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OET (OET-LV) Like_tower_of Dāvid neck_of_your built in_courses (the)_thousand the_shields is_hung on/upon/above_him/it all_of the_shields_of the_warriors.
OET (OET-RV) Your neck is like the tower of David that’s built of layers—
⇔ a thousand shields hanging on it—all the shields of the warriors.
Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / simile
כְּמִגְדַּ֤ל דָּוִיד֙ צַוָּארֵ֔ךְ בָּנ֖וּי לְתַלְפִּיּ֑וֹת
like,tower_of Dāvid neck_of,your built in,courses
The writer is saying that the woman’s neck is Like the tower of David which was a tall fortress built of layers or rows. A long neck was considered beautiful in the writer’s culture. King David built some of his towers of beautiful marble rock. It is probable that this tower was made from marble since it is compared to the beauty of the woman’s neck. If it would be helpful in your language, you could state that explicitly. Alternate translation: [Your neck is long and beautiful like the tower of David] or [Your neck is beautiful like the tower of David]
Note 2 topic: translate-unknown
כְּמִגְדַּ֤ל דָּוִיד֙
like,tower_of Dāvid
The tower of David was a tall building built for defense. Towers were significantly taller than other buildings and often were not wide. If your readers would not be familiar with this type of structure, you could use the name of something similar in your area, or you could use a more general term. Alternate translation: [Like the tall, narrow defense structure of David is] or [Like David’s tall, thin rock defense building is]
Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / activepassive
כְּמִגְדַּ֤ל דָּוִיד֙ צַוָּארֵ֔ךְ בָּנ֖וּי לְתַלְפִּיּ֑וֹת
like,tower_of Dāvid neck_of,your built in,courses
If your language does not use a passive form like built of layers, you could express the idea in active form or in another way that is natural in your language. If you must state who did the action, the context implies that David instructed men to build it. Alternate translation: [Your neck is like the tower of David that men built in layers] or [Your neck is like the tower of David that David had men build of layers]
בָּנ֖וּי לְתַלְפִּיּ֑וֹת
built in,courses
Alternate translation: [built using rows of stones]
Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / simile
אֶ֤לֶף הַמָּגֵן֙ תָּל֣וּי עָלָ֔יו כֹּ֖ל שִׁלְטֵ֥י הַגִּבּוֹרִֽים
a_thousand the,shields hung on/upon/above=him/it all shields_of the,warriors
In the writer’s culture it was a common practice to hang shields on walls as decorations. Here the man compares the beauty of the woman’s neck with shields hanging on the tower of David. This comparison probably included the decorations of the woman’s necklaces which probably went around her neck many times. If it would be helpful in your language, you could state that explicitly. Alternate translation: [The beauty of your neck jeweled in necklaces is like a thousand warriors‘ shields hanging from a tower]
Note 5 topic: translate-numbers
אֶ֤לֶף
a_thousand
In the writer’s culture, the number a thousand was often used to represent a very large, but not precise, amount. This is how the number is being used here. Alternate translation: [with many]
Note 6 topic: figures-of-speech / parallelism
אֶ֤לֶף הַמָּגֵן֙ תָּל֣וּי עָלָ֔יו כֹּ֖ל שִׁלְטֵ֥י הַגִּבּוֹרִֽים
a_thousand the,shields hung on/upon/above=him/it all shields_of the,warriors
The phrase all the shields of the warriors is parallel to the statement a thousand shields hanging on it and adds the additional information that the shields belonged to the warriors. Hebrew poetry often used this kind of parallel statement, in which the second line gives additional information, so it would be good to show this to your readers by including both phrases in your translation rather than combining them. If it would be helpful to your readers, you could connect these two parallel phrases with “each of which” or “each one” in order to show that the second phrase is not repeating the first one but rather saying something additional. Alternate translation: [a thousand shields hanging on it, each of which belongs to the warriors] or [a thousand shields hanging on it, each one belonging to the warriors]
4:4 A slender neck held high is a sign of confidence and dignity as well as beauty. The tower of David is not mentioned elsewhere in Scripture.
OET (OET-LV) Like_tower_of Dāvid neck_of_your built in_courses (the)_thousand the_shields is_hung on/upon/above_him/it all_of the_shields_of the_warriors.
OET (OET-RV) Your neck is like the tower of David that’s built of layers—
⇔ a thousand shields hanging on it—all the shields of the warriors.
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.