Song of Solomon 7:5

7:1-9 The similitudes here are different from what they were before, and in the original refer to glorious and splendid clothing. Such honour have all his saints; and having put on Christ, they are distinguished by their beautiful and glorious apparel. They adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour in all things. Consistent believers honour Christ, recommend the gospel, and convince and awaken sinners. The church resembles the stately and spreading palm; while her love for Christ, and the obedience resulting therefrom, are precious fruit of the true Vine. The King is held in the galleries. Christ takes delight in the assemblies and ordinances of his people; and admires the fruit of his grace in them. When applied to the church and to each faithful Christian, all this denotes that beauty of holiness, in which they shall be presented to their heavenly Bridegroom.

Song of Solomon 7:5-6 . Thy head is like Carmel — Eminent and pleasant to the eye, and fruitful as mount Carmel was: which may denote that her mind was replenished with knowledge, and other excellent gifts of the Holy Ghost. The hair of thy head like purple — Which colour was anciently much esteemed. The king is held in the galleries — In which he walks, and, having once espied thee, is unable to take off his eyes from thee. How fair, &c ., for delights — For those various and lovely features which are in thee.

(5) Carmel. —Marg., crimson, from reading charmîl, which preserves the parallelism with the next clause better. But the whole passage deals in the author’s favourite figures from localities; and certainly the comparison of a finely-set head to a mountain is at least as apt as that in the preceding verse, of the nose to a “tower in Lebanon.” Besides, there may be a play on words, which in turn may have suggested the allusion to purple in the next clause, or possibly the vicinity of Carmel to Tyre may have led to the thought of its famous dyes. Hair.—Heb. dallath, most probably = flowing tresses. For comparison— “Carmine purpurea est Nisi coma.” “Et pro purpureo dat pœnas Scylla capillo. (Comp. πορφύρεος πλόκαμος in Lucian., and πορφυρᾶι χᾶιται in Anacreon.) So Collins:— “The youths whose locks divinely spreading, Like vernal hyacinths in sullen hue.” Ode to Liberty. The king is held (Marg., bound) in the galleries.—For galleries, see Note on Song of Solomon 1:17. Translate “A king caught and bound by thy tresses,” i.e., they are so beautiful that a monarch would be caught by them. (Comp.— “When I lie tangled in her hair And fettered in her eye.”)

Compare and contrast with Sol 5:15. The rendering in the margin takes "Carmel" as the name of a color, equivalent to "carmine" (rendered "crimson" in 2 Chronicles 2:7 , 2 Chronicles 2:14 ; 2 Chronicles 3:14 ). This interpretation is favored by the parallelism with "purple," but removes a beautiful image. Purple - A deep violet black. The king ... - Rather, "A king is bound in the tresses or windings of thy hair." These last words indicate the king's approach.

Thine head, which may signify the church’s mind or understanding, which is seated in the head, upon thee, which is upon thee, or above the rest of thy body, is like Carmel, eminent and pleasant to the eye, and fruitful as Mount Carmel was, as hath been formerly noted; which may note that her mind was adorned and replenished with knowledge and other excellent gifts of the Holy Ghost. Or, as others render it, like crimson or purple , which is called Carmel , 2 Chronicles 2:7 3:14 , because those fishes out of which they had their purple were taken in the sea bordering upon Mount Carmel. And so the same thing is repeated in the next clause in other words. Like purple; which colour was anciently much esteemed and commended, as by sacred, so also by profane writers. The king is held in the galleries; in which he walketh, and having once espied thee, is captivated by thee, and unable or unwilling either to depart or to take off his eyes from thee, as if he were fast bound and chained to thee. The galleries may note either the ordinances, or rather the churches, in which Christ walketh, Revelation 2:1 , in which Christ and believers converse together.

5. upon thee—the headdress "upon" her. Carmel—signifying a well-cultivated field (Isa 35:2). In So 5:15 He is compared to majestic Lebanon; she here, to fruitful Carmel. Her headdress, or crown (2Ti 4:8; 1Pe 5:4). Also the souls won by her (1Th 2:19, 20), a token of her fruitfulness. purple—royalty (Re 1:6). As applied to hair, it expresses the glossy splendor of black hair (literally, "pendulous hair") so much admired in the East (So 4:1). While the King compares her hair to the flowering hair of goats (the token of her subjection), the daughters of Jerusalem compare it to royal purple. galleries—(so So 1:17, Margin; Re 21:3). But Maurer translates here, "flowing ringlets"; with these, as with "thongs" (so Lee, from the Arabic translates it) "the King is held" bound (So 6:5; Pr 6:25). Her purple crowns of martyrdom especially captivated the King, appearing from His galleries (Ac 7:55, 56). As Samson's strength was in his locks (Jud 16:17). Here first the daughters see the King themselves.

