Hebrew word · H8534

תַּלְתַּלִּים

taltalim

lock

Appears only here, so its meaning is genuinely uncertain. It looks like a doubled form of a root tll, 'heap up, hang' (compare tel, 'mound'), which suggests something heaped, layered or hanging in waves. Grammar helps a little. So taltallim is probably not a describing word that agrees with 'locks'.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) wavy, branchy (used of woman's hair-fig)

1a) meaning uncertain

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 5:11

Range of meaning

Appears only here, so its meaning is genuinely uncertain. It looks like a doubled form of a root tll, 'heap up, hang' (compare tel, 'mound'), which suggests something heaped, layered or hanging in waves. A proposed link to Akkadian taltallû (a term from date-palm cultivation, probably the flower-cluster or its pollen) points to 'date clusters' or 'palm fronds'. Grammar helps a little. Taltallim is masculine, while 'locks' is feminine and the adjective 'black' is feminine to match 'locks'. So taltallim is probably not a describing word that agrees with 'locks'. It is more likely a noun used as a picture: 'his locks are date-clusters (palm fronds)'.

Against the English

KJV and WEB: 'bushy'. BSB, NIV, ESV, NLT: 'wavy'. YLT: 'flowing'. NASB: 'clusters of dates'. Each is an educated guess. 'Bushy' sounds unkempt to modern ears, which the Hebrew does not suggest.

How it drifted

'Bushy' (KJV, 1611) was a guess from the idea of heaping or thickness. Today 'bushy' suggests messy, shaggy hair, which does not fit a description built on gold, ivory and gems.

Used elsewhere in the period

LXX: bostrychoi autou elatai, 'his locks are elatai'. The Greek word means 'fir' but is also used for the spathe (the sheath around the flowers) of the date palm. Vulgate: comae eius sicut elatae palmarum, 'his hair like the spathes of palms'. The Talmud (b. Eruvin 21b) reads it as tilei tilim, 'heaps upon heaps': on every stroke of a letter of Torah, heaps upon heaps of laws can be drawn out.

Where it appears

Song of Songs · 1

  1. Song of Songs 5:11 תַּלְתַּלִּ֔ים [are] curls

    His head is purest gold; his hair is wavy and black as a raven.

    Here: Used only here in the Bible. The doubled form suggests something heaped or hanging in layers. The ancient Greek and Latin translations took it as palm branches or date clusters: thick, hanging, layered hair. Others render it 'wavy' or 'curly'.

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