Song of Solomonchapter 7
13 verses · Solomon, by tradition · 10th century BC · Wisdom and poetry
I said, “I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its fruit.” May your breasts be like clusters of the vine, the fragrance of your breath like apples,
Introduction
Solomon, by tradition, Wisdom and poetry, Song of Solomon Overview.
This chapter holds the fullest praise of the woman in the love songs the title gives to Solomon. Its hearers knew the pools and towns of the land east of the Jordan, the heights of Carmel and the date palm of the valleys. The man describes her from her feet upward, the reverse of the order he used before. Listen for the places named in his praise and for the harvest pictures he turns to. Then listen for her reply, which picks up a line from earlier in the book and changes its ending. The chapter shows married love at rest and at home in the countryside.
Context
- Who
- Married hearers, at the height of the wedding celebration
- What
- The man's praise of the woman from her feet to her head, followed by her invitation to go out with him to the fields and vineyards.
- Where
- The pools of Heshbon east of the Jordan, the tower of Lebanon, Mount Carmel on the coast, and the villages, fields and vineyards of the countryside.
- When
- The reign of Solomon, about 970 to 930 BC, by the title, in spring when the vines bud and the pomegranates bloom.
- Why
- To show the settled delight of married love and the woman's glad answer to it.
Historical context
The praise song here runs from the feet upward, and every comparison is a place or a piece of work. "Thy belly is like an heap of wheat set about with lilies" is the threshing floor: winnowed grain was piled into a rounded golden heap, and the harvest heap was the most welcome sight of the year.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
"Thine eyes like the fishpools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bathrabbim." Heshbon was a real town east of the Jordan in what had been Moabite territory, and a large rock-cut reservoir has been found at the site. The point is clear, still water inside a town gate.
"Thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus" compares her profile to a watchtower on a height with a commanding view, strength and bearing, not size. "Thine head upon thee is like Carmel" names the ridge that runs down to the sea, the most prominent headland in the country.
"The hair of thine head like purple; the king is held in the galleries." Purple again is the murex dye, the colour of royalty, so expensive that whole coastal industries existed to produce it from crushed shellfish.
"I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof." Date palms were climbed with a rope loop around the trunk, both to pollinate the flowers by hand and to cut down the heavy clusters at harvest. It was skilled, deliberate work at height. And "the mandrakes give a smell" names a plant with a strong-scented yellow fruit that the ancient world associated with fertility and desire, the same plant Rachel and Leah bargained over.
Significance
The song is unembarrassed and it is mutual: "I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me." That reverses the phrase used of Eve in Genesis 3, and the first hearers who knew the Torah would have caught it.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The setting she asks for is not the palace. "Let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages… let us get up early to the vineyards." After all the royal imagery, what she wants is the country in spring.
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 ties three practices to this chapter. The feet at the second verse are Israel "In the festive pilgrimages" (Rashi on Song of Songs 7:2:2). The head like Carmel at the sixth verse is "the phylacteries of the head" (Rashi on Song of Songs 7:6:1). The vineyards Israel rises early to at the thirteenth verse are "the synagogues and the study halls" (Rashi on Song of Songs 7:13:1).
The corpus numbers this chapter by the Hebrew text, whose first verse the Berean Standard Bible sets as the last verse of chapter 6. A reader counting in the Berean text will find the corpus's first verse at 6:13 and each later verse of this row one number lower.
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 divides the chapter between two speakers. From the first verse the nations speak, calling Israel to turn back "from following the Omnipresent" (Rashi on Song of Songs 7:1:1). The perfect one they call is perfect in her faith (Rashi on Song of Songs 7:1:2). They praise her body limb by limb, and Rashi says plainly that this praise is her friends praising her deeds and telling her "you are worthy to join us" (Rashi on Song of Songs 7:3:1). At the eighth verse he marks the turn: "Until this point, the nations praised him [i.e., Yisroel]" (Rashi on Song of Songs 7:8:2), and from there the Divine Presence speaks to the exiles.
The figures he gives the nations' praise are the institutions of the land. The navel at the third verse is the Chamber of Hewn Stone at the centre of the world, where the Sanhedrin sat. The mixed wine that never fails is instruction that never ceases (Rashi on Song of Songs 7:3:1 and 7:3:2). The two breasts at the fourth are the two Tablets, or in another explanation "the king and the kohein gadol" (Rashi on Song of Songs 7:4:1). The eyes like pools in Heshbon at the fifth are the sages at the gates reckoning the seasons and the constellations (Rashi on Song of Songs 7:5:2). The stature like a palm tree at the eighth is Israel standing upright in the days of Nebuchadnezzar "when all the nations were kneeling and falling before the image" (Rashi on Song of Songs 7:8:1).
