The watchmen found me, as they went about in the city: see comments on 3.3. In what seems like a dream, the young woman left the house in search of her lover, but instead of finding him she was found by the town watchmen. As in 3.3, there is a play on words between “I didn’t find him” in the previous verse and “they found me.”

They beat me, they wounded me: in the previous mention of her nighttime search for her lover, she was not mistreated by the city watchmen. This time, she says, they beat and wounded her. Such treatment suggests they assumed her to be a prostitute, otherwise they probably would not have dared treat her like this. The series of short verbal clauses intends to express the intensity of the attack and the danger to which the young woman is exposed. Perhaps using the same type of short verbal clauses will allow the translator to achieve the same effect in translation.

They took away my mantle: or “they stripped my mantle from me.” The Hebrew word translated mantle is found elsewhere only in Isa 3.23 (“veils”). It is apparently a light garment, like a veil or shawl. In many cultures around the world women cover themselves with an extra cloth wrapped or draped around the shoulders. Certainly the young woman had dressed before going out, and she added this extra piece of clothing to protect herself.

Those watchmen of the walls repeats the subject of the first line, watchmen. To say they watch the walls is just another way of saying they guarded the city, or the people inside its walls.

With this frustrating and humiliating scene this “nightmare”—real or imagined—ends.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Zogbo, Lynell. A Handbook on the Book of Song of Songs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1998. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .