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Journey of a Passage

Song of Songs 4:8

Lebanon, Amana, Senir and Hermon

"Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse… look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards." Lebanon and Hermon are secure; Senir is Hermon's Amorite name (Deuteronomy 3:9); Amana is uncertain. The library's Greek reads Amana as a word ("faith," amanah); the Vulgate reads tashuri ("look") as "you will be crowned." 4Q106 is reported to lack this verse (its text passes from 4:7 to 6:11).

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
Hebrew
  1. The poem as first composedUnknown (proposals from the 10th to the 3rd century BC)
  2. 4Q106 (4QCant-a), Qumran Cave 4late 1st century BC – 1st century AD (reported)Descends, through lost copies, from The poem as first composed
  3. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The poem as first composed
Greek
  1. Greek Song of Songs (library: Giguet's French)Greek translation 1st century BC – 1st century AD (debated); French 1872Translated from the Greek Song (Asma)
Latin
  1. Latin Vulgate (Clementine)Jerome c. AD 390s, from Hebrew; edition 1592Translated from the Hebrew text Jerome used
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. Unknown (proposals from the 10th to the 3rd century BC)

    The poem as first composed

    – No copy survives

    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).

  2. late 1st century BC – 1st century AD (reported)

    4Q106 (4QCant-a), Qumran Cave 4

    ⓘ Reports what manuscripts containedDescends, through lost copies, from The poem as first composed

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    Reported to pass from 4:7 directly to 6:11, so this verse is absent (Tov 1995). Exact text: C check against DJD XVI / DJD III (S-C04).

  3. Jerome c. AD 390s, from Hebrew; edition 1592

    Latin Vulgate (Clementine)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Hebrew text Jerome used

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    Veni de Libano, sponsa mea: veni de Libano, veni, coronaberis: de capite Amana, de vertice Sanir et Hermon, de cubilibus leonum, de montibus pardorum.

    Latin numbering: Song 4:8. Jerome translated the Song from Hebrew (c. AD 390s); the Clementine edition prints the title outside the verses and joins English 1:1-2.

  4. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The poem as first composed

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    אִתִּ֤י מִלְּבָנוֹן֙ כַּלָּ֔ה אִתִּ֖י מִלְּבָנ֣וֹן תָּב֑וֹאִי תָּשׁ֣וּרִי ׀ מֵרֹ֣אשׁ אֲמָנָ֗ה מֵרֹ֤אשׁ שְׂנִיר֙ וְחֶרְמ֔וֹן מִמְּעֹנ֣וֹת אֲרָי֔וֹת מֵֽהַרְרֵ֖י נְמֵרִֽים׃

    With me from Lebanon, bride, with me from Lebanon come; look down from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the dens of lions, from the mountains of leopards

    Hebrew numbering: Song 4:8.

  5. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.

  6. Greek translation 1st century BC – 1st century AD (debated); French 1872

    Greek Song of Songs (library: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Greek Song (Asma)

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    Viens du Liban, mon épouse, viens du Liban; tu iras du puits du serment aux cimes de Sanir et d’Hermon, des antres des lions aux montagnes des panthères.

    Greek (digital file) numbering: Song 4:8. 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

Tashuri can mean "look down" or "travel down" (from shur); the Vulgate's coronaberis reflects a different derivation (ashurah, "crown"?).

The library's Greek (Giguet: "tu iras du puits du serment") reflects Greek apo arches pisteos, "from the beginning of faith," reading amanah (faith, pact).

Mountains with lions and leopards: a remote, dangerous height from which he calls her down to safety, or a fantastic landscape. Not a literal hike.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe Greek and Latin read Amana and tashuri as words.
  • Strongly supported4Q106 lacks 4:8–6:10. Reported by Tov; C check.
  • Not independently verifiedAmana is securely located.

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Song of Songs 4: A Garden Enclosed →The man praises the woman from head to breast in a sequence of images: dove's eyes behind her veil, hair like goats streaming down Gilead, teeth like shorn ewes, lips like scarlet thread, temples like pomegranate halves, a neck like David's tower hung with shields, breasts like twin fawns; "thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee" (4:1–7). He calls her from Lebanon, Amana, Senir and Hermon, from the dens of lions (v. 8). She has "ravished" his heart with one glance (v. 9); her love is better than wine, her lips drip honey (vv. 10–11). She is "a garden inclosed… a spring shut up, a fountain sealed," an orchard of pomegranates and every spice (vv. 12–15). She answers: "Awake, O north wind… Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits" (v. 16).
    • 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 at Qumran →Four manuscripts of the Song were found at Qumran: three in Cave 4 (4Q106–108) and one in Cave 6 (6Q6). They are the oldest copies of the book, from around the turn of the eras. Two of them seem to lack whole passages that the Masoretic Text has, raising the question whether they are abbreviated texts or witnesses to a different edition. (Note: 4Q109 is Ecclesiastes, not the Song.)
    • 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.