Song of Songs 7 - New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

Chapter 7

The Beauty of the Beloved

¹ D? Turn, turn, O Shulammite!^[a]
turn, turn that we may gaze upon you!
W How can you gaze upon the Shulammite
as at the dance of the two camps?
² M How beautiful are your feet in sandals,^[b]
O noble daughter!
Your curving thighs like jewels,
the product of skilled hands.
³ Your valley,^[c] a round bowl
that should never lack mixed wine.
Your belly, a mound of wheat,
encircled with lilies.
^{4 (A)}Your breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle.
^{5 (B)}Your neck like a tower of ivory;
your eyes, pools in Heshbon
by the gate of Bath-rabbim.
Your nose like the tower of Lebanon
that looks toward Damascus.^[d]
6 Your head rises upon you like Carmel;^[e]
your hair is like purple;
a king is caught in its locks.

Love’s Desires

⁷ How beautiful you are, how fair,
my love, daughter of delights!
⁸ Your very form resembles a date-palm,^[f]
and your breasts, clusters.
⁹ I thought, “Let me climb the date-palm!
Let me take hold of its branches!
Let your breasts be like clusters of the vine
and the fragrance of your breath like apples,
¹⁰ And your mouth like the best wine—
Wthat flows down smoothly for my lover,
gliding^[g] over my lips and teeth.
^{11 (C)}I belong to my lover,^[h]
his yearning is for me.
¹² Come, my lover! Let us go out to the fields,
let us pass the night among the henna.
^{13 (D)}Let us go early to the vineyards, and see
if the vines are in bloom,
If the buds have opened,
if the pomegranates have blossomed;
There will I give you my love.
¹⁴ The mandrakes^[i] give forth fragrance,
and over our doors are all choice fruits;
Fruits both fresh and dried, my lover,
have I kept in store for you.

Footnotes

1. 7:1 Shulammite: the woman is so designated because she is considered to be from Shulam (or Shunem) in the plain of Esdraelon (cf. 1 Kgs 1:3), or because the name may mean “the peaceful one,” and thus recall the name of Solomon. Turn: she is asked to face the speaker(s). How…: she refuses to be regarded as a spectacle (“the dance of the two camps” is unknown). Some interpret the episode as an invitation to her to dance.
2. 7:2–6 Another description of the woman’s charms. Sandals: the woman’s sandaled foot was apparently considered quite seductive (Jdt 16:9). Noble: a possible connection to the enigmatic “prince” of 6:12. Curving…jewels: the meaning of these Hebrew words is not certain. Wine and wheat suggest fertility.
3. 7:3 Valley: lit., navel; a discreet allusion to her sex.
4. 7:5 The comparison emphasizes the stateliness of her neck, and the clarity of her eyes. Bath-rabbim: a proper name which occurs only here; there was a city of Rabbah northeast of Heshbon in Transjordan. Cf. Jer 49:3.
5. 7:6 Carmel: a prominent set of cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean.
6. 7:8–9 Date-palm: a figure of stateliness. The lover is eager to enjoy the possession of his beloved.
7. 7:10 Gliding: the beloved interrupts her partner’s compliment by referring to the intoxication of their union. The translation rests on an emendation of the enigmatic “the lips of the sleepers.”
8. 7:11–14 The woman’s answer assures him of her love, and invites him to return with her to the rural delights associated with their love (cf. also 6:11–12). Yearning: used only here and in Gn 3:16; 4:7. The dependency and subordination of woman to man presented as a consequence of sin in the Genesis story is here transcended in the mutuality of true love.
9. 7:14 Mandrakes: herbs believed to have power to arouse love and promote fertility; cf. Gn 30:14–16.

Cross references

1. 7:4 : Sg 4:5.
2. 7:5 : Sg 4:4.
3. 7:11 : Sg 2:16; 6:3.
4. 7:13 : Sg 6:11.