Song of Solomon 6:13

The other women do not want her to leave. They still want to enjoy her beauty. They ask her to stay with them. But perhaps they are merely pretending to ask her to stay. They know that she is now Solomon’s bride. So they must expect her to go with him.

Solomon replies. She is his bride. So now, he himself will look at her. He wants to enjoy her beauty.

The woman may be called the Shulamite because she comes from a town called Shulem. King David was Solomon’s father. When David was very old, his servants chose a woman called Abishag to live with him. Abishag was also a beautiful young woman. It seems that she came from the same town (1 Kings 1:1-4).

However, the word Shulamite is similar to the name Solomon. The couple are now married. So perhaps she now uses her husband’s name. In many countries today, women use their husband’s surname after marriage.

We do not know anything about the Mahanaim dance. But perhaps it was like the dance of the girls of Shiloh (Judges 21:21). As the girls danced there, the men chose their wives.

ot mean ‘See!’ It means ‘Hey!’, which is a happy shout to get people’s attention. Here the people who are speaking are again God’s people. ‘Save’ in this verse means ‘rescue from our enemies’.

Verse 10 Bible students do not know why Isaiah mentions Moab here. Moab was a country that was east from Judah. Sometimes Moab’s people were enemies of Judah’s people. Here, Moab’s people were God’s enemies; they were fighting against God. We know that because he punished them. ‘Dung’ here is the dirt that an animal leaves behind it.

Verse 11 From this verse, we learn this. The heap of dung (solid waste material from an animal) has much liquid in it! It is a very nasty place. ‘Spread the hands’ probably means ‘lift up the hands’. People did that when they prayed. But this time God would not answer. The *Hebrew words for ‘they will sink’ mean ‘their proud attitude will go down’. This translation keeps the special description of someone that is trying to swim. But that person fails.

Verse 12 The towns in Moab had strong walls. The towns were on high hills. They made the people safe. But God would destroy the walls so that they would become dust on the ground. Isaiah did not say whom God would use to do that. Isaiah used several different words to describe what God would do.

This publication is in EasyEnglish Level B (2800 words).

Heaven ~ the home of God.
Apocalypse ~ another name for the last book in the Bible, called Revelation. The Little Apocalypse (Isaiah Chapter s 24 to 27) is like Revelation. It is about the end of time.
Hebrew ~ the language that the Jews spoke when Isaiah wrote his book.
Jews ~ God’s people that lived in Judah and Israel.
lord ~ someone with authority. With a capital L, it can be a name for God.
LORD ~ the covenant name for God. It probably means ‘always alive’.
covenant ~ people make a covenant when they agree together. God agreed to protect his people called the Jews. They agreed to be his servants.
Jews ~ God’s people that lived in Judah and Israel.

The Beautiful Woman behind the Veil

Song of Songs

Sarah Ruth

Chapter 6

Friends

v1 You are the most beautiful among women.

Where has the man who loves you gone?

Which way did he turn so that we can look for him with you?

Woman

v2 The man who loves me has gone down to his garden.

He has gone to where the plants with a lovely smell grow.

He has gone there to walk in the gardens and to pick *lilies.

v3 This man loves me and I am his. And he is mine.

He is walking among the *lilies.

Maybe the fact is that the man got up early in the morning. The woman saw him leave the room but she was half-asleep. She began to sleep again. That is when she had the bad dream.

Now she is awake. The friends have asked her where he will be. She thinks that he has gone down to his garden. The words ‘garden’ and ‘*lilies’ cause her to think about the times when he has kissed her. She remembers that they have enjoyed sex. She knows that he does still love her. It is a fact. So she goes to him.

Man

v4 You are my best friend that I love the most.

You are as beautiful as Tirzah.

You are as lovely as Jerusalem.

Everyone sees you easily.

You are like an army that is holding up its beautiful cloth with bright colours.

v5 Turn your eyes away from me.

They cause a lot of pleasure for me.

But the pleasure is too strong for me!

Your hair is like a group of goats.

It is like goats that are coming down from *Mount Gilead.

v6 Your teeth are white like a group of sheep.

They are like clean sheep that come out of the pool.

Each tooth is one of a pair. Not one of them is alone.

v7 The sides of your face are round like the halves of a *pomegranate.

Your *veil hides them.

Tirzah and Jerusalem are both beautiful capital cities.

