Song of Songs 8 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: 8:5, 8:6
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 8
Love, the seal and the final call
Hebrew source [BHS8] • Greek source [LXX8]
Verse 8:1 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:1] If only you were like a brother to me, one who nursed at my mother's breasts! If I found you outside, I would kiss you, and no one would despise me.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:1] Who might make you my kinsman, nursing at my mother's breasts? Finding you outside, I will kiss you, and indeed they will not despise me.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Hebrew explicitly says like a brother; Greek uses its recurring kinsman term without like. The imagined kinship permits unashamed public affection in the poem; it is not presented as an existing sibling relationship.
Verse 8:2 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:2] I would lead you, bring you into my mother's house;
she would teach me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, the juice of my pomegranate.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:2] I will take you, bring you into my mother's house and into the chamber of the one who conceived me. I will give you spiced wine to drink, the juice of my pomegranates.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek has the maternal chamber instead of Hebrew she would teach me. Hebrew tellammedeni may alternatively be addressed to the beloved as you would teach me; the feminine subject mother is chosen provisionally. Greek has plural pomegranates.
Verse 8:3 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:3] His left hand is beneath my head, and his right hand embraces me.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:3] His left hand is beneath my head, and his right hand will embrace me.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The earlier embrace returns, with the Greek future retained.
Verse 8:4 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:4] I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem: why awaken or stir up love before it wishes?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:4] I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and by the strengths of the field: why awaken or stir up love before it wishes?
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek adds the oath by powers and strengths absent here from Hebrew. Both use why in this refrain, unlike the earlier elliptical if construction.
Verse 8:5 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:5] Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? Beneath the apple tree I awakened you. There your mother labored with you;
there she who bore you labored.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:5] Who is this coming up, made white, leaning upon her kinsman? Beneath the apple tree I awakened you. There your mother labored with you;
there she who bore you labored.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Greek has made white and lacks from the wilderness. The repeated birth-labor wording agrees. No baptismal or ethnic explanation replaces the Greek image. Saints reception: Ambrose, On the Mysteries 7.35, connects this made-white wording with the Church’s baptismal renewal. That interpretation is recorded separately from both translation columns. [AMB]
Verse 8:6 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:6] Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy unyielding as Sheol. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a flame of Yah.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:6] Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy harsh as Hades. Its wings are wings of fire, its flames.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew shalhevet-yah is provisionally read flame of Yah, preserving the shortened divine name; an intensive mighty flame is an alternative. Greek does not name God and uses wings rather than flashes. The difficult fire-and-wings image is not harmonized to Hebrew. Sheol and Hades retain the respective underworld terms.
Verse 8:7 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:7] Many waters cannot quench love, nor can rivers sweep it away. If a man gave all the wealth of his house for love, he would be utterly despised.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:7] Much water will not be able to quench love, nor will rivers flood it. If a man gave all his livelihood for love, they would utterly despise him.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek livelihood corresponds broadly to Hebrew household wealth. Both retain the emphatic contempt rather than treating love as purchasable.
Verse 8:8 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:8] We have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:8] We have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day someone speaks concerning her?
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The Hebrew marriage-related sense spoken for is contextual; Greek's more general expression is retained. The line describes the family deliberation without adding an event or age.
Verse 8:9 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:9] If she is a wall, we will build a silver battlement upon her;
if she is a door, we will enclose her with a cedar plank.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:9] If she is a wall, let us build silver battlements upon her;
and if she is a door, let us mark out a cedar plank upon her.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek has plural battlements and a verb of drawing or marking out where Hebrew has enclosing. Mark out is provisional for diagrapsōmen; it is not silently replaced with the Hebrew verb.
Verse 8:10 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:10] I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers. Then I became in his eyes like one who finds peace.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:10] I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers. I was in his eyes like one who finds peace.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Hebrew then becomes Greek I. The mature speaker's answer is retained as her own voice, with no allegorical identity inserted.
Verse 8:11 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:11] Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;
he gave the vineyard to keepers. Each was to bring a thousand pieces of silver for its fruit.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:11] Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;
he gave his vineyard to keepers. Each will bring a thousand pieces of silver for its fruit.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Pieces supplies an English counting noun; neither text explicitly names a coin denomination. Greek's Beelamon corresponds to Baal-hamon.
Verse 8:12 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:12] My own vineyard is before me. The thousand are yours, Solomon, and two hundred belong to those who keep its fruit.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:12] My own vineyard is before me. The thousand are yours, Solomon, and the two hundred belong to those who keep its fruit.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The ownership statement and quantities agree; the vineyard is not replaced by an explanatory interpretation.
Verse 8:13 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:13] You who dwell in the gardens, companions are listening to your voice;
let me hear it.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:13] You who sit in gardens, companions are attending to your voice;
let me hear it.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew addresses a woman with a feminine participle; Greek addresses a man with a masculine participle. English you does not display that gender, so the difference is explicitly recorded here. The request agrees.
Verse 8:14 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:14] Flee, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag upon the mountains of spices.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:14] Flee, my kinsman, and be like a gazelle or a young stag upon mountains of spices.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Both end with the imperative flee and the mountain image; no narrative resolution is added.