Song of Solomonchapter 6
13 verses · Solomon, by tradition · 10th century BC · Wisdom and poetry
There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and maidens without number,
Introduction
Solomon, by tradition, Wisdom and poetry, Song of Solomon Overview.
This chapter finishes the search the woman began at night and opens a new song of praise, in the love songs the title gives to Solomon. Its hearers knew the two capitals of the land by name and the bright sight of an army with its banners. The chapter answers the question of where the man has gone, and the answer is closer than the search suggested. Listen for lines the man spoke earlier, repeated here almost word for word. Listen also for the crowd that calls the woman back as she turns to leave. The chapter teaches that love, once found again, speaks its praise anew.
Context
- Who
- Hearers who knew both cities named in the same breath
- What
- The woman says where her beloved has gone, and the man praises her again, first as beyond compare and then as the one the onlookers call back.
- Where
- A garden and a walnut grove in a valley, with Tirzah and Jerusalem, the two cities named in the man's praise.
- When
- The reign of Solomon, about 970 to 930 BC, by the title; Tirzah later became the capital of the northern kingdom after Israel divided.
- Why
- To show love restored after loss, with the man's praise renewed in the words he used before.
Historical context
"I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley." The nut in view is the walnut, grown in watered valley ground, and "the fruits of the valley" are the green shoots that come up where there is enough moisture. Anyone farming the hills went down to the valley to see whether anything was thriving.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
"Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem." This is a striking pairing. Tirzah was a Canaanite town in the northern hills, known for its setting; it later served as the capital of the northern kingdom after the split. Naming Tirzah as a byword for beauty alongside Jerusalem, rather than naming Samaria, which replaced it as the northern capital, is one of the honest arguments for an early, Solomonic date, since a later writer would more naturally have named the later capital.
"There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number." Royal marriage in the ancient Near East was diplomacy: treaties were sealed with a daughter, and the size of a harem measured a king's alliances. The song names the whole institution in order to set one woman above all of it, "my dove, my undefiled, is but one."
"Terrible as an army with banners" uses military language for a woman's presence. Armies marched under standards carried on poles, visible from a distance, and the sight of them coming over a ridge was the most awe-inducing thing an ancient villager ever saw.
Significance
The line about queens and concubines would have been heard by people who knew what Solomon's court actually looked like, and the song's insistence that one woman is "but one" cuts across the whole royal system.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
For first hearers, the chapter's answer to "where is thy beloved gone?" is quietly confident: he is in his garden. She knows where he is, and she knows whose she is.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter is heard in the synagogue once a year, when the whole Song is read at Passover on the Sabbath that falls in the festival week. The site's festival table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts records the practice and cites Tractate Soferim 14:3 for it. Probed for this lane, the same table printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for the book. No chapter of the Song is a weekly portion, and none is read as a Haftarah.
The commentary names the sanctuary's service again in this chapter. The beds of spices at the second verse are "The place where the incense is burned" (Rashi on Song of Songs 6:2:2). At the sixth verse Rashi lists the ewe's holy uses: "its wool is for blue thread, its flesh for sacrifice, its horns for shofars, its thighs for flutes" (Rashi on Song of Songs 6:6:2). The blue thread of the fringes and the ram's horn of the New Year are both named there.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Metsudah Five Megillot, Lakewood, N.J., 2001, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Each quotation is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern, and the translator's bracketed glosses are kept as the translation prints them.
Rashi reads the chapter as the return from Babylon and the second Temple. At the first verse the nations taunt Israel, asking why her beloved has left her "abandoned like a widow" (Rashi on Song of Songs 6:1:1). In the next note he places the same question at the rebuilding under Cyrus. The adversaries of Judah and Benjamin asked to build with the returned exiles. "But their intention was sinister" (Rashi on Song of Songs 6:1:2). Israel's answer at the second verse is that God commanded the building "and He will be there with us" (Rashi on Song of Songs 6:2:1).
The fifth verse carries a note of loss. God says the ark, the ark cover and the cherubim cannot be restored in the second house, "which excessively endeared you to Me in the first Beis Hamikdosh" (Rashi on Song of Songs 6:5:2). The dawn of the tenth verse is the second house growing light by degrees, from Zerubbabel the governor to the Hasmonean kings (Rashi on Song of Songs 6:10:2). At the twelfth verse Israel laments what ended it: "I erred over groundless hatred and controversy" under the Hasmonean brothers, until one of them brought in Rome (Rashi on Song of Songs 6:12:1).
