Verse Lens · Concise explanation

Song of Solomon 1:15 Explained in Context

Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.

Selected verse

Verse 15. Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes.

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Quick Meaning

This verse repeats the woman's beauty and compares her eyes to doves.

He praises her with foreign power; she answers with scent and night

This verse is one part of that explanation in Song of Solomon 1:9-17. The complete section carries the connected meaning and how it should shape life.

Read It With

  • Song of Solomon 1:9-17

Read Song of Solomon 1:15 with 1:9-17. This verse repeats the woman's beauty and compares her eyes to doves. The complete unit establishes this movement: The lovers answer one another with extravagant animal, jewelry, perfume, landscape, and architectural images until their imagined meeting place becomes a living outdoor house.

Why This Verse Appears Here

The first sustained dialogue lets each lover receive and return praise, establishing mutual attention as a recurring mode of the collection. Within that movement, this verse repeats the woman's beauty and compares her eyes to doves.

Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation

“doves' eyes”

In plain language: eyes experienced through a rich dove comparison

repeats the woman's beauty and compares her eyes to doves. The dove image gathers movement, sound, softness, or appearance rather than one fixed physical trait.

Why it matters: The wording identifies this verse's distinct contribution to the complete unit.

How certain? strong

What Remains True

The dove image gathers movement, sound, softness, or appearance rather than one fixed physical trait.

How It Can Shape Life

  • Avoid turning a poetic image into a body standard.

Continue in Context

Read the complete section for the connected explanation and how it should shape life. This verse is a doorway into that passage, not a saying that stands alone.

Read Song of Solomon 1:9-17 — Mutual Praise Builds an Open-Air Home
Sources used for this Verse Lens

How certain is this explanation? strong

These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.

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

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