What Does Song of Solomon 7:9 Mean?

(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.*