a verb of motion is preferable here, since, as the first part of the verse shows, the man is asking the woman to come with him, and nothing in the context indicates that he wants her to look at the scenery. None of the ancient versions understands the verb as 'look'; the Septuagint reads eleuse kai dieleuse apo arches pisteos ('you shall come and pass from the top [or "beginning"] of faith'); the Vulgate translates veni coronaberis de capite Amana, 'come, you will be crowned [or "surrounded"] from the peak of Amana.' ...
J. Cheryl Exum, Song of Songs: A Commentary (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2005), 154.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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