1 The church professes her faith in Christ. 4 Christ showed the graces of the church, 10 and his love towards her.
Son 6:1 Where has your beloved gone, most beautiful of women? Which way did your beloved turn, that we may look for him with you?
The daughters of Jerusalem now address the bride to see what more she has to say.
Together in the Garden of Love
Son 6:2 My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to browse in the gardens and to gather lilies.
The anxiety concerning the loss of her beloved is gone. She knows that he is engaged elsewhere. Nothing has really come in to mar their happiness.
Son 6:3 I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine; he browses among the lilies.
Solomon and His Bride Delight in Each Other
Son 6:4 You are as beautiful as Tirzah, my darling, as lovely as Jerusalem, as majestic as troops with banners.
In vs. 4–10 Solomon pours forth lavish praise of his bride. Tirzah is probably to be identified with Tell el–Fâr‘ah, some 11.2 km. northeast of Shechem, in the territory of Manasseh. It was doubtless noted for its beauty.
Comely as Jerusalem. Solomon takes his own capital city in southern Palestine to illustrate the outstanding attractiveness of his bride.
Jerusalem was noted for its beauty (see Ps. 48:2; 50:2; Lam. 2:15).
Son 6:5 Turn your eyes from me; they overwhelm me. Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Gilead.
Son 6:6 Your teeth are like a flock of sheep coming up from the washing. Each has its twin, not one of them is missing.
Son 6:7 Your temples behind your veil are like the halves of a pomegranate.
Son 6:8 Sixty queens there may be, and eighty concubines, and virgins beyond number;
This is presumably a reference to Solomon’s harem. The number of wives is far less than that given in 1 Kings 11:3. Evidently this song is written early in the reign of Solomon.
Son 6:9 but my dove, my perfect one, is unique, the only daughter of her mother, the favorite of the one who bore her. The young women saw her and called her blessed; the queens and concubines praised her.
Son 6:10 Who is this that appears like the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, majestic as the stars in procession?
Beauty and strength are here combined in a description that has appropriately been applied to the church. Some think that the question of this verse is raised by the ladies of the court when they first catch a glimpse of the Shulamite.
Son 6:11 I went down to the grove of nut trees to look at the new growth in the valley, to see if the vines had budded or the pomegranates were in bloom.
This statement is obviously by the bride.
Son 6:12 Before I realized it, my desire set me among the royal chariots of my people.
Amminadib. Literally translated it means, “My people, the noble.” The bride imagines herself being lifted up and placed in a chariot, no doubt with Solomon.
Son 6:13 Come back, come back, O Shulammite; come back, come back, that we may gaze on you! Why would you gaze on the Shulammite as on the dance of Mahanaim?
Son 6:13 Return, return, O Shulamite; Return, return, that we may look upon you! What would you see in the Shulamite—As it were, the dance of the two camps?
Gaze on? A charming display of modesty. The company. Literally, “the dance.” Some have suggested that this has reference to the choir of the bride’s maids and the choir of the of the bridegroom’s best men. Others think that the reference is to some local custom that we do not now understand. Still others prefer to transliterate the words as “two armies” (Mahanaim) and see an allusion to the “dance” of the angel host at Mahanaim upon Jacob’s return to Canaan (see Gen. 32:1–3).
If this be so, the Shulamite, at this juncture, gives a performance of the “dance of Mahanaim.”