What Does Song of Solomon 6:10 Mean in the King James?

Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?

Song of Solomon 6:10 · KJV

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 poem makes beauty a force of recognition: the woman rises like dawn, reaches solar clarity, and bears the unmistakable force of an army’s standards.

THE MEANING

You meet a presence that comes into view like dawn, lovely as the moon and radiant as the sun. Her beauty carries force too: she is awe-inspiring like an army displayed under its standards. Here beauty is visible, gathering, and commanding.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This dissolves the assumption that beauty must be gentle or powerless: the image joins radiance with awe and military force.

THE ROOT

נִדְגָּלוֹת

nidgalot

GROWS FROM

דגל

A banner or standard that marks and identifies a group.

The Hebrew evokes bannered ranks rather than loose decoration, so the comparison carries structure, identity, and force. The banners make the army visible as a gathered, recognizable presence.

ALSO GROWS

degel: Standard, banner

דֶּגֶל

In Numbers 2:2, each group gathers under its own standard; the image here likewise suggests an ordered presence that can be recognized.

diglo: His banner

דִּגְלוֹ

In Song of Solomon 2:4, the beloved’s banner over the speaker is love; that shared word connects intimate love with the visible force of the woman’s presence here.

THE PATTERN

Radiance becomes recognizable presence: it rises from first light toward full brightness and culminates in something impossible to miss.

But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

Proverbs 4:18 · KJVLight grows toward its fullness, echoing the verse’s movement from dawn to the sun’s radiance.

Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.

Isaiah 60:1 · KJVLight arrives and becomes visible presence, as the woman’s appearance does in the poem.

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

Matthew 5:14 · KJVRadiance makes a presence publicly unmistakable, like an army displayed under its standards.

THE THREAD

He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.

Song of Solomon 2:4 · KJV

The word for banner here comes from the same Hebrew root as the banners in 6:10. In one verse, love is the banner over the speaker; in the other, the woman’s presence itself is compared to bannered ranks, love and beauty take visible, recognizable form.

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