Song of Songs 1:8

Young's Literal Translation (1862/1898)

If thou knowest not, O fair among women, Get thee forth by the traces of the flock, And feed thy kids by the shepherds' dwellings!

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

אִם־לֹ֤א תֵדְעִי֙ לָ֔ךְ הַיָּפָ֖ה בַּנָּשִׁ֑ים צְֽאִי־לָ֞ךְ בְּעִקְבֵ֣י הַצֹּ֗אן וּרְעִי֙ אֶת־גְּדִיֹּתַ֔יִךְ עַ֖ל מִשְׁכְּנ֥וֹת הָרֹעִֽים׃

Transliteration

If-not tēdʿî to-you the-yāfāh in-the-nāšîm go-out-for-you in-ʿiqbê the-ṣōʾn and-rĕʿî ʾet-gĕdiyyōtayik upon miškĕnôt the-rōʿîm

Grammar Details

• *ʾim-lōʾ*: conditional particle with negative - if not
• *tēdʿî*: imperfect verb, 2nd feminine singular - you know
• *lāk*: preposition with 2nd feminine singular suffix - for yourself
• *ha-yāfāh*: adjective, feminine, singular with definite article - the beautiful one
• *ba-nāšîm*: preposition with noun, feminine, plural with definite article - among women
• *ṣĕʾî-lāk*: imperative verb, feminine singular with preposition and 2nd feminine singular suffix - go out for yourself
• *bĕ-ʿiqbê*: preposition with noun, masculine, plural construct - in the tracks of
• *ha-ṣōʾn*: noun, masculine, singular collective with definite article - the flock
• *û-rĕʿî*: conjunction with imperative verb, feminine singular - and pasture
• *ʾet-gĕdiyyōtayik*: direct object marker with noun, feminine, plural with 2nd feminine singular possessive suffix - your young goats
• *ʿal miškĕnôt*: preposition with noun, feminine, plural construct - by/near the dwellings of
• *hā-rōʿîm*: participle, masculine, plural with definite article - the shepherds

Word Meanings

• *ʿiqbê*: tracks/footsteps/traces
• *miškĕnôt*: dwellings/tents/habitations
• *rōʿîm*: shepherds/those who pasture

