Texts in Conversation
The Hebrew version of Song of Solomon gently warns the daughters of Jerusalem not to awaken love before it is ready. The Greek translation translates the oath so literally that it instead becomes a curse on anyone who stirs love early.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Song of Solomon 2:7
Song of Songs
Hebrew Bible
6 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me. 7 The Beloved to the Maidens: I admonish you, O maidens of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and by the young does of the open fields: Do not awaken or arouse love until it pleases! 8 The Beloved about Her Lover: Listen! My lover is approaching! Look! Here he comes, leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills!
LXX Song of Songs 2:7
Septuagint
5 Strengthen me with perfumes, overwhelm me with apples, for I am wounded by love. 6 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand will embrace me. Man 7 I made you swear, daughters of Jerusalem, by powers and by forces of the field: Cursed if you awaken and rouse love until it wants. Woman
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Notes and References
... Moreover, most ancient commentators (Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, Nilus of Ancyra, Theodoret) took it that the daughters of Jerusalem had been invited to awaken dormant love, that is to say they understood the text to mean the opposite of the Hebrew, and probably also the opposite of what the translator had intended. In certain places the syntax (or lack of proper syntax) gives the impression that the translator has translated the words one by one, regardless of their logical connection. ...
Auwers, Jean-Marie
"Canticles (Song of Songs)" in Aitken, James K. (ed.) The T&T Clark Companion to the Septuagint
(pp. 372-373) Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015
* 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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