שיר השירים 6:8

Hebrew Modern Translation

ששים המה מלכות ושמנים פילגשים ועלמות אין מספר׃

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Aleppo Codex
ששים המה מלכות ושמנים פילגשים ועלמות אין מספר

Biblia Hebrica Stuttgartensia (1967/77)
שִׁשִּׁ֥ים הֵ֙מָּה֙ מְּלָכֹ֔ות וּשְׁמֹנִ֖ים פִּֽילַגְשִׁ֑ים וַעֲלָמֹ֖ות אֵ֥ין מִסְפָּֽר ׃

Westminster Leningrad Codex
שִׁשִּׁים הֵמָּה מְּלָכוֹת וּשְׁמֹנִים פִּֽילַגְשִׁים וַעֲלָמוֹת אֵין מִסְפָּֽר ׃

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

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.