The Song “Seize Us, You Little Foxes”

The Song of Songs is a collection of love poetry, filled with romantic descriptions voiced by both the young man and the young woman.^[1] Towards the end of chapter 2, one enigmatic verse describes foxes devouring grapes in vineyards, which, on the face of it, has nothing to do with love or romance:

^{שיר השירים ב:טו} אֶחֱזוּ לָנוּ שׁוּעָלִים שׁוּעָלִים קְטַנִּים מְחַבְּלִים כְּרָמִים וּכְרָמֵינוּ סְמָדַר.

^{Song 2:15} Seize us the foxes, the little foxes, despoiling (mechablim) the vineyards, but our vineyards are in bloom.^[2]

Many scholars doubt whether this line originated as part of a love poem, or whether the Song is quoting a preexisting song of a different type. The verse has an unusual stepped-line rhythm,^[3] and Yair Zakovitch of Hebrew University suggests that the cadence is that of a children’s game song. (Think of catch or jump rope.)^[4] Naphtali Hertz Tur-Sinai (Harry Torczyner 1886–1973), in contrast, suggests that this verse was originally sung by vineyard workers.^[5]

Foxes in Vineyards in Greek Poetry

As commentators have long noted, the image of foxes in vineyards is used by the 3^rd century B.C.E. Greek bucolic poet, Theocritus, in his Idylls. The goatherd’s speech in his first idyll reads:

^{Idylls 1.41–51} And a little way from the sea-worn old man there is a vineyard with a fair load of reddening clusters, guarded by a little boy who sits upon its dry-stone wall. About him hang two foxes, and one goes to and fro among the vine-rows plundering the ripe grapes, while the other brings all her wit to bear upon his wallet, and vows she will not let the lad be until [she has raided his breakfast-bread].^[6]

Similarly, in his 5^th idyll, an older goatherd named Comatas comments to a young shepherd named Lacon:

^{Idylls 5.112} I hate the foxes with their bushy tails that come ever at evening and plunder Micon’s vineyard.^[7]

These stories are quite straightforward, but it is unlikely that the verse in the Song is simply a recounting of fox troubles in the vineyard. This is especially the case since the term סְמָדַר “blooming” refers to the very beginning of the process, when the grapes are still quite small, not the time that foxes generally ravage the vineyards.

The Women Complain about Their Brothers

The Song of Songs is not simply about bucolic scenes and agriculture; it is love poetry. In the context of the youthful love affairs described in the Song, the verse is almost certainly meant to be playful or flirtatious, but what exactly is it implying?

Robert Alter suggests that the speakers are the young women and that the foxes are a reference to all those who are trying to stop the lovers from meeting up with one another. Indeed, elsewhere in the song, we hear about how the young woman’s brothers are trying to keep her in check. For instance, in the opening chapter, we read:

^{שיר השירים א:ו} אַל תִּרְאוּנִי שֶׁאֲנִי שְׁחַרְחֹרֶת שֶׁשֱּׁזָפַתְנִי הַשָּׁמֶשׁ בְּנֵי אִמִּי נִחֲרוּ בִי שָׂמֻנִי נֹטֵרָה אֶת הַכְּרָמִים כַּרְמִי שֶׁלִּי לֹא נָטָרְתִּי.

^{Song 1:6} Do not look on me for being dark, for the sun has glared on me. My mother’s sons were incensed with me, they made me a keeper of the vineyards. My own vineyard I have not kept.

The final line is clearly a double entendre, with which the young woman expresses how, despite her brothers’ attempt to control her behavior, she did not guard her own vineyard, i.e., her sexuality. Indeed, at the end of the Song, we hear the concern about the young woman’s budding sexuality from the brothers’ themselves:

^{שיר השירים ח:ח} אָחוֹת לָנוּ קְטַנָּה וְשָׁדַיִם אֵין לָהּ מַה נַּעֲשֶׂה לַאֲחֹתֵנוּ בַּיּוֹם שֶׁיְּדֻבַּר בָּהּ. ^ח:ט אִם חוֹמָה הִיא נִבְנֶה עָלֶיהָ טִירַת כָּסֶף וְאִם דֶּלֶת הִיא נָצוּר עָלֶיהָ לוּחַ אָרֶז.

^{Song 8:8} We have a little sister and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for? If she is a wall, we will build on her a silver turret. If she is a door, we will besiege her with cedar boards.

Thus, Alter argues, the verse is referring to the brothers as foxes, who are annoying the young woman with their attempted but ultimately failed meddling. Nevertheless, considering the thrust of the Song’s imagery, the foxes are more likely the lovers themselves.

Foxes as Lovers in Egyptian Imagery

The Song of Songs is strongly related in imagery and style to ancient Egyptian love poetry, as Michael Fox shows at length in his commentary on the Song.^[8] For example, we have a line from a love song (Papyrus Harris 500, group a §4), in which the woman says:

My heart is not yet done with your lovemaking, my (little) fox! Your liquor is (your) lovemaking.

Similarly, in an ironic drawing on a 13^th/12^th cent. B.C.E. ostracon from Deir el-Medina in ancient Egypt, we can see three foxes—one playing the harp, one holding a fan, and one with a bouquet of flowers—standing in admiration before an elegantly dressed lady mouse, sitting on a chair, with a female attendant standing behind her.

This supports the idea that the foxes are the male lovers, but still leaves us with the question: What is the verse expressing? ^[10]

A Saucy Reply

Several commentators see this verse as the woman’s response to her lover’s request in the previous verse:

^{שיר השירים ב:יד} יוֹנָתִי בְּחַגְוֵי הַסֶּלַע בְּסֵתֶר הַמַּדְרֵגָה הַרְאִינִי אֶת מַרְאַיִךְ הַשְׁמִיעִינִי אֶת קוֹלֵךְ כִּי קוֹלֵךְ עָרֵב וּמַרְאֵיךְ נָאוֶה.

