What Does Song of Solomon 7:10 Mean?
I am my beloved's, and his longing runs toward 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
I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “desire” also names sin’s pull toward Cain, so here desire is a force aimed toward the speaker, not a vague feeling.
THE MEANING
The speaker names her own place in the bond: she belongs to her beloved, and his desire is directed toward her. The line holds belonging and being desired together as part of an intimate relationship.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being desired does not make the speaker voiceless: she names the bond herself, while his desire is turned toward her.
THE ROOT
תְּשׁוּקָתוֹ
teshuqato
GROWS FROM
שׁוּק
sh-u-q
Desire, longing directed toward someone or something.
“longing runs” in this verse is teshuqato. English “desire” can sound like a private feeling, but the same rare Hebrew word describes sin’s desire toward Cain. Here its direction is explicitly toward the speaker, alongside her own declaration of belonging; the shared word illuminates the force without making the contexts identical.
ALSO GROWS
teshuqah: Desire toward her husband (Genesis 3:16).
תְּשׁוּקָה
The same word places desire within a bond whose direction and balance are also named.
teshuqato: His desire toward Cain (Genesis 4:7).
תְּשׁוּקָתוֹ
This occurrence shows the word can describe a compelling pull, giving its use here more weight than a passing inclination.
דּוֹדִי
dodi
GROWS FROM
דּוֹד
d-w-d
Beloved; the word family also includes a term for an uncle or kinsman and a word for love or caresses.
The word translated “beloved” belongs to a family that includes both kinship and embodied affection. In this line, “my beloved” names a person within the intimacy of love, not an abstract ideal.
ALSO GROWS
dod: Beloved; also uncle or kinsman.
דּוֹד
The word’s range includes a close relational bond.
dodim: Love or caresses (Song of Solomon 1:2).
דּוֹדִים
The same word family carries affection into the embodied register of the Song.
THE PATTERN
Desire and belonging disclose the direction and balance of a bond.
My beloved is mine, and I am his; he pastures among the lilies.To the woman he said, I will greatly multiply your pain and your conceiving. In pain you shall bring forth children, and your reaching shall be toward your husband, and he shall rule over you.The wife does not rule over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not rule over his own body, but the wife does.THE THREAD
If you do well, will you not be lifted up? And if you do not do well, falling short crouches at the door. Its reaching is toward you, and you shall rule over it.Genesis uses the same rare Hebrew word for desire when it says sin’s desire is toward Cain. Song of Solomon turns that same directed pull toward the speaker, whose own voice names her belonging.
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