Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Song of Solomon 6:13 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 13. 13Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse repeatedly calls the Shulamite to return for viewing and answers with a difficult two-camp image.
Read It With
- Song of Solomon 6:11-13
Read Song of Solomon 6:13 with 6:11-13. This verse repeatedly calls the Shulamite to return for viewing and answers with a difficult two-camp image. The complete unit establishes this movement: A first-person speaker descends to inspect spring growth, is suddenly transported or emotionally overwhelmed in a textually difficult line, and a crowd calls the Shulamite back to be seen while a response questions their gaze.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The obscure hinge moves from private spring observation to collective demand for the woman to return and be watched, preparing the next body description while exposing the problem of the gaze. Within that movement, this verse repeatedly calls the Shulamite to return for viewing and answers with a difficult two-camp image.
Follow the Context
- A speaker goes down to the nut garden to inspect valley growth.
- The speaker does not know how desire or soul placed them among chariots of a noble people or Amminadib.
- Plural voices repeatedly call the Shulamite to return so they may look.
- A response asks what they will see and names a two-camp dance, company, or Mahanaim image.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“that we may look upon thee”
In plain language: the crowd states its purpose of viewing the returning woman
repeatedly calls the Shulamite to return for viewing and answers with a difficult two-camp image. The public gaze is explicit while the woman's identity and the response remain uncertain.
Why it matters: The wording carries interpretive or ethical risk requiring the complete unit and stated limits.
How certain? probableWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
A crowd's desire to look does not make the Shulamite's body public property.
What Remains True
The public gaze is explicit while the woman's identity and the response remain uncertain.
How It Can Shape Life
- Do not pressure someone to return, dance, perform, or display their body for observers.
Teach It Back
Explain Song of Solomon 6:13's contribution to Song of Solomon 6:11-13: repeatedly calls the Shulamite to return for viewing and answers with a difficult two-camp image. Include what the surrounding lines add, the stated uncertainty, and what this verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Song of Solomon 6:11-13 — The Garden, the Chariots, and the Shulamite's ReturnSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
Shulamite may be a name, place-related term, or Solomon wordplay; the final phrase may name a dance, company, or Mahanaim.
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 6:11-13, 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, 6:11-13
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. 1251-1253, translation and notes on 6:11-13
Open source ↗