Song of Solomon 7

Song of Solomon 7:1

The Beautiful Woman behind the Veil An EasyEnglish Bible Version and Commentary (1200 word vocabulary) on the Song of Songs www.easyenglish.info Sarah Ruth This commentary has been through Advanced Checking.

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Chapter 7 The woman is still in the garden with her husband and with her friends. The man now talks to the woman again. He describes her whole body. He politely describes her feet first and her hair last. He knows her well now, so he can do that. He likes every part of her body.

She is dancing or she is moving beautifully. Usually she covers almost all her body. But today she has not covered some parts, for example, part of her legs. Or, her clothes show clearly the shape of her body. Man v1 How beautiful are your feet in *sandals, my *princess!

 How beautifully your legs move!

 They are like valuable stones

  that a *craftsman’s hands have made into a lovely shape.

The woman has married someone who is in the king’s *family. Or this is to show only that she is special. That is all. So people would think that she is like someone in a king’s *family. She feels important. She walks and she talks like a lady. Man v2 Your *navel is like a round cup that is full of good *wine.

 Your stomach is the shape of many plants that a farmer has picked for food.

  *Lilies are round the edge.

The man thinks about farmers that bring food from plants ready for the winter. He is thinking about the good time that they have had together. It was like a drink of the best *wine and a meal of the best food in a *banquet hall.

Maybe the woman has not covered the middle of her body. So her husband can see her *navel. The top edge of her trousers or of her skirt is like *lilies. The lower edge of the cloth that covers her breasts is the same.

The *navel may also mean the part between the top of her legs. So, in verse 2, it says that it is full of good *wine. If a woman likes a man a lot, she will think about him often. She will feel in her body that she loves him. She may feel this even when she is not with him. Man v3 Your breasts are like two young *gazelles

 born to their mother on the same day.

v4 Your neck is like an *ivory *tower.

 Your eyes are like the pools in Heshbon, by the gate that is called Bath Rabbim.

Your nose is like the *tower of Lebanon,

 the building from where people can look towards Damascus.

The breasts are the same size. They may be small because she is young. A *gazelle is a wild animal but it is not cruel. A young *gazelle will not yet have fought another gazelle. So the writer may be saying that the woman is friendly. She has not done anything wrong.

Heshbon was a town in the country where Solomon was king. Damascus was an important capital city. Nobody has discovered the gate that is called Bath Rabbim. So we do not know anything about it. Man v5 At the top, your head is like the mountain that is called Mount Carmel.

 Like a *crown, it makes your whole body even more beautiful.

Your hair hangs down and it shines like long, thin pieces of *silk.

 It is like *silk that queens use for their clothes.

 It is so beautiful that a king would keep his eyes towards it all the time!

v6 You are very, very beautiful.

 I love you.

 Many things about you give a lot of pleasure to me.

v7 You are tall like a *palm tree.

 Your breasts are like groups of fruit that are very near to each other.

v8 I said, ‘I will climb the *palm tree. I will take hold of its fruit.’

 I want your breasts to be like the groups of fruit on the *vine.

 I want the smell from your mouth to be like apples.

v9a I want your mouth to be like *wine. Woman  v9b I want the *wine to go immediately to the man who loves me.

  I want to pour it slowly over his lips and over his teeth.

v10 This man loves me and I am his.

 He wants me very much.

 v11 You love me!

  Come! I want us to go away from the towns.

  I suggest that we stay in the villages for the night.

v12 We can go early to the *vineyards.

 We can see if the *vines have flowers on them now.

 We can see if the flowers have opened.

 We can see if the *pomegranates have flowers.

  There I will give my love to you.

v13 The *mandrakes send out their lovely smell.

 There is every good thing to eat at our door.

 You love me and I have stored new and old things for you.

Mount Carmel is a mountain near where the man and the woman live.

The man wants to draw his wife near to him again. She, too, wants him to kiss her. But she wants to do this when they are alone together. She is sure about her husband’s strong love for her. She is sure that she wants to stay with him. They both really want to enjoy sex again.

So she tells him that she wants to be alone with him. Earlier, the man had asked the woman to come with him. Now it is the woman who asks the man to come.

Sometimes people stored fruit in a cupboard over the door of their house. Then it would become dry, sweet fruit. People would like to eat it like that. We read about flowers and fruit and their smells. This helps us to feel that we are with the man and his wife. The story is really happening! The words ‘we can see’ show us that they want to find out something. They want to see if their love is becoming greater. The woman wants to show her love to her husband in the same and in different ways.

© 1997-2012, Wycliffe Associates (UK)

This publication is written in EasyEnglish Level A (1200 words).

March 2012

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