gazelle

Both the Hebrew and Greek names are probably general terms for gazelle. At least two types of gazelle the Dorcas Gazelle Gazella dorcas and the Palestine or Arabian Gazelle Gazella arabica were found in the Middle East. They are still to be found in secluded areas.

Gazelles are small to medium sized plains antelopes, inhabiting savannah plains and semideserts. Both sexes have horns, except for the female impala, which is without horns. The horns of the gazelle species mentioned above are lyre-shaped about 25-50 centimeters (10-20 inches) in length. Gazelles are reddish brown with almost white underparts. They are long-legged and graceful and are expert jumpers. They live in small herds of up to about thirty. Females become sexually active at one year and bear young every year. This high rate of reproduction ensures their survival. They feed on both grass and the leaves of acacia and other bushes.

A breeding herd consists of one dominant breeding male and a group of females. The other males are chased from the herd when they become sexually active and they then form bachelor herds. These bachelor herds are the prime target for human and animal hunters since they provide a convenient source of meat while leaving the breeding cycle intact. In biblical times gazelles were trapped in nets or snares or were shot with bows and arrows.

The gazelle was seen as the cleanest of game animals since it met all the requirements of the Law concerning cloven hooves and cud-chewing. It was also a symbol of speed grace and beauty (the Hebrew root means beauty) and of female sexuality and fertility.

Where a language distinguishes between male and female animals, tsvi should be translated by the male form and tsviyah by the female form.

In East Africa where gazelles are well-known, a generic word for gazelles or the specific word for one of the smaller gazelles, such as the Thompson’s Gazelle Gazella thompsonii, is suitable. Elsewhere in Africa where the impala is known, the word for this antelope can be used.

Elsewhere, the word for a small antelope or deer that lives in herds can be used for the references that are literal, and the word for some swift, graceful antelope or deer can be used in the contexts where speed, grace, or beauty are being symbolized. As usual, in areas where gazelles, antelopes, and deer are unknown, a transliteration from the dominant international language or from the Hebrew original can be used. In such cases a description should be given in the glossary.

Gazella dorcas, Wikimedia Commons

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

complete verse (Song of Solomon 8:14)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Song of Solomon 8:14:

  • Kupsabiny: “Hurry, oh my beloved let us go,
    running like a gazelle,
    or like a young antelope on a hill
    where things that smell sweet are growing.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “O My beloved, come out,
    and become like a gazelle and young deer living on a mountain
    full of fragrant spices.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “[You (sing.)] come- here to me -quickly, my beloved, just as-fast-as a deer that leaps/jumps on the mountains/hills which (are) full of plants which are-made into perfume.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “You who love me, come to me quickly;
    run to me as fast as a gazelle or young deer
    runs across hills of spices.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Japanese benefactives (isoide)

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between. One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a benefactive construction as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.

Here, isoide (急いで) or “hurry” is used in combination with kudasaru (くださる), a respectful form of the benefactive kureru (くれる). A benefactive reflects the good will of the giver or the gratitude of a recipient of the favor. To convey this connotation, English translation needs to employ a phrase such as “for me (my sake)” or “for you (your sake).” (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Song of Songs 8:14

The young woman is responding to the young man’s request in verse 13. Bible en français courant, however, thinks the young man is speaking and quoting the words he would love to hear.

Apart from the opening imperative, this verse is made up almost entirely of expressions we have heard repeatedly throughout the Song.

Make haste: the Hebrew imperative used here is generally used of hurrying away from something. Many translations give “flee,” but it is hard to imagine that the young woman is asking her lover to leave her! So here we assume that she is calling him to hurry away from where he is with his friends, to come and join her. New International Version has “Come away….” However, it is possible that the Hebrew verb does not indicate movement as much as speed. Several versions take this approach. New Jerusalem Bible, for example, says “Hurry, my beloved, swift as a gazelle….” We can also say “Quickly, my love….”

