The Writings of Solomon

Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon and Sexual Health

Sexual Health Terminology

Passionate Love, DODE (Provers 7:18) Strong, H1730

Kiss, nah-SHAWK (Song 1:2) Strong, H5401

Bed, mish-KAWV (Proverbs 7:16) Strong, H7901

Bed, EH-resh (Provers 7:16) Strong, H6210

Sexual Arousal, hah-MAH (Song 5:4) Strong, H1993

Pleasant, nah-AIM (Proverbs 2:10) Strong, H5276

Romantic Pleasure, tah-ah-NOOG (Song 7:6) Strong, H8588

Aphrodisiac/mandrake, dew-DAI (Song 7:13) Strong, H1736

Gynecological

Naked, ah-ROME (Ecclesiastes 5:15) Strong, H6174

Womb, BEH-ten (Ecclesiastes 5:15) Strong, H990

Conceive, ha-RAH (Proverbs 3:4) Strong, H2029

Give Birth, HOOL (Proverbs 8:24-25) Strong, H2342

Breast, SHAWD  (Song 4:5) Strong, H7699

Genitalia, REH-ghel (Song 5:3) Strong, H7272

Unhealthy Sexuality Terms

Erotic Rage, chah-MAWD (Proverbs 6:25) Strong, H2530

Sacred Sex Trade Worker, zah-NAH (Proverbs 6:26) Strong, H2181

Unhealthy Sexual Intercourse, BO (Proverbs 6:29) H935

Sexual Touch, nah-GAH (Proverbs 6:29) Strong, H5060

Seduce, nah-TAH (Proverbs 7:21) Strong, H5186

The word for “romantic love” or “ passionate-love boiling over” is DODE appearing 61 times in the Old Testament. Solomon uses DODE one time in Proverbs and 33 times in his romantic memoir called The Song. Over half the occurrences of DODE, passionate love boiling over appear in Solomon’s work. (Strong, H1730) 

Come, let’s drink deeply of love (DODE) till morning; let’s enjoy ourselves with love! (Proverbs 7:18)

Kiss is the Hebrew word nah-SHAWK. I enjoy the many nuances of Hebrew terms. The Assyrian word for kiss is the similar sounding nah-SHAW-ku. The Syriac originally meant “to smell”. Arabic lends the facet, to fasten together. (Strong, H5401) Perhaps the idea connects the closeness and scent of a lover’s breath in a tender kiss?

Two words for “bed” appear in Solomon’s writings. The king uses the term for lovers’ bed (EH-resh) and a place of rest (mish-KAWV). Proverbs mentions covering the bed (EH-resh) with linens from Egypt. It is not clearly sexual. In the Song, Solomon connects the bed (EH-resh) with the verdant-fertility of intercourse (Strong, H7488). An Arabic equivalent uses a similar sounding term for sex partner or consort, ah-RAWSH. (Strong, H6210) 

I have covered my bed (EH-resh) with colored linens from Egypt. 

I have perfumed my bed (mish-KAWV) with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. (Proverbs 7:16-17)

How handsome you are, my beloved! Oh, how charming! And our bed (Eh-resh)is verdant. (Song 1:16)

Sexual arousal is the onomatopoeia, hah-MAH appearing 34 times in the Hebrew Old Testament. The term means to hum like a bee or to be aroused sexually. (Strong, H1993)

My beloved thrust his hand through the latch-opening; my heart began to pound  (hah- MAH or hummmm) for him. (Song 5:4)

Solomon uses two terms for pleasure or delight. The word pleasant has a lovely range of meaning in Old Testament Hebrew.  David uses nah-AIM for his relationship with Jonathon, Saul’s son, exclaiming their love for one another more pleasurable than the love of a woman. Solomon, commended by God for his wisdom, connects the wisdom of the heart to knowing the pleasure of intimacy. The root word for knowledge in Proverbs 2:10 is the premier term for sexual intimacy first found in Genesis 4:1, yah-DAH. Finally, Solomon links the beauty and pleasure of love with his bride in whom he delights. (Strong, H5276) The second term is tah-ah-NOOG meaning delight, delicate or pleasant.  (Strong, H8588) 

I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother; you were very dear to me. Your love  (nah-AIM) for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women. (2 Samuel 1:26)

For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant (nah-AIM) to your soul. (Proverbs 2:10)

“Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious (nah-AIM)!” (Proverbs 9:17)

How beautiful you are and how pleasing (nah-AIM), my love, with your delights (tah-ah- NOOG)! (Song 7:6)

Sevengynecological words appear in Solomon’s writings: naked, (ah-ROME; Strong, H6174), womb (BEH-ten, Strong, H990), conceive, give birth (hah-RAH, Strong, H2029) and HOOL (Strong, H2342). The Hebrew word for breast is SHAWD, and REH-ghel, foot,  appears used for genitalia, and navel (show-RARE).

