Song of Solomon 1:9-17, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Song of Solomon 1:9-17
Mutual Praise Builds an Open-Air Home
He praises her with foreign power; she answers with scent and night
He compares her to a mare among Pharaoh's chariots: rare, costly, and striking in a royal line. Cheeks and neck are imagined in ornaments; gold with silver studs is promised. She does not go silent under the comparison. While the king is at his table, her nard gives its smell. Her beloved is a bundle of myrrh that lodges all night between her breasts, a cluster of henna from the vineyards of En-gedi. She places him on her body in speech.
They build a house out of trees and mutual looking
He says she is fair, twice, and that she has doves' eyes. She answers in kind: thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant; also our bed is green. Beams of cedar, rafters of fir: the room they claim is open-air, not a locked palace inventory. Praise here is traded. Neither voice owns the only right to look.
How this should shape us
Let admiration be answered, not swallowed. Do not turn a lover's body into a royal trophy, and do not treat outdoor tenderness as less real than a formal house.
Teach it back
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: The mare comparison's precise background, the speaker of 1:11, and whether the bed and house are literal, imagined, or nature metaphors remain open.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Song of Solomon 1:9-17, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, speaker-gender signals, wordplay, poetic clauses, and translation questions.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Song.xml, 1:9-17
Supports: Verse-level textual, grammatical, literary, historical, and translation alternatives.
NET Bible Song of Songs PDF, printed pp. 1230-1232, translation and notes on 1:9-17
Supports: Genre, voice, unit boundaries, anthology and unity questions, garden and body imagery, and Jewish and Christian reception.
Brenner, 'The Song of Solomon,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 429-433, unit division and commentary relevant to 1:9-17
Supports: Sensory metaphor, wasf, mutual desire, garden imagery, and the limits of literalizing erotic poetry.
Van der Merwe, 'The erotic power of metaphor,' HTS 73.3 (2017), pp. 1-9, especially pp. 4-7; applied to 1:9-17
Supports: Female voice and initiative, mutuality, family and social constraints, and critical alternatives to idealized equality.
Ndoga and Viviers, 'Is the woman in the Song of Songs really free?', HTS 56.4 (2000), pp. 1286-1307, especially pp. 1293-1304; applied to 1:9-17
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: Song of Solomon 1:9-17, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Song of Songs
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, speaker-gender signals, wordplay, poetic clauses, and translation questions.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Song.xml, 1:9-17
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: The Song of Songs with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level textual, grammatical, literary, historical, and translation alternatives.
Exact location: NET Bible Song of Songs PDF, printed pp. 1230-1232, translation and notes on 1:9-17
Open source ↗modern critical commentary
The Song of Solomon
Athalya Brenner
Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, 2001
Supports: Genre, voice, unit boundaries, anthology and unity questions, garden and body imagery, and Jewish and Christian reception.
Exact location: Brenner, 'The Song of Solomon,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 429-433, unit division and commentary relevant to 1:9-17
Open source ↗peer reviewed journal article
Erotic fantasy, spirituality and Song of Songs
Dirk G. van der Merwe
Verbum et Ecclesia 38.2, 2017
Supports: Sensory metaphor, wasf, mutual desire, garden imagery, and the limits of literalizing erotic poetry.
Exact location: Van der Merwe, 'The erotic power of metaphor,' HTS 73.3 (2017), pp. 1-9, especially pp. 4-7; applied to 1:9-17
Open source ↗peer reviewed journal article
Is the woman in the Song of Songs really that free?
S. S. Ndoga and H. Viviers
HTS Teologiese Studies 56.4, 2000
Supports: Female voice and initiative, mutuality, family and social constraints, and critical alternatives to idealized equality.
Exact location: Ndoga and Viviers, 'Is the woman in the Song of Songs really free?', HTS 56.4 (2000), pp. 1286-1307, especially pp. 1293-1304; applied to 1:9-17
Open source ↗