Hebrew word · H3823
לָבַב
vatelabev
to encourage
From the noun levav, 'heart'. This form appears only here, and it is generally taken to mean 'get a heart', that is, gain understanding (so BDB and HALOT). A related form in Song of Songs 4:9 says 'you have taken my heart', so the same root can describe the heart being stirred or captured.
Appears 5 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) to ravish, become intelligent, get a mind
1a) (Niphal) to take heart, become enheartened, become intelligent
1b) (Piel) to ravish the heart, encourage, make heart beat faster
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
- Range of meaning
From the noun levav, 'heart'. This form appears only here, and it is generally taken to mean 'get a heart', that is, gain understanding (so BDB and HALOT). A related form in Song of Songs 4:9 says 'you have taken my heart', so the same root can describe the heart being stirred or captured. That is why 'embolden' and even 'be deprived of heart' have been proposed for other uses or as minority readings.
- Against the English
BSB and NIV 'become wise', ESV 'get understanding', NASB 'become intelligent', KJV 'would be wise', YLT 'is bold'. All but YLT reach roughly the right idea, yet none keeps the word 'heart', and so the wordplay and the link to the next verse disappear in English.
- How it drifted
This is not drift so much as a loss in translation. English 'heart' points to feelings, while the Hebrew heart is mainly where a person thinks, weighs and decides, so translators rightly avoid a literal 'get a heart', which would sound like 'become kind'.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Compare Proverbs' phrase 'lacking heart' for a senseless person (Proverbs 7:7; 9:4; 10:13), Hosea 7:11, where Ephraim is a silly dove 'without heart', Job 9:4, 'wise of heart', and Job 34:10, 'men of heart', meaning men of understanding.
From the study of Song of Songs 4:9
- Range of meaning
A verb formed from the noun levav, 'heart'. In Hebrew thought the heart is the seat of mind, will and courage as well as feeling. This intensive form of the verb is found only here, twice. The niphal form in Job 11:12 means 'to get a heart', that is, to gain sense. Hebrew forms of this kind can work two opposite ways. They can give something ('to give heart, embolden') or take something away, as dishen means 'to clear away fat or ashes' and sheresh means 'to uproot'. So the verb may mean 'you have given me heart' or 'you have taken my heart away, unmanned me'. A third proposal is 'you have set my heart racing'.
- Against the English
KJV/WEB 'ravished my heart'; NIV 'stolen my heart'; ESV 'captivated my heart'; NASB (1995) 'made my heart beat faster'; BSB 'captured… stolen'; YLT 'emboldened me'. YLT follows the 'give heart' sense (the same direction as the Greek translation, the Septuagint). Most modern versions take it the other way: the lover is overwhelmed.
- How it drifted
Strong's short gloss 'to encourage' follows the 'give heart' sense. That can mislead a reader using an interlinear, because the context, a man undone by one look, suits 'you have taken my heart' or 'stirred my heart' better.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation, renders it ekardiōsas hēmas, 'you have heartened us'. The Vulgate, the Latin translation of Jerome, has vulnerasti cor meum, 'you have wounded my heart'. Job 11:12 has the related niphal form. Ancient interpreters were already unsure which sense was right.
Similar words
Where it appears
2 Samuel · 2
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2 Samuel 13:6 וּתְלַבֵּ֤ב and let her make cakes
So Amnon lay down and feigned illness. When the king came to see him, Amnon said, “Please let my sister Tamar come and make a couple of cakes in my sight, so that I may eat from her hand.”
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2 Samuel 13:8 וַתְּלַבֵּ֣ב and she made cakes
So Tamar went to the house of her brother Amnon, who was lying down. She took some dough, kneaded it, made cakes in his sight, and baked them.
Job · 1
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Job 11:12 יִלָּבֵ֑ב he will become intelligent
But a witless man can no more become wise than the colt of a wild donkey can be born a man!
Here: A verb built from the Hebrew word for 'heart', which here means the seat of thought and judgment. The hollow man 'will be given a heart', meaning he will gain a mind. It chimes in sound with navuv, so the pairing has the snap of a proverb.
Song of Songs · 2
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Song of Songs 4:9 לִבַּבְתִּ֖נִי לִבַּבְתִּ֙ינִי֙ you have stolen heart my
You have captured my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your neck.
Here: A verb made from the noun 'heart' (levav), in a form that does something to the heart. Spoken by the man to the woman: 'you have done something to my heart', most likely 'you have taken my heart away' or 'set my heart pounding'. The form is a completed action: it has already happened.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.