Kidung Agung 4:8

The Wedding Night: Beautiful as Lebanon

4:8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride,

come with me from Lebanon.

Descend from the crest of Amana,

from the top of Senir, the summit of Hermon,

from the lions’ dens

and the mountain haunts of the leopards.

Mazmur 45:10-11

45:10 Listen, O princess! ¹ 

Observe and pay attention! ² 

Forget your homeland ³  and your family! ⁴ 

45:11 Then ⁵  the king will be attracted by ⁶  your beauty.

After all, he is your master! Submit ⁷  to him! ⁸ 

Mazmur 107:2-8

107:2 Let those delivered by the Lord speak out, ⁹ 

those whom he delivered ¹⁰  from the power ¹¹  of the enemy,

107:3 and gathered from foreign lands, ¹² 

from east and west,

from north and south.

107:4 They wandered through the wilderness on a desert road;

they found no city in which to live.

107:5 They were hungry and thirsty;

they fainted from exhaustion. ¹³ 

107:6 They cried out to the Lord in their distress;

he delivered them from their troubles.

107:7 He led them on a level road, ¹⁴ 

that they might find a city in which to live.

107:8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loyal love,

and for the amazing things he has done for people! ¹⁵ 

Yesaya 40:3

40:3 A voice cries out,

“In the wilderness clear a way for the Lord;

construct in the desert a road for our God.

Yesaya 43:19

43:19 “Look, I am about to do something new.

Now it begins to happen! ¹⁶  Do you not recognize ¹⁷  it?

Yes, I will make a road in the desert

and paths ¹⁸  in the wilderness.

Yeremia 2:2

2:2 “Go and declare in the hearing of the people of Jerusalem: ¹⁹  ‘This is what the Lord says: “I have fond memories of you, ²⁰  how devoted you were to me in your early years. ²¹  I remember how you loved me like a new bride; you followed me through the wilderness, through a land that had never been planted.

Wahyu 12:6

12:6 and she ²²  fled into the wilderness ²³  where a place had been prepared for her ²⁴  by God, so she could be taken care of ²⁵  for 1,260 days.

[45:10]  ¹ tn Heb “daughter.” The Hebrew noun בת (“daughter”) can sometimes refer to a young woman in a general sense (see H. Haag, TDOT 2:334).

[45:10]  sn Listen, O princess. The poet now addresses the bride.

[45:10]  ² tn Heb “see and turn your ear.” The verb רָאָה (ra’ah, “see”) is used here of mental observation.

[45:10]  ³ tn Heb “your people.” This reference to the “people” of the princess suggests she was a foreigner. Perhaps the marriage was arranged as part of a political alliance between Israel (or Judah) and a neighboring state. The translation “your homeland” reflects such a situation.

[45:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the house of your father.”

[45:11]  ⁵ tn After the preceding imperatives, the jussive verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive is best understood as introducing a purpose (“so that the king might desire your beauty”) or result clause (see the present translation and cf. also NASB). The point seems to be this: The bride might tend to be homesick, which in turn might cause her to mourn and diminish her attractiveness. She needs to overcome this temptation to unhappiness and enter into the marriage with joy. Then the king will be drawn to her natural beauty.

[45:11]  ⁶ tn Or “desire.”

[45:11]  ⁷ tn Or “bow down.”

[45:11]  ⁸ sn Submit to him. The poet here makes the point that the young bride is obligated to bring pleasure to her new husband. Though a foreign concept to modern western culture, this was accepted as the cultural norm in the psalmist’s day.

[107:2]  ⁹ tn Or “let the redeemed of the Lord say [so].”

[107:2]  ¹⁰ tn Or “redeemed.”

[107:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “hand.”

[107:3]  ¹² tn Heb “from lands.” The word “foreign” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[107:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “and their soul in them fainted.”

[107:7]  ¹⁴ sn A level road. See Jer 31:9.

[107:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and [for] his amazing deeds for the sons of man.”

[43:19]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “sprouts up”; NASB “will spring forth.”

[43:19]  ¹⁷ tn Or “know” (KJV, ASV); NASB “be aware of”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “perceive.”

[43:19]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew texts has “streams,” probably under the influence of v. 20. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has נתיבות (“paths”).

[2:2]  ¹⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[2:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “I remember to/for you.”

[2:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “the loyal love of your youth.”

[2:2]  sn The Hebrew word translated “how devoted you were” (חֶסֶד, khesed) refers metaphorically to the devotion of a new bride to her husband. In typical Hebraic fashion, contemporary Israel is identified with early Israel after she first entered into covenant with (= married) the Lord. The reference to her earlier devotion is not absolute but relative. Compared to her unfaithfulness in worshiping other gods after she got into the land, the murmuring and complaining in the wilderness are ignored.

[12:6]  ²² tn Grk “and the woman,” which would be somewhat redundant in English.

[12:6]  ²³ tn Or “desert.”

[12:6]  ²⁴ tn Grk “where she has there a place prepared by God.”

[12:6]  ²⁵ tn Grk “so they can take care of her.”