^{Song 2:14} My dove in the rock’s crevices, in the hollow of the cliff, show me how you look, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your look desirable.

Our verse, then, could be what Roland Murphy terms “a saucy reply.”^[11] She cannot come out of her crevice, for there are young foxes about. Murphy writes:

In this view, then, the exchange in vv 14–15 can be classified as a tease. The original meaning of the verse would be this: the young women warn of the “danger” of the devastation of the vineyards (themselves), for the “little foxes” (young men) are on the prowl. But they are in fact practically inviting them by saying that “our vineyards” are in bloom! This little ditty is then employed by the woman in reply to v 14.

In other words, she is saying playfully that she cannot come out because men, i.e., her lover (or perhaps competitors) are going to ravish her.

An Invitation: “Seize Us, You Foxes”

Yair Zakovitch takes this imagery a step further and argues that in this verse the dative לָנוּ “for us” should be translated as an accusative, אוֹתָנוּ “us,” a usage we find elsewhere in the Bible.^[12] If so, then the girls are not saying “we cannot leave because of foxes,” or “get rid of those foxes,” but “come and get us, you little foxes,” a much more provocative song.

While the translation “seize us” is persuasive, the description of the foxes as מְחַבְּלִים “despoiling” the vineyards sounds like a negative image. As Gianni Barbiero writes:

Undoubtedly a shadow slips in here within the idyll of love. It is one of the rare occasions when the Song speaks of the dangers connected with sexuality.^[13]

Barbiero and others downplay this negative valence, but I suggest that the term is not negative at all, and that the meaning of ח.ב.ל is not “despoil” or “destroy” but “impregnate.”

An Alternative Verb for Conception

In Arabic, the root ח.בּ.ל (حَبَّل) in the second form^[14] means “to conceive” or “to get pregnant.” This meaning is found, albeit rarely, in biblical Hebrew as well, as noted already by the German Bible scholar Josef Scharbert (1919–1998).^[15] For example, Psalm 7 offers a clear sequence, conception-pregnancy-birth:

^{תהלים ז:טו} הִנֵּה יְחַבֶּל אָוֶן וְהָרָה עָמָל וְיָלַד שָׁקֶר.

^{Ps 7:15} See, he conceives evil, becomes pregnant with mischief, and gives birth to fraud.^[16]

Rabbinic Hebrew is also aware of this meaning, as Rabbi Simon ben Lakish (3^rd cent. C.E.) uses it an analogy about rain clouds:

^{בבלי תענית ח. [כת"י יד הרב הרצוג 1]} א"ר שמעון בן לקיש: "בשעה שהשמים מתקשרים בעבים ואינן יורדין דומין לאשה שֶׁמְּחַבֶּלֶת ואינה יולדת."^[17]

^{b. Taʿanit 8a} Rabbi Simon ben Lakish said: “When the heavens are filled with thick clouds but they do not rain [alt.: “are stopped from releasing dew and rain”], it is comparable to a woman who conceives but doesn’t give birth.”

The Song itself uses the verb with this meaning elsewhere:

^{שיר השירים ח:ה} ...תַּחַת הַתַּפּוּחַ עוֹרַרְתִּיךָ שָׁמָּה חִבְּלַתְךָ אִמֶּךָ שָׁמָּה חִבְּלָה יְלָדַתְךָ.

^{Song 8:5} …Under the quince tree, I roused you. There your mother conceived you. There conceived the one who gave birth to you.

Applying this usage of the word to our verse, and understanding “vineyards” as a euphemism for the women’s sexual parts, we can translate the message thus:

^{שיר השירים ב:טו} אֶחֱזוּ לָנוּ שׁוּעָלִים שׁוּעָלִים קְטַנִּים מְחַבְּלִים כְּרָמִים וּכְרָמֵינוּ סְמָדַר.

^{Song 2:15} Seize us, you foxes, you little foxes, who make the vineyards conceive, for our vineyards are in bloom.

If this translation is correct, it would make this a rather forward poem, but also one that fits the tête-à-tête between the lovers more naturally.

A Free and Egalitarian Sexual Ethic

Song of Songs is one of the most beautiful collection of love poems of all time. What stands out about it is the personality of the woman, whose freedom of expression is the opposite of what we see elsewhere in pre-modern works including the Bible. In the story of Adam and Eve, the Torah states that the woman is cursed to be subservient to her husband because she gave him the fruit from the forbidden tree:

^{בראשית ג:טז} אֶל הָאִשָּׁה אָמַר הַרְבָּה אַרְבֶּה עִצְּבוֹנֵךְ וְהֵרֹנֵךְ בְּעֶצֶב תֵּלְדִי בָנִים וְאֶל אִישֵׁךְ תְּשׁוּקָתֵךְ וְהוּא יִמְשָׁל בָּךְ.

^{Gen 3:16} And to the woman [YHWH] said, “I will make most severe your pangs in childbearing. In pain shall you bear children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”

In clear, perhaps polemical contrast, the woman in the Song declares that it is her lover who is filled with desire for her:

^{שיר השירים ז:יא} אֲנִי לְדוֹדִי וְעָלַי תְּשׁוּקָתוֹ.

^{Song 7:11} I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.

In this context, we can appreciate that the woman, who has not “guarded her vineyard” (Song 1:6) is informing her lover that her body is newly blooming and she is ready for him to seize her and get her pregnant.