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Song of Songs 6:11–12

The chariots of Ammi-nadib

One of the most obscure verses in the Bible: "Or ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib." The Masoretic Text writes two words, ammi-nadiv ("my people, noble" or "my noble kinsman"); the library's Greek and the Vulgate read one name, Aminadab. Modern versions differ widely, and the verse should stay visibly uncertain. 4Q106 is reported to resume at 6:11.

Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording

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 preserve parts of chapters 3–4 and 6–7 and to pass from 4:7 to 6:11 without 4:8–6:10 (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).

    Descendi in hortum nucum, ut viderem poma convallium, et inspicerem si floruisset vinea, et germinassent mala punica. Nescivi: anima mea conturbavit me, propter quadrigas Aminadab.

    Latin numbering: Song 6:10–11. Jerome translated the Song from Hebrew (c. AD 390s); the Clementine edition prints the title outside the verses and joins English 1:1-2.

  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.

    אֶל־גִּנַּ֤ת אֱגוֹז֙ יָרַ֔דְתִּי לִרְא֖וֹת בְּאִבֵּ֣י הַנָּ֑חַל לִרְאוֹת֙ הֲפָֽרְחָ֣ה הַגֶּ֔פֶן הֵנֵ֖צוּ הָרִמֹּנִֽים׃ לֹ֣א יָדַ֔עְתִּי נַפְשִׁ֣י שָׂמַ֔תְנִי מַרְכְּב֖וֹת עַמִּי־נָדִֽיב׃

    I did not know; my soul (desire) set me (in/as) the chariots of ammi-nadib (my noble people?)

    Hebrew numbering: Song 6:11–12.

  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).

    I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished, and the pomegranates budded. Or ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib.

  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.

    Je suis descendu au jardin des noyers, pour voir les fruits du vallon; si la vigne est en fleur, et si les grenades sont fleuries. Là je te donnerai mes mamelles. Mon âme n’a rien su, et j’ai été comme emportée par les chars d’Aminadab.

    Greek (digital file) numbering: Song 6:10–11. 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. The file's 6:11 also contains words from Hebrew 7:13 ("Là je te donnerai mes mamelles"), a Greek plus or misplacement to check.

What changed, and why

Possible senses: "Before I knew it, my desire set me in the chariots of my noble people"; "…among the chariots of my people as a prince"; "…beside my prince." The speaker (man or woman) is unclear.

Aminadab (Greek, Latin) is a known name: Nahshon's father (Numbers 1:7; Ruth 4:19–20). Reading a name produces the "chariots of Aminadab," a phrase that later Christian allegory made famous (the four Gospels as chariot wheels, in some medieval writers).

The NET Bible lists several possible translations; none is certain.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe Masoretic Text divides ammi-nadiv; Greek and Latin read Aminadab.
  • Independently documentedThe meaning of 6:12 is uncertain.
  • Strongly supported4Q106 resumes at 6:11. Reported; C check.

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Song of Songs 6: Beautiful as Tirzah, Terrible as an Army →The daughters ask where her beloved has gone; she knows: "My beloved is gone down into his garden… I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine" (6:1–3). He praises her: "beautiful… as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners"; her eyes overwhelm him; he repeats the praise of hair, teeth and temples from chapter 4 (vv. 4–7). "There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number. My dove, my undefiled is but one"; even queens praise her: "Who is she that looketh forth as the morning?" (vv. 8–10). Someone goes down to the nut orchard to see the blossoms, and then a famously obscure line about "the chariots of Amminadib" (vv. 11–12). "Return, return, O Shulamite… What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies" (v. 13; Hebrew 7:1).
    • 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.
    • 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.)