What Does Song of Solomon 6:5 Mean?
Turn your eyes away from me, for they have stormed me; your hair is like a flock of goats that pour down from Gilead.
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
Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me: thy hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Gilead.THE KEY
Her eyes overwhelm him, and Hebrew’s word for eyes also names a spring, making her gaze feel like a source that flows toward him.
THE MEANING
Desire reverses its usual direction: the one who looks is the one overcome. Her eyes disarm him, while her hair appears in motion, like goats descending Gilead. Beauty here has force; it is not merely something he appraises.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that the one who looks is always in control: here, the gaze turns back and overcomes the beholder.
THE ROOT
עֵינַיִךְ
ʿênayikh
GROWS FROM
עין
ʿ-y-n
Eye; also a spring or source of water.
“eyes” in this verse is ʿênayikh. The same Hebrew word names an eye and a spring. That opens the image of her gaze as a source flowing toward him, not simply a feature he observes.
ALSO GROWS
ʿayin: Eye
עַיִן
This is the singular form behind the word for her eyes.
maʿyan: A spring or fountain
מַעְיָן
This related word carries the source-of-water sense, opening a deeper image for the gaze that overcomes him.
הִרְהִיבֻנִי
hirhibuni
GROWS FROM
רהב
r-h-b
To act with boisterous, audacious force; in this form, to overwhelm or embolden.
“stormed” in this verse is hirhibuni. The verb carries the force of being made bold or overwhelmed, not merely persuaded. Her eyes hit the speaker with enough force to undo his composure.
ALSO GROWS
rehavim: The proud or boastful
רְהָבִים
This related form carries the root’s sense of audacious, forceful presence.
tarhivēni: You emboldened or strengthened me
תַּרְהִיבֵנִי
In Psalm 138:3, a form from this root is rendered “strengthened”; here, the force of the eyes overwhelms the speaker.
THE PATTERN
A gaze can carry force enough to seize the heart and shape what follows.
You have pierced my heart, my sister, my bride; you have pierced my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck.And the woman saw that the tree was good for eating, and that it was a craving for the eyes, and a tree to be desired for making one wise. And she took of its fruit and ate, and gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.The lamp of the body is the eye. So if your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light.THE THREAD
You have pierced my heart, my sister, my bride; you have pierced my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck.Both verses use עין (ʿayin, “eye”) for the beloved’s gaze. In 4:9 one eye seizes the heart; here the eyes overwhelm the speaker.
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