Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of Song of Solomon
Chapter 1: The Song of Songs
The Song of Solomon is a poem of covenant love between a bride and her bridegroom, and it opens with the bride's longing: draw me away, and let us run after you. From ancient times the people of God have also heard in it the deeper music of the Lord's love for His people, and their love for Him. Chapter 1 begins with desire, with honest confession, and with the seeker asking where she may find the one her soul loves.
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of Song of Solomon chapter 1. For each section you will find the KJV text, the Hebrew words that sharpen the meaning, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. The Song celebrates the goodness of covenant love between husband and wife, and has long been read also as a picture of the love between the Lord and His people. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
Setting the Stage
A Song of Love
The Song is a poem in praise of pure, covenant love between a bride and bridegroom. Its very presence in Scripture affirms that love and marriage are good gifts of God, to be honored.
Solomon
The book opens, "The song of songs, which is Solomon's." Of the many songs Solomon wrote (1 Kings 4:32), this is called the finest, the song of songs, the best of all.
Two Levels
On one level it honors the love of husband and wife. On another, believers across the ages have heard in it the love between the Lord and His people, as elsewhere Scripture calls Him the Bridegroom and His people the bride.
Love That Seeks
The Song begins with longing and pursuit. Love is not passive; it draws near, it confesses, it seeks the beloved until it finds him.
The Bride's Longing (Song of Solomon 1:1-4)
The book opens with desire, the bride's yearning to be near her beloved and to be drawn to run after him.
Draw Me, We Will Run After You
"The song of songs, which is Solomon's. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine. Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee. Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee."
Hebrew Study
"Draw me," mashak (מָשַׁךְ). To pull, to draw. The bride knows she cannot come on her own; she asks to be drawn. It is the same word behind God's tender promise, "with lovingkindness have I drawn thee" (Jeremiah 31:3), and it echoes Jesus' words, "No man can come to Me except the Father which hath sent Me draw him" (John 6:44).
"We will run." The drawing does not make her passive; it sets her running. Being drawn by love awakens eager pursuit. Grace does not cancel our seeking; it ignites it.
Explanation
The title itself is a superlative: "The song of songs" — the best and highest of all songs, as "King of kings" is the highest king. It opens with the bride's frank longing for her beloved: "Let him kiss me... draw me, we will run after thee." Read on its plain level, it is a pure celebration of married love; read as the church has long read it, it is a picture of the love between Christ the Bridegroom and His people, whose deepest cry is to be drawn near and to run after Him.
Gospel Focus
On its first level, the verse honors the glad longing of a bride for her husband, a love God Himself designed. Yet the believer cannot help but hear the deeper song. "Draw me away, we will run after you" is the very heartbeat of the soul that loves the Lord: we love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19), and even our seeking begins with His drawing. When God draws, the response is not reluctance but running. If your heart is cold, this is the prayer to pray: draw me, Lord, and I will run after You.
An Honest Confession (Song of Solomon 1:5-6)
The bride speaks honestly of her own unworthiness, sun-darkened and weary, yet loved.
Dark, but Lovely
"I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon. Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother's children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept."
Hebrew Study
The bride describes herself with a striking paradox: "I am black, but comely" — na'veh, lovely — darkened by the sun because "they made me the keeper of the vineyards," yet still beautiful in her beloved's eyes. It is the very tension of the believer: in ourselves sun-scorched, weary, and unlovely, conscious that "mine own vineyard have I not kept," yet made truly comely in the love of the Beloved, who sees His bride as fair.
Explanation
The bride is candid about herself: darkened by labor in the sun, made to keep others' vineyards while her own went untended. She does not hide her flaws or her weariness. Yet in the same breath she says she is "lovely," not because of herself, but because she is loved and chosen. Honest about her failings, she is still secure in her beloved's regard.
