Song of Solomon 5:12
in Song of Solomon 5His eyes are like doves beside the streams of water, bathed in milk and mounted like jewels.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
His eyes are like doves beside the water-brooks, Washed with milk, and fitly set.
KJV
His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set.
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This verse in Song of Solomon 5
Commentary
14 notes on this verseIn doves, the eyes are signified. For when it says, "doves over the abundance of the waters," it means this kind of bird when it comes to the waters. There it is accustomed to suffer the attacks of the hawk and to detect its hostile arrival in flight when it sees the shadow of its wings in the waters. And so it escapes the deceit of imminent peril by the keen vision of its eyes. For if you could thus look out for the snares of the devil and avoid them, you would offer "doves" as a sacrifice to God.
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 Church Fathers3 voices
The eyes "upon the fullness of waters" are compared with doves because of their simplicity and innocence, and the Word says they have been washed in milk. A quality of milk is that it does not reflect any image. Every other liquid is like a mirror whose smooth surface serves to reflect the image of those gazing in it. However, milk lacks such reflective capacity. This is, then, the best praise for the church's eyes. They do not reflect deceptive, shadowy pictures of nonexistent things that are erroneous, vain or contrary to the true nature of reality. They look, rather, at being itself, and do not reflect the false visions and fantasies of life. Thus the perfect soul bathes its eyes in milk to keep them pure.
"His eyes like doves on pools of water," once again here by mention of the "eyes" admiring his keen sight. Hence her saying they are like doves "on pools of water" reminds us of the dove coming down on him in the Jordan. … Hence …
Perhaps, as some say, it was to reveal an image that he came down in the likeness of a pure, innocent, simple dove, working with prayers for the sons he begot and for the forgiveness of sins; just as in a veiled manner it was foretold that the beauty of Christ's eyes would be manifested in this way.
The Medieval Church2 voices
A commentator
Robert of TombelaineCommentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 5 · Written in the 11th century.
proposed
The eyes of the bridegroom are like doves, because the preachers of Christ who show us the way live in simplicity. Moreover, they are said to be beside streams of water, because they always dwell in the refreshment of the divine Scriptures. Indeed, they are …
[A dove] is inclined to sit above water so that it may avoid being seized by a hawk coming, since it has seen its shadow beforehand in the water. Let us also be clean, and take care to sit attentively at the cleansing streams of …
7 more voices on this verse
The Medieval Church2 voices
His eyes are like doves beside streams of water. What should typically be understood of the bridegroom's eyes John reveals when he recounts that he saw the Lamb having seven horns, immediately adding by way of explanation: These are the seven spirits sent forth into …
Things that are washed in milk, etc. For rightly by the name of milk, the gifts of divine generosity and pietas are indicated, because surely mothers who nourish their young offspring provide them with the nutrition of milk out of gratuitous and natural cause of …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
His eyes are as the eyes of doves,.... the church's eyes are said to be, Son 1:15; which are her ministers, endowed with dove like gifts in measure, as Christ is without measure, in fulness; but these are Christ's eyes, which may signify his omniscience, who has seven eyes, Zec 3:9; especially as that has respect unto and is concerned with his people in a way of grace and mercy, and so must look very beautiful in their view: his eyes are like "doves' eyes"; not fierce and furious, but loving and lovely; looking upon his people, under all their trials and afflictions, with sympathy and concern, to deliver them out of them: and like the eyes of doves by rivers of waters: Sanctius thinks the allusion is to the humours in which the eye is enclosed, and, as it were, swims in; hence the eyes are called "natantia lumina", by Virgil (h); but it denotes eyes like those of doves, quick and lively, as clean as milk white doves, as if they had been "washed in milk"; clear and perspicuous, sharp sighted, and behold all persons and things, in all places, and at once; and as doves look only to their mates, so Christ's eyes of love are only on his church; he looks to none but her with his eye of special and peculiar love. […]
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 Century3 voices
His eyes are as the eyes of doves - See on Son 4:1 (note). Washed with milk - The white of the eye, exceedingly white. By the use of stibium, in the East, the eye is rendered very beautiful; and receives such a lustre from the use of this article, that, to borrow the expression of a late traveler, “their eyes appear to be swimming in bliss.” I believe this expression to be the meaning of the text. Fitly set - Or, as the margin, very properly, sitting in fullness; not sunk, not contracted.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
The "milk" may allude to the white around the pupil of the eye. The "waters" refer to the eye as the fountain of tears of sympathy (Eze 16:5, 6; Vivacity, purity, and love, are the three features typified. fitly set--as a gem in a ring; as the precious stones in the high priest's breastplate.
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A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Or, His eyes are doves. The comparison is to doves seen by streams of water washing in milk (i. e., milk-white), and sitting on fulness (i. e., on the full or abundant water-flood). Fitly set - This rendering supposes that the eyes within their sockets are compared to precious stones set in the foil of a ring (see the margin); but the other rendering is preferable. The milk-white doves themselves, sitting by full streams of water, or reflected in their flittings athwart the glassy surface, present images of the calm repose and vivid glances of the full pure lustrous eyes of the beloved.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
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.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
His cheeks are like a bed of spice. Wherein those beds are growths of perfume.
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
10 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| עֵינָ֕יו | ʾeinav | eyes his | H5869 → | 887 times |
| כְּיוֹנִ֖ים | keyonim | [are] like doves | H3123 → | 31 times |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | at | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| אֲפִ֣יקֵי | ʾafikei | channels of | H650 → | |
| מָ֑יִם | mayim | water | H4325 → | 581 times |
| רֹֽחֲצוֹת֙ | rochatzot | washing | H7364 → | |
| בֶּֽחָלָ֔ב | bechalav | in <the> milk | H2461 → | 44 times |
| יֹשְׁב֖וֹת | yoshevot | sitting | H3427 → | 1079 times |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| מִלֵּֽאת׃ | milet | fullness | H4402 → |
עֵינָ֕יוeyes his
ʾeinavH5869 →887 times
כְּיוֹנִ֖ים[are] like doves
keyonimH3123 →31 times
עַל־at
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
אֲפִ֣יקֵיchannels of
ʾafikeiH650 →
מָ֑יִםwater
mayimH4325 →581 times
רֹֽחֲצוֹת֙washing
rochatzotH7364 →
בֶּֽחָלָ֔בin <the> milk
bechalavH2461 →44 times
יֹשְׁב֖וֹתsitting
yoshevotH3427 →1079 times
עַל־on
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
מִלֵּֽאת׃fullness
miletH4402 →
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
Hebrews 4:13Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
it leads to
- 1 Corinthians 4:5
Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each…
- Psalms 33:13–15
The LORD looks down from heaven; He sees all the sons of men.
- Proverbs 15:3
The eyes of the LORD are in every place, observing the evil and the good.
- Ecclesiastes 12:14
For God will bring every deed into judgment, along with every hidden thing, whether good or evil.
- Jeremiah 17:10
I, the LORD, search the heart; I examine the mind to reward a man according to his way, by what his deeds deserve.
- 1 Corinthians 4:5
Through
Song of Solomon 1:15How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how very beautiful! Your eyes are like doves.
it leads to
- Song of Solomon 4:1
How beautiful you are, my darling—how very beautiful! Your eyes are like doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down Mount Gilead.
- Song of Solomon 4:1
Through
Song of Solomon 4:1How beautiful you are, my darling—how very beautiful! Your eyes are like doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down Mount Gilead.
it leads to
- Song of Solomon 1:15
How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how very beautiful! Your eyes are like doves.
- Song of Solomon 6:5
Turn your eyes away from me, for they have overcome me. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down from Gilead.
- Song of Solomon 1:15
About Song of Solomon
This page draws on 14 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, Homilies on the Gospels 1:12; Bede, Commentary on the Song of Songs; Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 17:9; Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes; Gregory of Nyssa, HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 13; 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); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 3:8.4; Robert of Tombelaine, Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 5 and Theodoret of Cyrus, COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 5.