Discovery BoxThe Song of Songs 6:11
ContextThe Lover to His Beloved: 1
6:11 I went down to the orchard of walnut trees, 2
to look for the blossoms of the valley, 3
to see if the vines had budded
or if the pomegranates were in bloom.
The Song of Songs 7:4
Context7:4 Your neck is like a tower made of ivory. 4
Your eyes are the pools in Heshbon
by the gate of Bath-Rabbim. 5
Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon
overlooking Damascus.
[6:11] 1 sn It is difficult to determine whether the speaker in 6:11-12 is Solomon or the Beloved.
[6:11] 2 tn The term אֱגוֹז (’egoz, “nut”) probably refers to the “walnut” or “walnut tree” (juglans regia) (DCH 1:116 s.v. אֱגוֹז). The singular form is used collectively here to refer to a grove of walnut trees.
[6:11] 3 sn It is not clear whether the “valley” in 6:12 is a physical valley (Jezreel Valley?), a figurative description of their love relationship, or a double entendre.
[7:4] 4 tn Alternately, “the ivory tower.” The noun הַשֵּׁן (hashshen, “ivory”) is a genitive of composition, that is, a tower made out of ivory. Solomon had previously compared her neck to a tower (Song 4:4). In both cases the most obvious point of comparison has to do with size and shape, that is, her neck was long and symmetrical. Archaeology has never found a tower overlaid with ivory in the ancient Near East and it is doubtful that there ever was such a tower. The point of comparison might simply be that the shape of her neck looks like a tower, while the color and smoothness of her neck was like ivory. Solomon is mixing metaphors: her neck was long and symmetrical like a tower; but also elegant, smooth, and beautiful as ivory. The beauty, elegance, and smoothness of a woman’s neck is commonly compared to ivory in ancient love literature. For example, in a piece of Greek love literature, Anacron compared the beauty of the neck of his beloved Bathyllus to ivory (Ode xxxix 28-29).
[7:4] 5 sn It is impossible at the present time to determine the exact significance of the comparison of her eyes to the “gate of Bath-Rabbim” because this site has not yet been identified by archaeologists.
