Song of Songs 8:8–10
The little sister: wall or door?
"We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts": the brothers plan for the day she is "spoken for": if a wall, silver battlements; if a door, cedar boards. She answers: "I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour (shalom)." The witnesses agree; Giguet's French inserts "(l'épouse)" as a speaker label.
Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning
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 this verse · ▢ 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).
Soror nostra parva, et ubera non habet; quid faciemus sorori nostræ in die quando alloquenda est? Si murus est, ædificemus super eum propugnacula argentea; si ostium est, compingamus illud tabulis cedrinis. Ego murus, et ubera mea sicut turris, ex quo facta sum coram eo, quasi pacem reperiens.
Latin numbering: Song 8:8–10. 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.
אָח֥וֹת לָ֙נוּ֙ קְטַנָּ֔ה וְשָׁדַ֖יִם אֵ֣ין לָ֑הּ מַֽה־נַּעֲשֶׂה֙ לַאֲחֹתֵ֔נוּ בַּיּ֖וֹם שֶׁיְּדֻבַּר־בָּֽהּ׃ אִם־חוֹמָ֣ה הִ֔יא נִבְנֶ֥ה עָלֶ֖יהָ טִ֣ירַת כָּ֑סֶף וְאִם־דֶּ֣לֶת הִ֔יא נָצ֥וּר עָלֶ֖יהָ ל֥וּחַ אָֽרֶז׃ אֲנִ֣י חוֹמָ֔ה וְשָׁדַ֖י כַּמִּגְדָּל֑וֹת אָ֛ז הָיִ֥יתִי בְעֵינָ֖יו כְּמוֹצְאֵ֥ת שָׁלֽוֹם׃
I am a wall, and my breasts like towers; then I was in his eyes as one finding peace (shalom) (v. 10)
Hebrew numbering: Song 8:8–10.
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she be a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar. I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour.
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.
Notre sœur est petite, et n’a point de mamelles; que ferons-nous pour notre sœur, le jour où je viendrai lui parler? Si elle est un mur, couronnons-la de créneaux d’argent; si elle est une porte, incrustons-la de bois de cèdre. Moi (l’épouse) je suis un mur, et mes mamelles sont comme des tours; et j’ai été à leurs yeux comme ayant trouvé la paix.
Greek (digital file) numbering: Song 8:8–10. 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
Wall (resistant, chaste) and door (open) are opposite images; the brothers will protect or restrict accordingly. Compare the brothers' control in 1:6.
Her answer asserts her maturity and self-possession; "shalom" may pun on Solomon (Shelomoh) and the Shulammite.
No age is given; the passage is about family authority and a young woman's voice, not a rule about women's bodies.
What the evidence shows
- The witnesses agree on 8:8–10.
- 8:8–10 gives the sister's age.
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: The Daughters of Jerusalem and the Watchmen →The woman speaks to a group of women, "the daughters of Jerusalem," throughout the Song, and twice goes into the city at night to search for her beloved. The first time the watchmen pass her by; the second time they beat her and take her cloak. This investigation looks at public and private space for women, the watchmen, and how to read the violent scene honestly.