At the twelfth verse Rashi hands on what the Rabbis expounded in Eruvin. Israel asks God to judge her by the villagers "who are craftsmen and are occupied in the study of Torah amidst hardship" (Rashi on Song of Songs 7:12:1). At the fourteenth the two baskets of figs from Jeremiah stand for the righteous and the sinners of Israel. Rashi ends the chapter on both: "they all seek Your countenance" (Rashi on Song of Songs 7:14:1).
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 Ibn Ezra on Song of Songs 7:4:1, 7:7:1 and 7:11:1.
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 13:3, Bamidbar Rabbah 2:4 and Bava Batra 15b:9. On the second verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 59:2, Bereshit Rabbah 43:9 and Chagigah 3a:12. On the third verse it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 2:2, Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 3:1 and Bamidbar Rabbah 1:4. On the fourth verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 41:3, Aggadat Bereshit 63:1 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 7:4:1.
On the fifth verse it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 31:3, Bamidbar Rabbah 14:4 and Bereshit Rabbah 78:9. On the sixth verse it holds Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 7:6:1, Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 7:6:2 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 7:6:3. On the seventh verse it holds Midrash Aggadah, Exodus 27:1:2, Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 7:7:1 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 7:7:2. On the eighth verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 19:3, Esther Rabbah 9:2 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 7:8:1.
On the ninth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 3:1, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:18 and Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 11:17. On the tenth verse it holds Bekhorot 31b:11, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:3 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yevamot 10:4. On the eleventh verse it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 1:4, Bamidbar Rabbah 10:1 and Bereshit Rabbah 20:7. On the twelfth verse it holds Ein Yaakov, Eiruvin 2:10 and Eruvin 21b:17.
On the thirteenth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 20:14 and Eruvin 21b:20. On the fourteenth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 32:10 and Bereshit Rabbah 72:5.
The corpus anchors Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 23:17:1 at Song of Songs 7:50, a verse this chapter does not have, and it is cited here as the corpus files it. 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 7:1:1 to 7:14:1, The Metsudah Five Megillot, Lakewood, N.J., 2001, reported CC-BY, 21 notes kept; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Song of Songs 7:4:1, 7:7:1 and 7:11:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/song-of-solomon/7.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.
How Beautiful Are Thy Feet in Sandals, O Prince's Daughter
Song of Solomon 7:1-3
How beautiful are your sandaled feet: t, O daughter of the prince" opens the poem's fourth song of praise, built by impression as at 4:1-7. "Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle" repeats the twin figure used of her teeth at 4:2 and 6:6.
Song of Solomon 7:1
“Thy feet with shoes - Or, thy steps in the sandals: the bride’s feet are seen in motion in the dance. “Joints” might be rendered circling movements. Prince’s daughter - Or, daughter of a noble; the bride is of honorable though not of kingly birth. Like jewels - The image suggested is that of large well-formed pearls or other jewels skillfully strung or linked together.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Song of Solomon 7:1
“The virgin bridegroom, having been praised by the virgin bride, in turn praises the virgin bride and says to her, "How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O daughter of Aminadab," which is, being interpreted, a people that offers itself willingly. For virginity is voluntary, and therefore the steps of the church in the beauty of chastity are praised. This is not the time for me like a commentator to explain all the mysteries of virginity from the Song of Songs. I have no doubt that the fastidious reader will turn up his nose at what has already been said.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Against Jovinianus 1.31patristic
a rounded goblet: Several older readers saw an ornament here. John Gill reported the view that a jewel or gold plate is meant, and noted the Chaldee word for round means moon. Adam Clarke read the wheat and lilies as embroidery on a rich dress, drawing on pictures of eastern women he owned.
