Song of Songs Verse 9 - When Did God Silence Your Cry?

Oh, we get to dig into something marvelous today in the ninth verse of the first chapter of the Song of Solomon and talk about some controversy.

Well, I'm going to jump in and make it an opinion here. Very interestingly, the Jewish Bible or the Tanakh, the complete Jewish Bible translates verse nine just completely differently than any English translation that you would find. And as I have researched this and studied it, I really believe it's much more accurate of the translation for lots of reasons that we'll go into. So if I'm reading this and you're going, that doesn't sound like anything I've ever heard in the Song of Solomon, it's because it is completely different in the way it's translated and I'll explain why. So verse nine, the way that I would translate that, which is in the same way that the complete Jewish Bible translates it is, at the gathering of the steeds of Pharaoh's chariots, I have silenced you, my beloved. And so, you know, to compare that to the way that that is in the King James Version, you know, just so that we get the comparison on the table, it says, I have compared thee, oh my love, to a company of horses in pharaoh's chariots. And so, you know, there's a big, big difference, obviously, to being compared to pharaoh's chariots and being silenced at pharaoh's chariots. Well, you know, when you look deeply in the word there that obviously is either being compared to or is it silenced, I'll have to go with Rashi and the Jewish commentators that clearly this word is silenced. I don't understand where they got, I mean, I know where they got it, but I just don't see how they did it because the idea is being compared to the, is the word dama, I would suppose it's pronounced in Hebrew, but that isn't the word that is used in the scripture. When you look at the actual Torah, which even, you know, in the English translations, they show you the way it's spelled, which is a dalad and a mem and a yud.

Well, the word dama, which is the idea of comparing, is a dalad and a mem and a hey. And so, you know, again, if you look at it from the way that we're looking, we're going to go ahead and look at it, I'll see if that it doesn't make more sense. Like here's this transition to me, it's a huge transition for where, you know, the, the beloved is speaking and now we're going to get to hear a lot more from Jesus. You know, he's just told her where to follow the tracks of the sheep.

So now he's going to go somewhere else. And where I think this goes is the whole thing is telling the love story, right? It's telling the story of how God came after the Jews in so many different ways. And what happened in Exodus, you know, specifically 14, 14, if you go look at that verse, which is why the Jews use this here as an example of that is, you know, God said that he, you know, silenced the crying of the Jews, you know, when they, when he's, you know, essentially part of the Red Sea and drown the chariots. And so the idea because if you see what's going to happen now is we're going to begin to go into all these gold and jewels, and all these things that happened as a result of what God did when he rescued us from the Egyptians, which makes sense to the whole idea of, you know, my mother's sons were angry with my mother's children were angry with us, which many commentators say has to do with Egypt. And so much of this story has to do with Egypt. And even of course, nobody argues on the fact that he's talking about Pharaoh's horses and Pharaoh's chariots. So what's the significance of that, from my standpoint is, you know, as you look at the word Pharaoh in Hebrew, you're going to see this often compared to as a neck.

And the idea that you might hear a lot of people talk about that the longest distance in the world is the 18 inches between the head and the heart. Well, the difference, I mean, that what's between the head and the heart is the neck. And so the idea of, you know, the people saying, let my people go, you know, or God saying let my people go and chariot was, and Pharaoh was the restriction between, you know, people going and not going. Well, the idea of God loves me and he's for me and my faith, you know, it's my neck that restricts that from getting to my heart.

Okay. And so, you know, in our own ways, our neck is Pharaoh. So it takes God's rescue, right? He's cut apart the Red Sea so that these chariots of Pharaoh will be drowned forever and that we can believe what it is that our head reckons as we go through the Bible. But I think that you can see clearly that so much of what the next verses are going to make sense if we see here, God came to our rescue. And again, another one of the words that is different between the translation is, you know, the word comparison versus the word at, because the very first letter of the verse is a llama. And so, Rashi believe beautifully points out that in Jeremiah 1013, that there is the same llama and it's at the sound of the multitude of the waters is the verse where that llama starts. And again, it's translated ad it's not track light translated, you know, like it is in the King James version, too. So when it says to the company of horses, that's that would be where the llama would be, I guess, if you're doing it in the English the way that they did it.

But the idea for me is like that llama is is always an idea of love. And when you see this idea of God loves us, and because of that, he came to our rescue. And the question that I have is, but it's just a, you know, personal experience of seeing this is when does God come to your rescue to the point where he silenced your crying, right?

And, you know, this is clearly what is what is mentioned in Exodus 14, 14. And I couldn't help but think of, um, and I was thinking about this morning is when, you know, I got crushed between the two jeeps right here comes his car down the hill. And you may have heard me tell this story before I just finished my last chemotherapy treatment.

And we went to a Jeep Jamboree and the guy uphill from us didn't put his Jeep in gear. And so when I was at the back of my Jeep, you know, here comes his Jeep down and crushes me, specifically my left leg, which crumbles underneath me, and creates a compound fracture, which goes through my leg, and I'm laying there bleeding up to the mountains, and everybody's freaking out. And I cried out for Jesus, and I got what I have told everybody for years was a God hug.

And and the more I've thought about that this morning, it silenced me. But it was the most complete hug I've ever had. I mean, it was like you go from this total terror to like, it's gonna be okay. And it makes no sense that it was going to be okay, because I was hurt as bad as I've ever been hurt in my life. And all of a sudden, I'm in complete peace. In fact, the guy looks down at me that had run, you know, he let his Jeep out of gear, and he's screaming at me, you know, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

And I don't blame him because he's freaking out because he just crushed me. And I looked up at him in complete peace and just said, How's your insurance? And it was a joke, you know, just to lighten up the whole thing, because that's how I felt I was fine.

And actually, when they finally took an hour to get the ambulance up into the mountains that day, they couldn't get an air vac in because of the weather. And when they finally got up there, and they hit me with a morphine, I didn't feel any different than I already felt because I was fine. And again, I have always remembered that hug just not unlike them sure the Jews would remember the day that he came in silence them when pharaohs Jared's were coming after him, it looked like it was the end. But instead, it was the beginning of something absolutely spectacular. And I think as we see in this story, that this transition here from Jesus telling us where to go to how he has already delivered us, especially through his love is absolutely spectacular. And so I hope as you ponder this verse in your own heart, you know, you can remember a time that God silenced your thanks for listening.