The sixty queens and eighty concubines of the eighth verse he counts from the genealogies of Chronicles. Sixty are Abraham and his descendants, and eighty are the generations from Noah to Abraham (Rashi on Song of Songs 6:8:1 and 6:8:2). Over all of them stands the one dove, "My chosen one, like a perfect dove, who is wholehearted with her mate" (Rashi on Song of Songs 6:9:1). Rashi reads the arguments of the study hall kindly: "all of them stem from the desire to understand Torah in its fundamentals and according to its true meaning" (Rashi on Song of Songs 6:9:2).
The corpus carries three further notes on this chapter that it marks linked, so they are named here and never quoted or paraphrased. They stand cited and unquoted because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref, at Metzudat David on Song of Songs 6:3:1 and 6:7:1 and Sforno on Song of Songs 6:7:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty locators on this chapter and the text of none. Each is cited and linked here, and none is quoted. On the first verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 84:3, Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Shirah 3:15, Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 6:1:1 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 6:1:2. On the second verse it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 34:6, Bereshit Rabbah 62:1, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Bereshit 23 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Khagigah 1:2. On the third verse it holds Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 6:3:1 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 6:3:2. It also holds Midrash Tehillim 119:18 and Otzar Midrashim, Midrash on Psalms, Addendum to Psalm 118 24 there. On the fourth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 2:5, Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 6:4:1, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bamidbar 13:1 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bamidbar 13:2.
On the fifth verse it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 10:3, Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 6:5:1 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 6:5:2. On the sixth verse it holds Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 6:6:1, Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 6:6:2 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 6:6:3. On the seventh verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 4:4, Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 4:13 and Eruvin 19a:9. On the eighth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 14:10, Bamidbar Rabbah 14:18 and Bamidbar Rabbah 18:21.
On the ninth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 90:1, Bereshit Rabbah 94:1 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Bachodesh 2:13. On the tenth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 2:4, Bamidbar Rabbah 9:14 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Shirah 9:7. On the eleventh verse it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Toldot 39, Chagigah 15b:10 and Ein Yaakov, Khagigah 2:18. On the twelfth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Miketz 17, Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 6:12:1 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 6:12:2.
What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Song of Songs 6:1:1 to 6:12:2, The Metsudah Five Megillot, Lakewood, N.J., 2001, reported CC-BY, 21 notes kept; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Song of Songs 6:3:1 and 6:7:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Sforno, Sforno on Song of Songs 6:7:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/song-of-solomon/6.json, the 40 locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, the festival entry for the Song at Passover citing Tractate Soferim 14:3 and Mishnah Yadayim 3:5, probed for this book and printing parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Whither Is Thy Beloved Gone? He Is Gone Down to His Garden
Song of Solomon 6:1-2
Where has your beloved gone: The daughters, moved by her portrait, ask, "Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women?" and offer, "We will seek him with you". She answers from within the bond, "My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices," the garden of 4:12-16 and 5:1.
Song of Solomon 6:1
“They still continue their high thoughts of the church, and call her, as before, the fairest among women; for true sanctity is true beauty. And now they raise their thoughts higher concerning Christ: Whither has thy beloved gone, that we may seek him with thee?”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Song of Solomon 6:1
“The question put by the chorus, and the answer it receives from the bride, show that the loss and seeking are not to be taken too seriously.”
to the beds of spices: The line moves from one garden to many gardens. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the plural as the many churches where he feeds while one believer feels him gone. Matthew Henry read gone down as condescension, the one who went up to paradise coming down to his garden on earth.
Song of Solomon 6:2
“Nowhere else in the Song is there mention of mountains of spices. feed in . . . gardens--that is, in the churches, though He may have withdrawn for a time from the individual believer: she implies an invitation to the daughters of Jerusalem to enter His spiritual Church, and become lilies, made white by His blood.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Song of Solomon 6:2
“Christ's church is a garden enclosed, and separated from the open common of the world; it is his garden, which he has planted as he did the garden of Eden, which he takes care of, and delights in. Though he had gone up to the paradise above, yet he comes down to his garden on earth; it lies low, but he condescends to visit it, and wonderful condescension it is.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
I belong to my beloved and he belongs to me: e" returns 2:16 with the order reversed, the second of three statements (2:16, 6:3 and 7:10). The closing clause, "he pastures his flock among the lilies," keeps the shepherd picture since 2:16, and the order moves from claiming toward being claimed.
Song of Solomon 6:3
“Literally, "I am for my beloved . . . for me." Reverse order from So 2:16. She now, after the season of darkness, grounds her convictions on His love towards her, more than on hers towards Him (De 33:3). There, it was the young believer concluding that she was His, from the sensible assurance that He was hers.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Song of Solomon 6:3
"I have been careless and wanting in my duty, and yet I am my beloved's; " for every transgression in the covenant does not throw us out of covenant. "He has justly hidden his face from me and denied me his comforts, and yet my beloved is mine; " for rebukes and chastenings are not only consistent with, but they flow from covenant-love.
