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Song of Solomon 3 Bible study: Whom my soul loves
Chapter 3 never says beloved: four times in 3:1-4 the one sought is "him whom my soul loves". And the WEB's two carriages are two Hebrew words: in 3:7 mittah, a word for a bed, and in 3:9 appiryon, which the Hebrew Bible has only here.
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“I had scarcely passed from them, when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house, into the room of her who conceived me.”
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“In Song of Solomon 3:1-4, the speaker seeks "him whom my soul loves".”
Is that in Song of Solomon 3, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
Four times, whom my soul loves
"By night on my bed, I sought him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I didn’t find him" (3:1). The speaker names the one sought the same way four times in four verses: him whom my soul loves (3:1, 3:2, 3:3, 3:4) (tap loves). Here is what almost everyone misses: dod, the Hebrew word for beloved, which the Song has 39 times, doesn't come in chapter 3 at all, and neither does the WEB's beloved. The only other place the Song says whom my soul loves is "Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you graze your flock" (1:7). Twice the speaker says, "I sought him, but I didn’t find him" (3:1, 3:2) (tap sought, found), and then: "I will get up now, and go about the city; in the streets and in the squares I will seek him whom my soul loves" (3:2). The Hebrew of 3:1-4 shows that the one sought is a man (him), but its verbs for I are the same for a man or a woman, so these notes say the speaker.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Song of Solomon 3
That was a taste
The rest of Song of Solomon 3 is waiting in Favor
- The watchmen who go about the city
- I held him, and would not let him go
- Who is this who comes up?
- Two searches by night
- Where 3:11 stands in chapter 1's question
- 7 questions as you read
- 13 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it
אָהַבahavsay a-HAV
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "love". "By night on my bed, I sought him whom my soul loves" (3:1). Whom my soul loves is this verb with nafshi, my soul (nefesh). It comes four times in 3:1-4, and once before: "Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you graze your flock" (1:7). The Song has the verb seven times: those five, and "therefore the virgins love you" (1:3) and "They are right to love you" (1:4). Love in 3:5 and 3:10 is another word, the noun ahavah.
For your group
Song of Solomon 3 Bible study questions
- 1In 3:1-4 the speaker says "him whom my soul loves" four times, and "I sought him, but I didn’t find him" twice (3:1, 3:2). What does the repeating do as you read the search?
- 2"I will get up now, and go about the city" (3:2). What in 3:1-4 shows how much the search mattered to the speaker?
- 33:6-11 opens with "Who is this who comes up from the wilderness" (3:6) and ends with "Go out, you daughters of Zion, and see King Solomon" (3:11). What do these verses ask their hearers to look at, and what stands out to you?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Song of Solomon 3 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home