Hebrew Text · Translation · Interlinear · Discourse Structure

The Song of Songsשיר השירים

A six-tier MT reverse-interlinear of all eight chapters of the Masoretic text: each word with gloss, parsing, syntax, semantic force, and lexical note; each verse opens with the running Hebrew, an English translation, and a discourse note, under a chapter argument-outline.

117 verses · 1,255 annotated words · eight chapters. The Hebrew follows the Masoretic Text in the Leningrad tradition, as represented by standard diplomatic editions in their main wording; distinctively copyrighted critical apparatus is not reproduced. Versification follows the MT.

Companion summary Themes, outlines & textual notes Every chapter's theme and argument outline, the textual notes, and a table of the major exegetical cruxes.
  1. 1 Song of Songs 1 1 Song of Songs 1 (17 verses in the MT) opens: The song of songs, which Solomon's. The middle of the chapter continues: I have compared you, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots. It closes: The beams of our house cedar, our rafters of fir. 17 verses · 151 words
  2. 2 Song of Songs 2 2 Song of Songs 2 (17 verses in the MT) opens: I the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valleys. The middle of the chapter continues: My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice. It closes: Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be you like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether. 17 verses · 179 words
  3. 3 Song of Songs 3 3 Song of Songs 3 (11 verses in the MT) opens: By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. The middle of the chapter continues: Who this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant? It closes: Go forth, O you daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart. 11 verses · 133 words
  4. 4 Song of Songs 4 4 Song of Songs 4 (16 verses in the MT) opens: Behold, you fair, my love; behold, you fair; you doves' eyes within your locks: your hair as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead. The middle of the chapter continues: You have ravished my heart, my sister, spouse; you have ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck. It closes: Awake, O north wind; and come, you south; blow upon my garden, the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits. 16 verses · 179 words
  5. 5 Song of Songs 5 5 Song of Songs 5 (16 verses in the MT) opens: I am come into my garden, my sister, spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. The middle of the chapter continues: What your beloved more than beloved, O you fairest among women? what your beloved more than beloved, that you dost so charge us? It closes: His mouth most sweet: yea, he altogether lovely. This my beloved, and this my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. 16 verses · 185 words
  6. 6 Song of Songs 6 6 Song of Songs 6 (12 verses in the MT) opens: Whither is your beloved gone, O you fairest among women? whither is your beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with you. The middle of the chapter continues: As a piece of a pomegranate your temples within your locks. It closes: Or ever I was aware, my soul made me the chariots of Amminadib. 12 verses · 114 words
  7. 7 Song of Songs 7 7 Song of Songs 7 (14 verses in the MT) opens: Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon you. What will you see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies. The middle of the chapter continues: This your stature is like to a palm tree, and your breasts to clusters . It closes: The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates all manner of pleasant , new and old, I have laid up for you, O my beloved. 14 verses · 139 words
  8. 8 Song of Songs 8 8 Song of Songs 8 (14 verses in the MT) opens: O that you as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! I should find you without, I would kiss you; yea, I should not be despised. The middle of the chapter continues: We have a little sister, and she has no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? It closes: Make haste, my beloved, and be you like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices. 14 verses · 175 words