My beloved: see comments on 1.13, 14.

Be like a gazelle or a young stag: see comments on 2.9, 17.

Mountains of spices is similar to the expression in 4.6. There the young man promises to go to “the mountain of myrrh” and to “the hill of incense.” We noted that these mountains were probably figurative expressions for the young woman’s breasts. In 2.17 the young woman asks her lover to be like a gazelle and a young stag on “rugged mountains.” Here too we have a plural form mountains. The Hebrew word rendered spices never occurs elsewhere with mountains. However, it is associated with spices as we can see in 4.6, and it is a word that appears continually throughout the Song (4.10, 14; 5.1, 13; 6.2). In all but one instance (5.13) these refer to the young woman, her beauty, and her love. Indeed in many of these contexts there is a strong sexual element. There seems to be no doubt, then, that the young woman is asking her lover to come quickly and join her, so they can enjoy the pleasures of love together. In translating mountains of spices we can follow Revised Standard Version, or Good News Translation “the mountains where spices grow.” Alternatively we may use an adjective to describe the mountains, “spicy mountains” (Jerusalem Bible), or the more poetic “spice-laden mountains” (New International Version).

As many expressions in this verse have occurred elsewhere in the Song, translators are urged to use the same renderings here, so that the repetition can be appreciated for its role in this concluding section.

For translation we can say:

• Hurry, my love; be like the wild deer on the spiced mountain.

New Jerusalem Bible also gives a good model:

• Hurry, my beloved,
Swift as a gazelle or a young stag,
To the hills of spices!

With this call to love the Song ends, finishing on the same note with which it began (1.2)—the honest expression of one young woman’s intense desire for her lover.

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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Song of Songs 8:14

8:14 The woman spoke to the man

English versions which indicate who speaks here agree that the woman is the one who speaks. When the man said that he wanted to hear her voice, she responded that she longed for him to come to her quickly. The language and theme are much like the second part of 2:17 (“turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle, or a young stag upon rugged mountains”).

8:14a

Come away: The Hebrew verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Come away has several meanings. Here it means “hasten.” The woman urged the man to hurry away from where he was and go to the mountain of spices (8:14c). She probably wanted to be with him there.

Some other ways to translate this verb are:

Hurry (New American Standard Bible)
-or-
Come quickly ⌊to me⌋

my beloved: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as my beloved occurs 19 times in the Song. It first occurs in 1:13a–b. There the woman used it to refer to the man, and here she used it to address him directly. It is good to translate this word in the same way in all the verses where she used it to refer to him.

8:14b

and be like a gazelle or a young stag: This clause is a simile that compares the man to a gazelle or young stag. “Gazelles” and “stags” (male deer) are beautiful animals that run fast and are sure-footed in the mountains. The woman implied that she wanted the man to come just as quickly (and joyfully) to their meeting place. In some languages it is helpful to make the meaning more explicit. For example:

Move like a swift gazelle or a young deer (New Living Translation (1996))
-or-
Run like a gazelle or a young stag (God’s Word)

See the notes on 2:9a–b and 2:17c–d for more discussion.

8:14c

on the mountains of spices: The phrase mountains of spices has both a literal and a figurative meaning. Literally, it refers to a gazelle or stag bounding across mountains where spices grow. As a metaphor, it refers to the woman herself as the mountains of spices. That implies that the woman was as delightful and beautiful as the mountains where many delightful spices grow.

See the note on 4:6c–d for a discussion of a closely related statement: I will make my way to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense.

Some other ways to translate this phrase are:

on the mountains of precious spice plants.
-or-
on the mountains where spices grow. (New Century Version)

spices: The author referred to spices throughout the Song (for example, 4:6; 4:10; 4:14; 5:1; 6:2). Most of these verses refer to the woman. They imply that she was beautiful and exciting, especially in the ways that she showed her love to the man. Translate the word as you translated it in previous verses.

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