Chapter 7 (LXX [Eng]: 6.13-7.13)
Jewish Publication Society Tanakh, 1917
Thoughts on the text
/LXX: 6.13–7.6
Him
He is back to saying nice things about her, especially praising the parts of her body which he should not have actually seen (unless that was their wedding just now).
LXX: 6.13a
Chorus
Return, return, that we may look upon thee.
Shulamite The problem here is that the syntax doesn’t really allow this to be a name. More likely it is a descriptive derived from šlm in some way, either meaning ‘peaceful one’ or ‘perfect one.’ The later makes more sense. They are perhaps talking about her tongue-in-cheek, referencing the boy’s over-the-top description of her.
Between the lines, she apparently does come back, and they are checking her out.
By the way, some people think this is a wedding, which would explain why they were staring at her, and perhaps why they are calling her, ‘perfect.’
Him
As it were a dance of two companies.
As it were a dance of two companies. Many modern translations will give you something like mahanaim-dancer, assuming this is a technical term of unknown significance, or translating it as a dual (which is how it is pointed) as ‘dancer before two camps.’ Neither makes much sense. The pointing (which is medieval, and not original to the text) is probably wrong. This should be a simple plural (no change to the actual text) meaning something like ‘troops.’ He is perhaps accusing them of ogling her ‘like she was a stripper working the troops.’
O prince’s daughter!
The roundings of thy thighs
are like the links of a chain,
The work of the hands of a skilled workman.
Wherein no mingled wine is wanting;
Thy belly is like a heap of wheat
Set about with lilies.
Heap of wheat does not describe shape but color (contradicting her earlier claim to be ‘black’).
Set about with lilies. Piles of wheat often had thorns stacked around to protect them from hungry critters. Her wheat is way too beautiful for that.
That are twins of a gazelle.
The pool in Heshbon has been unearthed and was quite large.
Comparison of eyes to a spring is a pun in Hebrew (the word for ‘eye’ ‘yn) can also denote a spring, although that is not the word used for the ‘pools’ here.
Bat-rabbim could be a place. But it also means noblewoman. So the spring is near some famous gate, and her eyes are near the ‘gate’ (probably mouth) of a noblewoman.
Thine eyes as the pools in Heshbon,
By the gate of Bath-rabbim;
Thy nose is like the tower of Lebanon
Which looketh toward Damascus.
And the hair of thy head like purple;
The king is held captive in the tresses thereof.
Carmel is a place. It is also a pun on fine purple cloth, sort
of like her hair in the next phrase.Hair of thy head like purple = ‘Flowing locks.’ NIV gives ‘royal tapestry’ where JPS has ‘purple’ (obviously connecting with the carmel in the previous line) similar to the way in English we sometimes use ‘purple’ to describe royalty. In any case, it describes a hair style, well known from Egypt (right).
Locks may actually create the same pun in English—he is captured by her hair. There is a similar image in one of the Egyptian love poems:
She lassos me with her hair,
ensnares me with her eye,
ties me up with her thighs,
and brands me with her seal ring.
O love, for delights!
And thy breasts to clusters of grapes.
I will take hold of the branches thereof;
And let thy breasts be as clusters of the vine,
And the smell of thy countenance like apples;
Her
Moving gently the lips of those that are asleep.’
Glideth down smoothly: The JPS translation does not divide this verse between speakers, but it is her speaking here. She interrupts him and completes his sentence. This is evident from the language (the girl and the boy use different terms of endearment, although they are often both translated ‘beloved’ in English translations). So he says her palate is the best wine, and she continues the sentence by saying that he is the one drinking from it. The rest of this passage is hers.
And his desire is toward me.
/11–13
Let us lodge in the villages.
Let us see whether the vine hath budded,
Whether the vine-blossom be opened,
And the pomegranates be in flower;
There will I give thee my love.
Still, there may be reasons they are getting out of town. I don’t think that the pre-marital shack-up was invented in the 20th century (see my comments next page on 8.4).
Things are clearly blooming (like her) and buds, like her, are opening.
And at our doors are all manner
of precious fruits,
New and old,
Which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.
Precious fruits or ‘my caresses’ depending on who translates this. The Bodleian ms. explains this as “my virginity.” I don’t know if the text will bear that, but that is basically how I have been reading this.
