Song of Solomon 2:6

His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
hand	שְׂמֹאלוֹ֙ se.mo.Lo	H8040	properly · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
head	לְרֹאשִׁ֔י le.ro.Shi	H7218	the head (as most easily shaken) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
hand	וִימִינ֖וֹ vi.mi.No	H3225	the right hand or side (leg · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
embrace	תְּחַבְּקֵֽנִי te.cha.be.Ke.ni	H2263	to clasp (the hands or in embrace) · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular + pronominal suffix

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Isaiah 54:5-10 For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he…
Zephaniah 3:17 The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy ove…
Song of Solomon 8:3-5 His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.
Jeremiah 32:41 Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.
Proverbs 4:8 Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.
Isaiah 62:4-5 Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, and thy land…
John 3:29 He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the…
Ephesians 5:25-29 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

John Gill on Song of Solomon 2:6

His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me. The church, having desired to be stayed, supported, strengthened, and comforted, presently found her beloved with her, who with both hands sustained her; which shows his tender love to her, care of her, and regard for her; and is expressive of the near and intimate communion she had with him, as the effect of union to him, often enjoyed in his house and ordinances; likewise of blessings of every kind she received from him; temporal, mercies, or left hand blessings, which are necessary to support and carry through this wilderness; and spiritual, or right hand blessings, as justification, pardon, adoption, &c. and, moreover, m…

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Tyndale Open Study Notes on Song of Solomon 2:5-6

The woman’s love is intense, his love overwhelming. • If the Song is an anthology, the couple can be seen as married, and lovemaking is seen as so physically exhausting that she grows faint and calls for the sustenance of raisin cakes and apples. These foods were considered aphrodisiacs in the ancient Near East. • Strengthen me: She now depends on him to revive her with the fruit of the earlier image—he is the apple tree, so he can provide apples for her renewed strength. • His left arm is under my head: He tenderly supports her with his embrace as they lie together (see also 8:3).

Rashi on Song of Solomon 2:6

His left hand was under my head. In the wilderness. And his right hand would embrace me. He traveled a three-days’ journey to search out a resting place for them,9See Bamidbar 10:33. and in that resting place, He brought down manna and quails for them. All this I remember now in my exile, and I am sick for His love.10Alternatively, this verse can be viewed as a prayer by the Bnei Yisroel, for God to once again demonstrate His love and “embrace me.” (Metzudas Dovid)

Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).

The Church Fathers

The hands are here a figure of wedlock.
— Jerome, LETTER 22.19

He who has joined you to his company will not sadden you. With his left hand, in which is honor and glory, under your head, with his right arm, in which is length of life, he will embrace you.
— Leander of Seville, THE TRAINING OF NUNS, PREFACE

Surely the left hand of the bridegroom is placed under the head of the bride because the Lord raises up the minds of the faithful with temporal benefits, separating them from earthly pleasures and longings so that they may desire and hope for eternal blessings. And he shall embrace her with his right hand because by revealing the vision of his majesty he glorifies her without end.
— Bede, On the Tabernacle 1:8

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Arm · FIGURATIVE USE OF — FIGURATIVE USE OF
Hands, The · The right hand: Used in embracing — The right hand: Used in embracing

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).