Song of Songs 8:5–7
"Love is strong as death": the seal and shalhevetyah
The summit of the Song: "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 (shalhevetyah). Many waters cannot quench love." Shalhevetyah may be "a flame of Yah (the LORD)" or a superlative, "a mighty flame"; the library's Greek and the Vulgate have no divine name; the KJV took the superlative. The word may also have been written as two words in one medieval Masoretic tradition (reported).
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).
Quæ est ista quæ ascendit de deserto, deliciis affluens, innixa super dilectum suum? Sub arbore malo suscitavi te; ibi corrupta est mater tua, ibi violata est genitrix tua. Pone me ut signaculum super cor tuum, ut signaculum super brachium tuum, quia fortis est ut mors dilectio, dura sicut infernus æmulatio: lampades ejus lampades ignis atque flammarum. Aquæ multæ non potuerunt extinguere caritatem, nec flumina obruent illam. Si dederit homo omnem substantiam domus suæ pro dilectione, quasi nihil despiciet eam.
Latin numbering: Song 8:5–7. 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 מִתְרַפֶּ֖קֶת עַל־דּוֹדָ֑הּ תַּ֤חַת הַתַּפּ֙וּחַ֙ עֽוֹרַרְתִּ֔יךָ שָׁ֚מָּה חִבְּלַ֣תְךָ אִמֶּ֔ךָ שָׁ֖מָּה חִבְּלָ֥ה יְלָדַֽתְךָ׃ שִׂימֵ֨נִי כַֽחוֹתָ֜ם עַל־לִבֶּ֗ךָ כַּֽחוֹתָם֙ עַל־זְרוֹעֶ֔ךָ כִּֽי־עַזָּ֤ה כַמָּ֙וֶת֙ אַהֲבָ֔ה קָשָׁ֥ה כִשְׁא֖וֹל קִנְאָ֑ה רְשָׁפֶ֕יהָ רִשְׁפֵּ֕י אֵ֖שׁ שַׁלְהֶ֥בֶתְיָֽה׃ מַ֣יִם רַבִּ֗ים לֹ֤א יֽוּכְלוּ֙ לְכַבּ֣וֹת אֶת־הָֽאַהֲבָ֔ה וּנְהָר֖וֹת לֹ֣א יִשְׁטְפ֑וּהָ אִם־יִתֵּ֨ן אִ֜ישׁ אֶת־כָּל־ה֤וֹן בֵּיתוֹ֙ בָּאַהֲבָ֔ה בּ֖וֹז יָב֥וּזוּ לֽוֹ׃
Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm, for love is strong as death, passion hard as Sheol; its flashes are flashes of fire, a flame of Yah / a mighty flame (v. 6)
Hebrew numbering: Song 8:5–7.
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 up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth that bare thee. Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: 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, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.
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.
Quelle est celle qui se lève blanche comme l’aubépine, appuyée sur son frère bien-aimé (époux)? Je t’ai réveillée sous un pommier (4); c’est là que ta mère t’a enfantée; c’est là que t’a enfantée celle qui t’a conçu. Mets-moi comme un sceau sur ton cœur, et comme un sceau sur ton bras. Car l’amour est fort comme la mort, et la jalousie est cruelle comme l’enfer; ses traits sont des traits de feu, ce sont ses flammes. Des torrents d’eau ne pourront point éteindre l’amour, ni les fleuves le submerger. Si un homme donne toute sa vie par amour, les autres hommes auront pour lui le dernier mépris.
Greek (digital file) numbering: Song 8:5–7. 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
Grammar: -yah as the divine name (as in Halleluyah) or as an intensifier, compare merchavyah (Psalm 118:5) and ma'pelyah (Jeremiah 2:31). Both readings add intensity; only the first names God.
Witnesses: Leningrad Codex one word; Greek "its flames"; Vulgate "lamps of fire and flames"; KJV "a most vehement flame"; NRSV/ESV "a raging flame" with "the flame of the LORD" in the margin; NET discusses both.
8:5: the library's Greek has "coming up made white" (leleukanthismene) for "from the wilderness," and the Vulgate adds "flowing with delights" (deliciis affluens). Each is a Greek or Latin plus.
What the evidence shows
- Shalhevetyah contains the divine name.
- The library's Greek and the Vulgate have no divine name in 8:6.
- A medieval Masoretic tradition wrote shalhevet yah as two words. Reported; C check (S-C02).
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: Love Stronger Than Death →"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 (shalhevetyah). Many waters cannot quench love." These verses are the Song's summit. They also contain its most debated word: shalhevetyah, which may be "a flame of Yah (the LORD)" or simply "a mighty flame." This investigation examines the grammar, the manuscripts, the translations and the imagery of death, Sheol, flame and flood.
- 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.