Song of Solomon 6:8

New Life Version

There are sixty queens, and eighty women kept who act like wives, and there are too many young women to number who have never had a man.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
There are sixty queensand eighty concubinesand young women without number.

Hebrew Names Version
There are sixty queens, eighty concubines, And virgins without number.

King James Version
There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number.

English Standard Version
There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and virgins without number.

New American Standard Bible
"There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, And young women without number;

New Century Version
There may be sixty queens and eighty slave women and so many girls you cannot count them,

Amplified Bible
"There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, And maidens without number;

World English Bible
There are sixty queens, eighty concubines, And virgins without number.

Geneva Bible (1587)
There are threescore Queenes and fourescore concubines & of the damsels without nober.

Legacy Standard Bible
There are sixty queens and eighty concubines,And maidens without number;

Berean Standard Bible
There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and maidens without number,

Contemporary English Version
What if I could have sixty queens, eighty wives, and thousands of others!

Complete Jewish Bible
There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, as well as young women beyond number;

Darby Translation
There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, And virgins without number:

Easy-to-Read Version
There might be 60 queens and 80 slave women, and young women too many to count,

George Lamsa Translation
There are sixty queens and eighty concubines and virgins without number.

Good News Translation
Let the king have sixty queens, eighty concubines, young women without number!

Lexham English Bible
Sixty queens there are, eighty concubines, and maidens beyond number.

Literal Translation
Sixty of them are queens, and eighty concubines, and virgins without number.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
There are thre score quenes, foure score concubynes, and yonge weme without nombre.

American Standard Version
There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, And virgins without number.

Bible in Basic English
There are sixty queens, and eighty servant-wives, and young girls without number.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and maidens without number.

King James Version (1611)
There are threescore Queenes, and fourescore concubines, and virgins without number.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
There are threescore queenes, fourescore wiues, and damselles without number.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
My dove, my perfect one is one; she is the only one of her mother; she is the choice of her that bore her. The daughters saw her, and the queens will pronounce her blessed, yea, and the concubines, and they will praise her.

English Revised Version
There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Sixti ben queenys, and eiyti ben secundarie wyues; and of yong damesels is noon noumbre.

Update Bible Version
There are sixty queens, and eighty concubines, And virgins without number.

Webster's Bible Translation
There are sixty queens, and eighty concubines, and virgins without number.

New English Translation
There may be sixty queens, and eighty concubines, and young women without number.

New King James Version
There are sixty queens And eighty concubines, And virgins without number.

New Living Translation
Even among sixty queens and eighty concubines and countless young women,

New Revised Standard
There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and maidens without number.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Threescore, are the queens, and, fourscore, are the concubines, - and, virgins, there are, without number.

Douay-Rheims Bible
(6-7) There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and young maidens without number.

Revised Standard Version
There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and maidens without number.

Young's Literal Translation
Sixty are queens, and eighty concubines, And virgins without number.

THE MESSAGE
There's no one like her on earth, never has been, never will be. She's a woman beyond compare. My dove is perfection, Pure and innocent as the day she was born, and cradled in joy by her mother. Everyone who came by to see her exclaimed and admired her— All the fathers and mothers, the neighbors and friends, blessed and praised her:

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, And maidens without number;

Contextual Overview

⁴ I am my love's, and my love is mine, he who feeds his flock among the lilies." "You are as beautiful as Tirzah, my love, as beautiful as Jerusalem. You are to be feared as an army with flags. ⁵ Turn your eyes away from me, for they trouble me. Your hair is like a flock of goats that has come down from Gilead. ⁶ Your teeth are like a flock of sheep which has come up from the washing. All of them give birth to two lambs at a time, and not one of them has lost her young. ⁷ The sides of your forehead are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your face-covering. ⁸ There are sixty queens, and eighty women kept who act like wives, and there are too many young women to number who have never had a man. ⁹ But my dove, my perfect one, is special. She is her mother's only daughter. She is the pure child of the one who gave birth to her. The young women saw her and knew she was honored. The queens and the women who act as wives praised her, saying, ¹⁰ ‘Who is this that looks out like the first light of day? She is as beautiful as the full moon, as pure as the sun. She is to be feared as an army with flags.'"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

1 Kings 11:1, 2 Chronicles 11:21, Psalms 45:14, Revelation 7:9

Reciprocal: Judges 19:1 - a concubine Psalms 45:9 - Kings' Proverbs 31:10 - can Proverbs 31:29 - thou Song of Solomon 1:3 - the virgins Isaiah 7:15 - Butter Matthew 25:1 - ten Mark 2:19 - Can Revelation 14:4 - for

Cross-References

Genesis 6:12
God looked at the earth and saw how sinful it was. For all who lived on the earth had become sinful in their ways.

