Song of Songs 6:1-13
The Daughters of Jerusalem
1 Where has your beloved gone,
O fairest among women?
Where has your beloved turned aside,
That we may seek him with you?
The Shulamite
2 My beloved has gone to his garden,
To the beds of spices,
To feed his flock in the gardens,
And to gather lilies.
3 I am my beloved's,
And my beloved is mine.
He feeds his flock among the lilies.
The Beloved
4 O my love, you are as beautiful as Tirzah,
Lovely as Jerusalem,
Awesome as an army with banners!
5 Turn your eyes away from me,
For they have overcome me.
Your hair is like a flock of goats
Going down from Gilead.
6 Your teeth are like a flock of sheep
Which have come up from the washing;
Every one bears twins,
And none is barren among them.
7 Like a piece of pomegranate
Are your temples behind your veil.
8 There are sixty queens
And eighty concubines,
And virgins without number.
9 My dove, my perfect one,
Is the only one,
The only one of her mother,
The favorite of the one who bore her.
The daughters saw her
And called her blessed,
The queens and the concubines,
And they praised her.
10 Who is she who looks forth as the morning,
Fair as the moon,
Clear as the sun,
Awesome as an army with banners?
The Shulamite
11 I went down to the garden of nuts
To see the verdure of the valley,
To see whether the vine had budded
And the pomegranates had bloomed.
12 Before I was even aware,
My soul had made me
As the chariots of my noble people.
The Beloved and His Friends
13 Return, return, O Shulamite;
Return, return, that we may look upon you!
The Shulamite
What would you see in the Shulamite—
As it were, the dance of the two camps?
This chapter is much to do with the beloved praising the beauty of his betrothed Shulamite wife of whom he is enraptured by her love and appearance. The daughters of Jerusalem, God’s people and of the Shulamite, these ask if they can help her find her beloved as they address her as the fairest of all women. They see her beauty and their love for each other and desire to help reunite them after he departed that night before (Song of Songs 5:6). She tells them that he must have gone back to his garden to gather lilies and feed his flock among them. As she thinks about him caring for the flock she knows he cares for her even more. He is hers and she is his to tend and care for as the flock in the beauty of the lilies of the valley. His love and care for her sees her loveliness and she reciprocates the love. The beloved then says much about her beauty with endless praises. He says she is more lovely than any army or even God’s holy city of Jerusalem where Solomon built the temple to meet God and worship though sacrifice and praise, a picture of how the Lord loves us more than a building to meet Him in; His love desires each of us and so He chooses to live in our temples where we can be living sacrifices close at hand. Such is God’s love for us! In verse 9 the beloved tells her that she is as a perfect dove of peace and elegance, beautiful and the only one for him. Likewise, our Beloved sees the beauty of who He created us to be in His image and gives us His peace in that desire of love for us individually and as His bride the church. Those of God’s people and even onlookers see each other in Him and call us blessed and praise us, every one. The Shulamite then went to the garden to see if the fruit had been produced yet, being taken up in such love as swept off her feet by a speedy chariot with her beloved at the reigns. Her soul was taken up and raced as a chariot. The beloved then called for her to see her again and she seemed humbled and wondered what he saw in her, thinking herself to be ordinary and not as extraordinary as he made her out to be. The two camps (Mahanaim) that the Shulamite speaks of may describe dance in which two dancers weave in and out with one another in some sacred way or one to be avoided. It is very likely that it could just mean the dance the Shulamite and Solomon were going around in their courtship, however. She may have been wanting to know for certain where the relationship was heading, especially since she began to see herself as unworthy of such love. Such it is with us as the redeemed with our Beloved, for we are truly not worthy, no not one. But the Lord set His love on us and calls us to Himself because of the value and beauty He ascribes to us, not what we earn or see in ourselves. This is a picture of grace as the bride of Christ.
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