A Journey to the King's House and Adornments
Song 6:11-7:9
Son.6.11 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- אל: NEG
- גנת: NOUN,f,sg,cons
- אגוז: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- ירדתי: VERB,qal,perf,1,?,sg
- לראות: VERB,qal,inf
- באבי: PREP+NOUN,m,sg,abs,poss:1cs
- הנחל: NOUN,m,sg,def
- לראות: VERB,qal,inf
- הפרחה: NOUN,f,sg,def
- הגפן: NOUN,f,sg,def
- הנצו: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,pl
- הרמנים: NOUN,m,pl,def
Parallels
- Song of Solomon 7:12 (verbal): Nearly identical language and imagery: an invitation to go early to the vineyards to see whether the vine has budded and the pomegranates are in bloom — same seasonal/garden motif.
- Song of Solomon 6:2 (thematic): Both verses depict descent into a garden/valley to seek the beloved and survey the plants and blossoms — recurring garden-visit motif in the poem.
- Song of Solomon 2:13 (thematic): Springtime imagery of figs, vines and blossoms parallels the verse’s concern with buds and flowering pomegranates, linking renewal and love.
- Song of Solomon 4:13-15 (verbal): Rich garden and orchard imagery (pomegranates, spices, springs) echoes the botanical detail of 6:11 and the bride’s cultivated garden-language for the beloved.
Alternative generated candidates
- I went down into the nut-garden to look on my beloved, to see whether the vine had budded and the pomegranates were in bloom.
- I went down into the walnut-grove to see the blossoms of the valley, to see whether the vine had budded and the pomegranates had opened.
Son.6.12 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- לא: PART_NEG
- ידעתי: VERB,qal,perf,1,?,sg
- נפשי: NOUN,f,sg,abs+1cs
- שמתני: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- מרכבות: NOUN,f,pl,abs
- עמי: NOUN,m,sg,abs+1s
- נדיב: NOUN,m,sg,abs
Parallels
- Psalm 68:17 (thematic): Uses chariot imagery for a majestic, processional host (“The chariots of God are twenty thousand…”), paralleling Song 6:12’s image of being placed among chariots/noble company.
- Isaiah 66:15 (allusion): Speaks of the Lord coming 'with chariots'—the chariot as a symbol of powerful, sudden arrival, echoing the sudden movement of the soul in Song 6:12.
- Judges 4:3,5–10 (and Judges 5:6) (thematic): Describes the military might of chariots (Sisera’s 'nine hundred iron chariots'), reflecting the ancient Near Eastern association of chariots with noble/military power suggested by 'chariots of Amminadib.'
- Song of Solomon 3:7–11 (structural): An internal parallel in the Song: a vivid description of a royal litter/chariot and its princely escort (Solomon’s men), linking the book’s recurring motif of chariots and noble retinues to 6:12.
Alternative generated candidates
- I knew not my own soul; it carried me away—as if borne by the chariots of my noble people.
- I knew not—my soul!—that I had been set like the chariots of Ammi‑Nadib.
Son.7.1 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- שובי: VERB,qal,imp,2,f,sg
- שובי: VERB,qal,imp,2,f,sg
- השולמית: NOUN,f,sg,def
- שובי: VERB,qal,imp,2,f,sg
- שובי: VERB,qal,imp,2,f,sg
- ונחזה: VERB,qal,impf,1,c,pl
- בך: PREP+PRON,2,m,sg
- מה: PRON,int
- תחזו: VERB,qal,impf,2,m,pl
- בשולמית: PREP+NOUN,f,sg,def
- כמחלת: PREP+NOUN,f,sg,cons
- המחנים: NOUN,m,pl,def
Parallels
- Song of Songs 6:13 (verbal): Almost identical wording—'Return, return, O Shulammite; return, return, that we may look upon thee'—the same refrain used earlier in the book to invite the woman to appear so others may behold her.
- Song of Songs 2:14 (thematic): The beloved pleads 'Let me see thy countenance' and calls to the Shulammite to reveal herself; thematically parallels the request in 7:1 that she return so they may gaze upon her.
- Song of Songs 4:1 (thematic): A celebratory catalogue of the woman's beauty ('Behold, thou art fair, my love'), providing the descriptive basis for why participants in the poem urge others to look at the Shulammite—complements the invitation to behold in 7:1.
- Song of Songs 8:5 (structural): A later scene framing the woman's public appearance ('Who is this that comes up from the wilderness?'), similarly staging the beloved's emergence for observation—structurally related to the summons and public gaze of 7:1.
Alternative generated candidates
- Return, return, O Shulammite; return, return, that we may gaze upon you. What will you appear like, O Shulammite? Like the dance of the companies.
