What about the pun in the charge in the Song of Solomon - thought to be a hidden reflection of El Shaddai? The deer of the fields (aylot hasadeh) sounds like El Shadday - this would seem to indicate that the Hebrews were sensitive to 'sounds like' and might well have played charades - so the doubling of the daleth does not seems convincing - wasn't that a Masoretic marking anyway - i.e. post-consonantal text?

By  Bob MacDonald, at April 12, 2007 7:55 AM  

My guess is that "shadday" is related to Akkadian šadu, "mountain." Note šaddu, "mountain dweller."

By  Duane, at April 12, 2007 12:03 PM  

Bob, I guess in Song 2:7, as in the Genesis passage there are other textual signs that suggest the word play, in Song 2:7 the preceding echo of בִּצְבָאוֹת bisba'ot with בְּצִבְאוֹת bisib'ot seems to predispose us to hear the echo you point to. My point is that such echoes impact the effect of a word or phrase in a particular context, but do not suggest its meaning (unless the same echo is fairly frequent, perhaps).

So, Shadday does not mean "breasted god", though in this passage the echo encourages us to remember God's connection to birthing and motherhood.

I think this would be true even if we ignore the doubling of the daleth, though I do think that this Massoretic indicator is yet another factor. It is the usage of Shadday elsewhere, usually with no hint of "breasts" that means I do not see this proposal as a good one for the word/name's meaning.

By  Tim, at April 12, 2007 2:26 PM  

Please correct spelling of "Masoretic" spelling in comments is a pain as I am in the habit of correcting after, when I see the words large ;-)

By  Tim, at April 12, 2007 2:28 PM  

Edward T. Babinski:
I agree, "Breasted God" is too literal. But leaving out the word "God," might there still be a connection between the words for "mountains" and "breasts?" Certainly the French saw the similarity as evidenced in their language.

The Hebrew word for “mountain” is “shaddai,” and if you add one consonant on the end (the common ending for body parts that occur in pairs), you get, “shaddayim,” the Hebrew word for “breasts.” The French also have a word, “titans,” that refers to both mountains and breasts as in the “Gran Titans.”

Moreover, the Hebrews appeared to have favored women with large (dare I say "mountainous") breasts:

My breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favor.
- Song of Sol. 8:10

Laban had two daughters: and the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah was tender eyed; but Rachel was beautiful and well favored. And Jacob loved Rachel.
- Gen. 29:16-17

Apparently Rachel was not only beautiful but was also “well favored,” which was the same terms employed by the author of the Song of Solomon when describing “breasts... like towers.”

Rejoice with the wife of your youth. Let her breasts satisfy you at all times... Why embrace the bosom of a foreigner?
- Proverbs 5:19-20

Also note what Marvin H. Pope wrote in his article, “The Bible, Euphemism and Dysphemism In” in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, Vol. I:

Poetic allusions to the most intimate of female charms are sometimes overlooked or studiously ignored by translators. In the Song of Songs 2:17 the lady invites her lover to be like a gazelle on “cleft mount(s)” and in 8:14 the invitation is to “spice mound(s).”

The lady of the Song speaks of her unguarded vineyard (1:6), and there is frequent reference (2:16; 4:5; 5:1; 6:2) to the garden(s) where the lover grazes, not among “lilies” (as traditionally understood), but on the lotus, an ancient and famous sexual symbol. The body part praised as a rounded crater (mixing bowl) never to lack mix (7:2) is hardly the navel but a receptacle not far below. The all-spice part(s) of the lady (4:13) are not “shoots” but a “groove” or “conduit” [the vulva].

Song of Songs 5:4 states, “My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him” which is suggestive of intercourse…”Hand” appears as a euphemism in another part of the Bible which states, “You have loved their bed, You have looked on their manhood [literal Hebrew, ‘looked on their hand’].” (Isaiah 57:8, NASB) And the Dead Sea scrolls refer to a member of the Hebrew religious community at Qumran being fined for exposing his “hand.”

There is even sexual suggestiveness in the use of the word “couch” in Song of Songs 1:12-13 (which states, “While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance.”--RSV). The double entendre meaning of “couch” is illuminated by Rabbi Judah’s ancient remark that Jerusalem men were lewd: “One would say to his colleague, ‘On what did you dine today? On well-kneaded bread or on bread not kneaded; on white wine or dark wine; on a broad couch or a narrow couch; with a good companion or a poor companion?’” “All these queries,” Hisda explained, refer “to fornication.”

Also note the following verses:

Let us get up early to the vineyard... There will I give thee my loves. The mandrakes give a smell and at our gates [or doors] are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.
- Song of Songs 7:12-13

“Gates” or “doors” are euphemisms for the genitalia. And the two-pronged “mandrake” root is crotch-shaped. Since ancient times “mandrakes” have been related to sexual potency. Take Genesis chapter 30 in which Jacob’s barren wife tells him she has “hired him [a child] with mandrake.” Speaking of “pleasant fruits,” notice how “breasts” are described as “clusters of grapes,” and be sure to keep an eye on further appearances of “fruit” in the Song of Solomon:

Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts like clusters of grapes... I will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also your breasts shall be as clusters of the vine.
- Song of Songs 7:7-8

As the apple tree among the trees of the world, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
- Song of Songs 2:3

Fellatio?

The smell of your nose, like apples.
- Song of Songs 7:8

Translated literally it’s puzzling. “Noses” do not “smell like apples.” The Anchor Bible dissects the linguistics, concluding that this refers to the scent of a woman’s “vulva.” The reference to “apples” also mirrors verse 2:3 where the female “sits in the shadow” of the male’s “apple tree” and finds his “fruit” “sweet” to her “taste.” Should not her “fruit” smell equally as “sweet” to him?

Your navel [literal Hebrew, “groove” or “slit”] a rounded crater, may it never lack punch!
- Song of Songs 7:2

Cunnilingus?

Just noting all of the euphemisms makes one pause before simply tossing out any possible connection or recognition in the ancient Hebrew's mind between "breasts" and "mountains."

Edward T. Babinski

By  Edward T. Babinski, at May 6, 2007 9:13 PM  

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