I’m noticing something in my study of the Song of Songs. Translations cannot be fully trusted to give an accurate picture of all that should be conveyed. Some seem to even tamper with the meaning, watering verses down to make them less offensive. I blame religion for this, who is knowingly or unknowingly always coming up with ways to strip the Bride of her association with Christ’s offense — thus making people fit their perfect ideal of “who gets in, and who stays out.” In 1:9 for example, a few versions translate “my mare” as a “company of horses,” when the Hebrew is clearly a female horse, who is among Pharaoh’s horses. But of course this would be a problem for the ancient mind. Often, and for a variety of suggestive details, a comparison of a woman to a mare or filly in poetic literature was a provocative one. In addition to that, horses in general were often associated with a pagan, extravagant lifestyle as well.
But there’s more to it than even this!
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