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Fair as the Moon, Clear as the Sun, Terrible as an Army
You are as beautiful, my darling, as Tirzah: A new song of praise names two capitals together, "as beautiful, my darling, as Tirzah, as lovely as Jerusalem". The verse closes on "as majestic as troops with banners," pairing beauty with awe, and John Gill and Delitzsch note the pairing returns at 6:10.
Song of Solomon 6:4
“No ground for assigning a later date than the time of Solomon to the Song, as Tirzah was even in his time the capital of the north (Israel), as Jerusalem was of the south (Judah).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Song of Solomon 6:5-7
Turn your eyes away from me: The bridegroom asks relief from her gaze, "Turn your eyes away from me, for they have overcome me". He repeats three images from 4:1-3: goats "streaming down from Gilead," sheep where "each has its twin," and a brow "like a slice of pomegranate".
Song of Solomon 6:5
“Turn away thine eyes - As the sight of so many fires after night was extremely dazzling, and the eye could not bear the sight, so the look of the bride was such as pierced the heart, and quite overwhelmed the person who met it. Hence the bridegroom naturally cries out, “Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me.” Thy hair is as a flock of goats - See on Son 4:1 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Song of Solomon 6:5
“Turn away - It is a poetical expression, signifying how beautiful the church was in Christ's eyes. Thy hair - This clause, and the whole following verse are repeated from, chap. iv, 1, 2. And this repetition is not vain but confirms what was said before, that the churches miscarriage had not alienated Christ's affection from her.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
coming up from the washing: This line repeats 4:2 nearly word for word, spoken after the lost night of chapter 5. John Wesley, reading the Song of Christ and the church, took the repetition as proof her failure at the door left his affection unchanged. Bede read the twins as love of God and neighbour.
slice of pomegranate: This line repeats the second half of 4:3 word for word. The lips and mouth praised before it in chapter 4 are left out, so the praise runs from teeth to brow. Ambrose of Milan read the pomegranate cheeks as the place where modesty shines and youth shows its colour.
Song of Solomon 6:7
“What are the cheeks of the church of which the Scripture elsewhere says, "Your cheeks are as the bark of pomegranates"? They are the cheeks on which modesty is accustomed to shine, beauty to sparkle, on which there is either the flower of youth or the distinguished mark of perfect age.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Consolation on the Death of Emperor Valentinian 6patristic
Song of Solomon 6:8-9
There are sixty queens and eighty concubines: s, and maidens without number" sets a court's whole company beside her as a foil. The answer, "my dove, my perfect one, is unique," sets one against the crowd. The court itself confirms it, for "the queens and concubines sing her praises".
Song of Solomon 6:8
“There are threescore queens - Though there be sixty queens, and eighty concubines, or secondary wives, and virgins innumerable, in my harem, yet thou, my dove, my undefiled, art אצת achath, One, the Only One, she in whom I delight beyond all.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Song of Solomon 6:8
“Threescore - A certain number for an uncertain. The sense seems to be this, there are many beautiful queens and concubines in the world, in the courts of princes, but none of them is to be compared with my spouse.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Song of Solomon 6:8
“All the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, are nothing, in Christ's account, compared with the church, which is made up of the excellent ones of the earth, the precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, and more excellent than their neighbours.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
my perfect one, is unique: Adam Clarke pointed to the Hebrew word achath, one, behind unique: she alone against the sixty queens and eighty concubines of verse 8. He took the blessing of the maidens as the welcome the women gave her on her arrival. Clarke's wedding week reaches its fourth night here.
Song of Solomon 6:9
“The daughters saw her, and blessed her - Not only the Jewish women in general spoke well of her on her arrival, but the queens and concubines praised her as the most accomplished of her sex. With this verse the fourth night of the marriage week is supposed to end.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Who is this who shines like the dawn: n" is read by most commentators as the question of the queens and concubines after verse 9. The images rise to "the moon" and "the sun," each brighter than the last, and close on "as majestic as the stars in procession."
Song of Solomon 6:10
“The Jewish church was fair as the moon; the ceremonial law was an imperfect light; it shone by reflection; it was changing as the moon, did not make day, nor had the sun of righteousness yet risen. But the Christian church is clear as the sun, exhibits a great light to those that sat in darkness. Or we may apply it to the kingdom of grace, the gospel-kingdom.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Song of Solomon 6:11-12
I went down to the walnut grove: The voice is hers again, on an errand "to see if the vines were budding or the pomegranates were in bloom." In verse 12, the Hebrew ammi nadib is read as a proper name, Amminadib, or as my noble people. The Berean renders it "royal chariots of my people."
Song of Solomon 6:11
“You wish to know the place? He says in the Canticles, "I came down to the nut garden"; for it was a garden where he was crucified.”
