Song of Songs 3:6–11
Solomon's litter: appiryon and "paved with love"
A procession from the wilderness: smoke, myrrh, frankincense; Solomon's couch guarded by sixty warriors; an appiryon of Lebanon wood with silver posts, gold back, purple seat, and an interior "inlaid with love from the daughters of Jerusalem" (v. 10); the king crowned on his wedding day. The library's Greek reads v. 10 as "paved with stones, love from the daughters of Jerusalem."
Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording
The family tree
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✓ 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).
Quæ est ista quæ ascendit per desertum sicut virgula fumi ex aromatibus myrrhæ, et thuris, et universi pulveris pigmentarii? En lectulum Salomonis sexaginta fortes ambiunt ex fortissimis Israël, omnes tenentes gladios, et ad bella doctissimi: uniuscujusque ensis super femur suum propter timores nocturnos. Ferculum fecit sibi rex Salomon de lignis Libani; columnas ejus fecit argenteas, reclinatorium aureum, ascensum purpureum; media caritate constravit, propter filias Jerusalem. Egredimini et videte, filiæ Sion, regem Salomonem in diademate quo coronavit illum mater sua in die desponsationis illius, et in die lætitiæ cordis ejus.
Latin numbering: Song 3:6–11. 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.
מִ֣י זֹ֗את עֹלָה֙ מִן־הַמִּדְבָּ֔ר כְּתִֽימֲר֖וֹת עָשָׁ֑ן מְקֻטֶּ֤רֶת מוֹר֙ וּלְבוֹנָ֔ה מִכֹּ֖ל אַבְקַ֥ת רוֹכֵֽל׃ הִנֵּ֗ה מִטָּתוֹ֙ שֶׁלִּשְׁלֹמֹ֔ה שִׁשִּׁ֥ים גִּבֹּרִ֖ים סָבִ֣יב לָ֑הּ מִגִּבֹּרֵ֖י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ כֻּלָּם֙ אֲחֻ֣זֵי חֶ֔רֶב מְלֻמְּדֵ֖י מִלְחָמָ֑ה אִ֤ישׁ חַרְבּוֹ֙ עַל־יְרֵכ֔וֹ מִפַּ֖חַד בַּלֵּילּֽוֹת׃ אַפִּרְי֗וֹן עָ֤שָׂה לוֹ֙ הַמֶּ֣לֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹ֔ה מֵעֲצֵ֖י הַלְּבָנֽוֹן׃ עַמּוּדָיו֙ עָ֣שָׂה כֶ֔סֶף רְפִידָת֣וֹ זָהָ֔ב מֶרְכָּב֖וֹ אַרְגָּמָ֑ן תּוֹכוֹ֙ רָצ֣וּף אַהֲבָ֔ה מִבְּנ֖וֹת יְרוּשָׁלָֽ͏ִם׃ צְאֶ֧ינָה ׀ וּֽרְאֶ֛ינָה בְּנ֥וֹת צִיּ֖וֹן בַּמֶּ֣לֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹ֑ה בָּעֲטָרָ֗ה שֶׁעִטְּרָה־לּ֤וֹ אִמּוֹ֙ בְּי֣וֹם חֲתֻנָּת֔וֹ וּבְי֖וֹם שִׂמְחַ֥ת לִבּֽוֹ׃
Its posts he made of silver, its back of gold, its seat of purple, its interior inlaid with love by (or: from) the daughters of Jerusalem (v. 10)
Hebrew numbering: Song 3:6–11.
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant? Behold his bed, which is Solomon’s; threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel. They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night. King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon. He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem. Go forth, O ye 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.
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.
Qui est celle qui monte du désert, comme une colonne de fumée sortant de l’encens et de la myrrhe, et de toutes les poudres dont se composent les parfums? Voilà la couche de Salomon; soixante vaillants des forts d’Israël sont rangés en cercle autour d’elle. Tous exercés aux combats, ils ont l’épée au côté, pour en écarter les terreurs de la nuit. Le roi Salomon s’est fait un lit de cèdres du Liban. Les montants en sont d’argent, et le siège d’or; le marchepied est de porphyre, et l’intérieur est pavé de pierres précieuses, amour des filles de Jérusalem. Filles de Sion, sortez, contemplez le roi Salomon avec la couronne que lui a posée sa mère le jour de son mariage, le jour de la joie de son cœur.
Greek (digital file) numbering: Song 3:6–11. 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
Appiryon occurs only here. Proposals: from Greek phoreion (litter), which would suggest Hellenistic-period vocabulary; from Persian or Sanskrit words for a palanquin or pavilion. Unresolved.
3:10: "its interior inlaid (ratsuf) with love (ahavah)." Love as inlay is odd; proposals include emending to "ebony" or reading a homonym meaning "leather." The Greek's lithostroton ("stone pavement") and the Vulgate's "spread with charity" are construals. The NET Bible notes discuss the options.
3:11 is the only mention of a wedding day in the Song. The Mishnah (Ta'anit 4:8) reads "the day of his espousals" as the giving of the Torah and "the day of the gladness of his heart" as the building of the temple.
What the evidence shows
- Appiryon is of uncertain origin.
- The library's Greek reads "paved with stones" in 3:10.
- Mishnah Ta'anit 4:8 reads 3:11 of Sinai and the temple. C check.
Sources
Related lessons
- Song of Songs 3: The Night Search and the Royal Procession →By night on her bed she seeks "him whom my soul loveth" and does not find him; she rises, goes about the city, asks the watchmen, and just past them finds him and brings him to her mother's house (3:1–4). The refrain returns (v. 5). Then a new scene: something comes up from the wilderness "like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense" (v. 6): Solomon's litter, guarded by sixty mighty men (vv. 7–8), made of cedar of Lebanon, silver, gold and purple, "paved with love" by the daughters of Jerusalem (vv. 9–10). The daughters of Zion are called to see King Solomon wearing the crown his mother gave him "in the day of his espousals" (v. 11).
- Investigation: Who Wrote the Song? →The heading reads "the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's," and Solomon is named six more times. Jewish and Christian tradition long held that Solomon wrote it. The Hebrew phrase can also mean "for" or "about" Solomon; the language has late features; the voice that dominates the poem is a woman's. This investigation separates the heading, the royal imagery, the date of the language, and the question of a woman's authorship.
- Investigation: The Greek Song and Its Translators →The Greek Song (Asma asmaton) is a close, word-for-word translation. Its differences from the Masoretic Text are usually differences of reading the same consonants ("your breasts" for "your love"), of translating names as words (Tirzah as "good pleasure"), or of interpretation. Later Greek versions (Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion) survive in fragments. This investigation lists the main differences found in the library's Greek and explains what kind each is.