Bible Strands
Song of Solomon 8:11
Solomon had a vineyard in Baal-hamon. He leased it to the tenants. For its fruit, each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The speaker contrasts Solomon’s leased property with her own estate, shifting the dialogue from personal intimacy to economic reality. This exchange occurs immediately after her declaration of self-possession and before her direct address to Solomon regarding harvest rights.
The words — כֶּרֶם (ke.re.m) translates literally as "vineyard," while נָתַן (na.tan) means "he gave" or "he leased." These terms ground the passage in agricultural economics and formal property transfer.
The thread — The thousand-shekel valuation mirrors Solomon’s own land investments recorded in Ecclesiastes 2:4 and the prophetic warning of vineyard abandonment in Isaiah 7:23. Genesis 20:16 similarly employs a thousand pieces of silver as a standard measure of restitution and public vindication.
Why it lands — The text states that Solomon’s Baal-hamon vineyard was leased to tenants who owed a fixed silver tribute for its fruit. It requires the reader to acknowledge that the speaker’s relational claims operate within concrete boundaries of ownership, labor, and economic exchange.
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
Solomon had a vineyard at Baal–hamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.
Cross-references
- Ecclesiastes 2:4 I expanded my pursuits. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself.
- Isaiah 7:23 And on that day, in every place that had a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver, only briers and thorns will be found.
- Genesis 20:16 And he said to Sarah, “See, I am giving your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is your vindication before all who are with you; you are completely cleared.”
- Song of Solomon 1:6 Do not stare because I am dark, for the sun has gazed upon me. My mother’s sons were angry with me; they made me a keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have neglected.
- Song of Solomon 7:12 Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vine has budded, if the blossom has opened, if the pomegranates are in bloom—there I will give you my love.
- Isaiah 5:1 I will sing for my beloved a song of his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
- Matthew 21:33 Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey.
- Mark 12:1 Then Jesus began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a wine vat, and built a watchtower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey.
- Luke 20:9 Then He proceeded to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it out to some tenants, and went away for a long time.