Bible Strands
Song of Solomon 5:9
How is your beloved better than others, O most beautiful among women? How is your beloved better than another, that you charge us so?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The daughters of Jerusalem question the Shulammite woman about her repeated requests to find her beloved. This exchange follows her command in Song of Solomon 5:8 to deliver a message of her longing to him.
The words — The Hebrew מַה־ (mah) means "how" or "what," structuring the challenge as a demand for specific reasons. The term דּוֹדֵךְ (do-dekha) translates to "your lover," repeated in the verse to frame the required comparison.
The thread — The same group asks a parallel question in Song of Solomon 6:1, while the address "most beautiful among women" appears in Song of Solomon 1:8 and 6:9. The pattern of friends probing the lovers' claims recurs throughout the book's dialogues.
Why it lands — The text requires the woman to articulate concrete reasons for her beloved's superiority rather than accepting emotional declarations. It asks the reader to identify the specific attributes that justify the pursuit described in the surrounding verses.
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
What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? what is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us?
Cross-references
- Song of Solomon 1:8 If you do not know, O fairest of women, follow the tracks of the flock, and graze your young goats near the tents of the shepherds.
- Song of Solomon 6:1 Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? Which way has he turned? We will seek him with you.
- Song of Solomon 6:9 but my dove, my perfect one, is unique, the favorite of the mother who bore her. The maidens see her and call her blessed; the queens and concubines sing her praises.
- Psalms 45:13 All glorious is the princess in her chamber; her gown is embroidered with gold.
- Psalms 87:3 Glorious things are ascribed to you, O city of God. Selah
- Isaiah 53:2 He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no stately form or majesty to attract us, no beauty that we should desire Him.
- Matthew 16:13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He questioned His disciples: “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
- Matthew 21:10 When Jesus had entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”
- John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
- 2 Corinthians 4:3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.