Polyglot Bible: Song of Solomon: Song of Solomon 8

This is the final chapter (Chapter 8) of the Song of Songs (Song of Solomon), presented as a four-column parallel text in the KJV English, Septuagint Greek (LXX), Hebrew (Masoretic/Tanakh), and Latin Vulgate. The format is that of a critical synopsis or polyglot Bible, the kind used by scholars to compare textual traditions side by side. The chapter contains the poem's emotional climax: the female speaker's longing to display affection for her beloved freely and publicly, her invitation to her mother's house, and the celebrated declaration that "love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave — many waters cannot quench love." The chapter also includes the brothers' discussion of their immature "little sister" and how to protect her, followed by the female speaker's self-assertion that she is a wall whose breasts are towers. It closes with the vineyard allegory contrasting Solomon's rented-out property with the speaker's own sovereign vineyard, and ends with an urgent plea for the beloved to flee like a gazelle across the mountains of spices. Distinctive to this presentation is the Septuagint variant in verse 5, where the beloved is described as "whitened" (λελευκανθισμένη) rather than emerging from the wilderness, and the Vulgate's notably fragmented rendering, which omits several subject clauses — details that reward comparison across columns for readers interested in textual transmission.

Polyglot Bible: Song of Solomon: Song of Solomon 8

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