Song of Solomon 5:11
in Song of Solomon 5His head is purest gold; his hair is wavy and black as a raven.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
His head is as the most fine gold; His locks are bushy, and black as a raven.
KJV
His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven.
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This verse in Song of Solomon 5
Commentary
9 notes on this verseHis hair lifted like palm trees, etc. The hair of the beloved's head is the throng of saints, who adhere to God with faithful service; and deservedly are they compared to raised palm trees, because they expect the sweetness of perpetual reward. Hence it is …
This site's exposition
the chiefest among ten thousand
on Song of Solomon 5:10-12
My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand answers the daughters with rank and radiance together, and it opens the one place in the poem where the bride praises the bridegroom in the same descriptive form he had used of her four times over. His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven pictures royal wealth and youthful strength in one image, and his eyes as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set returns the dove language he had given her at 1:15 and 4:1, now given back. Delitzsch reads the returned image as the poem's own proof that praise in this book runs both directions; Gill's allegorical line hears the church confessing Christ's beauty in the same words.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
A commentator
Robert of TombelaineCommentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 5 · Written in the 11th century.
proposed
The head of Christ is God. This head is rightly called gold, because in comparison with the Creator every creature is reckoned a most worthless thing (1 Cor. 11). His locks are like clusters of palm branches, black as a raven. What do we understand …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
We need not aim at a distinct application of this and the following particulars, unto some special excellency of Christ, because such things are mere conjectures, and the only design of this description is, to set forth the beauty of Christ under the notion of a most amiable person, in whom there is no defect or blemish, from the crown of his head to the sole of his feet.
His head is as the most fine gold,.... Here the church enters into a particular description and commendation of her beloved, which continues to the end of the chapter; and she begins with his "head", which she compares to the most fine gold.
These words are Christ's answer to the church's prayer in the close of the foregoing chapter, Let my beloved come into his garden; here he has come, and lets her know it. See how ready God is to hear prayer, how ready Christ is to accept the invitations that his people give him, though we are backward to hear his calls and accept his invitations.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
His head is as the most fine gold - Perhaps in the sense of noble and precious as the finest gold. Lam 4:2. Bushy - Waving like branches of the palm.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
The Hebrew is (pendulous as) the branches of a palm, which, when in leaf, resemble waving plumes of feathers. black--implying youth; no "gray hairs" (Ps 102:27; Jesus Christ was crucified in the prime of vigor and manliness. In heaven, on the other hand, His hair is "white," He being the Ancient of days (Da 7:9).
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
His head is as the most fine gold - He has the most beautiful head, fine and majestic. Gold is here used to express excellence. His locks are bushy - Crisped or curled. This may refer to his mustachios. Black as a raven - His hair is black and glossy.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
My beloved is pure white. White, as in, “they were whiter צַחוּ than milk.” 37 Eichah:1.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
His eyes are like doves upon brooks of water. His eyes by brooks of water are as beautiful as doves’ eyes. Brooks of water are pleasant to behold, and the young men go there to swim.
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. 4 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
7 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| רֹאשׁ֖וֹ | rosho | head his | H7218 → | 599 times |
| כֶּ֣תֶם | ketem | [is] gold of | H3800 → | |
| פָּ֑ז | paz | pure gold | H6337 → | |
| קְוּצּוֹתָיו֙ | kevtzotav | locks his | H6977 → | |
| תַּלְתַּלִּ֔ים | taltalim | [are] curls | H8534 → | |
| שְׁחֹר֖וֹת | shechorot | black | H7838 → | |
| כָּעוֹרֵֽב׃ | kaorev | like <the> raven | H6158 → |
רֹאשׁ֖וֹhead his
roshoH7218 →599 times
כֶּ֣תֶם[is] gold of
ketemH3800 →
פָּ֑זpure gold
pazH6337 →
קְוּצּוֹתָיו֙locks his
kevtzotavH6977 →
תַּלְתַּלִּ֔ים[are] curls
taltalimH8534 →
שְׁחֹר֖וֹתblack
shechorotH7838 →
כָּעוֹרֵֽב׃like <the> raven
kaorevH6158 →
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 1:14The hair of His head was white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like a blazing fire.
it leads to
- Daniel 10:6
His body was like beryl, his face like the brilliance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of polished bronze, and his voice like the sound of…
- Daniel 7:9
As I continued to watch, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took His seat. His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool.…
- Revelation 19:12
He has eyes like blazing fire, and many royal crowns on His head. He has a name written on Him that only He Himself knows.
- Revelation 2:18
To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like a blazing fire and whose feet are like polished bronze.
- Daniel 10:6
Through
Daniel 7:9As I continued to watch, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took His seat. His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool.…
it leads to
- Revelation 1:14
The hair of His head was white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like a blazing fire.
- Mark 9:3
His clothes became radiantly white, brighter than any launderer on earth could bleach them.
- Daniel 7:13
In my vision in the night I continued to watch, and I saw One like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led…
- Matthew 17:2
There He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.
- Revelation 1:14
About Song of Solomon
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); 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; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Robert of Tombelaine, Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 5.