Hebrew word · H1736

דּוּדַי

duda'ei

mandrake

The mandrake (Mandragora officinarum or M. autumnalis), a low plant of the nightshade family. It has a forked root and round yellow-orange fruit about the size of a small plum, which ripens in late spring and gives off a strong, heady smell.

Appears 6 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) mandrake, love-apple

1a) as exciting sexual desire, and favouring procreation

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Song of Songs 7:13

Range of meaning

The mandrake (Mandragora officinarum or M. autumnalis), a low plant of the nightshade family. It has a forked root and round yellow-orange fruit about the size of a small plum, which ripens in late spring and gives off a strong, heady smell. In the ancient Near East it was prized as an aphrodisiac (something that stirs sexual desire) and as a fertility aid. The Hebrew name almost certainly comes from the root of dôd/dōdîm, 'love, lovemaking,' so it means something like 'love-plants' or 'love-apples'.

Against the English

Every major English version says 'mandrakes'. The botany is correct. What the English loses is the sound-play: a Hebrew ear heard 'love' inside the plant's name.

How it drifted

In medieval and early modern Europe, the mandrake's human-shaped root picked up a body of magic lore: it shrieked when pulled up, it grew under gallows, it was used in witchcraft and poisons. That lore lives on in Shakespeare and in modern fantasy. None of it is in view here. The Song is interested in the fruit's scent and its link to love.

Used elsewhere in the period

Genesis 30:14–16 is the only other biblical passage. Reuben finds dûdāʾîm 'in the days of wheat harvest' (late spring), and Rachel bargains with Leah for them, plainly as a fertility charm. The Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation) renders them mēla mandragorōn, 'mandrake apples,' in Genesis and mandragorai here. Greek writers such as Theophrastus discuss the plant's use in love-potions, and Aphrodite was called 'Mandragoritis'.

Where it appears

Genesis · 5

  1. Genesis 30:14 דֽוּדָאִים֙ מִדּוּדָאֵ֖י mandrakes, some of [the] mandrakes of

    Now during the wheat harvest, Reuben went out and found some mandrakes in the field. When he brought them to his mother, Rachel begged Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

  2. Genesis 30:15 דּוּדָאֵ֖י דּוּדָאֵ֥י [the] mandrakes of

    But Leah replied, “Is it not enough that you have taken away my husband? Now you want to take my son’s mandrakes as well?” “Very well,” said Rachel, “he may sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”

  3. Genesis 30:16 בְּדוּדָאֵ֖י for [the] mandrakes of

    When Jacob came in from the field that evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come with me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night.

Song of Songs · 1

  1. Song of Songs 7:13 הַֽדּוּדָאִ֣ים the mandrakes

    The mandrakes send forth a fragrance, and at our door is every delicacy, new as well as old, that I have treasured up for you, my beloved.

    Here: The mandrake plant with its fragrant yellow fruit, famous as a love and fertility plant. The name sounds like dôdîm, 'lovemaking', so the word itself says 'love-plants' and echoes 'my love' in the verse before and 'my beloved' later in this verse.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.