SNG 4:10 Interlinear View

SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 3:6–5:1: The man and woman married and the man praised her

In 3:6 a new section begins. The author indicates this by several obvious changes from (3:1–5):

The scene changes from a nighttime dream to a public daytime event.
There is a change of speaker.
The search theme in the preceding verses changes to a wedding theme in this section.
The mood changes from anxious searching to joyful celebration.

In this section the author describes the couple’s wedding day. The section has several parts:

3:6–11 The man and woman came to their wedding in a grand procession

4:1–15 The man described his beautiful bride

4:16–5:1 The man and woman consummated their marriage

Paragraph 4:8–15 The man called his bride from Lebanon; and compared her to a private garden

In these lines the man continued to use figurative language to praise his bride (4:8–15). First, he spoke to her as if he and she were in Lebanon. Lebanon is a region north of Israel. It is far from Jerusalem (Zion), where they celebrated their wedding. In Lebanon the rugged mountains and wild animals make it dangerous for people to travel. The man calling the woman from Lebanon symbolizes that he thought the woman was wonderful and mysterious (like Lebanon), but perhaps she was reluctant to fully surrender herself to him. She seemed beyond his reach, as though she was up in the mountains, guarded by wild animals. Because he loved her, he was gentle as he wooed her, preparing her to surrender herself to him.

As you translate these lines, it is important to remember that the author used figurative language. The woman was not actually in Lebanon, and the man did not refer to a real journey from there. The garden descriptions in 4:12–15 are also figurative. They do not describe an actual garden.

Several poetic themes help to unify 4:8–15 and 4:16–5:1:

Lebanon (4:8, 11, 15): In the OT, Lebanon is often portrayed as a remote, beautiful, and fragrant place with mountains and cedar forests. (For example, see Psalm 72:16; Isaiah 35:2; 60:13; and Hosea 14:5–7.)
fragrances (4:10–11, 13–14, 16, 5:1, and maybe implied in 4:8)Lebanon was especially known for its fragrant cedar trees. So fragrance is probably implied in 4:8.
tastes (4:10–11, 13–14, 16, 5:1)
the garden metaphor (especially in focus in 4:12–5:1)

The context of 4:8–5:1, as well as 3:6–4:7, is probably the day of the couple’s wedding. In 5:1, the women of Jerusalem encouraged them to consummate their love as husband and wife.

4:10a

How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride!

Your love is wonderful, my sister, my bride!
My treasure, my bride, your love is so delightful!

How delightful is your love: The Hebrew clause that the BSB translates as How delightful is your love is an exclamation. The man told his bride that her love gave him great pleasure. Some other ways to translate the exclamation are:

Your love delights me (GNT)

How beautiful are your expressions of love (GW)

Your love causes me to feel happy

Translate it in a way that fits this context in your language.

delightful is your love: The Hebrew word that the BSB translates as love is plural. It probably refers to physical ways that the woman showed her love to him. These ways include actions like kissing and touching. The word delightful is often translated as “sweet” or “beautiful.” It indicates that the ways she showed her love were wonderful and delightful to the man. They gave him much pleasure.

your love: The Hebrew word that the BSB translates as your loveThe word in the Hebrew text means “love” which is followed by the BSB and most other versions. However, the NEB and REB have the word “breasts” which is based on the Greek Septuagint translation. The issue here is that originally, the writers of the Hebrew OT did not write vowels. The consonants are the same for “love” and “breasts” (ddyk), but the unwritten vowels were different. The translators of the Greek OT interpreted ddyk and its implied vowels as mastoi sou “your breasts.” The Masoretic text, which most English versions follow here, interpret the word as “your love.” It is recommended that you follow the better Hebrew textual reading, love, as in the BSB. is also used in 1:2. See the note on 1:2b for more information.

my sister, my bride: This phrase was also used in 4:9. For information on how to translate the phrase my sister, see the notes on 4:9a. For information on how to translate my bride, see the notes on 4:8a–b.

In some languages it may be necessary to put the phrase my sister, my bride at the beginning of 4:10. For example:

My sister, my bride, how wonderful is your love!

For a discussion of my sister, see the note on 4:9a. For a discussion of my bride, see the note on 4:8a–b.

4:10b

Your love is much better than wine,

It is so much more delightful than wine.
Your love is more intoxicating than wine.

