Psalms 45:9
in Psalms 45The daughters of kings are among your honored women; the queen stands at your right hand, adorned with the gold of Ophir.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Kings’ daughters are among thy honorable women: At thy right hand doth stand the queen in gold of Ophir.
KJV
Kings’ daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.
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This verse in Psalms 45
Commentary
16 notes on this verseThe queen … is the soul that is joined with the Word, its Bridegroom; not subjected by sin but sharing the kingdom of Christ, it stands on the right hand of the Savior in gilded clothing, that is to say, adorning itself charmingly and religiously with spiritual doctrines, interwoven and varied.
This site's exposition
fragrant with myrrh and aloes
on Psalms 45:8-9
The garments carry myrrh and aloes and cassia, and harps sound from palaces of ivory. The queen stands at his right hand in the gold of Ophir, the far country Solomon's ships sailed to for gold at 1 Kings 9:28. Barnes reads the ivory as inlay in royal building.
This site's exposition
daughters of kings
Barnes took the word for honored women to mean precious or beloved, so the daughters of kings stand among his dear ones. Augustine set the queen at the right hand with the blessed of Matthew 25:34. Henry read her gold as her graces.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
What a nuptial song! Behold in the midst of songs full of rejoicing, comes forth the Bride herself. For the Bridegroom was coming. It was He who was being described: it was on Him all our attention was fixed. "Upon Your right hand stood the Queen" [Psalm 45:9]. She which stands on the left is no Queen. For there will be one standing on "the left" also, to whom it will be said, "Go into everlasting fire." [Matthew 25:41] But she shall stand on the right hand, to whom it will be said, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." [Matthew 25:34] On Your right hand stood the Queen, "in a vesture of gold, clothed about with various colours." What is the vesture of this Queen? It is one both precious, and also of various colours: it is the mysteries of doctrine in all the various tongues: one African, one Syrian, one Greek, one Hebrew, one this, and one that; it is these languages that produce the various colours of this vesture. But just as all the various colours of the vesture blend together in the one vesture, so do all the languages in one and the same faith. In that vesture, let there be diversity, let there be no rent. See we have "understood" the various colours of the diversity of tongues; and the vesture to refer to unity: but in that diversity itself, what is meant by the "gold"? Wisdom itself. Let there be any diversity of tongues you please, but there is but one "gold" that is preached of: not a different gold, but a different form of that gold. For it is the same Wisdom, the same doctrine and discipline that every language preaches. In the languages there is diversity; gold in the thoughts.
The church is in attendance on you, he is saying, on your right; that is, it will always be assembled for you. The church is always assembled in union with him both in purpose and in the grace of rebirth, just as members and body …
What can be fairer than a soul that is called the daughter of God and that seeks for itself no outward adorning. She believes in Christ, and dowered with this hope of greatness, makes her way to her spouse, for Christ is at once her bridegroom and her Lord.
The Medieval Church2 voices
"The queen stood." Above, the Psalmist praised Christ for graciousness, warlike virtue, and delights; here he praises him for his bride, whom he describes in four respects: as to the presence of the bridegroom, as to her dignity, as to her glory, and as to …
"Myrrh and gutta." Here he treats of the delights of the king, and he describes these delights from four things: from clothing, from dwelling, from attendance, and from marriage. Of the first, he says, "Myrrh and gutta and cassia from your garments." The garments of …
8 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
This is the bride, the Lamb's wife, whose graces, which are her ornaments, are compared to fine linen, clean and white ( Rev. xix. 8 ), for their purity, here to gold of Ophir, for their costliness; for, as we owe our redemption, so we owe our adorning, not to corruptible things, but to the precious blood of the Son of God.
And although the church is made up of particular believers, yet she is distinguished from them, for the decency of the parable. And these believers may be said to be Kings daughters, because among others, many persons of royal race embraced the faith, and because they are in a spiritual sense, Kings unto God, Rev. i, 6.
Kings' daughters were among thy honourable women,....
The Nineteenth Century5 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
The relation of subjection to her spouse at once accords with the law of marriage, as given in Ge 3:16; 1Pe 3:5, 6, and the relation of the Church to Christ (Eph 5:24). The love of the husband is intimately connected with the entire devotion to which the bride is exhorted.
King's daughters were among thy honourable women. Our Lord's courts lack not for courtiers, and those the fairest and noblest. Virgin souls are maids of honour to the court, the true lilies of heaven. The lowly and pure in heart are esteemed by the Lord Jesus as his most familiar friends, their place in his palace is not among the menials but near the throne.
King's daughters were among thy honourable women. Our Lord's courts lack not for courtiers, and those the fairest and noblest. Virgin souls are maids of honour to the court, the true lilies of heaven. The lowly and pure in heart are esteemed by the Lord Jesus as his most familiar friends, their place in his palace is not among the menials but near the throne. The day will come when those who are "king's daughters" literally will count it their greatest honour to serve the church, and, meanwhile every believing sister is spiritually a King's daughter, a member of the royal family of heaven. Upon thy right hand, in the place of love, honour, and power, did stand the queen in gold of Ophir: the church shares her Lord's honour and happiness, he sets her in the place of dignity, he clothes her with the best of the best. Gold is the richest of metals, and Ophir gold the purest known. Jesus bestows nothing inferior or of secondary value upon his beloved church. In imparted and imputed righteousness the church is divinely arrayed. Happy those who are members of a church so honoured, so beloved; unhappy those who persecute the beloved people, for as a husband will not endure that his wife should be insulted or maltreated, so neither will the heavenly Husband; he will speedily avenge his own elect. Mark, then, the solemn pomp of the verses we have read. The King is seen with rapture, he girds himself as a warrior, robes himself as a monarch, mounts his chariot, darts his arrows, and conquers his foes. Then he ascends his throne with his sceptre in his hand, fills the palace hall with perfume brought from his secret chambers, his retinue stand around him, and, fairest of all, his bride is at his right hand, with daughters of subject princes as her attendants. Faith is no stranger to this sight, and every time she looks she adores, she loves, she rejoices, she expects.