Cyril of Jerusalem · written before 386 · Catechetical Lecture 14:5patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Song of Solomon 6:11
“The bride's words; for she everywhere is the narrator, and often soliloquizes, which He never does. The first garden (So 2:11-13) was that of spring, full of flowers and grapes not yet ripe; the second, autumn, with spices (which are always connected with the person of Jesus Christ), and nothing unripe (So 4:13, &c.).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
among the royal chariots of my people: The Berean rendering, royal chariots of my people, translates the Hebrew ammi nadib as words. Adam Clarke heard a racing heart in it. He compared the speed to Jehu's driving and declined spiritual meaning, while Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read it as the soul carried into Christ's presence.
Song of Solomon 6:12
“The chariots of Amminadib - Probably for their great speed these chariots became proverbial. The passage marks a strong agitation of mind, and something like what we term palpitation of the heart. As I am not aware of any spiritual meaning here, I must be excused from commenting on that which is literal. Amminadib signifies my noble or princely people; but it may here be a proper name, and Amminadib might be celebrated for his skill and rapidity in driving, as Jehu was.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Song of Solomon 6:12
“Rather, "my willing people" (Ps 110:3). A willing chariot bore a "willing people"; or Nadib is the Prince, Jesus Christ (Ps 68:17). She is borne in a moment into His presence (Eph 2:6).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Come back, come back, O Shulammite!: "O Shulammite" names her in this verse and nowhere else, read either as a feminine form of Solomon's name or as a woman of Shunem. The closing phrase, "as on the dance of Mahanaim," is read as a dance, or wonder at what there is to see in her.
Song of Solomon 6:13
“Return, return - About to withdraw, the bride is recalled by the chorus, desiring yet a little longer to contemplate a grace and beauty which has won all hearts. Shulamite - Probably the same as “Shunamite,” i. e., a native of the town or district of Shunem, situated in the territory of Issachar Jos 19:18, on the slopes of the Little Hermon, overlooking the plain of Jezreel. It is now called Salem. See - Look or gaze at. The bride’s modest reply, taking up their words, and wondering at their request. The chorus answer with a further petition.”
3 more voices on this verse
Song of Solomon 6:13
“Return - Christ recalls his spouse, who as when Christ was gone, she pursued after him, so now when Christ was coming to her, she was ready to wander from him. Return - This word is repeated four times, to signify both Christ's passionate love to her, and her backwardness.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Song of Solomon 6:13
“The two armies are the family of Jesus Christ in heaven, and that on earth, joined and one with Him; the one militant, the other triumphant. Or Jesus Christ and His ministering angels are one army, the Church the other, both being one (Joh 17:21, 22). Allusion is made to Mahanaim (meaning two hosts), the scene of Jacob's victorious conflict by prayer (Ge 32:2, 9, 22-30).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Song of Solomon 6:13
“THE TRANSLATION INTO THE WORD "Shulamite" is unhappy: it is unmusical, and misses the meaning. The Hebrew word is a feminine of "Solomon." "Solomon" may stand for the bridegroom's name, and then the well-beloved bride takes her husband's name in a feminine form of it, which is Shulamith, Salome, or perhaps better "Solyma." The King has named his name upon her, and as Caius has his Caiia, so Solomon has his Solyma. He is the Prince of Peace, and she is the Daughter of Peace.”
How this psalm is built
The form: The end of the search song at verse 3, then a new descriptive praise of the bride, as Delitzsch classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| My beloved is mine, turned around | Verse 3 repeats the line of 2:16 with the two halves in the opposite order. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the change as a love that now rests on his hold of her more than on hers of him.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, on Song of Solomon 6:3. | Song of Solomon 2:16, Song of Solomon 6:3, Song of Solomon 7:10 |
| Praise repeated from chapter 4 | Verses 5 to 7 repeat the pictures of the hair, the teeth and the brow from 4:1 to 3 with very few changes. The man uses the same words of praise after the loss that he used on the wedding day.the Berean text, counted, the store's Berean Standard Bible, Song of Solomon 4:1 to 3 and 6:5 to 7. | Song of Solomon 4:1, Song of Solomon 4:3, Song of Solomon 6:5, Song of Solomon 6:7 |
How this chapter is built
2 more paragraphs on the patterns
Verses 1 to 3 close the search that began at 5:2, ending on the line of belonging first heard at 2:16, turned around. Verse 4 begins a new praise of the woman. Verses 5 to 7 repeat three pictures from 4:1 to 3 almost word for word. The chapter ends at verse 13 as the onlookers call her back to look at her.
Sources: Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, on 6:3; Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, 1875.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, 1875 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Ambrose of Milan, CONSOLATION ON THE DEATH OF EMPEROR VALENTINIAN 6; Bede, Commentary on the Song of Songs; Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.