Song of Solomon 7:2
“His navel is described as a round bowl that never lacks mixed wine, because in all knowledge it is rounded, not lacking in spiritual drink. And his belly is not only nourished by a heap of wheat, that is, by more powerful nourishment of the celestial mystery, but also filled with the sweetness of certain lilies of moral virtue. Hence, she herself is crowned with the blood of Christ as a well-deserving queen, as it is written: And the ornament of her head is as purple.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Commentary on the Song of Songspatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Song of Solomon 7:2
“Thy navel is like a round goblet - This may also refer to some ornamental dress about the loins. These suppositions are rendered very probable from hundreds of the best finished and highly decorated drawings of Asiatic ladies in my own collection, where every thing appears in the drawings, as in nature. A heap of wheat set about with lilies - This is another instance of the same kind. The richly embroidered dresses in the above drawings may amply illustrate this also.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Song of Solomon 7:2
“Thy navel is like a round goblet,.... According to some, not the navel itself is meant; but a covering of it, a jewel or plate of gold in the shape of it; and because the word for "round", in the Chaldee language, signifies the "moon", and so Ben Melech interprets it, some have thought of the "round tire like the moon", Isa 3:18; though that was rather an ornament about the neck.”
twins of a gazelle: This line repeats 4:5 almost exactly, with the lilies of that verse left off. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown heard the daughters of Jerusalem speaking here, so their praise matches the bridegroom's own words. Bede read the breasts as the church feeding her young.
Song of Solomon 7:3
“The daughters of Jerusalem describe her in the same terms as Jesus Christ in So 4:5. The testimonies of heaven and earth coincide. twins--faith and love.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Song of Solomon 7:4-5
Your neck is like a tower made of ivory: Her eyes are "like the pools of Heshbon by the gate of Bath-rabbim," real geography, Heshbon known for its pools. Her nose is "like the tower of Lebanon, facing toward Damascus," a known height borrowed for dignity. The one line about him follows: "the king is captured in your tresses".
Song of Solomon 7:4
“Thy neck - as a tower of ivory - High, white, and ornamented with jewellery, as the tower of David was with bucklers. See on Son 4:4 (note). The fish - pools in Heshbon - Clear, bright, and serene. These must have been very beautiful to have been introduced here in comparison. These two fountains appear to have been situated at the gate that led from Heshbon to Rabba, or Rabboth Ammon. There is a propriety in this metaphor, because fountains are considered to be the eyes of the earth.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Song of Solomon 7:4
“The tower - Which was in all probability built by Solomon in the mountain of Lebanon, the northern border of the land of Israel towards Damascus; and therefore a very fit place for a watch- tower. Which looketh - There was another tower or building in or near Jerusalem, which was called the house of the forest of Lebanon, 1 Kings vii, 2.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Song of Solomon 7:4
“The neck, which before was compared to the tower of David ( ch. iv. 4 ), is here compared to a tower of ivory, so white, so precious; such is the faith of the saints, by which they are joined to Christ their head. The name of the Lord, improved by faith, is to the saints as a strong and impregnable tower.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the king is captured in your tresses: John Gill pictured Mount Carmel covered with plants and trees, a head of thick, long hair. Albert Barnes noted a second reading in which Carmel names a colour, crimson, matching purple in the next line. He took purple as a deep violet black.
Song of Solomon 7:5
“Compare and contrast with Son 5:15. The rendering in the margin takes “Carmel” as the name of a color, equivalent to “carmine” (rendered “crimson” in 2Ch 2:7, 2Ch 2:14; 2Ch 3:14). This interpretation is favored by the parallelism with “purple,” but removes a beautiful image. Purple - A deep violet black. The king ... - Rather, “A king is bound in the tresses or windings of thy hair.” These last words indicate the king’s approach.”
1 more voice on this verse
Song of Solomon 7:5
“Thine head upon thee is like Carmel,.... Set with hair, thick and long, as Carmel with plants and trees.”
Song of Solomon 7:6-7
How fair and pleasant you are: e, O love, with your delights" breaks into the description with the poem's own summary. "Your stature is like a palm tree" moves to one tall image, the palm's upright bearing, stature and grace together, and prepares verse 8.
Song of Solomon 7:6
“The church is beautiful in [those recently baptized]. So that God the Word says to her: "You are all fair, my love, and there is no blemish in you," for guilt has been washed away. "Come here from Lebanon, my spouse, come here from Lebanon, from the beginning of faith you will pass through and pass on," because, renouncing the world, she passed through things temporal and passed on to Christ. And again, God the Word says to her, "How beautiful and sweet are you made, O love, in your delights!”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On the Mysteries 7:39patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Song of Solomon 7:6
“How art thou made fair! (so the word is), "not born so, but made so with the comeliness which I have put upon thee." Holiness is a beauty beyond expression; the Lord Jesus is wonderfully pleased with it; the outward aspect of it is fair; the inward disposition of it is pleasant and highly agreeable, and the complacency he has in it is inexpressible.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Your stature is like a palm tree: The commentators part on the clusters. Adam Clarke took them as dates, the fruit a palm actually bears. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown held that they are grapes, because verse 8 speaks of clusters of the vine.
