The Book of Song of Solomon – KJV Summary, Key Passages & Book Facts

Song of Solomon is the twenty-second book of the Bible, the twenty-second book of the Old Testament, and the fifth of the Poetry and Wisdom Books. In the King James Version (KJV), Song of Solomon contains 8 chapters and 117 verses. The book is a collection of poetic exchanges celebrating love, attraction, longing, admiration, companionship, commitment, and the joy of a devoted relationship. Through vivid imagery drawn from gardens, vineyards, flocks, spices, fruit, cities, and the natural world, the woman and her beloved repeatedly express their delight in one another and the enduring strength of love.

Summary of Song of Solomon

Song of Solomon begins immediately with the language of desire. The woman longs for the kisses of her beloved and declares his love better than wine. His name is compared to fragrant ointment, and she desires to be drawn after him. The daughters of Jerusalem appear as a recurring group within the poetry, sometimes listening, responding, or being addressed by the woman. From the opening verses, love is presented through the senses—taste, fragrance, sight, touch, and sound.

The woman also speaks openly about her appearance and circumstances. She describes herself as darkened by the sun because her brothers had made her keep the vineyards, leaving her unable to keep her own vineyard. She asks where her beloved feeds his flock so that she will not wander uncertainly among the flocks of his companions. The response praises her beauty and compares her to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots, while ornaments, fragrance, flowers, and precious materials reinforce the atmosphere of admiration.

The two lovers repeatedly praise one another. She compares her beloved to a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi, while he calls her fair and describes her eyes as doves' eyes. Their surroundings become part of the poetry: green beds, cedar beams, fir rafters, roses, lilies, apple trees, fruit, wine, and perfume. Song of Solomon does not describe love primarily through abstract definitions; it communicates affection through vivid images of beauty, abundance, delight, and longing.

Chapter 2 develops this imagery further. The woman compares herself to a rose of Sharon and a lily of the valleys, while her beloved describes her as a lily among thorns. She compares him to an apple tree among the trees of the wood and delights in sitting beneath his shadow and tasting his fruit. She describes being brought to the banqueting house under a banner of love and expresses the overwhelming intensity of her affection.

The scene then shifts with the sound of the beloved approaching. He is compared to a roe or young hart leaping upon mountains and hills. He calls his love to rise and come away because winter has passed, rain is gone, flowers appear, birds sing, and the season has changed. The imagery of spring connects their relationship with renewal, beauty, fruitfulness, and joyful anticipation. Yet the chapter also warns about the little foxes that spoil the vines, suggesting the need to guard what is growing and precious.

The woman declares that her beloved is hers and she is his. This mutual belonging becomes one of the recurring expressions of commitment throughout the book. Yet longing and separation remain part of the poetry. In chapter 3, she describes seeking the one whom her soul loves during the night. She rises and goes through the city streets, searching until she finds him, then holds him and refuses to let him go.

The daughters of Jerusalem are again charged not to stir up love before its proper time. The poem then describes a magnificent procession coming from the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense. Solomon's bed is surrounded by mighty men, and the daughters of Zion are called to behold King Solomon wearing the crown associated with the day of his espousals and the gladness of his heart. Royal imagery is thus woven into the personal love poetry.

Chapter 4 contains an extended description of the woman's beauty. Her beloved praises her eyes, hair, teeth, lips, temples, neck, and overall appearance through imagery drawn from doves, goats upon Mount Gilead, newly shorn sheep, scarlet thread, pomegranates, towers, shields, and mountains. The language is highly poetic and reflects the ancient world in which physical beauty was celebrated through comparisons to valued landscapes, animals, architecture, fruit, spices, and precious objects.

The beloved then invites her to come with him from Lebanon and describes her as a garden enclosed and a fountain sealed. Her qualities are compared to an orchard containing pomegranates, camphire, spikenard, saffron, cinnamon, frankincense, myrrh, aloes, and other chief spices. The woman responds by inviting the winds to blow upon her garden so that its spices may flow out and calls for her beloved to come into his garden and eat its pleasant fruits. The garden becomes one of the book's richest images of beauty, exclusivity, delight, and intimacy.

Chapter 5 introduces another scene of separation. The woman hears her beloved knocking and calling to her, but she hesitates before opening the door. By the time she rises, he has withdrawn. She goes into the city looking for him but does not find him. The watchmen encounter her, wound her, and take away her veil. She appeals to the daughters of Jerusalem to tell her beloved that she is sick with love if they find him.

When the daughters of Jerusalem ask what makes her beloved different from another, she answers with an extended description of him. She praises his appearance from head to foot using imagery of gold, ravens, doves, spices, lilies, jewels, marble, and cedar. She concludes that he is altogether lovely and identifies him not only as her beloved but also as her friend. The passage shows that her attachment involves admiration, desire, and companionship together.

Chapter 6 returns to reunion and mutual belonging. When asked where her beloved has gone, she says he has gone down into his garden among the beds of spices and lilies. She again declares, "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine." He responds by praising her as beautiful as Tirzah and comely as Jerusalem. Her beauty overwhelms him, and he again describes her through imagery involving flocks, pomegranates, queens, concubines, maidens, the morning, the moon, and the sun.

Near the end of chapter 6, the woman is identified as the Shulamite. The surrounding voices call for her to return so that they may look upon her. Chapter 7 then continues the beloved's detailed praise of her beauty, beginning with her feet and moving upward through a series of poetic comparisons. Her stature is likened to a palm tree and her breasts to clusters of grapes. The language is intimate and openly celebrates physical attraction within the larger relationship portrayed by the book.

The woman responds with another declaration of mutual belonging: "I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me." She invites him to go into the fields and lodge in the villages, rising early to visit the vineyards and see whether the vine flourishes, the tender grape appears, and the pomegranates bud. There she promises to give him her love. Fruit, vineyards, flowers, and fragrance again form the setting for their shared affection.

Chapter 8 opens with the woman's desire for the freedom to express affection without public reproach. She imagines bringing her beloved into her mother's house and giving him spiced wine and the juice of her pomegranate. The familiar charge to the daughters of Jerusalem not to awaken love prematurely appears for the final time, reinforcing the repeated theme that love has a proper season and should not be forced.

The final chapter then reaches the book's strongest statement about the nature of love. The woman asks to be set as a seal upon the heart and arm because love is strong as death and jealousy is cruel as the grave. Its coals are described as a vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it, and even immense wealth would be despised if offered as the price of genuine love. Love is therefore presented as powerful, enduring, exclusive, and beyond purchase.

The final verses return to vineyards, maturity, possession, and the lovers' desire for one another. The woman's brothers recall concern for their younger sister and how they would guard her depending upon her maturity. She answers as one who has reached maturity and found favor. Solomon's vineyard at Baal-hamon is contrasted with her own vineyard, which is before her. The book closes with the beloved asking to hear her voice and the woman calling him to make haste like a roe or young hart upon the mountains of spices. Song of Solomon thus ends not with a formal conclusion but with continuing desire, mutual affection, and a love that remains active and alive.