Genesis 6:17
See, I will bring a flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh under heaven that has the breath of life. Everything on earth will be destroyed.

Genesis 19:19
See, your servant has found favor in your eyes. You have shown me great kindness in what you have done for me by saving my life. But I cannot run to the mountains. For I will run into danger and die.

Psalms 84:11
For the Lord God is a sun and a safe-covering. The Lord gives favor and honor. He holds back nothing good from those who walk in the way that is right.

Psalms 145:20
The Lord takes care of all who love Him. But He will destroy all the sinful.

Proverbs 3:4
So you will find favor and good understanding in the eyes of God and man.

Proverbs 8:35
For he who finds me finds life, and gets favor from the Lord.

Proverbs 12:2
A good man will get favor from the Lord, but He will punish a man who makes sinful plans.

Jeremiah 31:2
The Lord says, "The people who were not killed by the sword found loving-favor in the desert, when Israel looked for rest."

Luke 1:30
The angel said to her, "Mary, do not be afraid. You have found favor with God.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number. In this verse and Song of Solomon 6:9 the church is commended as she stood related to others; and is compared with them, and preferred to them. The words may be considered either as an assertion, "there are", c. or as a supposition, "though there be", c. yet Christ's church is but one, and excels them all. "Queens" are principal and lawful wives of kings "concubines", secondary or half wives, as the word i signifies who were admitted to the bed, but their children did not inherit: "virgins", unmarried persons, maids of honour, who waited on the queen. The allusion is to the custom of kings and great personages, who had many wives, and more concubines, and a large number of virgins to wait on them; see 1 Kings 11:3; or to a nuptial solemnity, and the ceremony of introducing the bride to the bridegroom, attended with a large number of persons of distinction; and so Theocritus k speaks of four times sixty virgins attending the nuptials of Menelaus and Helena; see Psalms 45:9. By all which may be meant either the kingdoms and nations of the world; by "queens", the more large, rich and flourishing kingdoms; by "concubines", inferior states; and by "virgins without number", the vast multitudes of inhabitants that fill them; but all, put together, are not equal to the church; see Song of Solomon 2:2; or else false churches; by "queens", such who boast of their riches and number, as the church of Rome, Revelation 18:7; by "concubines", such as are inferior in those things, but equally corrupt, as Arians, Socinians, c. and by "virgins without number", the multitudes of poor, weak, ignorant people, seduced by them and what figure soever these make, or pretensions to be the true churches of Christ, they are none of his, his spouse is preferred to them all. Or rather true believers in Christ, of different degrees, are here meant; queens, those that have the greatest share of gifts grace, most nearness to Christ, and communion with him; by "concubines", believers of a lower class, and of a more servile spirit, and yet sometimes are favoured with, fellowship with Christ; and by "virgins", young converts, who have not so large an experience as the former; and this distribution agrees with 1 John 2:13; and the rather this may be the sense, since each of these are said to praise the church in Song of Solomon 6:9, who is preferable to them, and includes them all.

i פילגשים "secundariae uxores", Michaelis. k Idyll. 18. v. 24.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The section might be entitled, “Renewed declaration of love after brief estrangement.”

Song of Solomon 6:4

Tirzah ... Jerusalem - Named together as the then two fairest cities of the land. For Jerusalem compare Psalms 48:2. “Tirzah” (i. e., “Grace” or “Beauty “)was an old Canaanite royal city Joshua 12:24. It became again a royal residence during the reigns of Baasha and his three successors in the kingdom of the ten tribes, and may well therefore have been famed for its beauty in the time of Solomon.

Terrible as ... - Awe-inspiring as the bannered (hosts). The warlike image, like others in the Song, serves to enhance the charm of its assured peace.

Song of Solomon 6:5

Even for the king the gentle eyes of the bride have an awe-striking majesty. Such is the condescension of love. Now follows Song of Solomon 6:5-7 the longest of the repetitions which abound in the Song, marking the continuance of the king’s affection as when first solemnly proclaimed Song of Solomon 4:1-6. The two descriptions belong, according to some (Christian) expositors, to the Church of different periods, e. g. to the primitive Church in the splendor of her first vocation, and to the Church under Constantine; other (Jewish) expositors apply them to “the congregation of Israel” under the first and second temples respectively.

Song of Solomon 6:9

The king contrasts the bride with the other claimants for her royal estate or favor Song of Solomon 6:8. She not only outshines them all for him, but herself has received from them disinterested blessing and praise.

This passage is invaluable as a divine witness to the principle of monogamy under the Old Testament and in the luxurious age of Solomon.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Song of Solomon 6:8. There are threescore queens — Though there be sixty queens, and eighty concubines, or secondary wives, and virgins innumerable, in my harem, yet thou, my dove, my undefiled, art אצת achath, ONE, the ONLY ONE, she in whom I delight beyond all.