Song of Solomon 7:7
“Like to a palm tree - Which is remarkably straight, taper, and elegant. And thy breasts to clusters of grapes - Dates are the fruit of the palm tree; they grow in clusters; and it is these, not grapes, which are intended.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Song of Solomon 7:7
“Palm-tree - Tall and strait, or upright. And he seems to mention the palm-tree, rather than any other, because it is constantly green and flourishing, and grows upward in spite of all pressures.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Song of Solomon 7:7
“The sure sign of water near (Ex 15:27; Joh 7:38). clusters--not of dates, as MOODY STUART thinks. The parallelism (So 7:8), "clusters of the vine," shows it is here clusters of grapes.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Song of Solomon 7:8-9
"I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its fruit" turns the palm of verse 7 into desire acted on. The vine and the apple return from chapter 2 in "clusters of the vine" and "the fragrance of your breath like apples".
Song of Solomon 7:8
“I will go up to the palm tree - I will take hold on the boughs of this tree, and climb up by them, in order to gather the clusters of dates at the top. The rubric here in the old MS. interprets this of the cross of Christ.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Song of Solomon 7:8
The laurel and the palm are the symbols of victory. The heads of the victors are crowned with laurel, and the hand of the conqueror is adorned with a palm. Hence the Church says: "I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of its branches."
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · The Six Days of Creationpatristic
Song of Solomon 7:8
“I will - Climb up, that so I may take hold of the boughs, which do not grow out of the sides, as in other trees, but only at the top of it. Take hold - Partly to prune and dress them, and partly to gather the fruit. The smell - Of thy breath; which is often called the breath of a man's nostrils.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Song of Solomon 7:8
“It is the symbol of triumphant joy (Joh 12:13); so hereafter (Re 7:9). breasts-- (Isa 66:11). the vine--Jesus Christ (Ho 14:7, end; Joh 15:1). nose--that is, breath; the Holy Ghost breathed into her nostrils by Him, whose "mouth is most sweet" (So 5:16). apples--citrons, off the tree to which He is likened (So 2:3).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
gliding gently over lips and teeth: The words May it flow smoothly to my beloved sound like her voice taking up his wine image. Adam Clarke took the mouth as her voice and conversation. As good wine loosens a slow tongue, he wrote, hearing her would make the quietest man eloquent in her praise.
Song of Solomon 7:9
“The roof of thy mouth like the best wine - The voice or conversation of the spouse is most probably what is meant. Causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak - As good wine has a tendency to cause the most backward to speak fluently when taken in moderation; so a sight of thee, and hearing the charms of thy conversation, is sufficient to excite the most taciturn to speak, and even to become eloquent in thy praises.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
I Am My Beloved's: Let Us Go Forth Into the Field
I belong to my beloved, and his desire is for me: e" completes the three statements, from 2:16 through 6:3, and rests on being wanted. The Hebrew word for desire is the rare word of Genesis 3:16 for the woman's desire, and John Gill sets this verse beside it.
Song of Solomon 7:10
“I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me - It is worthy of remark that the word which we translate his desire is the very same used Gen 3:16: Thy desire, thy ruling appetite, תשוקתך teshukathech, shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. This was a part of the woman’s curse. Now here it seems to be reversed; for the bride says, I am my beloved’s, and his desire or ruling appetite and affection, תשוקתו teshukatho, is עלי ali, Upon Me.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Song of Solomon 7:10
“I will offer my beloved praise, and his turning will be toward me. What it calls his turning is either the second advent or the conversion of the Jewish people.”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · Fragments in the Commentary on the Song of Songs 7:10patristic
Song of Solomon 7:10
“Words of the daughters of Jerusalem and the bride, now united into one (Ac 4:32). They are mentioned again distinctly (So 8:4), as fresh converts were being added from among enquirers, and these needed to be charged not to grieve the Spirit. his desire is toward me--strong assurance.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Song of Solomon 7:11-12
Come, my beloved, let us go to the countryside: e" returns the poem outdoors. "Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vine has budded" echoes her errand of 6:11, now a shared plan. The couplet closes with a promise: "there I will give you my love".