- Return, return, O Shulammite; return, return, that we may gaze upon you. What shall we see in the Shulammite—like the display of two camps?
Son.7.2 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- מה: PRON,int
- יפו: NOUN,f,sg,abs
- פעמיך: NOUN,m,pl,abs
- בנעלים: PREP+NOUN,f,pl,abs
- בת: NOUN,f,sg,cs
- נדיב: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- חמוקי: NOUN,m,pl,const
- ירכיך: NOUN,f,dual,abs
- כמו: PREP
- חלאים: NOUN,m,pl,abs
- מעשה: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- ידי: NOUN,f,pl,cons
- אמן: INTJ
Parallels
- Song of Solomon 4:1 (thematic): Both are part of the beloved’s catalogue of physical beauty, using body‑part metaphors and artisan imagery to praise her form.
- Song of Solomon 5:10-16 (thematic): A head‑to‑toe descriptive encomium of the beloved—enumerative, sensual praise that parallels the same poetic technique and motifs.
- Song of Solomon 6:4-10 (thematic): Public/choral admiration and detailed comparisons continue the poem’s motif of praising the beloved’s beauty with vivid imagery and similes.
- Song of Solomon 7:1 (verbal): Immediate neighboring line/stanza that repeats and echoes the direct address and similar physical imagery (the beauty of feet/limbs), forming a close verbal and contextual parallel.
Alternative generated candidates
- How beautiful are your steps in sandals, O daughter of noble birth! The curves of your thighs are like jewels, the work of a master hand.
- How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O daughter of a prince! The curves of your thighs are like jewels, the work of a craftsman.
Son.7.3 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- שררך: NOUN,m,sg,suff-2ms
- אגן: NOUN,m,sg,const
- הסהר: NOUN,m,sg,def
- אל: NEG
- יחסר: VERB,qal,impf,3,m,sg
- המזג: NOUN,m,sg,def
- בטנך: NOUN,m,sg,sfx
- ערמת: NOUN,f,sg,const
- חטים: NOUN,m,pl,abs
- סוגה: NOUN,f,sg,abs
- בשושנים: PREP+NOUN,m,pl,abs
Parallels
- Song of Songs 4:1-5 (verbal): A comparable catalogue of the beloved’s body using vegetal and pastoral metaphors (hair like goats, teeth like ewes, neck like David’s tower, breasts like fawns), sharing the same figurative language of body = cultivated/natural images.
- Song of Songs 4:12-15 (thematic): Garden-and-fountain imagery (a locked garden, sealed fountain, spikenard, saffron, pomegranates, henna) that develops the poem’s recurring theme of the female body as cultivated, fertile space—parallel to the ‘mound of wheat’ and lilies motif.
- Song of Songs 1:12-14 (verbal): Uses clustered/fruit imagery (e.g., “my beloved is to me a cluster of henna”) to portray the beloved in botanical/fruitful terms, echoing the ‘heap of wheat’ and cluster-like comparisons in the verse.
- Song of Songs 7:7-8 (thematic): Neighboring stanza that continues agrarian/body imagery (stature like a palm tree, breasts like its clusters, climbing the palm), closely related in theme and imagery to the waist-as-wheat and lilies description.
Alternative generated candidates
- Your navel is a rounded cup that lacks not mixed wine; your belly is a heap of wheat, encircled with lilies.
- Your navel is a rounded bowl that never lacks mixed wine; your belly is a heap of wheat, enclosed with lilies.
Son.7.4 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- שני: NUM,m,pl,construct
- שדיך: NOUN,m,sg,abs+PRON,2,m,sg
- כשני: PREP+NUM,m,dual
- עפרים: NOUN,m,pl,abs
- תאמי: NOUN,m,pl,construct
- צביה: NOUN,f,sg,abs
Parallels
- Song of Solomon 4:5 (verbal): Near‑identical simile — the beloved's two breasts are compared to two fawns/twins of a gazelle; a direct repetition of the image within the book.
- Song of Solomon 2:9 (thematic): Uses deer/gazelle imagery for the beloved ("like a roe/young stag"), reflecting the book's recurring motif of antelope/gazelle similes to convey beauty and grace.
- Song of Solomon 8:14 (thematic): Calls the beloved to 'be like a gazelle or a young stag' — another instance of the gazelle motif linking swiftness, desirability, and erotic pursuit.
- Song of Solomon 4:1 (structural): Similar pattern of erotic body‑imagery where parts of the beloved's body are compared to animals and plants (e.g., hair like a flock of goats, eyes like doves), showing the poem's broader use of natural/animal metaphors for physical beauty.
Alternative generated candidates
- Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle.
- Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle.
