Song of Solomon 5:14
in Song of Solomon 5His arms are rods of gold set with beryl. His body is an ivory panel bedecked with sapphires.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
His hands are as rings of gold set with beryl: His body is as ivory work overlaid with sapphires.
KJV
His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires.
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This verse in Song of Solomon 5
Commentary
10 notes on this verseHis hands are like cylinders of gold, etc. After the lips, the Church praises the hands of her Redeemer, that is, His deeds after His words, because He showed by His actions that what He taught with words was to be believed. For instance, while …
This site's exposition
His cheeks are as a bed of spices
on Song of Solomon 5:13-14
His cheeks are as a bed of spices continues the portrait downward, his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh, and the description keeps the rule the poem already established for its praise songs, images built for impression rather than outline, as Delitzsch's reading of chapter four's catalogue holds here too. His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl, his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires moves the portrait into royal and priestly materials, gold, beryl, ivory and sapphire together, a garment of preciousness rather than a report of shape. Gill's allegorical reading hears in the gathered materials a king clothed for his people to admire, a reading he holds and states as his own.
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
For what is designated by the hands of Christ, if not the holy works which He performed in the world, and which are set before us for imitation? For He Himself says: "He who loves me, let him follow me" (John 12:26). And the Apostle: …
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
Beryl - Beautiful, and precious, and richly adorned, as it were with gold rings set with precious stones. Belly - Which seems to be here used, for the whole body, reaching from the neck to the bottom of the belly. Saphires - Of a pure and bright white colour, intermixt with blue veins; for some saphires are of a bright blue colour.
His hands, which are stretched forth both to receive his people and to give to them, are thus rich and comely. (7.) His bowels are as bright ivory, for so it should be rendered, rather than his belly, for it is the same word that was used for bowels (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
His hands are as gold rings, set with the beryl,.... Beryl is with great propriety mentioned, because it was usual to wear it on the fingers (z).
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.
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
His hands - gold rings set with the beryl - This really seems to refer to gold rings set with precious stones on the fingers, and perhaps to circlets or bracelets about the wrists. Some suppose it to refer to the roundness and exquisite symmetry of the hand and fingers. תרשיש tarshish, which we translate beryl, a gem of a sea-green tint, had better be translated chrysolite, which is of a gold color.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
"To the pure all things are pure." As in statuary to the artist the partly undraped figure is suggestive only of beauty, free from indelicacy, so to the saint the personal excellencies of Jesus Christ, typified under the ideal of the noblest human form.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
His hands ... - Are golden rings or cylinders. The fingers of the bent or closed hand are compared to a massive ring or set of rings; or, if outstretched or straightened, to a row of golden rods or cylinders. The beryl - The “tarshish” (compare Exo 28:20), probably the chrysolite of the ancients (so called from its gold color), the modern topaz. His belly ... - His body (the Hebrew term applies to the whole body, from the shoulders to the thighs) is a piece of ivory workmanship overlaid with sapphires. The sapphire of the ancients seems to have been the lapis lazuli.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| יָדָיו֙ | yadav | hands his | H3027 → | 1618 times |
| גְּלִילֵ֣י | gelilei | [are] rods of | H1550 → | |
| זָהָ֔ב | zahav | gold | H2091 → | 389 times |
| מְמֻלָּאִ֖ים | memulaim | filled | H4390 → | |
| בַּתַּרְשִׁ֑ישׁ | batarshish | with <the> chrysolite | H8658 → | |
| מֵעָיו֙ | meav | lower parts his | H4578 → | |
| עֶ֣שֶׁת | ʾeshet | [are] a plate of | H6247 → | |
| שֵׁ֔ן | shen | ivory | H8127 → | 55 times |
| מְעֻלֶּ֖פֶת | meulefet | covered | H5968 → | |
| סַפִּירִֽים׃ | sapirim | sapphires | H5601 → |
יָדָיו֙hands his
yadavH3027 →1618 times
גְּלִילֵ֣י[are] rods of
gelileiH1550 →
זָהָ֔בgold
zahavH2091 →389 times
מְמֻלָּאִ֖יםfilled
memulaimH4390 →
בַּתַּרְשִׁ֑ישׁwith <the> chrysolite
batarshishH8658 →
מֵעָיו֙lower parts his
meavH4578 →
עֶ֣שֶׁת[are] a plate of
ʾeshetH6247 →
שֵׁ֔ןivory
shenH8127 →55 times
מְעֻלֶּ֖פֶתcovered
meulefetH5968 →
סַפִּירִֽים׃sapphires
sapirimH5601 →
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
Isaiah 54:11“O afflicted city, lashed by storms, without solace, surely I will set your stones in antimony and lay your foundations with sapphires.
it leads to
- 1 Peter 2:4–6
As you come to Him, the living stone, rejected by men but chosen and precious in God’s sight,
- Acts 14:22
strengthening the souls of the disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith. “We must endure many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.
- Jeremiah 30:17
But I will restore your health and heal your wounds, declares the LORD, because they call you an outcast, Zion, for whom no one cares.”
- Isaiah 54:6
For the LORD has called you back, like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit, like the rejected wife of one’s youth,” says your God.
- 1 Peter 2:4–6
Through
Exodus 24:10and they saw the God of Israel. Under His feet was a work like a pavement made of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself.
it leads to
- John 1:18
No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.
- Ezekiel 10:1
And I looked and saw above the expanse, above the heads of the cherubim, the likeness of a throne of sapphire.
- John 1:18
Through
Exodus 15:6Your right hand, O LORD, is majestic in power; Your right hand, O LORD, has shattered the enemy.
it leads to
- Psalms 118:15–16
Shouts of joy and salvation resound in the tents of the righteous: “The right hand of the LORD performs with valor!
- Isaiah 51:9
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD. Wake up as in days past, as in generations of old. Was it not You who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced through the…
- Psalms 118:15–16
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.