Song of Solomon 7:11
“Let us go forth into the field - It has been conjectured that the bridegroom arose early every morning, and left the bride’s apartment, and withdrew to the country; often leaving her asleep, and commanding her companions not to disturb her till she should awake of herself. Here the bride wishes to accompany her spouse to the country, and spend a night at his country house.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Song of Solomon 7:11
“At Stephen's death the disciples were scattered from it through Judea and Samaria, preaching the word (Ac 8:4-25). Jesus Christ was with them, confirming the word with miracles. They gathered the old fruits, of which Jesus Christ had sown the seed (Joh 4:39-42), as well as new fruits. lodge--forsaking home for Jesus Christ's sake (Mt 19:29).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Here she is the one who rises first. John Wesley set this early start beside her slow rising at the door in chapter 5 and read the church doubling her diligence after loss. Matthew Henry took the vineyard visit as a picture of keepers examining their own souls for fruit.
Song of Solomon 7:12
“Early - The church having lost her beloved by her former laziness, now doubles her diligence. Vineyards - To particular congregations. Let us see - Let us inquire into the success of our labours, what souls are brought in and built up, and how they prosper and grow in grace.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Song of Solomon 7:12
“We are made keepers of these vineyards, and therefore are concerned often to look into them, to examine the state of our own souls, to seek whether the vine flourishes, whether our graces be in act and exercise, whether we be fruitful in the fruits of righteousness, and whether our fruit abound.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The mandrakes send forth a fragrance: e" recalls the plant Reuben found in Genesis 30:14, used here for its scent. At the door is "every delicacy, new as well as old, that I have treasured up for you," which echoes the sealed garden of 4:12. The chapter ends with an invitation.
Song of Solomon 7:13
“I have preserved for you, my brother, the new and the old; that is to say, I hold on to all the commandments of the new and the old Testament. Only the Church can say this: no other congregation says it, nor does the Synagogue, nor does it hold on to the new according to the literal meaning; nor does it hold on to the old according to the spirit. The heresy of Manichaeus does not say it, 'I have preserved for you the Old,' which does not accept the prophets.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Commentary on the Song of Songs 7.21patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Song of Solomon 7:13
“The mandrakes give a smell,.... Or, "those lovely flowers", as Junius and Tremellius, and Piscator, translate the words; even those the church proposed to give to her beloved, when in the fields Some take them to be violets; others, jessamine; others, more probably, lilies (g); as the circumstances of time and place, when and where they flourished, and their fragrant smell, and figure like cups, show.”
Song of Solomon 7:13
“Mandrakes - This Hebrew word is used Gen. xxx, 14, 15, and the signification of it is very much doubted and disputed by interpreters. The word here signifies sweet and pleasant flowers, and therefore if it be understood of mandrakes, they were of another sort than ours, as flowers of the same kind in several climates have very different natures and qualities.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: A descriptive praise of the bride from the feet upward, followed by her invitation to the countryside that runs to 8:4, as Delitzsch classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Praise from the feet upward | Verses 1 to 5 describe the woman from her sandaled feet to the hair of her head, the reverse of the order in 4:1 to 5. It is the fourth and last of the book's descriptive praises.Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, 1875. | Song of Solomon 4:1, Song of Solomon 7:1, Song of Solomon 7:5 |
| His desire is for me | Verse 10 takes the line of belonging from 2:16 and 6:3 and gives it a new second half. Adam Clarke notes that the word for desire is the same word used at Genesis 3:16.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, on Song of Solomon 7:10. | Song of Solomon 2:16, Song of Solomon 6:3, Song of Solomon 7:10 |
How this chapter is built
2 more paragraphs on the patterns
Verses 1 to 5 describe the woman from her feet upward, the reverse of chapter 4, and verses 6 to 9 turn to the picture of a palm tree and its fruit. At verse 10 the woman speaks, and her line picks up the refrain of 2:16 and 6:3 with a new ending. Verses 11 to 13 are her invitation to the fields and vineyards. The section this chapter belongs to closes at 8:4 with the third charge to the daughters of Jerusalem.
Sources: Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, on 7:10; Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, 1875.
Keep studying
Studies1
Places1
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; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; 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.