Septuagint: Song of Songs

By Scriptural Research Institute

The Song of Songs appears to be love poetry, exchanged between Solomon and one of his wives, however, is not clear who exactly the wife was. The wife describes herself as black, suggesting a Kushite woman. She also refers to herself as a Shulammitess, and makes clear she was not from Jerusalem. The town of Shunaam was located near the Jezreel Valley north of Mount Gilboa, in the tribal lands of Issachar at the time. It was also listed as one of the towns conquered by the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III circa 1450 BC, and then again by Pharaoh Shoshenk I circa 925 BC, meaning there was a significant town was there for over 500 years. It was the hometown of King David’s last concubine, the 12-year-old Abishag, who Adonijah attempted to marry after David’s death, which suggests the author was Abishag the Shulamite.
If this song was the work of Abishag, it means that it would date to the time of Solomon, and imply she was one of Solomon’s wives or concubines. The geography of the Song of Songs is curious, as it seems focused on northern Israel and southern Lebanon, not Judea. Jerusalem is mentioned repeatedly but as part of the phrase ‘daughters of Jerusalem,’ which is a group the author clearly does not see herself as being a part of. This suggests that she was living in the north, possibly in the palace Solomon built in the mountains of Lebanon, and saw the daughters of Jerusalem as her rivals for his affection.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scriptural Research Institute
• Release date: Apr 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9781989852156

Book preview

Septuagint: Song of Songs

Septuagint, Volume 31

SCRIPTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Published by Digital Ink Productions, 2022

Copyright

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

Septuagint: Song of Songs

Digital edition. July 22, 2022

Copyright © 2022 Scriptural Research Institute.

ISBN: 978-1-989852-15-6

The Septuagint was translated into Greek at the Library of Alexandria between 250 and 132 BC.

This English translation was created by the Scriptural Research Institute in 2020 through 2022, primarily from the Codex Vaticanus, although the Codex Sinaiticus, and Codex Alexandrinus were also used for reference. Additionally, the Westminster Leningrad Codex and Aleppo Codex of the Masoretic Text, and the Dead Sea Scrolls 4QCanta, 4QCantb, 4QCantc, and 6QCant were used for comparative analysis.

The image used for the cover is ‘King David with Abishag’ by James Tissot, painted circa 1880.

Note: The notes for this book include multiple ancient scripts. For your convenience, the Quivira font from Alexander Lange, and the Noto fonts from Google are embedded in the ebook. If your reader does not support embedded fonts, you will need to install Unicode fonts that cover the ranges for Akkadian Cuneiform, Greek, Hebrew, Imperial Aramaic, Phoenician, and Ugaritic on your reader manually, or you may see blank areas, question marks, or squares where the scripts are used.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Forward

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

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In the mid-3rd century BC, King Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt ordered a translation of the ancient Israelite scriptures for the Library of Alexandria. This translation later became known as the Septuagint, based on the description of the translation by seventy translators in the Letter of Aristeas. The original version, published circa 250 BC, only included the Torah, or in Greek terms, the Pentateuch. The Torah is the five books traditionally credited to Moses, circa 1500 BC: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,