Bible Strands
Song of Solomon 3:6
Who is this coming up from the wilderness like a column of smoke, scented with myrrh and frankincense from all the spices of the merchant?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses the daughters of Jerusalem immediately after commanding them not to awaken love prematurely (Song of Solomon 3:5). The moment captures a sudden narrative shift toward a figure emerging from the desert.
The words — The phrase עֹלָה מִן־הַמִּדְבָּר ('olah min-hammidbar) literally means "[is] coming up from the wilderness." The participle מְקֻטֶּרֶת (mekutteret) denotes one who is perfumed or made fragrant.
The thread — This emergence motif repeats in Song of Solomon 8:5, where the same figure arrives from the wilderness but leans on her beloved. The specific fragrances parallel Song of Solomon 1:13 and 4:6, which place myrrh and frankincense within intimate, relational settings.
Why it lands — The text presents a sensory arrival that interrupts a prior command to restrain romantic impulses. It requires the reader to note how deliberate fragrance and movement mark a narrative transition without supplying immediate explanation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?
Cross-references
- Song of Solomon 8:5 Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? I roused you under the apple tree; there your mother conceived you; there she travailed and brought you forth.
- Song of Solomon 1:13 My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh resting between my breasts.
- Song of Solomon 4:6 Before the day breaks and the shadows flee, I will make my way to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense.
- Revelation 12:14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle to fly from the presence of the serpent to her place in the wilderness, where she was nourished for a time, and times, and half a time.
- Deuteronomy 8:2 Remember that these forty years the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments.
- Song of Solomon 1:3 The fragrance of your perfume is pleasing; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the maidens adore you.
- Song of Solomon 4:12 My sister, my bride, you are a garden locked up, a spring enclosed, a fountain sealed.
- Song of Solomon 5:5 I rose up to open for my beloved. My hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with flowing myrrh on the handles of the bolt.
- Song of Solomon 5:13 His cheeks are like beds of spice, towers of perfume. His lips are like lilies, dripping with flowing myrrh.
- Isaiah 43:19 Behold, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert.