Song of Solomon 7:9

Causing the lips. — The text in this verse has evidently undergone some change. The LXX., in stead of siphtheî yesheynîm, lips of sleepers, read sephathaîm veshinnayîm, χέιλεσί μου καὶ ὸδοῦσι. The Marg., instead of yesheynîm, sleepers, reads yeshanîm, the ancient, which Luther adopts, translating “of the previous year.” Ledôdî, for my beloved, is evidently either an accidental insertion of the copyist, the eye having caught dôdî in the next verse, or more probably is wrongly vowelled. The verse is untranslatable as it stands; but by reading ledôdaî, “to my caresses” (comp. Song of Solomon 1:2; Song of Solomon 4:10; Song of Solomon 7:12), we get a sense entirely harmonious with the context, and this is a change less violent than to reject ledôdî altogether. It is the old figure, comparing kisses to wine (comp. Song of Solomon 1:2; Song of Solomon 2:4; Song of Solomon 5:1). “The roof of the mouth” (comp. Song of Solomon 5:16), or palate, is put by metonymy for the mouth generally. Dôbeb is either from the root dôb, cognate with zôb = flow gently, and means suffusing, in which case we translate “Thy mouth pours out an exquisite wine, which runs sweetly down in answer to my caresses, and suffuses (LXX. ἱκανούμενος, accommodating itself to) our lips as we fall asleep” — or, according to the Rabbinical interpretation, followed by the Authorised Version (which connects dôbeb with dabab, a Talmudic word = speaking), there may be in it the idea of a dream making the lips move as in speech. In this case the lines of Shelley suggest the meaning: —

“Like lips murmuring in their sleep

Of the sweet kisses which had lulled them there.”

Epipsychidion.