Song of Songs 2:15–17
Little foxes, mutual belonging and the mountains of Bether
"Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines" (v. 15); "My beloved is mine, and I am his" (v. 16); "be thou like a roe… upon the mountains of Bether" (v. 17). The speaker of v. 15 is unmarked. "Bether" is kept as a name by the Vulgate, translated "ravines" by the library's Greek.
Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently
The family tree
Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.
✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives
- Same line, through lost copies
- Translation
Every witness, in order
Unknown (proposals from the 10th to the 3rd century BC)
The poem as first composed
No original survives. The oldest Hebrew copies of the Song are four Qumran manuscripts: 4Q106, 4Q107, 4Q108 (Cave 4) and 6Q6 (Cave 6), late 1st century BC to 1st century AD (reported).
Jerome c. AD 390s, from Hebrew; edition 1592
Latin Vulgate (Clementine)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).
Capite nobis vulpes parvulas quæ demoliuntur vineas: nam vinea nostra floruit. Dilectus meus mihi, et ego illi, qui pascitur inter lilia, donec aspiret dies, et inclinentur umbræ. Revertere; similis esto, dilecte mi, capreæ, hinnuloque cervorum super montes Bether.
Latin numbering: Song 2:15–17. Jerome translated the Song from Hebrew (c. AD 390s); the Clementine edition prints the title outside the verses and joins English 1:1-2.
AD 1008
Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.
אֶֽחֱזוּ־לָ֙נוּ֙ שֽׁוּעָלִ֔ים שֽׁוּעָלִ֥ים קְטַנִּ֖ים מְחַבְּלִ֣ים כְּרָמִ֑ים וּכְרָמֵ֖ינוּ סְמָדַֽר׃ דּוֹדִ֥י לִי֙ וַאֲנִ֣י ל֔וֹ הָרֹעֶ֖ה בַּשּׁוֹשַׁנִּֽים׃ עַ֤ד שֶׁיָּפ֙וּחַ֙ הַיּ֔וֹם וְנָ֖סוּ הַצְּלָלִ֑ים סֹב֩ דְּמֵה־לְךָ֨ דוֹדִ֜י לִצְבִ֗י א֛וֹ לְעֹ֥פֶר הָאַיָּלִ֖ים עַל־הָ֥רֵי בָֽתֶר׃
Catch for us foxes, little foxes, ruining vineyards, our vineyards in blossom (v. 15). My beloved is mine and I am his (v. 16)
Hebrew numbering: Song 2:15–17.
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes. My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies. Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.
Greek translation 1st century BC – 1st century AD (debated); French 1872
Greek Song of Songs (library: Giguet's French)
How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.
Prenez les jeunes renards, qui ravagent les vignes, quand nos vignes sont en fleur. Mon frère bien-aimé est à moi, et moi à lui; et il fait paître son troupeau parmi les lis, Jusqu’à ce que se lèvent les premières brises du jour et que les ténèbres se dissipent. Reviens, mon frère bien-aimé; accours comme le chevreuil ou le jeune faon sur les ravins des montagnes.
Greek (digital file) numbering: Song 2:15–17. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check). Giguet also inserts speaker labels such as (Épouse) and (Époux); these are interpretation, not Greek text. A C check needs a critical Greek edition.
What changed, and why
Shu'alim can be foxes or jackals, both real pests of vineyards. Readings of v. 15: a snatch of a vineyard work song; a teasing image of young men (rivals) who "spoil" the young women ("vineyards" as in 1:6); a call to remove whatever threatens love in bloom. Christian preachers (Bernard) made the foxes heresies and small sins.
The belonging formula appears three times: 2:16; 6:3 (reversed); 7:10 ("his desire is toward me").
"Until the day breathe (yafuach)": the evening breeze or the dawn wind? Lovers part, or meet, at that hour.
What the evidence shows
- The speaker of 2:15 is not identified in the text.
- The library's Greek translates Bether as "ravines."
Sources
Related lessons
- Song of Songs 2: The Voice of My Beloved →The woman calls herself "the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys" (2:1); he answers, "As the lily among thorns, so is my love" (v. 2); she replies that he is like an apple tree among the trees of the wood (v. 3). He brings her to the "banqueting house" (literally "house of wine"); she is faint with love; she charges the daughters of Jerusalem "by the roes, and by the hinds of the field" not to stir up love until it pleases (vv. 4–7). Her beloved comes leaping over the hills and calls her out: "the winter is past… the time of the singing of birds is come" (vv. 8–13). He longs to see her face and hear her voice (v. 14); someone calls, "Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines" (v. 15). She declares, "My beloved is mine, and I am his" (v. 16), and sends him off until day breaks (v. 17).
- Investigation: Geography as Poetry →The Song draws its images from a real map: an oasis by the Dead Sea, the snowy northern mountains, the goat-covered hills of Gilead, two royal cities, a green ridge by the sea, the pools of a Transjordanian town, and the Aramean capital. Some names are secure, some regional, some unknown. This investigation lists them and how the site's Atlas marks them.
- Investigation: The Song's Afterlife →For most of its history the Song has been read as a song of divine love: God and Israel in Judaism; Christ and the church, or Christ and the soul, in Christianity. This investigation sets the main readers in order, with dates, so that later interpretations are not projected back onto the ancient poem and the poem is not stripped of its long religious life.