What Does Song of Solomon 1:4 Mean?
Draw me, and we will run after you. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will be glad and rejoice in you. We will remember your love more than wine. The upright love you.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee.THE KEY
The beloved asks to be drawn first, and only then does the whole company run after love.
THE MEANING
The voice begins with a request to be drawn close; the running follows. Intimacy opens into shared gladness, while the beloved’s love remains more cherished than wine. Invitation, pursuit, and celebration move together in the verse.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that desire must begin with self-generated effort: here, the request to be drawn comes before pursuit.
THE ROOT
מָשְׁכֵנִי
mashkheni
GROWS FROM
משך
māšakh
To draw, pull, or extend.
“draw” in this verse is mashkheni. The root holds pulling and extending together, so being drawn is movement that reaches outward. The request comes before the plural “we will run”: attraction opens the way for desire to follow.
ALSO GROWS
meshōkh: Draw out; continue.
מְשֹׁךְ
In Psalm 36:10, this form is translated “continue” in “O continue thy lovingkindness,” showing the same root carrying the sense of love extended onward.
vayyimshĕḵû: They drew.
וַיִּמְשְׁכוּ
In Genesis 37:28, this form names a literal pulling; here the same root gives the pull a beloved’s invitation.
THE PATTERN
Love draws first, and movement toward the beloved follows.
From afar the LORD appeared to me, saying, I have loved you with a love of the ages. Therefore with faithful love I have drawn you.Draw out your faithful love to those who perceive you, and your alignment to those straight in heart.No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me pulls him, and I will raise him up at the last day.THE THREAD
From afar the LORD appeared to me, saying, I have loved you with a love of the ages. Therefore with faithful love I have drawn you.“Drawn” here and “Draw me” in the song share the Hebrew root משך (māšakh), meaning to draw or pull. That shared root lets the song’s intimate invitation and lovingkindness meet in one motion: love draws the beloved toward closeness.
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