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 Book of 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, although this is at present largely disputed. 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

groups this chapter into:
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 |5:10-16; '' 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 reference to Absalom or Daniel and his three
friends in the court of Nebuchadnezzar.

Verse 4

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.
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 14

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

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