SNG 7:11 Interlinear View

SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 6:4–8:4: The man praised the woman and sang about springtime

In this section the man described the woman in two separate speeches (6:4–10 and 7:1–10). Some verses are difficult to understand, especially 6:11–13, and it is important to think about them carefully. The woman responded to the man in 7:11 and continued to speak to the end of the section at 8:4.

The verse numbering in the Hebrew text is different from the BSB and a majority of English versions. The Hebrew text begins chapter 7 where the BSB begins 6:13, so in chapter 7 the verses in the Hebrew text are one number higher than the verse numbers in the BSB. For example, 6:13–7:13 in the BSB is 7:1–14 in the Hebrew text (and also in the NJB and NJPS). It is helpful to be aware that some commentaries follow the Hebrew verse numbering. The Notes will follow the verse numbers in the BSB (along with the majority of English versions).

Paragraph 7:11–13 The woman invited the man to go with her to the fields and vineyards

In these verses the woman responded to the man’s praise (in 7:1–9a) by inviting him to go out into the fields and vineyards with her to enjoy the springtime. As trees and flowers were blooming, their love for each other was also growing. Here she invited him to go there, as he also invited her in 2:10–13.It is also interesting to notice that 8:2a–b is similar to 3:4e–f.

In 7:11–13, all the events are probably not arranged in the order that they happened (as is common in poetry). It is also possible that these verses describe the woman’s desires and feelings or a dream that she had before her wedding (3:6–5:1),Old Testament scholar, David Dorsey, takes a non-chronological approach to the Song. In his book, The Literary Structure of the Old Testament (1999) he proposes a thorough-going symmetrical chiastic structure for the book. (Also see his article, “Literary Structuring in the Song of Songs” in Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 46 (1990) 81–96.) The structure he proposes is a-b-c-d-cʹ-bʹ-aʹ where the central unit “d” describes the wedding day, the climactic portion of the Song. Some scholars differ on the details of his proposed chiastic structure while agreeing in principle with the chiastic approach, while other scholars question whether such a book-level chiastic structure is actually present. But in spite of the disagreements, viewing the book chiastically or cyclically does help to resolve some problems that chronological/narrative approaches tend to overlook. When we look at some of the material in the second half of the Song, much of it appears to be from a pre-wedding perspective (a wedding seems to be described in 3:6–5:1). A symmetrical chiastic or cyclical approach may provide us with a better vantage point for addressing such challenging issues. In the case of this unit, the similarities with 2:10–13 seems fairly clear. So it seems possible, if not likely, that this unit could also be viewed as part of a courtship poem. rather than an event that happened in her life. The exact meaning of 7:11–13 is difficult to determine, but the verses do seem to look forward to the future.

7:11a

Come, my beloved, let us go to the countryside;

Come with me, my love. We will go out to the fields together,
My beloved, come with me into the countryside.

Come, my beloved, let us go to the countryside: Here the woman invited the man to go out of the city with her to enjoy the countryside together. He was already with her as she spoke to him, so she was not calling him to come. She wanted him to go with her to the fields.

Some other ways to translate this meaning are:

Come with me, my love, and let’s go out to the fields

My darling, let’s go to the fields together

In some languages it is more natural to put the phrase my beloved in a different place in the sentence, as in the second example above. Use a natural way in your language to give an invitation like this.

my beloved: The Hebrew word that the BSB translates as my beloved is the most common way that the woman used to address the man. It first occurred in 1:13. It is good to translate this word in the same way in all the verses where she used it to address him.

to the countryside: Here the woman invited/urged her beloved to go with her into the countryside. She wanted to go there to the fields to see the springtime blossoms and to be alone with the man. Other ways to translate this are:

let us go out into the fields… (REB)

let us go to the countryside… (NET)

7:11b

let us spend the night among the wildflowers.

let us spend the night in the villages. (NIV)
We will sleep in one of the villages tonight,

let us spend the night among the wildflowers: The word that the BSB translates as spend the night does not imply that the man and woman wanted to stay longer than one night. Other ways to translate this meaning are:

let us lodge in the villages. (RSV)

and stay overnight in one of the villages.

among the wildflowers: The Hebrew word that the BSB translates as wildflowers can also mean “henna bushes,” as in 2:14. Scholars differ about what it means here:

It means “villages.” For example:
let us spend the night in the villages. (NIV) (CEV, NASB, NET, NIV, NJB, RSV, GNT)
It means “henna bushes.” For example:
to lie among the henna bushes (REB) (BSB, GW, NJPS, REB, NLT)

It is recommended that you follow option (1), with the majority of English versions. Some scholars think that the meaning “villages” is unlikely, because the man and woman wanted to be alone. However, the villages were not as crowded as the city. The villages were closer to the vineyards and pomegranate trees, so that the man and woman could look at them in the early morning (see the following note in 7:12a).

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / go

לְכָ֤⁠ה

(Some words not found in UHB: I [belong]_to,lover_of,my and_[is],towards,me his/its=longing/desire )

Your language may say “Go” rather than Come in a context such as this. Alternate translation: [Go]

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / infostructure

לְכָ֤⁠ה דוֹדִ⁠י֙

(Some words not found in UHB: I [belong]_to,lover_of,my and_[is],towards,me his/its=longing/desire )

If it would be more natural in your language, you could change the order of these phrases. Alternate translation: [My beloved, come]

נָלִ֖ינָה בַּ⁠כְּפָרִֽים

(Some words not found in UHB: I [belong]_to,lover_of,my and_[is],towards,me his/its=longing/desire )

Alternate translation: [and let us stay overnight in a village somewhere]

Note 3 topic: translate-unknown

בַּ⁠כְּפָרִֽים

(Some words not found in UHB: I [belong]_to,lover_of,my and_[is],towards,me his/its=longing/desire )

The word which the ULT translates as in the villages has two possible meanings in the original language. Here it could mean: (1) in the villages as in the ULT. (2) “among the henna bushes” (which produce flowers). If you choose this option, see how you translated the phrase “henna blossoms” in [1:14](../01/14.md). Alternate translation: [among the henna bushes] or [among the wildflowers] or [among the henna blossoms]

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 7:11

Hebrew word order

Section 6:4–8:4: The man praised the woman and sang about springtime

Paragraph 7:11–13 The woman invited the man to go with her to the fields and vineyards

7:11a

7:11b

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