Song of songs 8.6

Harold R. Holmyard III hholmyard at
Tue Sep 5 18:56:59 EDT 2000

Dear Karl,

You wrote:

>But as I was studying this pasage Song of songs 8:6 in Hebrew I noticed that
>the some translations put the name of HaShem in it, and others do not. I will
>give you some samples.


>The hebrew in the other hand says:
>07957 shalhebeth {shal-heh'-beth}
>from the same as 03851 with sibilant prefix; TWOT - 1077c; n f
>AV - flame 3; 3
>1) flame
>I do imagine if I was translating this text I would not put the Holy Name and
>replace it with HaShem (since any expeculation to the name is just guessing).
>I notice that some translations though say the whole name!? How dare them when
>they see that the last 2 letters of this words are Yod, and Hey.

Yes, YH is in the text. Elsewhere these letters represent the divine name,
which appears in Isa 12:2; Exod 17:16; Isa 38:11; Psa 118:14 and many other
places in the Psalms.

The ASV used Jehovah, because YH is thought to be a short form of the
Tetragrammaton, which the ASV translated as Jehovah. The HNv used LORD for
the same reason, since it translated the Tetragrammaton as LORD.

>Now, I do imagine too that this two letters may be that they are there because
>it either decorative (you know like some times you find a Nun Sofi)

Others imagine that the letters are there as the divine name. They see it
as modifying the word flame. This would mean a powerful flame or a divine
flame, but the use would be metaphorical here, signifying that love is the
flame of God. We see the name of God used elsewhere to modify words,
normally the name of God ):ELOHIYM. And the name ):ELOHIYM often modifies
another word for "fire," namely )"$. In these cases the "fire of God"
refers to the lightening. So many think that YH performs a similar function
in S of S 8:6.

				Harold Holmyard

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