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Song of Solomon

Song of Songs

About this book
Chapter 4

1 The Lover to His Beloved: Oh, you are beautiful, my darling! Oh, you are beautiful! Your eyes behind your veil are like doves. Your hair is like a flock of female goats descending from Mount Gilead.⁠ 2 Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn sheep coming up from the washing place; each of them has a twin, and not one of them is missing. 3 Your lips are like a scarlet thread; your mouth is lovely. Your forehead behind your veil is like a slice of pomegranate. 4 Your neck is like the tower of David built with courses of stones; one thousand shields are hung on it—all shields of valiant warriors. 5 Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of the gazelle grazing among the lilies. 6 Until the dawn arrives and the shadows flee, I will go up to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense.⁠ 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. 10 How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine; the fragrance of your perfume is better than any spice! 11 Your lips drip sweetness like the honeycomb, my bride; honey and milk are under your tongue.⁠ The fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon. 12 The Lover to His Beloved: You are a locked garden, my sister, my bride; you are an enclosed spring, a sealed-up fountain. 13 Your shoots are a royal garden full of pomegranates with choice fruits:⁠ henna with nard,⁠ 14 nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon⁠ with every kind of spice, myrrh and aloes with all the finest spices. 15 You are a garden spring, a well of fresh water⁠ flowing down from Lebanon. 16 The Beloved to Her Lover: Awake, O north wind; come, O south wind! Blow on my garden so that its fragrant spices may send out their sweet smell.⁠ May my beloved come into his garden and eat its delightful fruit!

Texts in conversation

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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