Walking in the Forest of the Song of Songs: A Bundle of Myrrh

Song of Songs 1:13

In the Bible, there is the word “breasts.”

In Song of Songs 1:13, that word is met.

A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me,

between my breasts, spending the night.

Verse 13 begins with “a bundle of myrrh.”

hammor הַמֹּר the · myrrh

tseror צְרוֹר bundle

Then, “my beloved, to me.”

li לִי to me

dodi דּוֹדִי my beloved

And the words move on to “breasts.”

yalin יָלִין spends the night

shaday שָׁדַי my breasts

ben בֵּין between

“Between my breasts.”

The one speaking is “I.”

The “breasts” are the body of the very “I” who speaks.

Who is it that spends the night?

Yalin is a verb in the third person, masculine, singular.

In this verse, two words are masculine and singular.

Tseror (bundle) and dodi (my beloved).

By form, it can be read either way.

The translations also part here.

Some make the bundle of myrrh the one that lodges between the breasts.

Others make the beloved the one who spends the night there.

Does the bundle of myrrh spend the night?

Does the beloved spend the night?

Either way, the place is named: “between my breasts.”

There is something the translated word “breasts” cannot show.

In Hebrew, “my breasts” is “shaday.”

shaday

שָׁדַי

my breasts

There is another word written with the same three letters.

One of the names of God: “Shaddai” (the Almighty).

shaddai

שַׁדַּי

the Almighty

The only differences are the vowel marks added later and a dot in the middle letter.

Whether the two words share the same origin is not known.

Yet in Genesis 49:25, within the blessing of the Almighty, “the blessings of the breasts and of the womb” are placed.

varacham וָרָחַם and · womb

shadayim שָׁדַיִם breasts

birkhot בִּרְכֹת blessings of

The Almighty, and breasts.

Two words written with the same letters are placed side by side within a single verse.

In the Song of Songs, “breasts” is spoken eight times.

Of these, three are written with the same three letters as the Almighty.

1:13, “between my breasts.”

8:1, “my mother’s breasts.”

8:10, “my breasts are like towers.”

At the beginning of the Song, and at its end.

Within that Song, a word with the same letters as the Almighty is placed.

What heart might there be in that word?

Who speaks of whose breasts?

That voice will be followed from here on.

A bundle of myrrh.

Without treating love as understood.