What Does Song of Solomon 1:10 Mean in the King James?
Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew word for the jeweled rows shares its root with “explore,” turning adornment into a path the eye can trace.
THE MEANING
The beloved’s beauty is seen in the particular lines of her face and the gold against her neck. Her body and its adornment are part of what makes her beautiful now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that beauty belongs only to an inward or abstract self dissolves here: the verse delights in the beloved’s actual cheeks and neck.
THE ROOT
תּוֹרִים
tûrîm
GROWS FROM
תור
t-w-r
To explore, search out, or go around; the related noun can mean a row or strand of ornament.
“rows of jewels” in this verse is tûrîm. The word for the ornaments carries the same root as exploring or searching out. The image is not a heap of jewels but ordered lines that the eye can follow along the beloved’s face.
ALSO GROWS
lātûr: To explore or search out
לָתוּר
This verbal form uses the same root; it gives the ornament’s row a sense of a route traced with attention.
weyāturû: And they shall explore
וְיָתֻרוּ
The same root describes searching across a landscape, while here the gaze follows an ordered line across the beloved.
נָאוּ
nāʾû
GROWS FROM
נאה
n-ʾ-h
To be beautiful, fitting, or becoming.
The word holds beauty and fittingness together: the beloved’s appearance is not merely decorated, but becoming. The same family can call praise itself comely, extending the word beyond outward appearance.
ALSO GROWS
nāʾweh: Becoming, comely
נָאוֶה
This form appears in Song 1:5, where the speaker calls herself comely; beauty here belongs to the beloved as she is.
nāʾāwâ: Comely, fitting
נָאוָה
Psalm 33:1 calls praise comely with this word family, showing that what is fitting can also be beautiful.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures beloved beauty through adornment arranged upon the one being admired.
Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.THE THREAD
Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them.“Search” translates a verb from תור, the same root family behind the ornament word תּוֹרִים (tûrîm, rows or strands). One verse sends people to trace a land; the other lets the gaze trace the beloved’s adorned features.
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