What Does Song of Solomon 7:8 Mean in the King James?
I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples;
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
Desire climbs from admiration into touch, making the beloved’s body a living landscape of fruit and scent.
THE MEANING
The speaker’s words meet the reader as unhidden desire: he approaches, takes hold, and delights in the beloved’s body and scent. The palm, grape clusters, and apples turn attraction into a richly bodily image of ripeness and sweetness. The verse speaks of physical desire as direct, affectionate delight in a particular person’s body.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that intimate love must be vague or bodyless; here, desire speaks directly through touch, breasts, and scent.
THE ROOT
אָחֲזָה
ʾāḥăzāh
GROWS FROM
אחז
ʾ-ḥ-z
to grasp, seize, or hold
The root אחז (ʾāḥaz, to grasp or hold) makes the desire tactile: the speaker moves from climbing toward actual contact. Its word family also names holding or possession, bringing a physical force to the image that “take hold” can smooth over.
ALSO GROWS
ʾăḥuzzāh: holding, possession, or property
אֲחֻזָּה
This noun carries the root’s sense of something physically held, echoing the verse’s movement into touch.
ʾaḥizah: grip or grasp
אֲחִיזָה
This related noun makes the intimate, physical quality of the speaker’s gesture explicit.
אֶעֱלֶה
ʾeʿĕleh
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿ-l-h
to rise or ascend
“go up” in this verse is ʾeʿĕleh. The root עלה (ʿālāh, to rise or ascend) turns desire into movement: the speaker climbs toward the beloved rather than remaining at a distance. The same root gives words for an ascent and for an offering that rises, though here its force is the physical approach named in the verse.
ALSO GROWS
maʿăleh: ascent or going up
מַעֲלֶה
This noun carries the same upward movement as the speaker’s approach to the palm.
ʿōlāh: a burnt offering, literally something that rises
עֹלָה
This word preserves the root’s image of rising, showing how ascent runs through very different kinds of language.
THE PATTERN
Love’s desire makes the beloved’s embodied presence a source of sensory delight.
How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.THE THREAD
It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.“I held him” comes from אחז (ʾāḥaz, to grasp or hold), the same root behind “take hold” here. In one line the speaker reaches for the beloved’s branches; in the other, the beloved is held and not released, the root makes touch a shared language.
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