What Does Song of Solomon 2:6 Mean?
His left hand is beneath my head, and his right hand embraces me.
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
His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me.THE KEY
Love is shown as a two-part holding: one hand bears the head from beneath while the other gathers the beloved close.
THE MEANING
You encounter intimacy as a bodily reality: one hand supports the beloved’s head while the other encloses her in an embrace. She is both borne and drawn close in the same moment.
THE ROOT
תְּחַבְּקֵנִי
teḥabbeqeni
GROWS FROM
חבק
to clasp, enfold, embrace
“embraces” in this verse is teḥabbeqeni. The Hebrew verb comes from חבק, the root of clasping someone close. Set beside the hand beneath her head, it makes the embrace more than nearness: one hand supports her while the other gathers her in.
ALSO GROWS
ḥibbēq: he embraced
חִבֵּק
This form names the act of clasping that the verse makes present between the two lovers.
meḥabbēq: embracing; one who embraces
מְחַבֵּק
This participial form presents the same root as an ongoing action of holding close.
רֹאשִׁי
roshi
GROWS FROM
ראש
head, top, chief, beginning
English ‘head’ sounds only anatomical here, while רֹאשׁ can also name a top, chief, or beginning. The scene remains physical, with the head supported, while the Hebrew word carries the further sense of the foremost part being held.
ALSO GROWS
rosh: head; top; chief
רֹאשׁ
The verse uses the bodily sense, with the beloved’s head resting on the hand beneath it.
reshit: beginning; first part
רֵאשִׁית
This branch carries the root’s sense of what comes first or stands at the beginning.
rishon: first; foremost
רִאשׁוֹן
This branch preserves the root’s association with what is foremost, alongside the verse’s literal image of the head.
THE PATTERN
Care becomes tangible when one person reaches for, touches, or gathers another close.
His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me.And when Laban heard the report of Jacob, his sister's son, he ran to meet him, and clasped him, and kissed him, and brought him into his house. And Jacob recounted to Laban all these words.And he rose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and his inward parts were moved, and he ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him.THE THREAD
His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me.The Hebrew repeats the same embrace verb, תְּחַבְּקֵנִי (teḥabbeqeni), from חבק (ḥavaq, to clasp or embrace), with the same image of the hand beneath her head. That returning phrase lets you hear how central this particular form of being held is to the beloved.
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