Everyone comes naked (ah-ROME) from their mother’s womb (BEH-ten), and as everyone comes, so they depart. They take nothing from their toil that they can carry in their hands. (Ecclesiastes 5:15)

Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him to my mother’s house, to the room of the one who conceived (hah-RAH) me. (Proverbs 3:4)

Your breasts (SHAWD) are like two fawns, like twin fawns of a gazelle that browse among the lilies. (The Song 4:5)

I have taken off my robe— must I put it on again? I have washed my feet (REH-ghel)—  must I soil them again? (The Song 5:3)

When there were no watery depths, I was given birth (HOOL), when there were no springs overflowing with water; Before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth, (HOOL). (Proverbs 8:24-25; Strong, H2342)

The final sexual health term is mandrake or aphrodisiac. Appearing 7 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament mandrake first occurs in Genesis. the mandrake, (dew-DAI), was an ancient Near Eastern aphrodisiac, sedative, and hallucinogen. (Strong, H1736) Understanding the meaning of mandrake requires revisiting the Jacob snap shot of Genesis.   During the 20-year stint of coerced servitude to Laban, the Jacob narrative revisits sexual health themes. Rachel, the infertile beloved bride, cannot conceive. Leah, the unwanted and unloved sister bride, cannot stop giving birth. Within 4 years, Leah delivers four sons. Rachel scores zero births. The competition game is on. 

When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!” Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?” Then she said, “Here is Bilhah, my servant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and I too can build a family through her.”(Genesis 30:1–8)

Jacob apparently recalled stories of his grandfather Abraham utilizing female slaves for coercive reproductive services. Jacob submits to Rachel’s plea to impregnate a surrogate slave. When Leah realizes she can no longer conceive, she repeats surrogacy with her own slave.

When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. Then Leah said, “What good fortune!” So she named him Gad. Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. Then Leah said, “How happy I am! The women will call me happy.” So she named him Asher. (Genesis 30:9–13)

Once again, Jacob faces the coercive power of food as he did with the stealing of Esau’s birth right for a bowl of soup. This time food with sex. Just as Jacob manipulated Esau with stew, Leah, the unwanted and unloved sister-wife, coerces Rachel. Leah challenges Rachel to compel Jacob to have intercourse with Leah using food. The rejected sister barters food for sex using the mandrake plant, an ancient aphrodisiac with hallucinogenic compounds. The progeny of Abraham repeats pimping of family members for sex and food. 

During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”But she said to her, “Wasn’t it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son’s mandrakes too?” “Very well,” Rachel said, “he can sleep with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.” So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. “You must sleep with me,” she said. “I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night. God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son. Then Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar. Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. Then Leah said, “God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honor, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun. Some time later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah. (Genesis 30:14–21)

As a therapist,  I am unable to stop intuiting the sexual wiring of authors and speakers.  I wonder if Solomon reflected his problematic sexuality within his writings? Solomon engaged the sacred sex trade by marrying wives who worshiped other deities. Did he have encounters with women who were married or did he touch another man’s wife? In Proverbs 6:25-29 Solomon cites the terms lust or covet, chah-MAWD, zah-NAH-sacred sex trade worker, and nah-GAH, sexual touch with another man’s wife. (Strong, H5060)  Paul the Apostle uses the same phrase, it is not good “to touch” a woman, in 1 Corinthians 7:1. The Greek word Paul uses is HOP-toe, meaning to touch. Perhaps Proverbs influenced Paul in this use? The 1 Corinthians 7:1 citation has clear sexual intent by Paul. In addition Paul uses “to touch” with par-NAY-ah as does Solomon in Proverbs 6:25-29.

Now for the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations (to touch, HOP-toe) with a woman.”

But since sexual immorality (par-NAY-ah in Greek and zah-NAH in Hebrew for the sacred sex trade) is occurring, each man should have sexual relations (EH-koe to have) with his own wife, and each woman (EH-koe to have) with her own husband. (1 Corinthians 7:1-2)

The phrase, “each should have sexual relations with” uses the term EH-koe, meaning to have. (Strong, G2192)

Chah-MAWD is the term lust or covet in Proverbs 6:25. Chah-MAWD is used both in the Ten Commands and with Jesus’ sexual health discourse of Matthew 5:28. 

Do not lust (chah-MAWD) in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes. (Proverbs 6:25)

But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully (epi-thew-MEH-oh) has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:28)

Chah-MAWD means to desire, sexually lust, or covet. (Strong, H2530) An Arabic equivalent means to “loathe”. It seems to have an angry nuance. The Greek word for lust or covet is epi-thew-MEH-oh. (Strong, G1937)  Lust builds on two Greek words, epi meaning upon or epic can add a sense of intensity. The second part of the word, thew-MOS has a range of meaning including anger, rage, to breathe violently and the breath of passion. (Strong, G2372) With the nuance of loathe in Arabic and rage in Greek, this word may carry a sense of erotic rage. Could it be that Jesus is not prohibiting all sexual feelings? Is he speaking about the coercive nature of sexually acting out in anger and rage against a partner? (Strong, G2372)

Seduce is a common term used in many ways 216 times in the Hebrew Old Testament. Nah-TAH can mean stretch out like a tent, manipulate, bend morally, or sexual seduction. (H5186)

With persuasive words she led him astray; she seduced (nah-TAH) him with her smooth talk. (Proverbs 7:21)