Song of Songs, Chapter Five, verse eight: I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I [am] sick of love.
If you remember, Gentle Reader, we left our Babe wandering the streets, half-naked and wounded, after a rather sniggery fantasy scene. Now she is speaking directly to the Daughters, and I would say it’s an entry to a different scene, a transition. The other thing that struck me about the verse is that when she is sick of love, the word is from the root chalah, chet lamed hey, (same as in 2:5, and in Proverbs 13:12, hope deferred makes the heart sick), where the word for bride or spouse is calah, caf lamed hey, and of course the caf can be pronounced with the soft cccchhhh sound, too. I think there’s a pun, there, particularly with the phrase I [am] sick of love, sh’cholat ahavah ani.
Chapter Five, verse nine: What [is] thy beloved more than [another] beloved, O thou fairest among women? what [is] thy beloved more than [another] beloved, that thou dost so charge us?
This is, by the way, very nice in the Hebrew, with the repetition of dodi, beloved, and the, well, I just like the sound of it. I’ll also go back to the Analogy, where the people Israel can be asked, What is thy beloved, more than another? Even from the point of view that there exists only one Divine, what is it about our interpretation of the Divine that we find so lovable?
Chapter Five, verse ten: My beloved [is] white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.
white here is tzach, which is used four times in Scripture, translated by the King James Gang once as white, once as clear, once as plain, and once as dry. It’s not lavan, which seems to be the usual word for white. Red is adom, like the heifer, like Esau and David. I’ll add that when asked about her boyfriend, she begins by talking about his physical attributes, which is perfectly normal and natural, and not much like you might expect a biblical woman to behave.
Chapter Five, verse eleven: His head [is as] the most fine gold, his locks [are] bushy, [and] black as a raven.
Here gold is paz, not zahav; paz is most fine gold. The two are used together sometimes; in Psalms 19:10, the judgements of the Lord are more to be desired than zahav, even than paz, and similarly in Proverbs 8:19. It’s paired here with ketem, even better gold. See Isaiah 13:12, I will make a man more precious than fine gold (paz); even a man than the golden wedge (ketem) of Ophir. Isaiah is either talking about the Messiah or saying that the remnant will be scarce. Or talking about something else altogether. You know, Isaiah. His locks are taltal, like wavywavy. And shachor, black, as in 1:5 black and beautiful.
Chapter Five, verse twelve: His eyes [are] as [the eyes] of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, [and] fitly set.
Her eyes were doves’ eyes in 4:1, now it’s his eyes. Aha! A contradiction. Your witness.
Chapter Five, verse thirteen: His cheeks [are] as a bed of spices, [as] sweet flowers: his lips [like] lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.
As far as I can tell, all of this is pretty much what it looks like. No dick jokes yet.
Chapter Five, verse fourteen: His hands [are as] gold rings set with the beryl: his belly [is as] bright ivory overlaid [with] sapphires.
His belly is not his belly (surprise!) but neither is it really obviously cock. It’s the same as in 5:4, where her bowels are moved within her. Whatever it is, and it’s pretty clearly his privates, it actually seems to connote his inner feeling, rather than his external, um, ivory.
Chapter Five, verse fifteen: His legs [are as] pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance [is] as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.
Strong’s makes the claim that shok is the lower leg, but it is just as often translated as thigh, so there you are. It would seem that the sockets, or foundations, are his feet, rather than his thigh joints, and although that seems odd to me, it ain’t my poem. I will point out the repeated imagery of whiteness or paleness, or brightness, particularly when contrasted with his dark hair. The marble skin makes more sense in a king than a shepherd, if you are leaning to that interpretation.
Chapter Five, verse sixteen: His mouth [is] most sweet: yea, he [is] altogether lovely. This [is] my beloved, and this [is] my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.
Can I mention that the sweet here, mamtakim, is evidently derived from the verb to suck, as one might suck on something sweet? No? Well, I will restrict myself to particularly liking the last half: zeh dodi v’zeh rayi. This is my beloved and this is my friend. Something I would be happy to say about my Best Reader, and something I would be happy to be able to say about the Divine as well. zeh dodi v’zeh rayi.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.