Son.7.5 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- צוארך: NOUN,m,sg,abs+2ms_suff
- כמגדל: PREP+NOUN,m,sg,abs
- השן: NOUN,f,sg,def
- עיניך: NOUN,f,pl,abs+2ms
- ברכות: NOUN,f,pl,const
- בחשבון: PREP
- על: PREP
- שער: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- בת: NOUN,f,sg,cs
- רבים: ADJ,m,pl,abs
- אפך: NOUN,m,sg,abs+PRON,2,m,sg
- כמגדל: PREP+NOUN,m,sg,abs
- הלבנון: NOUN,m,sg,def
- צופה: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- פני: NOUN,m,sg,cons
- דמשק: NOUN,prop,m,sg,abs
Parallels
- Song of Solomon 4:4 (verbal): Uses the identical simile for the neck—"your neck is like the tower of David"—repeating the fortress/tower imagery to praise the beloved's stature and dignity.
- Song of Solomon 5:12 (verbal): Describes eyes "like doves beside streams of water," closely echoing the phrase "your eyes like doves by the rivers of water" in 7:5 (shared imagery and wording).
- Song of Solomon 1:15 (verbal): Earlier use of the dove-eye simile—"your eyes are doves"—showing a recurring motif in the Song that associates purity/innocence and beauty with the beloved's eyes.
- Song of Solomon 6:4 (thematic): Another high-flown catalogue of comparisons ("you are beautiful as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem")—themewise similar in praising the beloved by likening her to cities, towers, and majestic images.
Alternative generated candidates
- Your neck is like an ivory tower; your eyes are pools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath‑rabbim; your nose is like the tower of Lebanon, looking toward Damascus.
- Your neck is like the tower of David, built with battlements; on it hang a thousand shields, all the armory of mighty men. Your eyes are doves beside the streams, washed in milk and set with care. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon, that looks toward Damascus.
Son.7.6 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- ראשך: NOUN,m,sg,abs,2,m
- עליך: PREP+2ms
- ככרמל: PREP+NOUN,m,sg,abs
- ודלת: CONJ+NOUN,f,sg,abs
- ראשך: NOUN,m,sg,abs,2,m
- כארגמן: PREP+NOUN,m,sg,abs
- מלך: NOUN,m,sg,cons
- אסור: ADJ,ptcp,pas,m,sg
- ברהטים: PREP+NOUN,m,pl,abs
Parallels
- Song of Songs 4:1 (verbal): Directly parallels the hair-as-nature imagery—'Your hair is like a flock of goats...'—both verses use natural/landscape similes to praise the beloved's hair.
- Psalm 45:11 (thematic): A royal love context where a king is enraptured by a woman's beauty; parallels the motif of a king being captivated (here, 'held captive in the tresses').
- Esther 2:17 (thematic): Esther wins the king's favor through her beauty and appearance—an example of a king enthralled by a woman's attractiveness, echoing the Song's image of royal captivation.
- Ezekiel 16:10-13 (allusion): Describes adorning with fine garments, jewelry and purple—parallels the Song's use of purple (argaman) and royal/adorned imagery to emphasize beauty and status.
Alternative generated candidates
- Your head upon you is like Carmel, and the hair of your head like purple; the king is held captive in its braids.
- Your head upon you is like Carmel, and the hair of your head like purple; a king is held captive in its braids.
Son.7.7 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- מה: PRON,int
- יפית: ADJ,f,sg,abs
- ומה: CONJ+PRON,int
- נעמת: ADJ,f,sg,abs
- אהבה: VERB,qal,perf,3,f,sg
- בתענוגים: PREP+NOUN,m,pl,abs
Parallels
- Song of Solomon 1:15 (verbal): Uses the same language of praise—'behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful, you are pleasant' (Heb. יפה נעמת), a direct verbal parallel celebrating the beloved's beauty and pleasantness.
- Song of Solomon 4:7 (thematic): Another explicit encomium of the beloved—'thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee'—continuing the poem's theme of idealized beauty and perfection.
- Song of Solomon 7:1 (structural): Close intra-book parallel in the same chapter that also enumerates parts of the beloved and exclaims over her beauty and attractiveness, reinforcing the chapter's celebratory, sensual portrait.
- Psalm 45:11–13 (thematic): A royal wedding/song that praises the bride's beauty and desirability and invites her to forget her people; thematically parallels the Song's nuptial/erotic celebration of a beloved's allure.
- Proverbs 5:19 (thematic): Advises delight and continual attraction to a spouse—'let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe'—echoing the Song's emphasis on delight, pleasure, and marital affection.
Alternative generated candidates
- How beautiful and how pleasant you are, O my love, for delights!
