Song of Songs 5 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Each card keeps the independently rendered source readings above their shared comparison and reception notes. The badge records the source’s governing classification; disparate readings are marked in red. Each reading retains its original reference.
Chapter 5
The absent beloved and his beauty
Hebrew source [BHS5] • Greek source [LXX5]
Verse 5:1 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:1] I have come into my garden, my sister, bride;
I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;
I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, companions;
drink and become drunk, lovers!
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:1] I entered my garden, my sister, bride;
I gathered my myrrh with my spices. I ate my bread with my honey;
I drank my wine with my milk. Eat, companions, and drink and become drunk, brothers!
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek has bread in place of honeycomb and brothers in place of lovers. The invitation's force is retained without adding a general rule about drinking.
Verse 5:2 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:2] I sleep, but my heart is awake. The voice of my beloved knocking! Open to me, my sister, my companion, my dove, my perfect one, for my head is filled with dew, my locks with the drops of night.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:2] I sleep, but my heart keeps watch. The voice of my kinsman—he knocks upon the door! Open to me, my sister, my companion, my dove, my perfect one, for my head is filled with dew and my curls with the drops of night.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek makes the door explicit. The sleeping yet wakeful scene is not assigned a definite dream framework beyond what the text says.
Verse 5:3 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:3] I have taken off my tunic;
how could I put it on? I have washed my feet;
how could I soil them?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:3] I took off my tunic;
how could I put it on? I washed my feet;
how could I soil them?
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The paired questions agree.
Verse 5:4 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:4] My beloved reached his hand through the opening, and my inward parts stirred for him.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:4] My kinsman extended his hand from the opening, and my belly was stirred for him.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Both use bodily language for the response. The prepositions are retained; no particular door mechanism or further action is supplied.
Verse 5:5 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:5] I rose to open to my beloved;
my hands dripped myrrh, my fingers flowing myrrh, upon the handles of the bolt.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:5] I rose to open to my kinsman;
my hands dripped myrrh, my fingers rich myrrh, upon the handles of the bolt.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew flowing myrrh corresponds to Greek full or rich myrrh. Handles renders the bodily term hands applied to the fastening.
Verse 5:6 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:6] I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had slipped away, gone. My soul went out when he spoke. I sought him but did not find him;
I called him, but he did not answer me.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:6] I opened to my kinsman;
my kinsman had gone. My soul went out at his word. I sought him but did not find him;
I called him, but he did not answer me.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Hebrew has two departure verbs; Greek one. My soul went out is retained as the poem's expression rather than changed to a definite claim of death or fainting.
Verse 5:7 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:7] The watchmen going around the city found me;
they struck me, they wounded me. The guards of the walls took my mantle from me.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:7] The guards going around the city found me;
they struck me, they wounded me. The guards of the walls took my light covering from me.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Both preserve the violence against the speaker. Greek theristron specifies a light covering; no moral justification of the assault is inserted.
Verse 5:8 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:8] I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem: if you find my beloved, what will you tell him? That I am sick with love.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:8] I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and by the strengths of the field: if you find my kinsman, what will you tell him? That I am wounded by love.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek adds the powers-and-strengths oath found in its earlier refrains. Sick and wounded retain the distinction at 2:5.
Verse 5:9 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:9] What is your beloved more than another beloved, most beautiful among women? What is your beloved more than another beloved, that you have adjured us this way?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:9] What is your kinsman more than another kinsman, beautiful among women? What is your kinsman more than another kinsman, that you have adjured us this way?
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The repeated comparison agrees while retaining the beloved–kinsman vocabulary.
Verse 5:10 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:10] My beloved is radiant and ruddy, distinguished among ten thousand.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:10] My kinsman is white and ruddy, selected from myriads.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek explicitly has white and plural myriads; Hebrew has radiant or dazzling and a singular ten thousand. The imagery is not applied to modern racial categories.
Verse 5:11 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:11] His head is gold, refined gold;
his locks are waving, black as a raven.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:11] His head is gold and phaz;
his curls are fir trees, black as a raven,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek retains phaz as an untranslated term corresponding to refined gold and makes the locks fir trees. Hebrew taltallim is difficult; waving locks is provisional.
Verse 5:12 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:12] His eyes are like doves beside channels of water, bathed in milk, seated in a full setting.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:12] his eyes are like doves beside full waters, bathed in milk, seated beside full waters,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek repeats full waters. Hebrew's final al millet is difficult; full setting retains a possible jewel-setting image without declaring it certain. Both grammatically attach the bathing imagery to the doves or eyes.
Verse 5:13 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:13] His cheeks are like a bed of spices, towers of aromatic herbs;
his lips are lilies dripping flowing myrrh.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:13] his cheeks are like bowls of spice growing fragrant substances;
his lips are lilies dripping rich myrrh,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew has a spice bed and, as pointed, towers; Greek has bowls and growing aromatics. The unusual Hebrew tower image is not silently repointed to growing.
Verse 5:14 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:14] His hands are rods of gold set with tarshish stone;
his belly is polished ivory overlaid with sappir stones.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:14] his hands are sculpted gold filled with tharsis;
his belly is an ivory tablet upon sapphire stone,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: The body images and placement of precious materials differ. Tarshish/tharsis and sappir are ancient stone names with uncertain modern identifications; Greek sappheiros is conventionally sapphire but need not mean modern corundum.
Verse 5:15 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:15] His legs are pillars of alabaster founded upon bases of refined gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as the cedars.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:15] his legs are marble pillars founded upon golden bases;
his appearance is like Lebanon, choice as cedars,
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Hebrew shesh is provisionally alabaster; Greek explicitly describes marble. The architectural image and Lebanon comparison agree.
Verse 5:16 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:16] His palate is sweetness, and all of him is desirable. This is my beloved, and this is my companion, daughters of Jerusalem.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:16] his throat is sweetness, and all of him is desire. This is my kinsman, and this is my companion, daughters of Jerusalem.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The bodily term is palate in Hebrew, throat in Greek. Both end with the speaker's identification and address.