What Does Song of Solomon 7:5 Mean?
Your head upon you is like Carmel, and the locks of your head like purple; the king is bound in the flowing tresses.
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
Thine head upon thee is like Carmel, and the hair of thine head like purple; the king is held in the galleries.THE KEY
The “galleries” are her flowing locks, and the king is bound there: the sovereign becomes the captive.
THE MEANING
Her head carries Carmel’s height and abundance, her hair the royal color of purple, and the king is held in its tresses. The power of the scene rests with the beloved: the king’s status does not keep him from being captured by desire.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A crown does not make anyone immune to being held; even a king can be captivated.
THE ROOT
אָסוּר
ʾāsūr
GROWS FROM
אָסַר
To bind, tie up, or imprison.
The Hebrew word carries the force of being bound or captive, making the king’s restraint more than admiration. The one who holds power is the one being held.
ALSO GROWS
leʾsor: To bind
לֶאְסֹר
Psalm 149:8 uses this verb for binding kings with chains, showing that the verse’s “held” belongs to a concrete language of restraint.
ʾāsîr: A prisoner or captive
אָסִיר
This noun names someone by their bound condition, sharpening the reversal in which the king is captivated.
רְהָטִים
rehatim
GROWS FROM
רהט
A rare root associated with running or flowing; its forms are rendered as channels, rafters, and, here, tresses.
“flowing tresses” in this verse is rehatim. The rare word is commonly understood here as locks or tresses, while related occurrences are rendered as water channels and rafters. “Galleries” preserves a built-space image, while “tresses” restores the flowing hair in which the king is caught.
ALSO GROWS
rehatim: Water channels or troughs (Genesis 30:38)
רְהָטִים
The channel sense gives the tresses a flowing-line image, as though the king is caught among strands that run.
rahitim: Rafters or roof beams (Song of Solomon 1:17)
רָהִיטִים
This related form preserves the architectural image behind “galleries,” so the hair can also be pictured as an enclosing space.
THE PATTERN
What captivates or governs a person can make the one who seems sovereign the one held.
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.His own crookednesses catch the wicked, and he is held by the cords of his falling short.For the love of the Anointed One holds us together, because we have judged this, that if one died for all, then all died.THE THREAD
To bind their kings in chains, and their nobles in cords of iron.The Hebrew word behind “held” here is אָסַר (ʾāsar), meaning “to bind”; Psalm 149:8 uses the same root for binding kings with chains. The shared word joins captivation and literal restraint, making the king’s reversal unmistakable.
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