Song of Solomon 6:6

Thy teeth are as a flock of sheep which go up from the washing, whereof every one beareth twins, and there is not one barren among them.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:4-10 All the real excellence and holiness on earth centre in the church. Christ goes forth subduing his enemies, while his followers gain victories over the world, the flesh, and the devil. He shows the tenderness of a Redeemer, the delight he takes in his redeemed people, and the workings of his own grace in them. True believers alone can possess the beauty of holiness. And when their real character is known, it will be commended. Both the church and believers, at their first conversion, look forth as the morning, their light being small, but increasing. As to their sanctification, they are fair as the moon, deriving all their light, grace, and holiness from Christ; and as to justification, clear as the sun, clothed with Christ, the Sun of righteousness, and fighting the good fight of faith, under the banners of Christ, against all spiritual enemies.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Even for the king the gentle eyes of the bride have an awe-striking majesty. Such is the condescension of love. Now follows Sol 6:5-7 the longest of the repetitions which abound in the Song, marking the continuance of the king's affection as when first solemnly proclaimed Sol 4:1-6. The two descriptions belong, according to some (Christian) expositors, to the Church of different periods, e. g. to the primitive Church in the splendor of her first vocation, and to the Church under Constantine; other (Jewish) expositors apply them to "the congregation of Israel" under the first and second temples respectively.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6. Not vain repetition of So 4:1, 2. The use of the same words shows His love unchanged after her temporary unfaithfulness (Mal 3:6).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thy teeth are as a flock of sheep which go up from the washing, whereof everyone beareth twins, and there is not one barren among them. See Gill on Sol 4:2.

Geneva Study Bible

Thy teeth are as a flock of sheep which go up from the washing, whereof every one beareth twins, and there is not one barren among them.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Song of Solomon 6:6

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

5a Turn away thine eyes from me,

     For overpoweringly they assail me.

Dpke translates, ferocire me faciunt; Hengst.: they make me proud; but although הרהיב, after Psalm 138:3, may be thus used, yet that would be an effect produced by the eyes, which certainly would suggest the very opposite of the request to turn them away. The verb רהב means to be impetuous, and to press impetuously against any one; the Hiph. is the intens. of this trans. signification of the Kal: to press overpoweringly against one, to infuse terror, terrorem incutere. The lxx translates it by ἀναπτεροῦν, which is also used of the effect of terror ("to make to start up"), and the Syr. by afred, to put to flight, because arheb signifies to put in fear, as also arhab equals khawwaf, terrefacere; but here the meaning of the verb corresponds more with the sense of Arab. r''b, to be placed in the state of ro'b, i.e., of paralyzing terror. If she directed her large, clear, penetrating eyes to him, he must sink his own: their glance is unbearable by him. This peculiar form the praise of her eyes here assume; but then the description proceeds as at Sol 4:1, Sol 2:3. The words used there in praise of her hair, her teeth, and her cheeks, are here repeated.

5b Thy hair is like a flock of goats

     Which repose downwards on Giliad.

6 Thy teeth like a flock of lambs

   Which come up from the washing,

   All of them bearing twins,

   And a bereaved one is not among them.

7 Like a piece of pomegranate thy temples

   Behind thy veil.

The repetition is literal, but yet not without change in the expression, - there, גל מהר, here, מן־הגּל; there, הקּץ, tonsarum, here, הרח, agnarum (Symm., Venet. τῶν ἀμνάδων); for רחל, in its proper signification, is like the Arab. rachil, richl, richleh, the female lamb, and particularly the ewe. Hitzig imagines that Solomon here repeats to Shulamith what he had said to another donna chosen for marriage, and that the flattery becomes insipid by repetition to Shulamith, as well as also to the reader. But the romance which he finds in the Song is not this itself, but his own palimpsest, in the style of Lucian's transformed ass. The repetition has a morally better reason, and not one so subtle. Shulamith appears to Solomon yet more beautiful than on the day when she was brought to him as his bride. His love is still the same, unchanged; and this both she and the reader or hearer must conclude from these words of praise, repeated now as they were then. There is no one among the ladies of the court whom he prefers to her, - these must themselves acknowledge her superiority.