What Does Song of Solomon 2:17 Mean?
Until the day breathes, and the shadows run away, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle, or a fawn of the hinds, upon the mountains of Bether.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.THE KEY
The dawn blows the shadows out of the scene while the beloved is summoned across mountains whose name carries the sense of division.
THE MEANING
You are in an interval where the shadows are receding while the beloved remains across a divide. The verse holds longing in the present and imagines a swift turning toward nearness, without pretending the separation has vanished.
THE ROOT
יָפוּחַ
yāphûaḥ
GROWS FROM
פוח
pûaḥ
To blow or puff; to set air in motion.
“breathes” in this verse is yāphûaḥ. The KJV’s “break” sits over a Hebrew verb of blowing: dawn enters as movement through the scene, and the shadows flee. The same verb stirs the garden in another verse, joining the arrival of day with the beloved’s arrival.
ALSO GROWS
hāphîḥî: Blow upon
הָפִיחִי
In Song of Solomon 4:16, the wind is called to blow upon the garden, stirring its fragrance.
yāphûaḥ hayyôm: The day blows
יָפוּחַ הַיּוֹם
In this verse, dawn arrives as a moving force while the shadows flee.
בֶּתֶר
bether
GROWS FROM
בתר
bāṯar
To split or cut apart; a cleft or division.
Bether carries the sense of a cleft or division, so these hills are marked by what parts the lovers. The line leaves the divide visible while imagining the beloved swift enough to range across it.
ALSO GROWS
vayevatter: He divided or cut apart
וַיְבַתֵּר
Genesis 15:10 uses this form for cutting animals apart, showing the verb’s sense of division.
bether: Cleft or division
בֶּתֶר
Here the noun names the hills the beloved is called to cross.
THE PATTERN
Love answers distance by moving toward reunion, opening space as separation recedes.
Run, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag upon the mountains of spices.He brings me out into a broad place; he pulls me loose, because he delights in me.And he rose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and his inward parts were moved, and he ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him.THE THREAD
Stir, north wind; come, south wind; breathe on my garden, that its spices may drip out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his choice fruits.The same verb פוח (pûaḥ, “blow”) names the day’s arrival here and the wind’s movement through the garden there. In both images, movement opens the scene: shadows flee, fragrance emerges, and the beloved comes near.
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