Song of Solomon 7 · a question people ask
"The king is held captive in its tresses" (7:5). Who is the king?
The verse doesn't say. The Song speaks of a king in five verses (1:4, 1:12, 3:9, 3:11, 7:5), and names Solomon in seven (1:1, 1:5, 3:7, 3:9, 3:11, 8:11, 8:12), but 7:5 names no one. Nor does the Song say whether the man called my beloved (7:10, 7:11) is the king. The honest questions on chapters 1 and 3 ask the same of their own verses, and the answer here is the same: these notes don't join the king of 7:5 to Solomon or to the beloved, and don't keep them apart. They say what the verse says, as the introduction to the Song explains.
The verses
“Your head on you is like Carmel. The hair of your head like purple. The king is held captive in its tresses.”
“I am my beloved’s. His desire is toward me. Come, my beloved! Let’s go out into the field. Let’s lodge in the villages.”
“The Song of songs, which is Solomon’s.”
“Take me away with you. Let’s hurry. The king has brought me into his rooms. Friends We will be glad and rejoice in you. We will praise your love more than wine! Beloved They are right to love you. I am dark, but lovely, you daughters of Jerusalem, like Kedar’s tents, like Solomon’s curtains.”