The interconfessional Chichewa translation (publ. 1999) uses the ideophones neng’a and chezichezi in Song of Songs 7:5. Neng’a is used to emphasize something perfectly shaped with refined poise (“your head is nobly poised”) and chezichezi describes a light, continuous wave with a cascading motion (“your long hair flows and shimmers downward”). (Source: Ernst Wendland)
Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)
The Greek and Hebrew hat is translated as “purple” in English is translated as “blue-red” in Ojitlán Chinantec (source: M. Larson in Notes on Translation 1970, p. 1ff.) and in Elhomwe (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext). In Silimo it is translated with a local reference: “the colour of the wipegen berry” (source: Buzz and Myrna Maxey ).
“The Kasua people of Western Province have no word for the color purple. They have words for many other colors: black, red, white, yellow, green, and blue, but not for the color of royalty.
“About nine New Testament passages mention people placing a purple robe on Jesus. The Kasua translation team always wanted to use the word ‘red,’ or keyalo, to describe the robe. Tommy, one of the translation team helpers, disagreed because this is not historically accurate or signifies the royalty of Jesus.
“One of the main rules of translation is that the team must stick to the historical facts when they translate a passage. If they don’t, then how can the readers trust what they’re reading is true? Other questions about truth could bubble in the reader’s minds about the Scriptures. For this reason, Tommy was not willing to change the word purple. So the team hung up the problem, hoping to revisit it later with more inspiration.
“God did not disappoint.
“Years later, Tommy hiked with some of the men near their village. They saw a tree that possessed bulbous growths growing on the side of it like fruit. These growths were ‘the most beautiful color of purple I’d ever seen,’ explained Tommy.
“’What is the name of this tree?’ Tommy asked the men.
“’This is an Okani tree,’ they replied.
“Tommy suggested, ‘Why don’t you, in those passages where we’ve been struggling to translate the color purple, use ‘they put a robe on Jesus the color of the fruit of the Okani tree’?
“’Yeah. We know exactly what color that is,’ the men said enthusiastically.
“Everyone in their village would also visualize this phrase accurately, as the Okani tree is the only tree in that area that produces this kind of purple growth. So now, among the Kasua people, in his royal purple robe, Jesus is shown to be the king that he is.”
In Numbers 4:13, Gbaya uses the ideophone soi-soi to emphasize the purple color. Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation and soi-soi designates something that has a red or purple color, or a thing with a clear or clean appearance. (Source: Philip Noss)
Although the first definite reference to elephants in the Bible is in the Greek deuterocanonical book of 1 Maccabees, ivory (literally “tooth”) is mentioned first in the time of Solomon. By this date there were already ivory trade routes from the Sudan down the Nile and by sea from where Djibouti is now on the African Red Sea coast to where Eilat is now on the Gulf of Aqaba. Some of the ivory may have been made from the teeth of the hippopotamus but two references, 1 Kings 10:22 and 2 Chronicles 9:21, specifically refer to elephant ivory (literally “elephant’s tooth”). Ivory was probably known even much earlier than this since ornaments dating from around 2300 B.C. have been found in Palestine.
The Indian Elephant Elephas maximus was domesticated and trained for use in war very early well before the second millennium B.C. When Alexander the Great extended his empire into India in the fourth century B.C. he obtained war elephants to incorporate into his army. The idea of using elephants in war then spread to the Middle East. There was a smaller variety of this elephant found in Syria and Mesopotamia. By the third century B.C. domestic Indian elephants had been introduced into Egypt. Ptolemy II is reported to have had ninety-six elephants, four to a chariot, and later that same century when Ptolemy IV defeated the Seleucid king of Syria, Antiochus III, he is reported to have captured Syrians’ elephants. However, the Seleucid kings continued to use war elephants, and the next king, Epiphanes, attacked Egypt with elephants. He and his son then used them in their campaign against the Jews. According to 1Maccabees each elephant with thirty-two soldiers mounted on it, besides the Indian handler went into battle ahead of one thousand Syrian soldiers and five hundred horsemen. One of Maccabeus’ brothers was able to kill the largest elephant by getting under it and stabbing it, but he was himself killed when the elephant fell on him. At a later time probably because the Indian elephants were difficult to obtain the African Elephant Loxodonta africana was tamed for use in war. Coins show that the elephants used by the Roman Emperor Hadrian to cross the Alps were African probably brought from North Africa.
Elephas is the word most commonly used in the deuterocanonical books although elephantarchēs which means commander of an elephant squadron is used in 2 Maccabees 14:12 and 3 Maccabees 5:4 and 3 Maccabees 5:45 and thērion which means “monster” is used in 2 Maccabees 15:20f.
Elephants are the largest land animals on earth, the males of the Indian species being about 3 meters (10 feet) in height and weighing almost 4,000 kilograms (8,800 pounds). The African species is about half a meter (20 inches) higher and weighs up to 6,000 kilograms (13,200 pounds). The elephant’s trunk is basically an elongated nose, but it has muscles that make it a very useful feature. With it the elephant can not only smell but can pull down branches to eat, pick berries off bushes, draw up water to squirt into its mouth or over its body, and can use it as a weapon. On either side of the trunk the males grow long tusks that are often over 2 meters (6 feet) in length. These are used for digging up roots, gouging bark off trees, and lifting logs. These tusks are made of ivory. Elephants have large ears, which they use to fan themselves.
They are a dark gray color and have no fur. Their body looks almost hairless but in fact they are covered with bristly hairs. They feed on vegetation such as leaves roots shoots bark and fruit.
There are local words for elephant in most African, Middle Eastern, and Asian languages, and many international languages use a word derived from the Greek name elephas. In some areas even though there are no elephants, the fossilized bones of mammoths, the ancient relative of the elephant, are known, and this local name is used for modern elephants too. In most other areas the word for elephant is a word that is borrowed from the dominant language of the area.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Song of Solomon 7:5:
Kupsabiny: “Your head is raised like the mountain of Carmel. Your hair that is plaited shines brightly, so that it could blind a king.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Your hair ion your head is like Mount Carmel, a crown that has been put on you. The hair on your head is like a royal curtain. The king is captivated by your hair.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Your (sing.) head (is) just as-beautiful-as the Mountain of Carmel. Your (sing.) hair (is) just like/as-if a shining kingly cloth. The king is-captivated by its beauty.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “Your head is majestic like Carmel Mountain. Your long hair is shiny and black; it is as though I, your king, am captured by your tresses.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Your head crowns you is literally “Your head upon you.” The young man compares his lover’s head to Mount Carmel, the mountain that juts out into the sea at the western end of the Jezreel valley. Commentators generally believe this means that the young woman stands proud and majestic like the mountain. As there is no verb in the Hebrew, one will have to be supplied in the translation. Revised Standard Version suggests crowns you, trying to capture the proud way she holds her head. New English Bible “You carry your head like Carmel” is a possibility, though it does not make the basis of the comparison clear. Also, it can be easily misunderstood because of the idiomatic use of the verb “carry.” The suggestion of Jerusalem Bible and Good News Translation “Your head is held high like Carmel” also uses the verb “hold” in a metaphorical way—the young woman does not hold her head in her hands! The imagery seems to be based on the height and prominence of Mount Carmel.
In many situations the proper noun Carmel will need to be qualified with “mount” or “mountain.” Note that the word also carries a secondary meaning, because it sounds like the Hebrew word karmil “red.” New Jerusalem Bible in fact translates it as “crimson wool,” making it parallel to the following phrase, “locks of purple.” As this is the Song’s first reference to red hair, it seems wiser to retain the traditional translation “like Carmel.” We can say “Your head is majestic and tall, like Mount Carmel.”
Your flowing locks are like purple: the text is literally “the flowing of your head.” The verb comes from the Hebrew root that means “to hang down.” Certainly it is acceptable to say “your long flowing hair,” as this is what is intended. Good News Translation “braided hair” and Jerusalem Bible “plaits” are both too narrow, as renderings, since the hair may hang loose.
Purple: hair is not naturally purple, though if it is intensely black and shiny it may take on a purplish tinge. In modern English we can refer to something very black as “a blue black.” New English Bible offers “lustrous black” probably because of this feature. When Good News Translation says it is like “finest satin,” we presume that it means it has a shiny appearance like satin cloth; New International Version seems to follow this idea, with “royal tapestry.” However, these last two examples are unlikely. There are those who believe that the young woman has dyed her hair purple, perhaps following some fashion of that day. We prefer the idea that purple has the sense of “luster.” Where the color purple does not exist in the vocabulary, perhaps “shiny black” will serve. Black is the actual color of her hair suggested in 4.1.
For translation we can say:
• Your long hair shines deep purple.
• Your long flowing hair is so black and shiny.
A king is held captive in the tresses: aking refers to the young man himself, or to the general form “any king”; so rather than translate as a king, we can say “your king,” or even “any king.” See 1.4, 12; 3.9. He is saying to his lover that he is bound or held captive, in the figurative sense that he is so affected by her beauty that he cannot move. That beauty is also seen in her tresses or hair. The word tresses is something of a problem because the Hebrew word basically means a water channel or trough (Gen 30.38). It is the context, namely the mention of hair in the previous clause, which leads most commentators to agree that here the word refers to the young woman’s hair. Good News Translation handles the problem by rendering “its beauty.” As this is what seemed to captivate him, this is an appropriate way to bring out the sense. The preposition in can be better rendered “by”—the king is captivated by the beauty of her hair. He would hardly be tangled in her hair in the literal sense, though that is how many translations can be interpreted. Translation can be “Even a king would be captivated by the beauty of your hair” or “The beauty of your hair has me, your king, in its spell.”
The whole verse can then be rendered:
• Your hold your head high, like Mount Carmel,
Your hair, flowing down and shiny black.
Its beauty could capture any king.
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 .
Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel: The phrase Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel is more literally “your head upon you ⌊is⌋ like Carmel.” Mount Carmel refers to a majestic, tall mountain called Mount Carmel. The phrase implies that the woman’s head gave her majesty and beauty, as Mount Carmel adds majesty and beauty to the land of Israel.
Some ways to translate this simile are:
Your head is as majestic as Mount Carmel (New Living Translation (2004)) -or-
Your head shows your dignity/glory that is like Carmel mountain.
Mount Carmel:Mount Carmel is a mountain that is surrounded by flat land, so it is especially prominent and majestic. It is about 550 meters (1800 feet) high, and overlooks the Mediterranean Sea.
7:5b
the hair of your head like purple threads: The clause the hair of your head like purple threads compares the woman’s long wavy hair to the color purple. Purple dye was expensive, and people considered purple to be a royal color. In this verse the color purple probably suggests that the woman was as majestic as a queen. It may imply that her hair was a shiny black color as the sun shone on it. It is unlikely that she dyed her hair purple.
Some ways to translate the clause are:
and your hair is like purple cloth (New Century Version) -or-
Your hair is like royal tapestry (New International Version) -or-
the sheen of your hair radiates royalty (New Living Translation (2004)) -or-
your locks are shiny black
7:5c
the king is captured in your tresses: This clause is a figure of speech. It indicates that when a man, even a king, looks at the woman’s hair (tresses), he is like a captive. He cannot stop looking at it because it is so beautiful. The man implies that he himself is like such a king. Some other ways to translate the clause are:
its beauty could hold a king captive. (Good News Translation) -or-
you have captured your king with its loveliness -or-
your hair is so lovely that the king cannot escape its charms.
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