The man and woman meet in the garden. Again, the man tells his wife how beautiful she is. She is so beautiful that her husband can hardly look at her! Some people may be surprised when they look at her. They may even be afraid of her, as they would be afraid of a large army. That is what the man thinks.

Man

v8 There may be 60 queens.

And a king may have 80 other wives.

He may have many young women who do not yet have children.

There may be too many for him to count!

v9 But there is only one woman that I want.

Nobody is like her in any way.

She is lovely like a *dove.

She is mine.

Nobody else is lovelier.

She is the special daughter of her mother.

The woman who gave birth to her likes her best among all her children.

The young women saw that she was now happier.

The queens and the other wives said ‘Well done!’

They all said,

v10 ‘She appears like the dawn.

She is lovelier every moment like the sunrise.

She is as pretty as the moon.

She is very beautiful to look at!

She is bright, like the sun.

There she stands, beautiful and important.

It is like the way that God has put each star like a king or a queen in its place.’

Maybe verses 8 to 10 are only in the man’s mind. He uses the word ‘she’, not the word ‘you’.

The numbers in verse 8 are big numbers. That is all. The writer does not mean more than that. The man is saying that there are many women. He may know many women. But the woman that he loves is very different from any of them. There is nobody as lovely as she is!

The woman’s mother may have had one daughter. Or she may have had more than one daughter. But she liked this daughter more than her other children. All the women have agreed that she is very special and lovely. Now that she has married her man, she is stronger in her *spirit. And now she feels happier when other people look at her.

When the man looks at his wife, she gives pleasure to him. She is so beautiful that even he may be a little afraid of her.

Man

v11 I went down to the small wood where there are trees with dry, hard fruit.

I wanted to see what had started to grow in the valley.

I wanted to see if the *vines had flowers now.

I wanted to see if the *pomegranates had flowers.

v12 I did not have time to understand everything about it.

But I knew that I really wanted her.

This put me among the king’s *chariots with the king’s men.

The man has gone to the garden. He wants to know how the plants are growing. Then he sees his wife. He feels pleasure in his body. And he knows that he wants her. He wants her even more now than he did before. This makes him sure in his mind. This is the most important thing to him now. He thinks about it all the time. He wants her to be his woman only. He may be afraid of future events. But he is really happy that she has chosen to be his wife.

It is difficult to know what the writer means in verse 12. It may mean that these thoughts are the same as soldiers’ thoughts during a war. When they are fighting, they are thinking about the war. They may be afraid. But the king has chosen them to fight for him. So they think about how to fight. They do not think about anything else. They must get what they want. They must beat their enemies.

Or the writer may mean only that the man feels very special and important. This is because such a beautiful lady has become his wife.

Friends

v13a Come back, come back, *Shulammite woman.

Come back! Come back!

We want to look at you for a long time.

Man

v13b Do not look for a long time at the *Shulammite woman.

Do not look at her as you would look at the dance at *Mahanaim.

Shulammite is a woman’s name like Solomon. Also, it may mean, ‘People who are near her feel good and happy’. The lady was very lovely to look at! Even the friends wanted to continue to look at her. She was walking, or maybe she was dancing. It was beautiful.

Mahanaim is the name of a place. King David put his soldiers together in groups there before they fought. They stopped to eat and to sleep there. Sometimes a young woman danced in front of the soldiers. The man is saying that his wife is not like a young dancing woman. She is certainly more important to him than that. She does not dance so that everyone can enjoy it. Maybe she only wants to dance for her husband. Or, she dances because she is happy. That is all.

lily ~ a pretty flower.'Mount Gilead ~ a mountain in the country where Solomon was king.
pomegranate ~ a tree that grows in hot countries; also, pomegranates are its round fruit.
veil ~ a piece of thin cloth that covers the face. The person who is wearing it can see through it. Or it may not cover the eyes.
doves ~ small, beautiful birds. They move their wings quickly when they fly.
wings ~ parts of a bird. The bird uses them to fly.
spirit ~ the part of us that lives when our body dies. It is the person himself, his nature.
vine ~ the name of the tree on which grapes grow.
grape ~ a small soft fruit.
chariot ~ one or two people sit in a chariot. A horse pulls it. Kings and important people might use it. Someone has made it so that it can move quickly. So soldiers also use it when they have to fight. Or men use it to find out who can go the fastest.
Shulammite ~ Shulammite is a woman’s name. Also, it may mean, ‘People who are near her feel good and happy’.
Mahanaim ~ the name of a place. Sometimes a young woman danced in front of soldiers there.

