Texts in Conversation
The Hebrew version of Song of Solomon calls a lover’s touch better than wine. The Greek translation reads the Hebrew letters as a different word and translated it “your breasts are better than wine,” change the praise from love to the body.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Song of Solomon 1:2
Song of Songs
Hebrew Bible
1 Solomon’s Most Excellent Love Song. 2 The Beloved to Her Lover: Oh, how I wish you would kiss me passionately! For your lovemaking is more delightful than wine. 3 The fragrance of your colognes is delightful; your name is like the finest perfume. No wonder the young women adore you!
LXX Song of Songs 1:2
Septuagint
1 Song of songs, which is Solomon’s. 2 May he kiss me with kisses of his mouth! For your breasts are better than wine, 3 and the scent of your ointment better than all spices; your name is an ointment poured out. On account of this, young women have fallen in love with you.
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Notes and References
... I render dodim as 'caresses' because 'lovemaking,' which is more precise, often seems awkward in the translation. Dodim always refers to sex acts. (These acts may even be devoid of love, like the dodim the harlot tempts a youth to enjoy [Proverbs 7:18], or the harlotrous couching—mishkab dodim—of which unfaithful Jerusalem is accused [Ezekiel 23:17].) But dodim includes more than sexual intercourse. When the Shulammite praises her lover's dodim in 1:2, she is elaborating on the sweetness of his kisses. When she says, 'We will praise your dodim' in 1:4, she is declaring that she will tell of his kisses and caresses, as she in fact does. The Septuagint mistranslates ddym in this verse and 1:4; 4:10; and 7:13 as 'breasts'. Peshitta translates thus at 4:10 and 7:13. ...
Fox, Michael V.
The Song of Songs and the Ancient Egyptian Love Songs
(p. 97) University of Wisconsin Press, 1985
* 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.
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