Kings’ daughters were among - Applied to Solomon, these words have no difficulty. We know he had seven hundred wives, princesses; and the mention of those here may be intended only to show how highly respected he was among the neighboring sovereigns, when they cheerfully gave him their daughters to constitute his harem. If we apply it to Solomon’s marriage with the daughter of the king of Egypt, it may signify no more than the princesses and ladies of honor who accompanied her to the Israelitish court. Applied to Christ, it may signify that the Gospel, though preached particularly to the poor, became also the means of salvation to many of the kings, queens, and nobles, of the earth. The Chaldee interprets the queen standing at his right hand, by the law; and the honorable women, by the different regions and countries coming to receive that law from his right hand. Perhaps by kings’ daughters may be meant different regions and countries, which are represented as constituting the families of potentates. Whole nations shall be converted to the Christian faith; and the queen - the Christian Church, shall be most elegantly adorned with all the graces and good works which at once constitute and adorn the Christian character.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Kings’ daughters were among thy honorable women - Those who were in attendance on him and on the bride were from the most elevated ranks; among the most honorable of the earth. The word rendered “honorable women,” means properly, precious, costly; and then, dear, beloved; and this might be rendered “kings’ daughters are among thy beloved ones;” that is, in the number of thy maidens, or of those attending on thee. The allusion is to a marriage, and the description is drawn from the usual accompaniments of a marriage in the east. The design, as applicable to the Messiah and to his union with the Church, his bride, is to describe him as accompanied with every circumstance of distinction and honor, to throw around him all that constituted beauty and splendor in an Oriental marriage ceremony. Nothing of earth could be too rich or beautiful to illustrate the glory of the union of the Redeemer with his redeemed Church. Upon thy right hand did stand the queen - The right hand is the place of honor, and that idea is intended here: 1Ki 2:19; Mar 14:62; Mar 16:19; Heb 1:3; Act 7:55. The idea here is, that the Church, the bride of the Lamb of God, as seen in the vision, is exalted to the highest post of honor. That Church has the place in his affections which the newly-married bride has in the affections of her husband. In field of Ophir - In garments decked or ornamented with the finest gold. On the phrase “the gold of Ophir,” see the notes at Isa 13:12.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
The daughters of kings will visit you, as the matter that is stated (Isa.:23): “and their princesses your wet nurses.”
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 2 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| בְּנ֣וֹת | benot | daughters of | H1323 → | 588 times |
| מְ֭לָכִים | melakhim | kings | H4428 → | 2525 times |
| בְּיִקְּרוֹתֶ֑יךָ | beyikeroteicha | [are] among noble [women] your | H3368 → | 36 times |
| נִצְּבָ֥ה | nitzevah | she stands | H5324 → | 75 times |
| שֵׁגַ֥ל | shegal | a queen-consort | H7694 → | |
| לִֽ֝ימִינְךָ֗ | liminekha | to right [hand] your | H3225 → | 140 times |
| בְּכֶ֣תֶם | bekhetem | in [the] gold of | H3800 → | |
| אוֹפִֽיר׃ | ʾofir | Ophir | H211 → |
בְּנ֣וֹתdaughters of
benotH1323 →588 times
מְ֭לָכִיםkings
melakhimH4428 →2525 times
בְּיִקְּרוֹתֶ֑יךָ[are] among noble [women] your
beyikeroteichaH3368 →36 times
נִצְּבָ֥הshe stands
nitzevahH5324 →75 times
שֵׁגַ֥לa queen-consort
shegalH7694 →
לִֽ֝ימִינְךָ֗to right [hand] your
liminekhaH3225 →140 times
בְּכֶ֣תֶםin [the] gold of
bekhetemH3800 →
אוֹפִֽיר׃Ophir
ʾofirH211 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Revelation 19:7Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him the glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready.
it leads to
- Revelation 21:2
I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Revelation 21:9
Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls full of the seven final plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
- Revelation 19:9
Then the angel told me to write, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
- 2 Corinthians 11:2
I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I promised you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
- Matthew 22:2
“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.
- Revelation 21:2
Through
Revelation 21:2I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
it leads to
- Hebrews 11:10
For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
- Revelation 3:12
The one who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will never again leave it. Upon him I will write the name of My God, and the…
- Revelation 21:10
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God,
- Hebrews 11:10
Where this verse is studied
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About Psalms

This page draws on 14 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 45; Basil of Caesarea, HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 17:9 (PS 45); Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 2; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, LETTER 54.3; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Theodore of Mopsuestia, COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 45:10A-C and Thomas Aquinas, Exposition on the Psalms of David.
