The watchmen who go about the city found me. They beat me. They bruised me. The keepers of the walls took my cloak away from me.
Parallel Translations
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The watchmen who go about the city found me. They beat me. They bruised me. The keepers of the walls took my cloak away from me.
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The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.
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The watchmen that go about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my mantle from me.
Cross-references (22)
Passages linked to Song of Solomon 5:7 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Song of Solomon 3:3 The watchmen who go about the city found me; “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
- Psalms 141:5 Let the righteous strike me, it is kindness; let him reprove me, it is like oil on the head; don’t let my head refuse it; Yet my prayer is always against evil deeds.
- Song of Solomon 8:11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Hamon. He leased out the vineyard to keepers. Each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit.
- Isaiah 6:10-11 Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.” Then I said, “Lord, how long?” He answered, “Until cities are waste without inhabitant, houses without man, the land becomes utterly waste,
- Isaiah 62:6 I have set watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem. They will never be silent day nor night. You who call on Yahweh, take no rest,
- Hosea 6:5 Therefore I have cut them to pieces with the prophets; I killed them with the words of my mouth. Your judgments are like a flash of lightning.
- Hosea 9:7-8 The days of visitation have come. The days of reckoning have come. Israel will consider the prophet to be a fool, and the man who is inspired to be insane, because of the abundance of your sins, and because your hostility is great. A prophet watches over Ephraim with my God. A fowler’s snare is on all of his paths, and hostility in the house of his God.
- Matthew 21:33-41 “Hear another parable. There was a man who was a master of a household, who planted a vineyard, set a hedge about it, dug a wine press in it, built a tower, leased it out to farmers, and went into another country. When the season for the fruit came near, he sent his servants to the farmers, to receive his fruit. The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they treated them the same way. But afterward he sent to them his son, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But the farmers, when they saw the son, said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and seize his inheritance.’ So they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. When therefore the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?” They told him, “He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will lease out the vineyard to other farmers, who will give him the fruit in its season.”
- Matthew 23:2 saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sat on Moses’ seat.
- Matthew 23:29-36 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and decorate the tombs of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn’t have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna? Therefore behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city; that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar. Most certainly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.
- Luke 6:22 Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude and mock you, and throw out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake.
- John 16:2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time comes that whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God.
- Acts 5:40-41 They agreed with him. Summoning the apostles, they beat them and commanded them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. They therefore departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for Jesus’ name.
- Acts 20:29-30 For I know that after my departure, vicious wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Men will arise from among your own selves, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.
- Acts 26:9-10 “I myself most certainly thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. I also did this in Jerusalem. I both shut up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were put to death I gave my vote against them.
- 1 Corinthians 4:10-13 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You have honor, but we have dishonor. Even to this present hour we hunger, thirst, are naked, are beaten, and have no certain dwelling place. We toil, working with our own hands. When people curse us, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure. Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, the dirt wiped off by all, even until now.
- 2 Corinthians 11:13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as Christ’s apostles.
- Philippians 3:6 concerning zeal, persecuting the assembly; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.
- Hebrews 11:36-37 Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn apart. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They went around in sheep skins and in goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated—
- Hebrews 12:2 looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
- 1 Peter 4:14-16 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed; because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. On their part he is blasphemed, but on your part he is glorified. For let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evil doer, or a meddler in other men’s matters. But if one of you suffers for being a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God in this matter.
- Revelation 17:5-6 And on her forehead a name was written, “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered with great amazement.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain These are the false teachers, which wound the conscience…
These are the false teachers, which wound the conscience with their traditions.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Son 5:7 The watchmen that went about the city…
Son 5:7 The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.
Ver. 7. The watchmen that went about the city, &c.] {See Trapp on "Son 3:3"} The ministers that walk the round, that watch for men’s souls, {Heb 13:17 Isa 61:6} that know how to "time a word," {Isa 51:4} these smote her with the tongue, they buffeted her by just and sharp reproofs for her negligence, they unveiled her for being abroad at that time of night (which she needed not to have been, but for her own slothfulness), they dealt little better with her, than as if she had been some light and lewd woman; and all this they might well do out of zeal to God, and godly jealousy for her soul’s good - unless it were that hypocrisy of jealousy exercised by the false apostles over the Galatians; {Gal 4:17} not pastors, but impostors; not overseers, but by seers, {a} potius grassatores, quam custodes, ηομονθμως tamen sic dicti, cut throats rather than keepers, wicked men taking upon them to be watchmen, church officers in name, but church robbers in deed. Such were those {Isa 66:5} that hated and cast out the true worshippers, under a pretence of "Let the Lord be glorified." Such a one was Diotrephes, that prating {b} prelate, that villanously entreated God’s faithful people. {3Jn 1:9-10} And such is that man of sin, that antichrist of Rome, who, for so many hundred years together, hath smitten with the fist of wickedness, hath wounded and drawn blood from Christ’s dearest spouse, and despoiled her of her veil; that is, laboured to disprivilege her, and deprive her of that purity and soundness of doctrine that he hath committed unto her, as a means to hold her in the duty of all holy obedience and subjection unto him. {1Co 11:5-6; 1Co 11:10} Of these false friends and deadly enemies the Church here heavily complains, and might well have proceeded against them, as those six martyrs burnt by Harpsfield, Archdeacon of Canterbury, when Queen Mary lay a-dying. One of those six that were then burnt, and those were the last, John Cornford, stirred with a vehement zeal of God when they were excommunicated, pronounced sentence of excommunication against all Papists in these words: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the power of his Holy Spirit, and authority of his holy catholic and apostolic Church, we do give here into the hands of Satan, to be destroyed, the bodies of all those blasphemers and heretics that do maintain any error against his most holy Word, or do condemn his most holy truth for heresy, to the maintenance of any false church or feigned religion; so that by this thy most just judgment, O most mighty God, against thine adversaries, thy true religion may be known, to thy great glory and our comfort, and the edifying of all our nation. Good Lord, so be it. {c}
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{a} Non Episcopi, sed Aposcopi.
