Song of Songs 4


Song of Songs 4 is the fourth chapter of the Song of Songs in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book is one of the Five Megillot, a collection of short books, together with Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther, within the Ketuvim, the third and the last part of the Hebrew Bible. Jewish tradition views Solomon as the author of this book, and this attribution influences the acceptance of this book as a canonical text. This chapter contains the man's descriptive poem of the woman's body and the invitation to be together which is accepted by the woman.

Text

The original text is written in Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 16 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text, which includes the Codex Leningradensis. Some fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls: 4Q106, and 4Q107.
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, and Codex Alexandrinus.

Structure

The Modern English Version, along with other translations, sees verses 1 to 15 as the words of the man, and verse 16 as the words of the woman. Athalya Brenner treats verses 1 to 7 as the man's waṣf or descriptive poem, and verse 8 to 5:1 as a dialogue between the male and female lovers.

Analysis

Male: First descriptive poem and call to come along (4:1-8)

The beginning and the end of this part contain repeated lines that "frame an address of endearment": "my darling/ bride." Verses 1-7 contain the man's waṣf or descriptive poem of his female lover from head to breast, using imagery of flora and fauna, with a few of "fortifications and military weapons". Verses 2 and 5 begin and end this imagery with comparisons with animals, such as sheep and fawns, whereas verses 6-8 focus on the desire of the male speaker to visit "the mountain of myrrh" and to be joined there by his partner, expressing his desire in terms of a sensual pursuit with his lover's body as a mountain on which he finds perfumes.
Verse 7 concludes with a summary statement of the woman's perfection and invitation to his bride to 'come away from the impregnable heights and to join him'.
This waṣf and the later ones demonstrate theologically the heart of the Song, which values the body as not evil but good, even worthy of praise, and respects the body with an appreciative focus. Hess notes that this reflects "the fundamental value of God's creation as good and the human body as a key part of that creation, whether at the beginning or redeemed in the resurrection ". While verse 7a is in parallel with verse 1a, forming an inclusio as well as a sense of closure to this part of the poem, verse 7b follows the positive assertion of the woman's beauty with a more negative assertion that "she has no blemish or defect", which is similar to the references to Absalom and to Daniel and his three friends in the court of Nebuchadnezzar.

Verse 4

  • "Tower of David": the actual tower is unknown.
  • "Bucklers": small shields. The image of the shields and bucklers describe the necklace around the neck of the woman.

    Verse 7

  • "There is no spot": this description is used for the bride of Christ, who is depicted as "not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing".

    Verse 8

This verse depicts the danger and the woman's inaccessibility. The man is asking his bride not to go with him to Lebanon but to come with him from Lebanon, which is a 'figurative allusion to the general unapproachableness' of the woman. Verse 8b contains two parallel expressions that frame the central expression "from Hermon":
A similar structure in verse 7 forms together the twin centers of "my darling" and "from Mount Hermon", which beautifully summarize the concern of the man for access to his bride.
  • "Lebanon": located north of Israel in modern-day Lebanon and Syria; Amana, Shenir and Hermon are the names of individual peaks in the Anti-Lebanon mountain ranges.
  • "Spouse" or "bride" together with "sister" are terms of affection.

    Male: A walk in the garden (4:9-15)

This section is a part of a dialogue concerning "seduction and consummation", where here the man seduces the woman, with extravagant imagery of food and flowers/herbs.

Verse 9

“Thou hast ravished my heart” is the verb form of the noun for heart, לבב, and literally means "thou has hearted me." This exact form of the word appears only once in the bible, within this verse.
As it comes in the context of a dialogue between two lovers, most translations have given it a meaning of stolen my heart: "You have captivated my heart", "Thou hast ravished my heart", "You have made my heart beat faster", "You have carried my heart away!", "You have charmed me", "You have thrilled my heart", "Thou hast wounded my heart", and "Thou hast emboldened me".
Traditional Jewish commentators have also given the word "Libavtini" similar interpretations.
  • Aramaic Targum: your love is fixed or established upon my heart.
  • Rashi: you have drawn my heart to you.
  • Ibn Ezra: you have cut off my heart.
There are two other locations in the bible with the verb form of the root לִ-בַּ-בְ:
  • Job 11:12: "Shall an empty man get a mind or a wild ass's colt be born a man." In this verse, the verb form of the word heart takes on a meaning of "get a mind" or "get a heart" - this is because the heart represented in the bible the whole inner world of humans, including both emotions and thoughts. This meaning would be similar to translations of libavtini as "you have rekindled my heart" or "given me a heart".
  • 2 Samuel 13:8: "And she took dough, and kneaded it, and made cakes in his sight". In this verse, we see similarities between the ideas of "nourish" in the form of making cakes and the concept of "heartening" someone.
“Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes.” There could be both literal and figurative interpretations of this sentence. Figuratively, the man expresses how just a fraction of the woman's personality and appearance is sufficient to capture his heart. Literally, this could mean that the woman has only one of her eyes visible. She could be winking, or perhaps, she is looking at the man herself from a hiding spot and only one of her eyes is visible as she peers at him.

Verse 14

  • "Saffron, calamus, cinnamon" and "aloes" are spices from India.

    Female: Invitation to her garden (4:16)

The woman consents to the man's call, leading to a closure in 5:1.

Verse 16b

The Vulgate version of the fourth chapter ends on "... et fluant aromata illius." The next phrase, "Veniat dilectus meus..." opens the fifth chapter in the Vulgate version, while most other versions and translations open that chapter with the man's response.