The Song of Songs: Translation and Notes

Our translation of the Song of Songs attempts to adhere as closely as possible to the Hebrew text. As such, we follow the lead set by Everett Fox, most prominently, in his approach to translation. In addition, we have attempted to utilize common English words to render common Hebrew words and rare English words to render rare Hebrew words (see notes h and ac, for example). We also follow Fox’s lead in our representation of proper names. Throughout this volume we have used standard English forms for proper names (Gilead, Lebanon, Solomon, etc.). In our translation, however, we have opted for a closer representation of the Hebrew (i.e., Masoretic) forms (Gilʿad, Levanon, Shelomo, etc.). We further believe that the Masoretic paragraphing should be indicated in an English translation, and thus we have done so in our presentation of the text. While we consider (with most scholars) the Aleppo Codex to be the most authoritative witness to the biblical text, in this case we are encumbered by the fact that only Song 1:1–3:11 is preserved in the extant part of the Aleppo Codex. Accordingly, we have elected to follow the paragraphing system of the Leningrad Codex. Setuma breaks are indicated by an extra blank line. The sole petuh a break in the book, after 8:10, is indicated by two blank lines. The Aleppo Codex, as preserved, has petuh a breaks after 1:4 and 1:8, whereas the Leningrad Codex has setuma breaks in these two places. As for the remaining part of the Song of Songs in the “Aleppo tradition,” we note a difference of opinions by the editors responsible for the two major publications of the Aleppo Codex at one place. Mordecai Breuer (Torah, Neviʾim, Ketuvim [Jerusalem: Mosad Ha-Rav Kook, 1989], גש) indicates a setuma break after 4:11, which is also reflected in the Leningrad Codex; the Keter Yerushalayim volume (notwithstanding its nod to Breuer on the title page) has no break of any sort at this juncture (737/זלשת). We also have introduced different fonts in our translation to reflect the different characters present in the Song of Songs, as follows: