Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel, And the hair of your head is like purple; A king is held captive by 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.
- BSB Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel, the hair of your head like purple threads; the king is captured in 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 blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing. Lebanon’s glory will be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They will see Yahweh’s glory, the excellence of our God.
- Song 4:1Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your hair is as a flock of goats, that descend from Mount Gilead.
- Song 1:17The beams of our house are cedars. Our rafters are firs.
- Mic 7:14Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your heritage, who dwell by themselves in a forest, in the middle of fertile pasture land, let them feed; in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.
- Eph 1:22He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the assembly,
- Eph 4:15–16but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, Christ;
- Col 2:19and not holding firmly to the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and ligaments, grows with God’s growth.
- Col 1:18He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
- Gen 32:26The man said, “Let me go, for the day breaks.” Jacob said, “I won’t let you go, unless you bless me.”
- Ps 87:2Yahweh loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
- Ps 68:24They have seen your processions, God, even the processions of my God, my King, into the sanctuary.
- Matt 18:20For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the middle of them.”
- Matt 28:20teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
- Rev 1:14His head and his hair were white as white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire.
- Song 5:11His head is like the purest gold. His hair is bushy, 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.