What Does Song of Solomon 1:7 Mean?
Tell me, you whom my living soul loves, where you pasture, where you make the flock lie down at noon; why should I be like one who wraps herself beside the flocks of your companions?
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
Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?THE KEY
The one she loves is not an abstraction: she asks where he tends his flock and gives it rest, because intimacy has a place.
THE MEANING
Love seeks the beloved’s real presence: the speaker’s living soul longs to know where he feeds and settles his flock. Her question holds both closeness and uncertainty, as she does not want to drift among the flocks of his companions.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that longing can remain safely abstract. Here love asks where the beloved actually is, because closeness means seeking a place to meet.
THE ROOT
תִּרְעֶה
tir'eh
GROWS FROM
רעה
ra'ah
Tend, pasture, or shepherd a flock.
The verb can mean feeding and shepherding, so she seeks not merely a meal but the beloved’s place of tending. The same root names the shepherd and the pasture: care, caregiver, and feeding place share one seed.
ALSO GROWS
ro'eh: Shepherd; one who tends a flock.
רֹעֶה
It makes the beloved’s care an active role, not just a place she wants to find.
mir'eh: Pasture; grazing place.
מִרְעֶה
The place she asks for belongs to the same root as the act of tending.
תַּרְבִּיץ
tarbits
GROWS FROM
רבץ
ravats
Lie down or crouch; settle into a resting place.
The flock is not simply brought somewhere; it is caused to lie down. Together with feeding, this describes care that provides both nourishment and repose.
ALSO GROWS
rovets: One lying down or crouching.
רֹבֵץ
It shows the settled posture contained in the flock’s rest.
mirbats: A lying place or lair.
מִרְבָּץ
It extends the root from the act of lying down to the place where rest happens.
נַפְשִׁי
nafshi
GROWS FROM
נפש
n-p-sh
The living self; a living being.
The one who loves is named through her living soul: her whole living self is drawn toward the beloved. This keeps the longing embodied in a person, rather than making “soul” a detached inner part.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh: Living soul; a living person or self.
נֶפֶשׁ
It shows that the love belongs to the speaker as a whole living self.
nafash: Refresh oneself; recover.
נָפַשׁ
This verb shares the root with the living soul and resonates with the scene’s concern for settling and rest.
THE PATTERN
A shepherd’s care becomes tangible where the flock is fed, gathered, and given rest.
He lays me down in green pastures; he leads me beside resting waters.He feeds his flock like a shepherd, gathers the lambs in his arm, carries them against his chest, and gently leads the ones who nurse.I am the good shepherd. I perceive my own, and my own perceive me.THE THREAD
I myself will feed my flock, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD.Ezekiel brings together the same two actions: feeding and causing the flock to lie down. Its Hebrew uses רעה (ra’ah, shepherd or feed) and רבץ (ravats, lie down), the same roots that hold this verse’s tending and rest together.
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