What Does Song of Solomon 5:5 Mean?
I rise to open to my beloved; my hands drip with myrrh, and my fingers with flowing myrrh, upon the palms of the lock.
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 rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock.THE KEY
Even the lock bears the beloved’s fragrance: desire leaves a trace before the door opens.
THE MEANING
You rise to open to your beloved, and myrrh drips from your hands and fingers onto the lock. Longing becomes physical at the threshold: fragrance is present on the very thing still standing between you.
THE ROOT
מֹר
mor
GROWS FROM
מרר
marar
To be bitter, cause bitterness, or grieve; mor, “myrrh,” is traditionally linked with this root.
A traditional root connection lets myrrh carry an undertone of bitterness alongside its fragrance. The verse holds the sweetness of nearness and the ache of longing in one scent.
ALSO GROWS
bitter: Bitter.
מַר
This related word adds bitterness as an undertone to the myrrh on the lock.
marar: To be bitter, cause bitterness, or grieve.
מָרַר
The root’s sense of grief lets the fragrance carry longing as well as intimacy.
לְדוֹדִי
le-dodi
GROWS FROM
דוד
dod
Beloved or intimate kinsman; the root also appears in words for love and caresses.
The word for “beloved” belongs to the same word family as “loves” and “caresses,” so the beloved’s name already carries bodily intimacy. Here that intimacy meets the lock in a scene of fragrance and touch.
ALSO GROWS
beloved: Beloved; also an uncle or close male kinsman.
דּוֹד
The verse names the desired person with a word rooted in intimate relation.
dodim: Loves, caresses, or expressions of love.
דּוֹדִים
This related word makes clear that the root of “beloved” also names love as physical intimacy.
THE PATTERN
Fragrance makes love tangible by remaining where bodies and touch have met.
A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me; he will lodge all night between my breasts.Then Mary took a pound of ointment of genuine nard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and dried his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the scent of the ointment.THE THREAD
A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me; he will lodge all night between my breasts.The same Hebrew word, מֹר (mor), names myrrh in both verses. In 1:13 the beloved is a bundle of myrrh held close; here that fragrance clings to the lock, so the threshold carries the beloved’s scent.
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