5 . Thine head upon thee is like Carmel ] Mount Carmel, looked at from the North especially, is the crown of the country, towering over sea and land in solitary majesty; hence the comparison to a head proudly held. The A.V. margin, following some Jewish authorities, renders ‘crimson,’ regarding karmel as equivalent to karmîl , and Ginsburg, adopting this explanation, thinks that the words mean that her hair was arranged in the form of a murex shell. the hair of thine head ] The word translated ‘hair,’ which occurs nowhere else in the O.T., appears to mean flowing tresses . like purple ] Apparently the text means to indicate that the bride’s hair was of that intense black which is sometimes called blue black. For argâmân see note on Song of Solomon 3:10 . the king is held in the galleries ] Better (cp. R.V.), a king is held captive in the tresses thereof . The word translated ‘tresses’ occurs in the O.T. three times only, Genesis 30:38 ; Genesis 30:41 , and Exodus 2:16 , where it means ‘water troughs.’ The connexion between these and a woman’s hair is not obvious, unless it be that it flows down like water from a water trough. That is hardly satisfactory, but that tresses is intended seems certain. The idea of a lover being held captive in the hair of his lady is common in the love poetry of all lands. Cp.

Lovelace’s poem To Althea from Prison : “When I lie tangled in her hair, And fettered to her eye, The birds that wanton in the air Know no such liberty.” Budde and Siegfried take the ‘king’ here to mean as usual the young husband of the king’s week. But in that case it would more naturally be the king.

Verse 5. - Thine head upon thee is like Carmel, and the hair of thine head like purple; the king is held captive in the tresses thereof. Carmel is called the "Nose of the mountain range" ( Arf-ef-jebel ). It is a promontory. The meaning, no doubt, is the exquisite fitness of the head upon the neck, which is one of the most lovely traits of personal beauty. Some, however, think that the reference is to colour - Carmel being derived from the Persian, and meaning "crimson." This is rejected by Delitzsch, as the Persian would be carmile , not carmel . The transition is natural from the position and shape of the head and neck to the hair. The purple shellfish is found near Carmel (cf. Lucian's πορφύρεος πλόκαμος and Anacreon's πορφυραῖ χαῖται , and similar expressions in Virgil's 'Georgics,' 1:405, and Tibullus, 1:4, 63). The locks of hair are a glistening purple colour, i.e. their black is purple as they catch the lights. Hengstenberg, however, thinks that the reference is to the temples, and not to the hair itself; but the use of the term in classical poets is decisive. The lovely head shaking the locks as the body moves gracefully in the dance fills the king with delight and admiration.

He is quite captivated, and the ladies, having finished their description of the bride, look at the bridegroom, and behold him quite lost in the fascination - "held captive in the tresses." Delitzsch quotes a similar expression from Goethe, in the 'West Ostliche Divan,' "There are more than fifty hooks in each lock of thy hair." The idea of taking captive is frequent in Hebrew poetry (cf. Proverbs 6:25 ; Sirach 9:3, 4). Thus ends the song of the ladies in praise of the bride. We must suppose that the king, who is probably present, then takes up the word, and pours out his heart. Song of Solomon 7:5

5aa Thy head upon thee as Carmel. We say that the head is "on the man" (2 Kings 6:31; Judith 14:18), for we think of a man ideally as the central unity of the members forming the external appearance of his body. Shulamith's head ruled her form, surpassing all in beauty and majesty, as Carmel with its noble and pleasing appearance ruled the land and sea at its feet. From the summit of Carmel, clothed with trees) Amos 9:3; 1 Kings 18:42), a transition is made to the hair on the head, which the Moslem poets are fond of comparing to long leaves, as vine leaves and palm branches; as, on the other hand, the thick leafy wood is called (vid., under Isaiah 7:20) comata silva (cf. Oudendorp's Apuleii Metam. p. 744). Grδtz, proceeding on the supposition of the existence of Persian words in the Song, regards כרמל as the name of a colour; but (1) crimson is designated in the Heb.-Pers. not כרמל, but כרמיל, instead of תולעת שׁני (vid., under Isaiah 1:18; Proverbs 31:21); (2) if the hair of the head (if ראשׁך might be directly understood of this) may indeed be compared to the glistening of purple, not, however, to the listening of carmese or scarlet, then red and not black hair must be meant. But it is not the locks of hair, but the hair in locks that is meant. From this the eulogium finally passes to the hair of the head itself. 5ab The flowing hair of thy head like purple - A king fettered by locks.