What Does Song of Solomon 6:2 Mean in the King James?
My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.
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 beloved’s descent leads into a living garden, where love tends and gathers from what is already flourishing.
THE MEANING
Here, love is present in the garden, among its fragrance and growth. The word rendered “feed” also means to pasture or tend, so the beloved’s presence carries nourishment and care. He gathers lilies from a place already alive with beauty.
THE ROOT
לִרְעוֹת
lir'ot
GROWS FROM
רעה
ra'ah
To pasture, tend, or shepherd.
The verb for feeding shares its root with the word for a shepherd: nourishment here carries the sense of care and tending. English can make “feed” sound like simple consumption, while the Hebrew also opens onto the shepherd’s attentive presence.
ALSO GROWS
ro'eh: Shepherd; one who tends a flock.
רֹעֶה
The same root names the caretaker, showing how feeding can involve active tending as well as nourishment.
mir'eh: Pasture; a grazing place.
מִרְעֶה
This branch names the place where a flock feeds, linking nourishment to a living place that sustains growth.
לִלְקֹט
lilqot
GROWS FROM
לקט
laqat
To gather or glean by picking up.
“gather” in this verse is lilqot. The root also gives the word for gleanings, the produce gathered from a field. So gathering lilies carries a shade of careful picking: love attends to what is growing and gathers it close.
ALSO GROWS
laqat: To gather or glean.
לָקַט
This verb shares the action in the verse: gathering is a deliberate picking, not merely taking in the whole garden.
leqet: Gleanings; produce gathered from a field.
לֶקֶט
This noun connects gathering with the yield of a cultivated place, echoing the garden’s abundance.
THE PATTERN
Living care moves into a place of growth and attends to what it yields.
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.THE THREAD
A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.The word rendered “feed” here comes from the same Hebrew root as “shepherd” in this psalm. The shared root opens the garden scene onto the shepherd’s care: feeding can also mean tending what is alive.
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