Gospel Focus
"I am dark, but lovely" is the confession of every believer who knows both their sin and their Savior's grace. In ourselves we are stained and weary, keepers of everyone's vineyard but our own; in Christ we are made lovely, cleansed and beloved. The church is "dark" in herself yet lovely in Him, for He gave Himself "that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle" (Ephesians 5:27). We need not pretend to be what we are not. We come honest about the darkness, and are made lovely by the love that draws us.
Seeking the One Her Soul Loves (Song of Solomon 1:7-8)
The bride asks where to find her beloved, longing to be with him and not to wander.
Tell Me, O You Whom I Love
"Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions? If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents. I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots. Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold. We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver. While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof. A bundle of myrrh is my wellbeloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts. My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi. Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes. Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green. The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir."
Hebrew Study
The bride calls her beloved by the image of a shepherd: "Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon." Her one desire is to be where he is, not "as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions" — not wandering among others. It is the language later fulfilled in the Good Shepherd, and the truest prayer of the loving heart: simply to find and stay near the One her soul loves.
Explanation
This little exchange captures the whole posture of love: the bride does not ask for gifts but for presence — "where thou feedest... where thou restest." To be near the beloved is the reward she seeks. And the answer she receives points her along the path "by the footsteps of the flock," to follow where others have followed him. The soul that longs for Christ is directed the same way: seek Him where He feeds His flock, among His people, following the path the faithful have walked before.
Gospel Focus
The bride's one desire is to be where her beloved is; she does not want to wander among strangers' flocks but to rest with him. This is the cry of a heart that loves the Lord: "where you feed, where you make it rest at noon." It is the language of a sheep for the shepherd, and Jesus is the good Shepherd who feeds His flock and gives them rest (John 10:11; Matthew 11:28). The soul that truly loves Him is not content to linger at a distance or follow other voices; it seeks His presence, His pasture, His rest. Ask Him, as the bride does, to show you where He may be found, and go there.
Chapter 1 in Review
Song of Solomon 1 opens the greatest of Solomon's songs with the language of love and longing. The bride asks to be drawn to her beloved and to run after him, confesses honestly that she is dark from labor yet lovely because she is loved, and seeks to know where her beloved feeds his flock so she can rest with him rather than wander. It is a celebration of pure covenant love, and a window into the love between the Lord and those who are His.
For the Apostolic reader, this chapter honors marriage as God's good gift and, on its deeper level, gives voice to the soul that loves the Lord. We are drawn before we run, honest about our darkness yet made lovely in Christ, and restless until we rest in the presence of the Shepherd our soul loves. The Song begins where the life of faith begins: with a longing to be near the One who first loved us.
- The Song honors covenant love as a good gift of God, and pictures the Lord's love for His people.
- We are drawn before we run; even our seeking begins with His love (John 6:44; 1 John 4:19).
- "Dark, but lovely": honest about our sin, yet made beautiful in Christ (Ephesians 5:27).
- Love seeks the Beloved's presence and rest rather than wandering after other voices.
Questions for Reflection
- "Draw me, we will run after you." Is your love for the Lord marked by eager pursuit, and will you ask Him to draw you?
- The bride was honest about her darkness yet secure in love. Do you come to God pretending, or honest and trusting His grace?
- She sought where her beloved feeds and rests. Where do you go to be in the Lord's presence, and are you content there?
References & Sources
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (KJV). The Hebrew terms are standard and can be checked in any Hebrew lexicon. Supporting passages are listed so every claim can be verified in its own setting. If anything here does not look right, a verse, a reference, or a wording, please tell us at info@FruitBearers.net. Thank you for helping us keep Bible Learning error free.
- The song of songs, Solomon's finest: Song of Solomon 1:1; 1 Kings 4:32.
- Being drawn by the Lord's love: Song of Solomon 1:4; Jeremiah 31:3; John 6:44; 1 John 4:19.
- Dark in ourselves, lovely in Christ: Song of Solomon 1:5-6; Ephesians 5:25-27.
- Seeking the Shepherd's pasture and rest: Song of Solomon 1:7-8; John 10:11; Matthew 11:28.
- The Lord as Bridegroom and His people as bride: Isaiah 62:5; Revelation 19:7-9.