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Song of Solomon 6 · a question people ask

Who is the Shulammite?

In the text

The Song says only what 6:13 says. "Return, return, Shulammite! Return, return, that we may gaze at you" (6:13), and then, after the WEB's speaker word Lover, "Why do you desire to gaze at the Shulammite, as at the dance of Mahanaim?" (6:13). The Hebrew Bible has the word only in this verse, twice, and in Hebrew both times it has the: the Shulammite. The Hebrew shows that she is a woman (each Return is said to a woman), that those who call her speak as we, and that the question after is put to more than one. The verse gives her no other name. These notes don't identify her with anyone else in the Bible, don't give a meaning for the word, and don't say who the speakers are.

The verses

“Return, return, Shulammite! Return, return, that we may gaze at you. Lover Why do you desire to gaze at the Shulammite, as at the dance of Mahanaim?”
Song of Solomon 6:13 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Song of Solomon 6

Song of Solomon 6: I am my beloved’s

6:4 and 6:10 both end "awesome as an army with banners", with a word the Hebrew Bible has only three times. In Hebrew the favorite of 6:9 and the clear of 6:10 are one word. And Return comes four times in 6:13, and nowhere else in the Song.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions