Song of Songs 8:11–12
Solomon's vineyard at Baal-hamon
"Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver. My vineyard, which is mine, is before me." The Vulgate translates both names ("the peaceful one had a vineyard in that which has peoples"); Baal-hamon is otherwise unknown.
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).
Vinea fuit pacifico in ea quæ habet populos: tradidit eam custodibus; vir affert pro fructu ejus mille argenteos. Vinea mea coram me est. Mille tui pacifici, et ducenti his qui custodiunt fructus ejus.
Latin numbering: Song 8:11–12. 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.
כֶּ֣רֶם הָיָ֤ה לִשְׁלֹמֹה֙ בְּבַ֣עַל הָמ֔וֹן נָתַ֥ן אֶת־הַכֶּ֖רֶם לַנֹּטְרִ֑ים אִ֛ישׁ יָבִ֥א בְּפִרְי֖וֹ אֶ֥לֶף כָּֽסֶף׃ כַּרְמִ֥י שֶׁלִּ֖י לְפָנָ֑י הָאֶ֤לֶף לְךָ֙ שְׁלֹמֹ֔ה וּמָאתַ֖יִם לְנֹטְרִ֥ים אֶת־פִּרְיֽוֹ׃
My vineyard, my very own, is before me; the thousand are yours, Solomon, and two hundred for those who keep its fruit (v. 12)
Hebrew numbering: Song 8:11–12.
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
Solomon had a vineyard at Baal–hamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver. My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.
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.
(Époux) Salomon avait une vigne en Béelamon; il a donné sa vigne à ceux qui la gardent; chacun rendra de ses fruits mille sicles d’argent. Ma vigne est à moi; elle est devant mes yeux; que Salomon en ait mille sicles; que ceux qui gardent ses fruits en aient deux cents.
Greek (digital file) numbering: Song 8:11–12. 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
Solomon's vineyard is wealth leased for profit; "my vineyard, which is mine" (compare 1:6) is the speaker's own self, not for rent. With 8:7 (love cannot be bought), the passage sets free love against royal wealth.
Speaker: often the woman (her vineyard, as in 1:6); some assign it to the man.
Baal-hamon ("lord of a multitude") has no secure location; the site does not pin it.
What the evidence shows
- The Vulgate translates the names Solomon and Baal-hamon.
- Baal-hamon can be located.
Sources
Related lessons
- Song of Songs 8: Love Is Strong as Death →She wishes he were like a brother so she could kiss him in public without scorn, and bring him to her mother's house (8:1–2); the embrace and the refrain return (vv. 3–4). "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?"; she awakened him under the apple tree where his mother bore him (v. 5). Then the summit of the book: "Set me as a seal upon thine heart… for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love… if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned" (vv. 6–7). Brothers discuss their little sister; she answers that she is a wall and has found peace (vv. 8–10). Solomon's vineyard at Baal-hamon is let out for a thousand pieces of silver; "my vineyard, which is mine, is before me" (vv. 11–12). The book ends: "Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices" (vv. 13–14).
- 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: 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.