Referenced Verses

• Song 5:9 : 9 What `is' thy beloved above `any' beloved, O fair among women? What `is' thy beloved above `any' beloved, That thus thou hast adjured us?
• Song 6:1 : 1 Whither hath thy beloved gone, O fair among women? Whither hath thy beloved turned, And we seek him with thee?
• Song 6:4-9 : 4 Fair `art' thou, my friend, as Tirzah, Comely as Jerusalem, Awe-inspiring as bannered hosts. 5 Turn round thine eyes from before me, Because they have made me proud. Thy hair `is' as a row of the goats, That have shone from Gilead, 6 Thy teeth as a row of the lambs, That have come up from the washing, Because all of them are forming twins, And a bereaved one is not among them. 7 As the work of the pomegranate `is' thy temple behind thy veil. 8 Sixty are queens, and eighty concubines, And virgins without number. 9 One is my dove, my perfect one, One she `is' of her mother, The choice one she `is' of her that bare her, Daughters saw, and pronounce her happy, Queens and concubines, and they praise her. 10 `Who `is' this that is looking forth as morning, Fair as the moon -- clear as the sun, Awe-inspiring as bannered hosts?'
• Song 7:1-9 : 1 As the chorus of `Mahanaim.' How beautiful were thy feet with sandals, O daughter of Nadib. The turnings of thy sides `are' as ornaments, Work of the hands of an artificer. 2 Thy waist `is' a basin of roundness, It lacketh not the mixture, Thy body a heap of wheat, fenced with lilies, 3 Thy two breasts as two young ones, twins of a roe, 4 Thy neck as a tower of the ivory, Thine eyes pools in Heshbon, near the gate of Bath-Rabbim, Thy face as a tower of Lebanon looking to Damascus, 5 Thy head upon thee as Carmel, And the locks of thy head as purple, The king is bound with the flowings! 6 How fair and how pleasant hast thou been, O love, in delights. 7 This thy stature hath been like to a palm, And thy breasts to clusters. 8 I said, `Let me go up on the palm, Let me lay hold on its boughs, Yea, let thy breasts be, I pray thee, as clusters of the vine, And the fragrance of thy face as citrons, 9 And thy palate as the good wine --' Flowing to my beloved in uprightness, Strengthening the lips of the aged! 10 I `am' my beloved's, and on me `is' his desire. 11 Come, my beloved, we go forth to the field, 12 We lodge in the villages, we go early to the vineyards, We see if the vine hath flourished, The sweet smelling-flower hath opened. The pomegranates have blossomed, There do I give to thee my loves; 13 The mandrakes have given fragrance, And at our openings all pleasant things, New, yea, old, my beloved, I laid up for thee!
• Jer 6:16 : 16 Thus said Jehovah: Stand ye by the ways and see, and ask for paths of old, Where `is' this -- the good way? and go ye in it, And find rest for yourselves. And they say, `We do not go.'
• John 21:15 : 15 When, therefore, they dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, `Simon, `son' of Jonas, dost thou love me more than these?' he saith to him, `Yes, Lord; thou hast known that I dearly love thee;' he saith to him, `Feed my lambs.'
• 1 Cor 11:1 : 1 Followers of me become ye, as I also `am' of Christ.
• Eph 5:27 : 27 that he might present it to himself the assembly in glory, not having spot or wrinkle, or any of such things, but that it may be holy and unblemished;
• Heb 6:12 : 12 that ye may not become slothful, but followers of those who through faith and patient endurance are inheriting the promises.
• Heb 11:4-9 : 4 by faith a better sacrifice did Abel offer to God than Cain, through which he was testified to be righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and through it, he being dead, doth yet speak. 5 By faith Enoch was translated -- not to see death, and was not found, because God did translate him; for before his translation he had been testified to -- that he had pleased God well, 6 and apart from faith it is impossible to please well, for it behoveth him who is coming to God to believe that He is, and to those seeking Him He becometh a rewarder. 7 By faith Noah, having been divinely warned concerning the things not yet seen, having feared, did prepare an ark to the salvation of his house, through which he did condemn the world, and of the righteousness according to faith he became heir. 8 By faith Abraham, being called, did obey, to go forth to the place that he was about to receive for an inheritance, and he went forth, not knowing whither he doth go; 9 by faith he did sojourn in the land of the promise as a strange country, in tabernacles having dwelt with Isaac and Jacob, fellow-heirs of the same promise, 10 for he was looking for the city having the foundations, whose artificer and constructor `is' God. 11 By faith also Sarah herself did receive power to conceive seed, and she bare after the time of life, seeing she did judge Him faithful who did promise; 12 wherefore, also from one were begotten -- and that of one who had become dead -- as the stars of the heaven in multitude, and as sand that `is' by the sea-shore -- the innumerable. 