Song of Solomon 6:1

Verse 1 follows straight on from chapter 5. There the bride opened her door to her beloved and found that he had withdrawn himself and was gone. She searched the city for him, suffered cruelty from the watchmen, and pleaded with the daughters of Jerusalem (Song of Solomon 5:6–8). When they asked what made her beloved so special (Song of Solomon 5:9), she answered with a glowing description of him that calls him “the chiefest among ten thousand” (Song of Solomon 5:10–16). That description moves them. The women who had only listened now want to help, and this verse is their reply.

The daughters of Jerusalem come back again and again in the Song, a company of young women who watch, ask questions and sometimes speak with the bride and her beloved. They give the love of these two a setting among other people. That fits Israel, where life was lived closely together and a person’s joys and sorrows were shared by those around. Here they move from listening to joining in.

They address her as “fairest among women”. The word yâpheh means beautiful or fair, an outward appearance pleasing to the eye, and from them it is high praise. Their admiration for her is part of why they offer to help.

They ask where he is in two ways. “Whither is thy beloved gone?” uses hâlak, the everyday verb for walking or going, which here means that he has gone away. “Whither is thy beloved turned aside?” asks again with another verb, picturing him turning off the way and passing out of her sight. The repeated question shows how much they want to know and how ready they are to go and look.

Then they give their reason: “that we may seek him with thee.” The verb bâqash means to search out by any means. It is used especially of seeking God in worship and prayer, and it carries the further sense of striving after something. It describes a real and earnest search, and the word “with” makes it a shared one. The bride searched alone in chapter 5, and now others go with her.

The bride answers at once: “My beloved is gone down into his garden.” Only a little earlier she searched the city in vain. Now she knows exactly where he is and what he is doing there.

Her word for him, dôwd, is her name for him all through the Song, and it is the word on the daughters’ lips in verse 1 and on hers in verses 2 and 3. It means beloved, love or lover, and elsewhere friend or uncle. Strong’s traces it to a root meaning to boil, used figuratively of love.

He has “gone down”, a phrase that can describe going from higher ground to lower, and here it marks a deliberate journey to a known and private place. The garden is “his garden”. The word gan comes from gânan, to fence or protect, so a garden is an enclosed and guarded space. Gardens in Israel were prized, often a sign of wealth, and kept for beauty, rest and privacy, with fragrant spices, fruit trees and flowers such as lilies. Earlier in the Song the beloved calls the bride herself “A garden inclosed” and “a fountain sealed” (Song of Solomon 4:12), so in the Song the garden pictures her and the private world of their love. Here it is the place that belongs to him and where he delights to be.

“The beds of spices” are cultivated plots of fragrant plants, the richest and sweetest part of the garden. In the next phrase the garden becomes “the gardens”, which probably means the different parts of his grounds taken together.

“To feed in the gardens” uses râʻâh, the verb for tending a flock, pasturing it or grazing, which by extension can also mean to rule or to keep company with a friend. In a garden it can mean that he is caring for what grows there, or that he is enjoying its produce and finding refreshment for himself. On either sense he is busy in a place he loves, with the satisfaction of a shepherd whose flock is thriving.

“And to gather lilies” adds the choosing of the finest flowers. Lilies stand in the poetry of Scripture for beauty and purity, and to gather them is to pick out the best and prize them. He may be gathering them for the bride herself.

Verse 3 is the heart of the passage: “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.” In the first half the bride gives herself wholly to him, and in the second she claims him wholly as hers. The two halves mirror each other, with “beloved” at the centre and “I” and “mine” at either end, so the belonging is equal and runs both ways. This is the possession that love gives. She is his by the glad gift of herself, and he is hers by his full commitment to her, and each finds joy and security in the other.

She has said this before. In Song of Solomon 2:16 the words are “My beloved is mine, and I am his”, beginning with her claim on him. Now, after the night she lost him, she begins with his claim on her. The same confession has come through a separation and is spoken openly before the daughters, settled and sure.

“He feedeth among the lilies” answers the daughters once more. “Feedeth” is râʻâh again, the same verb as “feed” in verse 2, and here the picture is of a shepherd pasturing his flock where the lilies grow. The word for lily, shûwshan, was probably named for its whiteness. Lilies grew wild across the land, and in the Song they stand for beauty and purity. The Song has already used the lily for the bride’s own beauty, “the lily of the valleys” (Song of Solomon 2:1), so to feed among the lilies is to be among what is lovely and dear to him.

The scene is quiet and safe. A shepherd at work among the flowers is near and at peace, and the bride’s words put to rest any fear that he is in danger or has left her. They recall the LORD who shepherds his people, making them lie down in green pastures and leading them beside still waters (Psalm 23:1–2).

The passage moves from “Whither is thy beloved gone?” to “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.” The bride’s love for her beloved stirs others to seek him with her, and her answer shows him near, in his own garden, tending what he loves. Seasons when Christ is out of sight are real in the life of faith, and the church is given to share them. Beneath them lies a bond that holds. The Lord has made his people his own and has given himself to be theirs. He shepherds his flock in peace among the lilies, and he is preparing his bride for the marriage of the Lamb.