Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
Our little tour through the NIV 84 translation of the Bible, looking at verses containing the words 'Heart/Hearts' has brought us to the very PG13-rated book of Song of Songs. Or Song of Solomon. Or Canticles...all depends on your translation. A dialog between the Lover and his Beloved, mostly from the viewpoint of the Beloved, with commentary by a Chorus. Was this a performance piece? The Lover is implied to be Solomon in the last part of chapter 3 and named as such in the closing verses of the book; whilst the Beloved is referred to only as the Shulammite at the end of Chapter 6.
I have known that the book of Esther does not mention God; I thought it was the only book in the Bible that didn't. But, unless I missed it as I read through, there's no mention of God in Song of Songs, either. All the hearts mentioned are human hearts, with human concepts.
The first mention of 'heart' is in chapter 3, and it's a whole little passage:
All night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves; I looked for him but did not find him. I will get up now and go about the city, through its streets and squares; I will search for the one my heart loves. So I looked for him but did not find him. The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. "have you seen the one my heart loves?" Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him to my mother's house, to the room of the one who conceived me. -- SoS 3:1 - 4; all instances of 'heart' are Strong's H 5315 - nepes - soul, self, life, creature, person, appetite, mind, living being, desire, emotion, passion. KJV uses the word 'soul' instead of 'heart'.
I wondered what word we would see used in Songs for 'heart', as this is talking about human love. Notes in my NIV indicate that the Beloved is the one speaking here, which makes sense. We'll see if this same word repeats in the other 5 references I found. Not surprising that the word used is associated with 'desire, emotion, passion'. I may just list out all the verses and then see if that pattern continues before making any observations, lol
Come out, you daughters of Zion, and look at King Solomon wearing the crown, the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, the day his heart rejoiced. -- SoS 3:11, 'heart' here is H 3820, Leb - inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding.
This is not a reference to romance or desire but happiness, so I'm not surprised that the word used is the the most common word translated 'heart'. I don't have any notes indicating who is speaking here, but it looks like it might be the chorus, describing either Solomon's coronation or his wedding or maybe a combination of the two. It was a good day for Solomon, that we know.
Solomon is speaking in the next verse:
You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace. -- SoS 4:9: bot instances of 'heart' is the word I have been waiting to find, H 3823, labab , which is the primitive root from which H3824 and H3820 are derived. It's actually a verb; meaning to ravish, become intelligent, get a mind The Piel tense for the verb is listed as meaning to ravish the heart, encourage, make heart beat faster.
I wondered when (and if) we would encounter that Hebrew word. It's only in 4 verses in the whole Old Testament; and this is the only verse in which it it translated as 'heart', which is not surprising, given the wide range of meanings it has (twice translated as 'made cakes' and once as 'be wise').
She gave Solomon the honey glow, no doubt about it.
Oh, I was going to hold comments till the end, wasn't I?
Onward...
I slept but my heart was awake. Listen! My lover is knocking: "Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one. My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night." -- SoS 5:2; 'heart' is H 3820 again. Not the 'desire, emotion, passion', but the 'inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding'. She was drowsy and not really interested in getting up to let him in. Of course, once she herself was fully awake, she was, but by that time he'd gotten discouraged and left.
My lover thrust his hand through the latch-opening; my heart began to pound for him.... I opened for my lover, but my lover had left; he was gone. My heart sank at his departure. I looked for him but did not find him. I called him but he did not answer. -- SoS 5:4, 6; 'heart' is H 4578 - mee - internal organs, inward parts, bowels, intestines, belly in the first occurrence, and H 5315 again in the second. It's an interesting translation...that 'dynamic equivalency' is going for what we would say in a similar situation now...if I'm reading the lexicon right, the actual translation is closer to my belly began to growl. Doesn't carry the same connotation now. In any case, she was ready to open that door...and the moment was lost, because he was gone.
I do have a marginal reading that translates the phrase in verse 6 as 'My heart had gone out to him when he spoke', which is somewhat different than what is listed in the main text. The actual verb is H 1696 - dabar - to speak, declare, converse, command, promise, warn, threaten, sing, although the Hiphil tense does imply to lead away, put to flight so that may be why we have the translation that's listed, although I have to say the marginal note makes more sense to me. Especially since 'heart' there is Nepes and we're looking at 'desire, emotion, passion' at that point.
One more verse to consider.
Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. - -SoS 8:6; 'Heart' is H 3820 once more. the word 'seal' is H 2368 - hotam: seal, signet, signet-ring.
That's a new thought for me; I'd always thought of 'seal' in that verse like, you know, Tupperware or something. Seal it in. But, no...it's 'seal' , like, official mark of ownership or authority.
I had a whole little thing I wanted to say about Song of Songs in general, but I have said it in other places at other times and that's not really on topic for this series; in this series, I'm looking at 'heart' and how it's used, so, my opinion on Song of Solomon will have to wait for a more opportune moment. I will just say that, yes, it is a lovely description of marital love and leave it there. I will be good.
So, back on topic, we have four different words for 'heart' in Song of Songs ... three nouns; one dealing with the heart: inner man, one dealing with the desire or passion, and one dealing with, paraphrasing, the gut... and one verb, making the heart beat faster. Pretty much covers the emotional range here as we see how the heart is involved in a marriage.
We have officially finished the books of poetry...the Writings. It's been exactly 11 months to the day since my first post on Job. I am going to have to adjust to the Prophets, lol. Next week, being July 4th, probably will not see a post so we'll jump in to Isaiah when the festivities are behind us.
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