Texts in Conversation
Genesis describes the mandrake plants Reuben gathers, which Rachel uses in the hope of having children. The Song of Solomon references the same plant as an aid to fertility, the only other place the Hebrew Bible mentions mandrakes.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 30:14
Hebrew Bible
13 Leah said, “How happy I am, for women will call me happy!” So she named him Asher. 14 At the time of the wheat harvest Reuben went out and found some mandrake plants in a field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” 15 But Leah replied, “Wasn’t it enough that you’ve taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes too?” “All right,” Rachel said, “he may go to bed with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”
Song of Solomon 7:13
Song of Songs
Hebrew Bible
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.
Search:
Notes and References
“... The author also explained what mandrakes are—“fragrant apples that the land of Aram produces”—since the word for mandrakes (duda’im) is rarely found in the Bible (apart from this story, only in Canticles 7:14). That they grow “on a high place below a watery ravine” is surely a mistake: how can a “high place” be below a ravine? The original text must have said something like “on a high place, with a watery ravine below” or simply “above a watery ravine.” ...”
Kugel, James L.
"The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs" in Feldman, Louis H.; Kugel, James L.; Schiffman, Lawrence H. (ed.) Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture
(p. 1772) Jewish Publication Society, 2013
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.