Song Of Solomon 6
1 Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? whither is thy beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with thee.
2 My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.
3 I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine: he feedeth among the lilies.
4 Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners.
5 Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me: thy hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Gilead.
6 Thy teeth are as a flock of sheep which go up from the washing, whereof every one beareth twins, and there is not one barren among them.
7 As a piece of a pomegranate are thy temples within thy locks.
8 There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number.
9 My dove, my undefiled is but one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the choice one of her that bare her. The daughters saw her, and blessed her; yea, the queens and the concubines, and they praised her.
10 Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?
11 I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished, and the pomegranates budded.
12 Or ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib.
13 Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies.
World Behind This Chapter
Explore the people, places, language, history, and material world connected to Song Of Solomon 6.
Are Tirzah and Jerusalem clues to the poem’s date?
Tirzah was an important northern royal center before Samaria, while Jerusalem remained Judah’s capital. Their pairing is striking, but it does not by itself securely date the poem.
What is happening in the “garden of nuts”?
The speaker descends to inspect new growth in a cultivated garden or orchard. The next line is among the book’s most difficult Hebrew passages, so translations vary substantially.
Who or what is “Shulamite”?
The designation הַשּׁוּלַמִּית appears only here. It may be a geographical or personal designation, a literary wordplay related to Solomon/shalom, or something else; no consensus identification exists.
Sources to ExploreCurated research paths for this chapter 3
Language & Literature2
- Song of Solomon 6 in Hebrew and EnglishMechon Mamre
Presents the Hebrew text beside an English translation. Useful for studying the return to garden imagery, comparisons with Tirzah and Jerusalem, military banners, goats and sheep, pomegranates, queens and concubines, dawn imagery, and the difficult closing reference to Mahanaim.
- The Song of Songs: Five Relationships, One Love Story?TheTorah.com
Discusses the changing speakers, settings, and apparent relationships within the collection. Chapter 6’s queen, concubine, garden, royal, and rural imagery is central to the debate over whether the Song tells one story or preserves several related poems.
Artifacts & Manuscripts1
- Pomegranate-Shaped Perfume FlaskCleveland Museum of Art
Illustrated ancient Egyptian perfume container formed as a pomegranate. The object helps readers visualize chapter 6’s pomegranate imagery and the Song’s close association between fruit, fragrance, beauty, fertility, and luxury.
WORTH A CLOSER LOOK
Open a real date-palm orchard contract
Gardens and orchards are central to the Song’s imagery. This Neo-Assyrian cuneiform tablet records the purchase of a date-palm orchard around 632 BCE. It is not Judean, but it turns orchard ownership and cultivation from poetic background into documented ancient economic life.
View the object
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