Go to Related Reading
About this book

Song of Solomon

Song of Songs

About this book
Chapter 7

1 The Lover to His Beloved: How beautiful are your sandaled feet, O nobleman’s daughter! The curves of your thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a master craftsman. 2 Your navel is a round mixing bowl—may it never lack mixed wine! Your belly is a mound of wheat, encircled by lilies. 3 Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle. 4 Your neck is like a tower made of ivory. Your eyes are the pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bath Rabbim. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon overlooking Damascus. 5 Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel. The locks of your hair are like royal tapestries—the king is held captive in its tresses!⁠ 6 How beautiful you are! How lovely, O love, with your delights! 7 The Lover to His Beloved: Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts are like clusters of grapes. 8 I want to climb the palm tree and take hold of its fruit stalks. May your breasts be like the clusters of grapes, and may the fragrance of your breath be like apples! 9 May your mouth be like the best wine, flowing smoothly for my beloved, gliding gently over our lips as we sleep together. 10 The Beloved about Her Lover: I am my beloved’s, and he desires me! 11 The Beloved to Her Lover: Come, my beloved; let us go to the countryside; let us spend the night in the villages. 12 Let us rise early to go to the vineyards, to see if the vines have budded, to see if their blossoms have opened, if the pomegranates are in bloom—there I will give you my love. 13 The mandrakes⁠ send out their fragrance; over our door is every delicacy, both new and old, which I have stored up for you, my lover.

Texts in conversation

Compare Song of Solomon 7:5 and LXX Song of Songs 7:6

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

Share:

Summary

The Hebrew version of Song of Solomon describes a king held captive in the flowing locks of the woman’s hair. The Greek translation misunderstood the rare word meaning “to run” and translated it “galleries,” with the king bound in a corridor.

Passages

Song of Solomon 7:5

Hebrew Bible · Song of Songs
4 Your neck is like a tower made of ivory. Your eyes are the pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bath Rabbim. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon overlooking Damascus. 5 Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel. The locks of your hair are like royal tapestries—the king is held captive in its tresses! 6 How beautiful you are! How lovely, O love, with your delights!
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Song of Solomon

LXX Song of Songs 7:6

Septuagint
5 Your neck is as an ivory tower; your eyes are as pools in Heshbon, by the gates of the daughter of many: your nose is as the tower of Lebanon, looking toward Damascus. 6 Your head upon you is as Carmel, and the curls of your hair like scarlet; the king is bound in the galleries. 7 How beautiful you are, and how sweet you are, my love, in your delights!
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Song of Songs

References

... In 7.6, the translator appears to have interpreted the hapax legomenon [...] ('tress, flowing lock'?) on the basis of a root known from Aramaic with the meaning 'to run', translating it by [...] 'running beside' (LEH: 'corridor, gallery'); consequently the strange phrase has been variously interpreted by ancient commentators: 'a king is bound by retinues', NETS; in place of the Masoretic Text: 'a king is held captive in the tresses', NRSV. ...
Jean-Marie Auwers, “Canticles (Song of Songs),” in The T&T Clark Companion to the Septuagint, ed. James K. Aitken, Bloomsbury Companions (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015), 374–375.

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

Your feedback

Song of Solomon 7:5 and LXX Song of Songs 7:6

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library