What Does Song of Solomon 8:12 Mean in the King James?
My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The royal share comes from a vineyard she keeps as her own, so the yield is distributed under her terms.
THE MEANING
Your vineyard remains yours and before you as its yield moves outward. Solomon receives a thousand, while those guarding the fruit receive two hundred; shared abundance coexists with the owner’s continuing presence and claim.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Sharing the yield means surrendering the source.
THE ROOT
לְפָנָי
lefanay
GROWS FROM
פנה
panah
Turn, face, or turn toward.
The expression is literally “before my face,” placing the vineyard in the speaker’s view and presence. This adds active oversight to “before me”: she keeps it within her sight as she names the shares.
ALSO GROWS
panim: Face; presence.
פָּנִים
This face and presence sense gives “before me” a personal nearness, not only a location.
panah: Turn; face toward.
פָּנָה
The root’s sense of turning toward illuminates the vineyard as something directly facing and present to its owner.
נֹטְרִים
notrim
GROWS FROM
נטר
natar
Keep, guard, or hold.
The keepers are named through an act of holding and preserving. The same root can describe guarding fruit or holding a grudge, so what is kept determines whether this holding nourishes or burdens.
ALSO GROWS
natar: To keep, guard, or preserve.
נָטַר
This is the root action behind the keepers who protect the vineyard’s fruit.
tittor: You bear or hold a grudge.
תִּטֹּר
Leviticus uses this form of the same root for holding resentment; here the keepers hold and preserve fruit instead.
פִּרְיוֹ
piryô
GROWS FROM
פרה
parah
Bear fruit, be fruitful, or increase.
The fruit is the vineyard’s increase, the visible result of its life and tending. Its yield can be divided among owner, king, and keepers without making the source itself ownerless.
ALSO GROWS
parah: To bear fruit; be fruitful.
פָּרָה
The verb names the growth that produces the yield shared in the verse.
peri: Fruit; produce; offspring.
פְּרִי
This noun names the vineyard’s product, which the verse apportions to Solomon and its keepers.
THE PATTERN
The yield of a cultivated thing can be shared among its owner and the people whose labor tends or guards it.
Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.Whoso keepeth the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof: so he that waiteth on his master shall be honoured.Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?THE THREAD
Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.The Song’s “keepers” carries נטר (natar, keep or hold), the same root used in Leviticus for “bear any grudge.” The root links guarding fruit here with holding resentment there: what is held determines whether keeping nourishes or hardens.
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