- How fair and how pleasant you are, O my love—delightful in every way!
Son.7.8 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- זאת: DEM,f,sg
- קומתך: NOUN,f,sg,abs,poss:2ms
- דמתה: VERB,qal,perf,3,f,sg
- לתמר: PREP+NOUN,f,sg,abs
- ושדיך: CONJ+NOUN,m,pl,abs,poss:2ms
- לאשכלות: PREP+NOUN,f,pl,abs
Parallels
- Song of Solomon 4:5 (verbal): Both verses use sensuous similes for the woman's breasts (4:5: "your two breasts are like two fawns"); similar erotic bodily imagery emphasizing attractiveness and tenderness.
- Song of Solomon 7:6–7 (structural): Immediate context within the same poem repeats and expands the lover's catalogue of the beloved's body—praising stature, limbs and charms; 7:8 continues this same encomiastic sequence.
- Psalm 92:12 (thematic): Uses the palm tree as an image of flourishing and upright stature ("the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree"); parallels Song's comparison of the beloved's stature to a palm.
- Genesis 49:22 (thematic): Jacob's blessing calls Joseph a fruitful bough (often associated with palm/fruitfulness imagery); both texts employ tree/fruit metaphors to denote fertility, beauty and vigor.
- Proverbs 5:19 (thematic): Celebrates a wife's breasts as a continual source of delight ("let her breasts satisfy you at all times"); thematically parallels Song's erotic celebration of the beloved's breasts as objects of pleasure.
Alternative generated candidates
- This is your stature—tall as a palm, and your breasts like its clusters.
- This is your stature: like a palm tree, and your breasts like its clusters.
Son.7.9 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- אמרתי: VERB,qal,perf,1,com,sg
- אעלה: VERB,qal,impf,1,_,sg
- בתמר: PREP+NOUN,f,sg,abs
- אחזה: NOUN,f,sg,abs
- בסנסניו: PREP+NOUN,m,sg,abs+PRON,3,m,sg
- ויהיו: VERB,qal,impf,3,m,pl
- נא: PART
- שדיך: NOUN,m,sg,abs+PRON,2,m,sg
- כאשכלות: PREP+NOUN,m,pl,abs
- הגפן: NOUN,f,sg,def
- וריח: CONJ+NOUN,m,sg,abs
- אפך: NOUN,m,sg,abs+PRON,2,m,sg
- כתפוחים: PREP+NOUN,m,pl,abs
Parallels
- Song of Solomon 7:7 (verbal): Immediately adjacent verse repeats and develops the same imagery: the beloved’s stature is likened to a palm tree and her breasts to clusters of the vine (direct verbal parallel).
- Song of Solomon 4:5 (thematic): Uses sensuous corporeal imagery for the beloved’s breasts ("thy two breasts are like two young roes"), part of the Song’s consistent erotic-body metaphors that include breasts as focal similes.
- Song of Solomon 2:3 (allusion): Compares the beloved to an apple tree among trees of the wood and celebrates the sweetness/fruit of the beloved—parallels the apple/fragrance motif in "the smell of thy nose like apples."
- Song of Solomon 7:13 (thematic): Speaks of mandrakes and the scents and fruits of the garden ("the mandrakes give a smell"), linking the poem’s recurrent motifs of fragrance and orchard/fruit imagery to 7:9’s apple-smell reference.
Alternative generated candidates
- I said, I will climb the palm and take hold of its branches; may your breasts be as clusters of the vine, and the scent of your breath like apples.
- I said, I will climb the palm tree, I will lay hold of its boughs; may your breasts be like clusters of the vine, and the scent of your breath like apples.
I went down to the nut-garden to look at the valley’s blossoms, to see whether the vine had budded and whether the pomegranates were in flower.
I knew not my soul; it fled me—my heart bore me away as if in the chariots of Ammi-nadib.
Return, return, O Shulammite; return, return, that we may behold you. What shall we see in the Shulammite—like the company of two hosts?
How fair are your feet in sandals, O daughter of a prince; the curves of your thighs are like jewels, the work of a master’s hand.
Your navel is a rounded cup that never lacks blended wine; your belly is a heap of wheat, enclosed with lilies.
Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle.
Your neck is like the tower of David, built for an armory; your eyes are pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bath‑rabbim; your nose like the tower of Lebanon that looks toward Damascus.
Your head upon you is like Carmel, and the crown of your head like purple; a king is held captive in its braids.
How beautiful and how pleasant you are—O my love, in delights!
This is your stature: like a palm tree, and your breasts like clusters.
I said, ‘I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its branches.’ May your breasts be like clusters of the vine, and the scent of your breath like apples.