Song of Solomon 6:10

[amy13150]

Song of Solomon 6:10 is translated in some Bibles (King James, New American, & Revised Standard) as:

“Who is she that looks forth like the dawn,
fair as the moon,
bright as the sun,
terrible as an army with banners?”

Where as in the New English and New International the last line is rendered:
“Majestic as the starry heavens” or “majestic as the stars in procession.”

I am hoping there is someone out there who is familiar with Hebrew or Greek who could shed some light on this difference. To my way of thinking the second way makes more sense as they are already talking about “dawn”, “moon” and “sun”. “Army with banners” just seems out of place.

 

[John7]

BTW, SoS 6.4 has the same line at end of verse

‘an army’ is not there, its in italics
KJV translators inserted with
hopes it would help in reading

so that
“terrible as with banners”

אֲיֻמָּה ‘terrible’ in an older way of defining, meaning awe inspiring, awesome, fear inspiring (~majestic)…not like horrible
כַּנִּדְגָּלֹֽות degal means banner or standard eg like when the 12 tribes got together each would have their own standard/banner (functioning like a flag in a march or procession) see Numbers 2.

Nova Vulgata has:
“terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata”
terrible as a fenced camp set in battle array

LXX has
θάμβος ὡς τεταγμέναι
amazing as an arrangement/appoinment/order

so something like
“awesome/majestic as/like a procession of banners/flags”

 

[dmar198]

Song of Solomon 6:10 is translated in some Bibles (King James, New American, & Revised Standard) as:

“Who is she that looks forth like the dawn,
fair as the moon,
bright as the sun,
terrible as an army with banners?”

Where as in the New English and New International the last line is rendered:
“Majestic as the starry heavens” or “majestic as the stars in procession.”

I am hoping there is someone out there who is familiar with Hebrew or Greek who could shed some light on this difference. To my way of thinking the second way makes more sense as they are already talking about “dawn”, “moon” and “sun”. “Army with banners” just seems out of place.

The three major differences are terrible/majestic, army/stars, heavens/procession/banners.

The first is easiest: the older meaning of “terrible” was “awe-inspiring.” Majestic gets that across in modern English better than “terrible” does.

The second is because a common Hebrew expression for stars is “host,” as in, “the host of heaven,” and that same word can be translated as “armies” as well.

The third I’m not sure about. Procession seems to be related closely enough to banners that either one could be justifiable, but I don’t know how the NIV got “heavens” out of it.

I hope that helps. God bless!
-Dan Marcum