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Song of Songs 7: Summary and Commentary

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Song of Songs 7 has not been written up in our own words yet. Below are the notes on it from three commentaries — start with Tyndale, which is written in modern English for readers new to the Bible.

What the commentaries say about Song of Songs 7

Three commentaries, oldest last. Each is shown in full with its author and licence, and every scripture reference inside them links through to the verse.

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Song of Songs 7

Tyndale House Publishers, released openly in 2023

Short, plain-English notes written for people reading the Bible for the first time. They explain what a word meant to its original audience, why a detail is there, and where else in Scripture the same idea shows up. If you only read one set of notes on this page, read this one.

8 notes on Song of Songs 7

Verse 1

7:1-5 The man now praises the woman’s dancing feet and then ascends her sensuous body to her flowing hair (7:1-5). • This queenly maiden (literally prince’s daughter) might or might not be from a royal family, but the man considers her as fine as royalty.

Verse 2

7:2 Between your thighs lies a mound of wheat (literally Your belly is like a mound of wheat): The man is either describing the woman’s smoothly rounded abdomen or her pubic mound.

Verse 4

7:4 sparkling pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bath-rabbim: The pools of Heshbon, formed by a brook, can still be seen today near the ruins of Heshbon on the east coast of the Dead Sea. • The tower of Lebanon is probably a metaphor for Mount Hermon, a high mountain that overlooks the valley of Damascus, the capital of Syria. The majestic beauty of the woman’s nose rises above her other facial features.

Verse 5

7:5-6 Mount Carmel is a high mountain range on the Mediterranean coast. • your hair radiates royalty (literally your hair is as purple threads): Purple was an expensive color to produce, so it was the exclusive property of royalty.

Verse 7

7:7-8 The husband describes their lovemaking. He ascends her body and caresses her breasts.

Verse 9

7:9 The man compares the woman’s love and her kisses to wine in that they are delightful and make one light-headed (see 1:2).

Verse 11

7:11-12 The woman suggests that they go together to check on the status of the vineyards and make love while there.

Verse 13

7:13 Mandrakes (Hebrew duda’im) were a Middle Eastern aphrodisiac (see Gen 30:14-16); the roots of the plant resemble a human torso. The word is a play on my lover (Hebrew dodi). • at our door: All sexual pleasures are available to them now, and she will share with him the delights she has saved for him alone. • new . . . old: She has in mind the sexual expressions they have already experienced, and new ones as well.

Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Reformatted for the web by BibleHearth; wording unchanged. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Read the original

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary on Song of Songs 7

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, 1871

Three Scottish scholars working phrase by phrase through the whole Bible. Where a translation had to choose one English wording, they tell you what the Hebrew or Greek actually says and what the alternatives were. Useful when you want to know why two Bibles word the same verse differently.

Before you start: Written in 1871 and organised around short quoted phrases followed by a dash, then the explanation. It reads more like reference notes than prose, and it assumes you have the verse in front of you.

Chapter overview of Song of Songs 7

What this chapter is doing

thy feet—rather, "thy goings" (Psa 17:5). Evident allusion to Isa 52:7 : "How beautiful . . . are the feet of him . . . that publisheth peace" (Shulamite, Sol 6:13).

shoes—Sandals are richly jewelled in the East (Luk 15:22; Eph 6:15). She is evidently "on the mountains," whither she was wafted (Sol 6:12), above the daughters of Jerusalem, who therefore portray her feet first.

daughter—of God the Father, with whom Jesus Christ is one (Mat 5:9), "children of (the) God" (of peace), equivalent to Shulamite (Psa 45:10-15; Co2 6:18), as well as bride of Jesus Christ.

prince's—therefore princely herself, freely giving the word of life to others, not sparing her "feet," as in Sol 5:3; Exo 12:11. To act on the offensive is defensive to ourselves.

joints—rather, "the rounding"; the full graceful curve of the hips in the female figure; like the rounding of a necklace (as the Hebrew for "jewels" means). Compare with the English Version, Eph 4:13-16; Col 2:19. Or, applying it to the girdle binding together the robes round the hips (Eph 6:14).

cunning workman— (Psa 139:14-16; Eph 2:10, Eph 2:22; Eph 5:29-30, Eph 5:32).

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary (Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, 1871). Public domain. Reformatted for the web by BibleHearth; wording unchanged. Public domain · Read the original

Where to go deeper on Song of Songs 7

Both of these are free to read and neither can be reproduced here — The Gospel Coalition and BibleProject keep their work under their own copyright. They are worth the click, especially if you are new to reading the Bible.