Your love is much better than wine: What the man said here is similar to what the woman said to him in 1:2b.You should translate the two verses in a similar way. The Hebrew identifies 4:10b–c as an exclamation. Other ways to translate the exclamation are:

Your love is sweeter than wine (CEV)

how much better is your love than wine (RSV)

Refer to how you translated the similar expression in 1:2b and translate in a similar way.

Your love: The Hebrew word that the BSB translates as Your loveThe word in the Hebrew text means “love” which is followed by the BSB and most other versions. However, the NEB and REB have the word “breasts” which is based on the Greek Septuagint translation. The issue here is that originally, the writers of the Hebrew OT did not write vowels. The consonants are the same for “love” and “breasts” (ddyk), but the unwritten vowels were different. The translators of the Greek OT interpreted ddyk and its implied vowels as mastoi sou “your breasts.” The Masoretic text, which most English versions follow here, interpret the word as “your love.” It is recommended that you follow the better Hebrew textual reading, love, as in the BSB. is also used in 1:2. See the note on 1:2b for more information.

wine: The word wine refers here to a fermented drink made from grapes. It was a common beverage among the Hebrew people and was often used in celebrations. You should translate it as you did in 1:2b.

4:10c

and the fragrance of your perfume than all spices.

The fragrance of your perfume is much better than any spice!
The scent of perfume from your body is better than any other perfume!

and the fragrance of your perfume than all spices: Here the phrase the fragrance of your perfume refers to the perfumed oil that the woman rubbed on her body to make her smell sweet. The man also wore perfumed oils. In 1:3a the woman told the man that his oils were fragrant. Here the man praised her oils even more. He said that they smelled better than any spice.

Some other ways to translate this comparison are:

Your perfume smells better than any spice. (NCV)

Your perfumed oil is more fragrant than the best of spices.

perfume: In the ancient Near East olive oil was used as a base for making perfume and cologne. Expensive fragrances were added to the oils. Some of these fragrances were made from costly foreign spices, and both men and women used them. Use appropriate words in your language to describe fragrances that men and women put on their bodies to make them smell good.

General Comment on 4:10b–c

The comparisons in 4:10b and 4:10c are parallel. Both comparisons say that something is better than something else. It is common in Hebrew poetry that part of the comparison is implied in the second parallel line, so it is not stated explicitly. The implied words in the example below are in brackets:

Your love is much better than wine,

and the fragrance of your perfume is much better than all spices!

Translate the comparison is a natural way in your language.

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / exclamations

מַה & מַה

what? & what?

Here the word How is used as an exclamation to emphasize two statements about how wonderful the woman’s love is. Use an exclamation that would communicate that meaning in your language.

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor

אֲחֹתִ֣⁠י

my_sister_of,my

See how you translated the phrase my sister in [4:9](../04/09.md).

Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / infostructure

מַה־יָּפ֥וּ דֹדַ֖יִ⁠ךְ אֲחֹתִ֣⁠י כַלָּ֑ה מַה־טֹּ֤בוּ דֹדַ֨יִ⁠ךְ֙ מִ⁠יַּ֔יִן

what? beautiful love(s)_of,your my_sister_of,my bride what? better love(s)_of,your more,than_wine

If it would be more natural in your language, you could change the order of these phrases. Alternate translation: [My sister, my bride; how your love is beautiful! How your love is better than wine]

Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / abstractnouns

מַה־יָּפ֥וּ דֹדַ֖יִ⁠ךְ & מַה־טֹּ֤בוּ דֹדַ֨יִ⁠ךְ֙ מִ⁠יַּ֔יִן

what? beautiful love(s)_of,your & what? better love(s)_of,your more,than_wine

If your language does not use an abstract noun for the idea of love, you could express the same idea in another way.

Note 5 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit

שְׁמָנַ֖יִ⁠ךְ

your(pl)_oils_of,your

Here, oils refers to perfumes. In the author’s culture, pleasant-smelling spices were mixed into olive oil in order to make perfume which was put on the skin. You could include this information if it would be helpful to your readers. Alternate translation: [your scented oils are better] or [the perfumed oils on your skin are better]

Note 6 topic: figures-of-speech / ellipsis

שְׁמָנַ֖יִ⁠ךְ

your(pl)_oils_of,your

The writer is leaving out some of the words that in many languages a sentence would need in order to be complete. You could supply the words is better from earlier in the sentence if it would be clearer in your language.

OET-LV English word order (‘Reverse’ interlinear)

Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.

Acknowledgements: The Hebrew text, lemmas, and morphology are all thanks to the OSHB and some of the glosses are from Macula Hebrew.

OET interlinear SNG 4:10