Song of Solomon 5:4 “My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him.”
“My bowels were moved for him…” This phrase alone should send even the most passionate supporters of the KJV scurrying for other translations. The idea that the very presences of one’s beloved has the effect of a laxative does not strike many people as a very romantic statement. Of course we are all aware of the fact that when one experiences a strong emotional high, either fear or joy, there is a physical response in our inner plumbing system. Yet, even in ancient Oriental culture such an expression is not one of the top ten pickup lines for romantic conquest.
Still, if we use our lexicons and our dictionaries we cannot get away from the fact that these words when literally rendered are not a very politically correct expression of romantic love. The Hebrew word me’a (bowels) as recorded in all our Lexicons means very frankly your bowels, intestines, belly, or womb. Only tropically is it used to express one’s heart. Yet, most our modern translations, due to cultural repugnance, render this word topically (heart) and I would ratify that rendering with a hardy “yea.” The word for moved does not add to the romance, that word is hamah which means to growl or make an animal noise. It is a word commonly used with the word me’a (bowels) to describe the sound your stomach makes when it growls. Hamah (moved) also is used to express the idea of a strong mental emotion, the sound of a harp, rain falling or to be agitated.
The problem in linguistics is to look beyond a direct translation of an ancient word and try to find a word in our own language which would closely match what it was that the person living in that time, culture and context actually heard in his own ears. But in Scripture, particularly when dealing with poetry, we need to move beyond that and find a word which will strike the same emotional feeling in us that Solomon or his beloved would felt when these words were spoken. When we combine me’a with hamah we could get anything from a heart filled with passion to violent diarrhea. I believe the context clearly intends for the word me’a to mean your heart. However hamah is really open to private interpretation as everyone could have a different take on this word to fit their own understanding.
In other words the whole phrase needs to be funneled through paraphrasing in order to fully understand what is really being said. The problem we face is that what is romantic for one person could be repulsive to another. For all I know: “You caused my bowels to move” could be a very romantic expression to the translators of the KJV. For me personally, it is not. Hence I need to return to the paraphrasing drawing board and work up a rendering which fits for me.
So let’s look at the context. In verse 2 Solomon’s beloved says: “I sleep, but my heart awaketh.” This is really an ancient idiomatic expression for a romantic dream. In this dream she has just washed her feet when her beloved comes knocking at her door desperate to be with her. She cannot open the door to her beloved because she is obviously barefooted. In Oriental culture the feet are considered the most sensuous part of a woman’s body (hey that is what I was told in my Sociology class). Not only that, she is not completely covered. In Oriental culture a man can go through life never really seeing a woman, sometimes not even his own wife. Even today in many Middle Eastern countries women are completely covered, even her face. Many married women in the Orient would not even undress in front of their husbands. To put an ancient Oriental man in 21st Century downtown Chicago would be like attending a burlesque show. So greeting her beloved barefooted and half uncovered would be like a Western woman coming to the door — you get the idea, I don’t want to lose my PG rating here.
So now she hears him playing with the lock on her door and she is suddenly aware that her beloved may find her in this vulnerable position. She dearly loves this man, longs to be intimate with him, yet knowing that when he sees her uncovered, well what would her feeling be? Her heart is hamah (moved). How would you render hamah (moved) in this situation? What is it you would feel?
Suppose God comes knocking at the door of your heart and He starts picking the lock of your heart and you know in a moment that He will see your heart uncovered. He will see everything in your heart, your motives, your hidden, secret thoughts. What would you feel? Would feel anticipation over a possible intimate moment with God? Would you feel fear that he would loath you? How about shame? Embarrassment? Would you feel squeamish or would you confidently open your arms and say “Hello!”
You know something? Only you and you alone can give a proper translation to the word hamah (moved) in this passage. That word hamah (moved) is so ambiguous that the Holy Spirit has a wide range of words He can put within your heart. God has so designed His Word that He can speak to you personally through it. Only you can determine what this hamah or moving in your heart really is. Are you ready for intimacy or are there things in your heart that you would be too ashamed and embarrassed for your Divine Lover to see?
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