13 In faith died all these, not having received the promises, but from afar having seen them, and having been persuaded, and having saluted `them', and having confessed that strangers and sojourners they are upon the earth, 14 for those saying such things make manifest that they seek a country; 15 and if, indeed, they had been mindful of that from which they came forth, they might have had an opportunity to return, 16 but now they long for a better, that is, an heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God, for He did prepare for them a city. 17 By faith Abraham hath offered up Isaac, being tried, and the only begotten he did offer up who did receive the promises, 18 of whom it was said -- `In Isaac shall a seed be called to thee;' 19 reckoning that even out of the dead God is able to raise up, whence also in a figure he did receive `him'. 20 By faith, concerning coming things, Isaac did bless Jacob and Esau; 21 by faith Jacob dying -- each of the sons of Joseph did bless, and did bow down upon the top of his staff; 22 by faith, Joseph dying, concerning the outgoing of the sons of Israel did make mention, and concerning his bones did give command. 23 By faith Moses, having been born, was hid three months by his parents, because they saw the child comely, and were not afraid of the decree of the king; 24 by faith Moses, having become great, did refuse to be called a son of the daughter of Pharaoh, 25 having chosen rather to be afflicted with the people of God, than to have sin's pleasure for a season, 26 greater wealth having reckoned the reproach of the Christ than the treasures in Egypt, for he did look to the recompense of reward; 27 by faith he left Egypt behind, not having been afraid of the wrath of the king, for, as seeing the Invisible One -- he endured; 28 by faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of the blood, that He who is destroying the first-born might not touch them. 29 By faith they did pass through the Red Sea as through dry land, which the Egyptians having received a trial of, were swallowed up; 30 by faith the walls of Jericho did fall, having been surrounded for seven days; 31 by faith Rahab the harlot did not perish with those who disbelieved, having received the spies with peace. 32 And what shall I yet say? for the time will fail me recounting about Gideon, Barak also, and Samson, and Jephthah, David also, and Samuel, and the prophets, 33 who through faith did subdue kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the mouth of the sword, were made powerful out of infirmities, became strong in battle, caused to give way camps of the aliens. 35 Women received by a rising again their dead, and others were tortured, not accepting the redemption, that a better rising again they might receive, 36 and others of mockings and scourgings did receive trial, and yet of bonds and imprisonment; 37 they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tried; in the killing of the sword they died; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins -- being destitute, afflicted, injuriously treated, 38 of whom the world was not worthy; in deserts wandering, and `in' mountains, and `in' caves, and `in' the holes of the earth; 39 and these all, having been testified to through the faith, did not receive the promise, 40 God for us something better having provided, that apart from us they might not be made perfect.
• Heb 13:7 : 7 Be mindful of those leading you, who did speak to you the word of God, whose faith -- considering the issue of the behaviour -- be imitating,
• Jas 2:21 : 21 Abraham our father -- was not he declared righteous out of works, having brought up Isaac his son upon the altar?
• Jas 2:25 : 25 and in like manner also Rahab the harlot -- was she not out of works declared righteous, having received the messengers, and by another way having sent forth?
• Jas 5:10 : 10 An example take ye of the suffering of evil, my brethren, and of the patience, the prophets who did speak in the name of the Lord;
• 1 Pet 3:6 : 6 as Sarah was obedient to Abraham, calling him `sir,' of whom ye did become daughters, doing good, and not fearing any terror.
• Rev 19:7-8 : 7 may we rejoice and exult, and give the glory to Him, because come did the marriage of the Lamb, and his wife did make herself ready; 8 and there was given to her that she may be arrayed with fine linen, pure and shining, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.'
• Ps 16:3 : 3 For the holy ones who `are' in the land, And the honourable, all my delight `is' in them.
• Ps 45:11 : 11 And the king doth desire thy beauty, Because he `is' thy lord -- bow thyself to him,
• Ps 45:13 : 13 All glory `is' the daughter of the king within, Of gold-embroidered work `is' her clothing.
• Prov 8:34 : 34 O the happiness of the man hearkening to me, To watch at my doors day by day, To watch at the door-posts of my entrance.
• Song 1:15 : 15 Lo, thou `art' fair, my friend, Lo, thou `art' fair, thine eyes `are' doves!
• Song 2:10 : 10 My beloved hath answered and said to me, `Rise up, my friend, my fair one, and come away,
• Song 4:1 : 1 Lo, thou `art' fair, my friend, lo, thou `art' fair, Thine eyes `are' doves behind thy veil, Thy hair as a row of the goats That have shone from mount Gilead,
• Song 4:7 : 7 Thou `art' all fair, my friend, And a blemish there is not in thee. Come from Lebanon, O spouse,
• Song 4:10 : 10 How wonderful have been thy loves, my sister-spouse, How much better have been thy loves than wine, And the fragrance of thy perfumes than all spices.