Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel, the hair of your head like purple threads; the king is captured in your tresses.
Parallel translations
- WEB Your head on you is like Carmel. The hair of your head like purple. The king is held captive in its tresses.
- KJV Thine head upon thee is like Carmel, and the hair of thine head like purple; the king is held in the galleries.
- NKJV Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel, And the hair of your head is like purple; A king is held captive by your tresses.
- NASB “Your head crowns you like Carmel, And the flowing hair of your head is like purple threads; The king is captivated by your tresses.
- NLT Your head is as majestic as Mount Carmel, and the sheen of your hair radiates royalty. The king is held captive by its tresses.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Her head crowns her like Mount Carmel, and her flowing hair holds the king captive. Her beauty has a regal, captivating power.
Overview
Carmel was a lofty, luxuriant height, and the royal-purple hair suggests splendor. To say the king is 'held captive' in her tresses pictures love that gladly binds itself to the beloved. This image of willing captivity to love beautifully illustrates the devotion at the heart of covenant union.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Isa 35:2It will bloom profusely and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God.
- Song 4:1How beautiful you are, my darling—how very beautiful! Your eyes are like doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down Mount Gilead.
- Song 1:17The beams of our house are cedars; our rafters are fragrant firs.
- Mic 7:14Shepherd with Your staff Your people, the flock of Your inheritance. They live alone in a woodland, surrounded by pastures. Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.
- Eph 1:22And God put everything under His feet and made Him head over everything for the church,
- Eph 4:15–16Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ Himself, who is the head.
- Col 2:19He has lost connection to the head, from whom the whole body, supported and knit together by its joints and ligaments, grows as God causes it to grow.
- Col 1:18And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and firstborn from among the dead, so that in all things He may have preeminence.
- Gen 32:26Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
- Ps 87:2The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
- Ps 68:24They have seen Your procession, O God—the march of my God and King into the sanctuary.
- Matt 18:20For where two or three gather together in My name, there am I with them.”
- Matt 28:20and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
- Rev 1:14The hair of His head was white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like a blazing fire.
- Song 5:11His head is purest gold; his hair is wavy and black as a raven.
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The poetry of covenant love between bride and bridegroom pictures, at its highest, the love of Christ for his church — the Bridegroom who gave himself for his bride.
How Song of Songs 7:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.