Song of Solomon 6

Where has your loved one gone, you most beautiful of women? Which way did he turn? Tell us, so we can look for him with you.

1Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? whither is thy beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with thee.

NoteThe speakers here are the group of women of Jerusalem whom the woman has been addressing since chapter 5. Hebrew marks who is speaking through the gender and number of its verbs and pronouns, so the original audience could hear the change of voice; English cannot show it, and the Song carries no speaker labels of its own.

2My loved one has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spice plants, to feed his flock in the gardens and to gather lilies.

2My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.

NoteA "bed of spices" was a cultivated plot of aromatic plants (balsam, nard, saffron and the like) an expensive luxury, not a vegetable patch. The same garden was used as an image for the woman herself in chapter 4, so the line works on two levels at once. The Hebrew verb translated "feed" can mean either to pasture a flock or simply to graze and browse; no flock is actually named in the Hebrew, so it is left open whether he is shepherding animals or feeding himself among the flowers.

3I belong to my loved one, and my loved one belongs to me. He feeds his flock among the lilies.

3I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine: he feedeth among the lilies.

4You are as beautiful as the city of Tirzah, my darling, as lovely as Jerusalem, as awe-inspiring as an army marching under its flags.

4Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners.

NoteTirzah was a real city in the north of Israel, later the royal seat of the northern kingdom before Samaria was built. Its name also means "pleasing" or "delightful," so pairing it with Jerusalem praises her beauty and plays on the sound of the word at the same time. "Terrible" in 1611 English meant awe-inspiring or overwhelming, something that stops you in your tracks: it did not mean dreadful or nasty. The last phrase is genuinely obscure in Hebrew: it describes something marked out or banner-like, and translators have taken it as troops under their standards, or as stars in their ranks.

5Turn your eyes away from me, because they have overwhelmed me. Your hair flows down like a flock of goats coming down the hills of Gilead.

5Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me: thy hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Gilead.

NoteGilead was the hill country east of the Jordan River, known for its herds. The goats of the region were black, and a flock winding down a hillside in a long dark line is the picture behind the compliment: it is about the movement and thickness of her hair, not its texture.

6Your teeth are like a flock of sheep coming up from being washed. Every one of them bears twins, and not one among them has lost her young.

6Thy teeth are as a flock of sheep which go up from the washing, whereof every one beareth twins, and there is not one barren among them.

NoteNewly washed sheep are startlingly white, and a flock filing up out of the water moves in an even double line. The point of "every one beareth twins" is that the ewes are evenly matched and paired, like a full set of upper and lower teeth. The Hebrew behind KJV's "barren" means bereaved, none has lost her young, so no gap breaks the row.

7Behind your veil, the sides of your face are like a slice of pomegranate.

7As a piece of a pomegranate are thy temples within thy locks.

Note"Temples" here means the sides of the face, cheeks and brow, not the inside of the head. A pomegranate cut open is deep red flecked with paler seeds; the comparison is to the flush of her skin glimpsed through a veil.

8There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, who are wives of lower rank, and more young women than anyone can count.

8There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number.

NoteA "score" is twenty, so threescore is sixty and fourscore eighty. These are almost certainly not a head count of anyone's household but a rhetorical ladder (sixty, then eighty, then a number past counting) set up so the next verse can say that one woman outweighs the whole crowd.

9But my dove, my flawless one, is the only one of her kind. She is her mother's one daughter, the favorite of the woman who gave birth to her. The young women saw her and called her blessed. The queens and the concubines praised her too.

9My dove, my undefiled is but one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the choice one of her that bare her. The daughters saw her, and blessed her; yea, the queens and the concubines, and they praised her.

Note"Undefiled" translates a word meaning whole, unblemished, without flaw, with no suggestion that anyone else is dirty. "The only one of her mother" can mean either that she is an only daughter or that she is her mother's singular favorite; the Hebrew allows both. "Blessed her" here means they called her fortunate, they said out loud how lucky she was, an exclamation of envy and admiration rather than a religious blessing.

10Who is this woman, looking out like the dawn, as lovely as the moon, as bright as the sun, as awe-inspiring as an army marching under its flags?

10Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?

NoteThe Hebrew does not use the ordinary words for moon and sun but poetic names, roughly "the white one" and "the hot one." "Clear" in 1611 English meant bright or radiant. "Terrible" again means awe-inspiring, and the final phrase is the same obscure expression as in verse 4, troops under banners, or the stars marching in order.

11I went down to the grove of nut trees to look at the new growth in the valley, to see whether the vines had budded and the pomegranates were in bloom.

11I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished, and the pomegranates budded.

NoteThe nuts are walnuts, an imported tree crop associated with royal gardens rather than a common orchard. Checking whether the vines had budded and the pomegranates flowered is a spring inspection: the walk through the garden marks the season of new growth, the same setting the lovers used earlier in the Song.

12Before I knew what was happening, my own longing set me among the chariots of Amminadib.

12Or ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib.

NoteThis is the most obscure line in the whole book, and the Hebrew is broken enough that no translation is confident. The last word can be read as a personal name, Amminadib, or split into words meaning "my people, a prince" or "my princely people," giving "the chariots of my noble people." "My soul" means the self, the desire, the appetite, what a person wants, not a spiritual part of them. The rendering keeps the puzzle rather than smoothing it out.

13Come back, come back, Shulammite! Come back, come back, so we can look at you. Why do you want to look at the Shulammite, as if watching the dance of two camps?

13Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies.

NoteIn Hebrew Bibles this line is numbered 7:1, so verse numbers here run one behind Hebrew editions for the rest of the Song. "Shulammite" appears only here and its meaning is disputed: a woman from the village of Shunem, or a feminine form of the name Solomon, or a word built on the root for peace and wholeness. The speaker changes partway through the verse, a new voice objects to the others' staring. "The company of two armies" is one word in Hebrew, Mahanaim, which is both a place name and the ordinary phrase "two camps"; the reference is to some known dance, and what it looked like is simply lost.