What Does Song of Solomon 5:3 Mean?
I strip off my tunic; how shall I put it on? I wash my feet; how shall I soil them?
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
I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?THE KEY
The repeated “how?” turns a simple response into a cost calculation: rising means undoing the comfort the speaker has just arranged.
THE MEANING
A voice is at the door while the speaker is settled in the state she prepared for rest. Putting her garment back on and risking her clean feet make responding feel like a cost. The repeated question gives her hesitation a practical-sounding reason.
THE ROOT
אֶלְבָּשֶׁנָּה
elbashennah
GROWS FROM
ל־ב־שׁ
l-b-sh
To clothe or put on clothing; in a causative form, to clothe someone else.
“put on” in this verse is elbashennah. Here the verb describes putting clothing back on oneself; the same root elsewhere describes God clothing exposed people. It lets clothing carry both the friction of this moment and the provision pictured in those other verses.
ALSO GROWS
wayyalbishem: He put clothing on them.
וַיַּלְבִּשֵׁם
In Genesis 3:21, the LORD clothes Adam and his wife; the same root makes clothing something that can be given to exposed bodies.
hilbishani: He clothed me.
הִלְבִּישַׁנִי
Isaiah 61:10 uses the same root for being clothed; here, by contrast, the speaker imagines having to dress herself again.
רָחַצְתִּי
rachatzti
GROWS FROM
ר־ח־ץ
r-ḥ-ts
To wash or bathe.
“wash” in this verse is rachatzti. The root’s phrase for washing feet appears in scenes of hospitality, where a guest is welcomed and offered rest. Here the washing is complete, but preserving it becomes a reason to delay receiving the one at the door.
ALSO GROWS
rachatsu raglekhem: Wash your feet.
רַחֲצוּ רַגְלֵיכֶם
In Genesis 18:4, Abraham offers this as part of welcoming visitors before they rest; the same foot-washing phrase sits at a threshold of welcome here.
rachatsu raglekhem: Wash your feet.
רַחֲצוּ רַגְלֵיכֶם
In Genesis 19:2, Lot offers foot-washing along with lodging; in this verse, concern about undoing the wash delays opening to a visitor.
THE PATTERN
A knock turns the comfort of the inside into a threshold of response.
I sleep, but my heart wakes; it is the voice of my beloved, knocking, saying, Open to me, my sister, my companion, my dove, my whole one. For my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drips of the night.And he from within answers and says, Do not weary me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give to you.Look, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.THE THREAD
And the LORD God made tunics of skin for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.The “put on” here and “clothed them” in Genesis come from לבש (lavash, to clothe). In this scene, clothing feels like effort after rest; in Genesis, the same root describes clothing given to exposed bodies.
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