שִׁדָּה

From the study of Ecclesiastes 2:8

Range of meaning

A word that occurs only here in the Bible, with no secure meaning. Proposals: (1) concubine, lady or woman of the harem, linked by some to shad, "breast," or to a word for "lady"; (2) chest or treasure box, the sense of shiddah in later Mishnaic Hebrew (for example in the Mishnah's lists of chests and cupboards); (3) cupbearer (Septuagint) or wine vessels (Vulgate); (4) musical instruments (medieval Jewish interpreters, followed by KJV); (5) a litter or carriage, or male and female demons (both reported in Babylonian Talmud Gittin 68a); (6) baths (the Targum).

Against the English

BSB, NASB, ESV: "(many) concubines." NIV: "a harem." KJV/WEB: "musical instruments (of all sorts)." YLT: "a wife and wives." These are not different shades of one meaning. They are different guesses at an unknown word.

How it drifted

KJV's "musical instruments" followed medieval Jewish commentators who connected the word with the singers just before it. Modern versions switched to "concubines" on the basis of context ("delights of men"), the singular-plus-plural idiom (compare Judg 5:30, where war spoils are "a womb, two wombs," meaning a girl or two for each man), and the Solomon background (1 Kgs 11:3: 700 wives, 300 concubines).

Used elsewhere in the period

Septuagint: oinochoon kai oinochoas, "a male cupbearer and female cupbearers." Vulgate: "cups and jugs for serving the pouring of wine." Talmud (b. Gittin 68a): "Here [in Babylonia] they render it male and female demons; in the West [the land of Israel] they say carriages." Mishnaic Hebrew shiddah means "chest, box," and sometimes "litter."