Song of Solomon 3:6-11

Royal Wedding Procession

6 What [is] this coming up from the desert like a column of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense from all the fragrant powders of the merchant?

7 Look! [It is] Solomon's {portable couch}! Sixty mighty men surround {it}, the mighty men of Israel.

8 All of them {wield swords}; [they are] {trained in warfare}, each with his sword at his thigh [to guard] {against terror} in the night.

9 {King Solomon} made for himself a sedan chair from the wood of Lebanon.

10 He made its column of silver, its back of gold, its seat of purple; its interior is inlaid [with] leather by {the maidens of Jerusalem}.

11 Come out and look, {O maidens of Zion}, at {King Solomon}, at the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, on the day of the joy of his heart!

Song of Solomon 3:6-11 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO SONG OF SOLOMON 3

In this chapter an account is given of an adventure of the church, in quest of her beloved; of the time when, and places where, and the persons of whom she sought him; and of her success upon the whole; with a charge she give to the daughters of Jerusalem, So 3:1-5; by whom she is commended, So 3:6; and then Christ, her beloved, is described by her; by his bed, and the guard about it, So 3:7,8; by the chariot he rode in, So 3:9,10; and by the crown he wore on his coronation day, So 3:11.

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "couch" or "portable sedan chair"
• [b] Literally "her"
• [c] Literally "holders of sword"
• [d] Literally "learnt of war"
• [e] Literally "because of the fear"
• [f] Literally "The king, Solomon"
• [g] Or "its support," "its base," "its headrest," "its litter," "its cover"
• [h] Or "love." The Hebrew term here translated "leather" is spelled the same as the term for "love." Most likely this is an example of a word play that puns on the intentional ambiguity: "Its interior was inlaid with leather//love by the maidens of Jerusalem"
• [i] Literally "by the daughters of Jerusalem"
• [j] Literally "O daughters of Zion"
• [k] Literally "the king, Solomon"