Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Baruch and Ruthy Alster" <alster AT bezeqint.net>]

Shalom to all!

Many English translations of the Song of Songs use the terms "lover" and 
"beloved" for the main characters - the active form for the man and the 
passive form for the woman.  This terminology seems quite inappropriate for 
the SoS (where the woman is the center of the action), but goes well with 
traditional stereotypes...

On the other hand, an 18th century Jewish commentator I am working on (R. 
Jehiel Hillel Altschuler, author of Metsudat David / Metsudat Zion), uses the 
passive form for both characters: "hashuq" and "hashuqah", respectively.

Does anyone know of other examples of either of these phenomena (in 
translations, commentaries, etc.).  I am especially looking for examples 
current in Western and Central Europe in Altschuler's time (late 18th cent.).

Thank you,
Baruch Alster
Zufim, Israel
>From dwashbur AT nyx.net  Wed Jul 28 19:17:39 2004
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From: daddy <dwashbur AT nyx.net>
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Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] naming the characters in SoS
Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 17:17:36 -0600
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On Wednesday 28 July 2004 13:38, Baruch and  Ruthy Alster wrote:
> Shalom to all!
>
> Many English translations of the Song of Songs use the terms "lover" and
> "beloved" for the main characters - the active form for the man and the
> passive form for the woman.  This terminology seems quite inappropriate for
> the SoS (where the woman is the center of the action), but goes well with
> traditional stereotypes...

As I understand it, these terms come from little cues in the text itself.  But
don't press me for details on that, I don't have them at hand.

Dave Washburn
recovering from a fairly huge computer crash...