Song of Solomon 7:2
in Song of Solomon 7Your navel is a rounded goblet; it never lacks blended wine. Your waist is a mound of wheat encircled by the lilies.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thy body is like a round goblet, Wherein no mingled wine is wanting: Thy waist is like a heap of wheat Set about with lilies.
KJV
Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor: thy belly is like an heap of wheat set about with lilies.
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This verse in Song of Solomon 7
Commentary
11 notes on this verseHis 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.
This site's exposition
How beautiful are thy feet with shoes
on Song of Solomon 7:1-3
How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter opens the poem's fourth full praise song, and its form is the same the poem set at 4:1-7, images given for their impression rather than their outline, as Delitzsch's reading there already established. Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor, and thy belly is like an heap of wheat set about with lilies picture abundance and provision, the wheat a harvest image drawn from the same working world the poem has used throughout. Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins closes the unit with the twin figure the poem had already used of her teeth in 4:2 and 6:6, tenderness and matched pairing carried into a new image.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
A commentator
Ambrose of MilanCONSOLATION ON THE DEATH OF EMPEROR VALENTINIAN 69 · Written before 397.
proposed
"Your navel is like a round bowl, not wanting tempered wine. Your belly is like a heap of wheat, set about with lilies. Your neck is like a tower of ivory. Your eyes are a pool in Heshbon." The good navel of the soul, capable of receiving all virtues, is like a bowl, fashioned by the author of faith himself. For in a bowl wisdom has mixed her wine, saying, "Come, eat my bread and drink the wine which I have mingled for you." This navel, therefore, fashioned with all the beauty of the virtues, does not lack mixed wine. His belly also was filled not only with the wheaten food of justice, as it were, but also with that of grace, and it bloomed with sweetness like a lily.
The Medieval Church3 voices
Your navel is a rounded goblet, etc. The navel, which is the most fragile member of our body, rightly signifies the frailty of our mortality. And our navel becomes a rounded goblet never lacking in drink, when, reminded of our mortality and frailty, we strive …
Your belly is like a heap of wheat surrounded by lilies. The belly, like the navel, denotes our mortal condition: for it is the most certain and greatest judge of our weakness, which daily renews our body with nourishment, lest it fail, until that which …
A commentator
Robert of TombelaineCommentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 7 · Written in the 11th century.
proposed
The navel is also the order of holy preachers, which is fittingly called a goblet, because while the people are instructed through them, they are intoxicated with spiritual wine by their ministry. It is fittingly called "turned on a lathe," because it is necessary that …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
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.
4 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
His design to visit the church, with the blessed effect thereof, ver. 8-9. She professes her faith, and desire, ver. 10. She invites him to communion with her, ver. 11.
quarantine:anchor (2026-07-29) — cites-ver-10/11-anchored-1-7
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
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.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
She is "a bride adorned for her husband"; the "uncomely parts," being most adorned (1Co 12:23). The girdle-clasp was adorned with red rubies resembling the "round goblet" (crater or mixer) of spice-mixed wine (not "liquor," So 8:2; The wine of the "New Testament in His blood" (Lu 22:20).
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Or, Thy lap is like a moon-shaped bowl where mixed wine faileth not.” The wine in the bowl rising to the brim adds to the beauty of the vessel, and gives a more pleasing image to the eye. Some interpret, “thy girdle is like a moon-shaped bowl,” or “bears a moon-shaped ornament” (compare Isa 3:18). Set about with lilies - The contrast is one of colors, the flowers, it may be, representing the purple of the robe. “The heap of wheat is not seen because covered by the lilies.”
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
Turn back, turn back [you] perfect one. They say to me, “Turn back, turn back” from following the Omnipresent.
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. 3 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
11 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| שָׁרְרֵךְ֙ | sharerekh | navel your | H8326 → | |
| אַגַּ֣ן | ʾagan | [is] [the] bowl of | H101 → | |
| הַסַּ֔הַר | hasahar | <the> roundness | H5469 → | |
| אַל־ | ʾal- | may not | H408 → | |
| יֶחְסַ֖ר | yechsar | it lack | H2637 → | |
| הַמָּ֑זֶג | hamazeg | <the> mixed wine | H4197 → | |
| בִּטְנֵךְ֙ | bitnekh | belly your | H990 → | |
| עֲרֵמַ֣ת | ʾaremat | [is] a heap of | H6194 → | |
| חִטִּ֔ים | chitim | wheat<s> | H2406 → | |
| סוּגָ֖ה | sugah | fenced around | H5473 → | |
| בַּשּׁוֹשַׁנִּֽים׃ | bashoshanim | with <the> lilies | H7799 → | 13 times |
שָׁרְרֵךְ֙navel your
sharerekhH8326 →
אַגַּ֣ן[is] [the] bowl of
ʾaganH101 →
הַסַּ֔הַר<the> roundness
hasaharH5469 →
אַל־may not
ʾal-H408 →
יֶחְסַ֖רit lack
yechsarH2637 →
הַמָּ֑זֶג<the> mixed wine
hamazegH4197 →
בִּטְנֵךְ֙belly your
bitnekhH990 →
עֲרֵמַ֣ת[is] a heap of
ʾarematH6194 →
חִטִּ֔יםwheat<s>
chitimH2406 →
סוּגָ֖הfenced around
sugahH5473 →
בַּשּׁוֹשַׁנִּֽים׃with <the> lilies
bashoshanimH7799 →13 times
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
Romans 7:4Therefore, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear…
it leads to
- 1 Peter 2:24
He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. “By His stripes you are healed.”
- Galatians 5:22–23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
- Isaiah 54:5
For your husband is your Maker—the LORD of Hosts is His name—the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; He is called the God of all the earth.
- Romans 8:2
For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set you free from the law of sin and death.
- Ephesians 5:23–27
For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior.
- 1 Peter 2:24
Through
Proverbs 3:8This will bring healing to your body and refreshment to your bones.
it leads to
- Proverbs 4:22
For they are life to those who find them, and health to the whole body.
- Psalms 147:3
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
- Proverbs 16:24
Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
- Proverbs 4:22
About Song of Solomon
This page draws on 11 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); Ambrose of Milan, Commentary on the Song of Songs; Ambrose of Milan, CONSOLATION ON THE DEATH OF EMPEROR VALENTINIAN 69; 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 and Robert of Tombelaine, Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 7.