to turn back (hence · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person feminine singular
return
שׁ֖וּבִיShu.vi
H7725
to turn back (hence · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person feminine singular
look
וְנֶחֱזֶהve.ne.che.zeh-
H2372
to gaze at · conjunction + verb, qal, 1st person common plural
see
תֶּחֱזוּ֙te.che.Zu
H2372
to gaze at · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
Shulamite
בַּשּׁ֣וּלַמִּ֔יתba.Shu.la.Mit
H7759
peaceful (with the article always prefixed · preposition with the article + noun, gentilic feminine singular absolute
company
כִּמְחֹלַ֖תkim.cho.Lat
H4246
a dance · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
armies
הַֽמַּחֲנָֽיִםHa.ma.cha.Na.yim
H4264
an encampment (of travellers or troops) · definite article + proper noun, a title
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
Genesis 32:2 And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God’s host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim.
Genesis 49:10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the pe…
Judges 21:21 And see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his…
2 Samuel 17:24 Then David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom passed over Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him.
Psalms 76:2 In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion.
Song of Solomon 1:6 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…
Song of Solomon 2:14 O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sw…
Isaiah 8:6 Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son;
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 6:13
Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return,.... By whom the church is meant, so called from her being the spouse of Christ, the true Solomon; it being common for the wife to have the same name with her husband; thus, with the Romans, if the man's name was Caius, the woman's name was Caia: is the name of Christ Solomon? the church's name is Shulamite; see Jeremiah 23:6. The word from which this is derived signifies both perfection and peace; and the church may be called the Shulamite from her perfection, not in herself, but in Christ, in whom she is complete, and perfectly comely through his righteousness; and is also denominated from the peace which she has from Christ, and he has made for…
Tyndale Open Study Notes on Song of Solomon 6:13–end
An interaction between the young women of Jerusalem and the man introduces his last major description of the woman’s beauty and his desire to hold her (see study note on 4:1–5:1).
6:13 Return: Or turn around. • Shulam: The place is not known, though some have identified it with Shunem (1 Kgs 1:3; 2 Kgs 4:11-12). Maid of Shulam (Hebrew shulammith) might be a wordplay on the name Solomon (Hebrew shelomoh). It would then be equivalent to saying “Solomon’s maiden.” • as she moves so gracefully between two lines of dancers? The man praises the woman’s grace and beauty to everyone.
Rashi on Song of Solomon 6:12
I did not know. The congregation of Yisroel laments, “I did not know how to be aware of sin, that I should retain my glory and my greatness, and I erred over groundless hatred and controversy, which intensified during the reign of the Chashmonai kings, Horkenus and Aristoblus,23They were brothers who battled one another for the throne. until one of them brought in the Roman Empire and received the kingship from its hand and became its vassal. Since then, “my soul set me” to be “like chariots,” to let the nobility of other nations ride upon me.
A noble people. עַמִּי נָדִיב means] the same as עַם נָדִיב[=a noble people]. The yud is superfluous like the yud of, “the One Who took up His abode…
Turn to us, O peaceful soul, that you may show your glory to your sisters and that they may begin to console themselves with the security of your repose and happiness. Turn to us once only, that we may see you, and turn again and hasten with all speed to that great Jerusalem, the city of the saints. Or indeed, since Christ says this to the pious soul, he commands it to turn for a little while, that its glory and its future repose with the saints may be manifest to us, and then he commands it to hasten to the company of the saints on high.
Just as the work calls Solomon—our Lord, in other words—"peaceable," so too it calls his bride "peacemaker" for attaining peace from him and being freed from the former conflict. The bridegroom's attendants, then, on seeing her driven from the chariot and under attack, comfort her in the words, "Return," peacemaker, "return, return, and we shall look upon you." That is to say, "Do not be afraid of your pursuers but hold fast the doctrine, proclaim the message of the doctrine, have no fear of the chariot, do not be afraid of war, called peacemaker as you are. In fact, if you persist in your preaching, we shall see your kingdom."
What will you see in the Shulammite, etc.? It is as if he is openly saying, "Indeed, you lament that the Synagogue has been estranged for so long, and you pray for her to return to me, and it delights you to see her face adorned for me. But you should know that the time is near when you will see nothing in her of the old infidelity and aversion, but only works of virtues and spiritual struggles. So what, then, will you see in the Shulammite," he says, "except the dances of the camps, that is, the army of peace? For in choruses the voices of singers resonate together; in camps, the hands of those who love to fight. So what, then, will you see in her, except the choruses of the elect, who with heart and soul united proclaim the praises of their Creator? And they are indeed the choruses of the camps, because by serving the Creator they repel and disturb all the enemy's ranks." He says this and turns with his customary sweetness to praise the Church itself, which he rejoiced was concerned for the salvation of the Synagogue, thus adding:
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
Shulamite — The same, as some think, with “Shunammite,” from “Shunem:” otherwise, the import of the word is uncertain (Cant. 6:13; R.V., “Shulammite”).
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).