The Bible’s Love Poem

Song of Songs

Commentary: Keith Simons. Translation: Mark Kirkpatrick

Chapter 6

The meeting between the young man and the young woman

The women in Jerusalem

v1 Where has your lover gone,

most beautiful among women?

Tell us which way your lover went.

Then we can help you to look for him.

The young woman

v2 My lover has gone down to his garden,

to the places where *spices grow.

He will eat food from the garden.

He will gather flowers there.

v3 I belong to my lover

and my lover belongs to me.

It is he who eats near the flowers.

The young man

v4 You are beautiful, my special young woman.

You are as beautiful as Tirzah,

as lovely as Jerusalem.

You are as wonderful as those great cities.

v5 Turn your eyes away from me.

They excite me too much!

Your hair is long.

It is like a *flock of goats that are coming down from Gilead.

v6 Your teeth are like a *flock of sheep.

Their wool is clean.

Each sheep has its *twin.

None of the sheep is alone.

v7 Your cheeks are red behind your *veil.

They are like the halves of a *pomegranate.

v8 There might be 60 queens.

There might be 80 women who live in the palace.

There might be too many *virgins to count.

v9 But my *dove, my perfect young woman, is special.

She is the only daughter of her mother.

Her mother prefers her to any other person.

The young women see her and they praise her.

There are queens and women in the palace.

They praise her too.

The women in Jerusalem

v10 Who is this woman?

She seems to shine like the dawn.

She seems as beautiful as the moon.

She seems as bright as the sun.

She is as wonderful as the stars.

The young woman

v11 I went down to the group of nut trees.

I went to see the young plants in the valley.

I went to see if the *vines were beginning to flower.

Or the *pomegranates were beginning to flower.

v12 Then my hope came true.

I was next to my prince.

We were in a *chariot.

The *chariots belonged to the king.

I was with people that I knew.

This happened before I realised it.

The women in Jerusalem

v13 Come back, come back, *Shulamite.

Come back, come back. Then we can stare at you.

The young man

Do not stare at the *Shulamite!

Do not stare as she dances the Mahanaim dance!

The woman’s friends and family do not want her to leave. She seems so wonderful that they want her to stay! They want to look at this woman who seems to give light (verse 10)! They urge her not to leave them.

They use the word *Shulamite to describe her. That may mean that she is from the town called Shulem. But the word is also the female form of the name Solomon. And Solomon is the name that the poet uses for the young man.

So when the people call her the ‘*Shulamite’, perhaps they mean this. They know that she belongs to her husband. She does not still belong to them. They have no right to order her to remain with them. They realise that she must leave. But they feel desperate for her to stay.

She does not reply. Her new husband replies on her behalf. They want to look at her as they look at a dancer. He says that her dance has a name: ‘Mahanaim’.

Mahanaim was the name of a town in Israel. The Bible mentions it in a few places. But it seems that the dance has this name because of the word’s meaning. Mahanaim means ‘two armies’ or ‘two camps’. There are many different translations of this phrase. Here are some of them:

Name of translation:	The phrase:
Good News Bible	I dance between the rows…
King James Version	…the company of two armies.
Literal Translation	…the dance of two army camps.
New International Version	….the dance of Mahanaim.

So she was moving between one side and the other side. Perhaps she was actually doing this as she danced. Or perhaps this was just a word picture. She was moving from her friends and family towards her new husband. And soon she would leave them permanently to be with him.

July 2009

spice ~ a special plant that has a strong smell and taste. People use spices to make incense and perfume.
incense ~ a spice that produces a sweet smell.
perfume ~ a sweet smell.
flock ~ a group of sheep, goats or other animals.
twin ~ one of a pair - both come from one mother in one birth.
veil ~ a piece of cloth that a woman wears over her face. It is possible to see through it.
pomegranate ~ a fruit which is the size of an orange.
virgin ~ a woman who has never had sex.
dove ~ a bird.
vine ~ a plant with fruit; grapes (a small, soft fruit) grow on them.
chariot ~ a vehicle with two wheels. A horse pulls it.
Shulamite ~ the woman may be called the Shulamite because she comes from a town called Shulem. But this word is also the female form of the name, Solomon.