What Does Song of Solomon 7:13 Mean?
The mandrakes give scent, and at our openings are all choice fruits, new and old, which I store for you, my beloved.
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
The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.THE KEY
The Hebrew name for mandrakes echoes “love” and “my beloved,” so even the scent carries the language of desire.
THE MEANING
Your desire takes form in fragrance and fruit: what is new and what has ripened over time are both kept for the beloved. The abundance is ready at the threshold, prepared and offered with intimacy.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that love is only inward or fleeting: here it has scent, ripe fruit, and provision held in reserve.
THE ROOT
דּוּדָאִים
dudaim
GROWS FROM
דוד
beloved, lover; love or caresses
“the mandrakes” in this verse is dudaim. The mandrake name dudaim echoes דוד in dodim (“loves, caresses”) and dodi (“my beloved”); this is a resonant wordplay, though the precise etymology is uncertain. The gift’s name therefore sounds alongside the beloved who receives it.
ALSO GROWS
dod: beloved, lover
דּוֹד
The verse closes with “my beloved” (dodi), sounding the same root as the mandrakes’ name.
dodim: loves, caresses
דּוֹדִים
This neighboring form makes the mandrakes’ sound echo love and intimacy.
dodi: my beloved
דּוֹדִי
The final address returns the sound of love to the person for whom the fruit is kept.
צָפַנְתִּי
tsafanti
GROWS FROM
צפן
hide, store, or keep in reserve
“store” in this verse is tsafanti. “Laid up” comes from a root for hiding or storing something away. The fruits are not merely gathered in the moment; they are kept ready for the beloved, making the offering both abundant and intimate.
ALSO GROWS
tsaphan: to hide or store away
צָפַן
This verb names the deliberate keeping expressed by “I have laid up.”
tsafun: hidden, stored, treasured
צָפוּן
The related form holds together what is kept out of sight and what is valued enough to preserve.
THE PATTERN
Love becomes tangible through gifts gathered, prepared, and offered with abundance.
And Reuben went in the days of wheat reaping, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Please, give me some of your son's mandrakes.Stir, north wind; come, south wind; breathe on my garden, that its spices may drip out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his choice fruits.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
How great is your goodness, which you store up for those in awe of you, which you work for those who take shelter in you before the sons of men!The Hebrew verb translated “laid up” here comes from צפן (tsaphan), the same root behind the Psalm’s “laid up.” In this verse, fruit is kept for the beloved; in the Psalm, goodness is kept for those who trust, so the shared root makes intimate preparation echo a wider pattern of provision.
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