Song of Solomon 6King James Version
They find each other. He praises her again. Beautiful as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners. There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, but my dove, my undefiled, is the only one. A famous line that captures the singular tenderness of love.
The daughters ask where the beloved has gone. The bride already knows: into his garden, gathering lilies. She restates mutual possession. The bridegroom returns with another praise of the bride, repeating some imagery from chapter 4. He calls her unique among thousands of queens and concubines. Others praise her. The chapter ends with the bride glimpsed in the garden, and a sudden question: who is this terrible as an army? She is in the chariots of Amminadib, then the daughters call her back, Shulamite.
The one who is most fully known by love becomes most fully visible to everyone else. Particularity, not universality, is the source of the bride's power.
verse: "My dove, my undefiled is but one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the choice one of her that bare her." (6:9), Among sixty queens and eighty concubines the bridegroom singles out one, which is the exact math of genuine love.
The garden of chapter 4 reconvenes: beds of spices, lilies, pomegranates. The reference to Tirzah and Jerusalem grounds the praise in the political geography of the divided kingdom, suggesting a dating after the division. The final image of the Shulamite between two armies has never been fully explained and remains one of the poem's beautiful uncertainties.
The daughters of Jerusalem shift from chorus to active seekers. The bridegroom returns with a renewed catalogue of praise. The bride is named Shulamite for the first time in the poem, giving her something closer to an identity. The queens and concubines appear briefly and defer.
The bride's uniqueness among an explicitly numbered court is theologically significant in both readings: Israel singled out among nations, the church beloved above all other institutions. The military imagery applied to the bride, terrible as an army with banners, suggests that beauty of this order is not passive.
After the violence and loss of chapter 5, chapter 6 restores equilibrium. The bride knows where her beloved is. The mutual possession formula returns. A quiet confidence replaces the frantic searching, as if the losing taught her something she could not have learned otherwise.
1Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? whither is thy beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with thee.
2My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.
3I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine: he feedeth among the lilies.
4Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners.
5Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me: thy hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Gilead.
6Thy teeth are as a flock of sheep which go up from the washing, whereof every one beareth twins, and there is not one barren among them.
7As a piece of a pomegranate are thy temples within thy locks.
8There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number.
9My dove, my undefiled is but one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the choice one of her that bare her. The daughters saw her, and blessed her; yea, the queens and the concubines, and they praised her.
10Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?
11I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished, and the pomegranates budded.
12Or ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib.
13Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies.