complete verse (Song of Solomon 5:7)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Song of Solomon 5:7:

  • Kupsabiny: “The guards of the city found/met me
    as they went around checking.
    Those people beat me repeatedly so that I was hurt badly
    and the guards of the city stripped me of my outer garments!” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “The watchmen met me
    as they made their rounds in the city.
    They beat me, they injured me badly.
    The watchmen on the walls snatched away my shawl.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The guards saw me while they were-patrolling/[lit. doing-(their)-rounds about] the city. They struck- me -with-stick/rod, and I was-wounded. They took my cloak-for-the-back/cape.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “The city watchmen saw me while they were walking around the city.
    They beat me and wounded me
    because they thought I must be a prostitute;
    those men who were guarding the city walls took my robe.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Song of Songs 5:7

The watchmen found me, as they went about in the city: see comments on 3.3. In what seems like a dream, the young woman left the house in search of her lover, but instead of finding him she was found by the town watchmen. As in 3.3, there is a play on words between “I didn’t find him” in the previous verse and “they found me.”

They beat me, they wounded me: in the previous mention of her nighttime search for her lover, she was not mistreated by the city watchmen. This time, she says, they beat and wounded her. Such treatment suggests they assumed her to be a prostitute, otherwise they probably would not have dared treat her like this. The series of short verbal clauses intends to express the intensity of the attack and the danger to which the young woman is exposed. Perhaps using the same type of short verbal clauses will allow the translator to achieve the same effect in translation.

They took away my mantle: or “they stripped my mantle from me.” The Hebrew word translated mantle is found elsewhere only in Isa 3.23 (“veils”). It is apparently a light garment, like a veil or shawl. In many cultures around the world women cover themselves with an extra cloth wrapped or draped around the shoulders. Certainly the young woman had dressed before going out, and she added this extra piece of clothing to protect herself.

Those watchmen of the walls repeats the subject of the first line, watchmen. To say they watch the walls is just another way of saying they guarded the city, or the people inside its walls.

With this frustrating and humiliating scene this “nightmare”—real or imagined—ends.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Zogbo, Lynell. A Handbook on the Book of Song of Songs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1998. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Song of Songs 5:7

5:7a–b

Here in 5:7a–b the author repeated the words in 3:3a–b exactly. It is good to translate them in the same way in both places. The notes here in 5:7a–b are the same as the notes for 3:3a–b except for some minor changes.

I encountered the watchmen on their rounds of the city: The text indicates that as the woman searched for her beloved around the town at night, the watchmen saw her. The text does not imply that they were searching for her. One way to translate this meaning is:

7b As the people who guard the town walked through it, 7a they saw me.

Notice that this example changes the order of 5:7a and 5:7b. Use a natural order in your language.

watchmen: The watchmen were men who guarded the city. They walked in it at night to ensure that people were safe from dangers. It is uncertain what symbolic meaning the author wanted to imply by the word watchmen here. In this verse they treated the woman differently from the way they treated her in 3:3. In 3:3 they were polite, but here they treated her roughly and hurt her.

In some languages it may be helpful to introduce the watchmen as you did in 3:3. For example:

There were some watchmen who guarded the city. They saw me as they walked through the streets.
-or-
The city guards were walking through the streets, and they met/saw me.

However, in other languages, it may not be necessary to introduce the watchmen again, if they were introduced in 3:3a–b.

5:7c

They beat me and bruised me: The watchmen beat the woman so that she was hurt. The beating caused her to be bruised or wounded. She did not expect the watchmen to do that because their job was to keep the people in the city safe. In 3:4 the watchmen did not help her find her beloved, but here in 5:7 they did worse than that and actually hurt her.

Some other ways to translate 5:7c are:

They beat me, they wounded me (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
They hit me and hurt me (New Century Version)

In some languages it is more natural to use a single emphatic phrase to translate 5:7c. For example:

they caused me great injury
-or-
they hurt me badly

5:7d

they took away my cloak: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as cloak occurs only twice in the OT. It refers to an item of clothing that is used to cover a person’s head or body. It is sometimes translated as “mantle,” “robe,” or “veil.” In the woman’s culture it was the custom for women to wear such a cloak or veil in public. By taking it away from her, the watchmen insulted and embarrassed her, in addition to beating her.

Some other ways to translate they took away my cloak are:

and stripped off my cloak (Revised English Bible)
-or-
tore off my veil (New Living Translation (1996))

those guardians of the walls: The phrase, those guardians of the walls, refers again to the watchmen whom the author introduced in 5:7a. He refers to them again here at the end of the verse to emphasize that their actions were wrong. They were supposed to watch for dangers and keep people safe, but instead they injured a person whom they ought to protect. The repetition emphasizes that such actions by watchmen are unjust. Some other ways to translate 5:7f are:

This is what those watchmen of the city walls did to me!

Emphasize this phrase in a natural way in your language.

General Comment on 5:7

The way that the watchmen treated the woman and the way she responded are probably symbolic actions. They imply that love has power to overcome everything that tries to end it. The watchmen wounded the woman while she searched for her beloved. But she endured danger and pain to search for the man because she loved him. This theme is repeated in 8:6–7, which is part of the Song’s climax.

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