{b} φλυαρων.
{c} Acts and Mon., fol. 1862.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The watchmen that went about the city; the governors…
The watchmen that went about the city; the governors of the church, as Son 3:3, who, though by their place and office they be obliged, to comfort and protect the faithful, do frequently discourage and oppress them, as they manifestly did both in the days of Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and the other holy prophets, and in the time of Christ and his apostles, and in divers other ages.
They wounded me with bitter calumnies and persecutions.
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The keepers of the walls; the same with the watchmen, whose office is to keep the gates and walls of the city.
Took away my veil; which was an ornament of her sex, Isa 3:23, and a badge of her modesty, Gen 24:65, or an ensign of her relation and subjection to Christ, Gen 20:16; 1Co 11:5. And so the taking of this veil away signifies their contemptuous and injurious usage of her, their endeavours to blast her reputation, and to represent and treat her as a common and impudent prostitute, and as one that had no relation to Christ.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Watch-men - The governors of the church, who, though…
Watch-men - The governors of the church, who, though by their place they are obliged to comfort the faithful, do frequently discourage them. Smote - With bitter calumnies and persecutions. The keepers - The same with the watchmen, whose office it is to keep the gates and walls of the city. My vine - Which was an ornament of her sex, and an ensign of her relation to Christ. And so the taking of this veil away, signifies their contemptuous usage of her, and endeavours to represent her, as one that had no relation to Christ.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 7. Took away my veil] They tore it…
Verse 7. Took away my veil] They tore it off rudely, to discover who she was. See on So 5:2. To tear the veil signifies, in Eastern phrase, to deflower or dishonour a woman.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Son 5:7. The watchman that went about the city…
Son 5:7. The watchman that went about the city — The governors of the church, who, though by their place they are obliged to comfort the faithful, do frequently discourage them. Found me, and smote me — With bitter calumnies and persecutions. The keepers of the walls — The same with the watchmen, whose office it is to keep the gates and walls of the city. Took away my veil from me — Which was an ornament of her sex, and an ensign of her relation to Christ. And so the taking of this veil away signifies their contemptuous usage of her, and endeavours to represent her as one that had no relation to Christ.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 7. The watchmen — The darkness gave no token,…
7. The watchmen — The darkness gave no token, and the only words then spoken were her own. The watchmen and keepers treated her as a vagrant.
Veil — An external garment, worn only out of doors. They rudely tore it from her face to see who she was.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 7. In this dream all goes ill with her,…
7. In this dream all goes ill with her, in comparison with the former dream (Son_3:1 ff.). Oettli suggests that this is due to the anxious state of mind in which she lay down to sleep, shrinking from the return of her undesired lover (Son_4:6).
that went about the city] R.V. rightly, that go about the city; the participle here indicating their duty, what they were accustomed to do.
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they smote me, they wounded me] Taking her for a suspicious character, they tried to stop her, but in her wild anxiety she refused, until they used violence.
the keepers of the walls] Better, the watchmen of the walls, the same probably as “the watchmen that go about the city.” They may however be different divisions of the watchmen of the city. Del. thinks that the fact that she sought her beloved, not in the open field, nor in the villages, but in the city, is fatal to the ‘shepherd’ hypothesis here as in the other dream, but see note there.
my vail] The word here is different from that for ‘veil’ in ch. Son_4:1; Son_4:3. There it is tsammâh; here it is rĕdhîdh, a word which occurs again in the O.T. only in Isa_3:23, where the A.V. translates ‘veils,’ as here. But the LXX has in both places θἐριστρον, a thin summer garment, and here it should be translated mantle, or thin outer garment. Riehm, Handwörterbuch, p. 1428, says, “The veil mentioned in Son_5:7 and in Isa_3:23 seems to have been a fine lawn garment which the women of the East still throw over their whole dress. Cp. Susanna v. 32.” Cheyne and Driver translate it mantle. The word occurs in Syriac and in Targum for the Heb. tsâ‘îph=‘a veil,’ and in the Mishnah.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (7) The watchmen.—See Note on Son_3:3.
(7) The watchmen.—See Note on Son_3:3.
Veil.—Heb. redîd; LXX. θέριστρόν. Probably a light summer dress for throwing over the person on going out in a hurry, like the tsaiph put on by Rebecca (Gen_24:65). Only elsewhere in Isa_3:23.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The watchmen that go about the city found me,…
The watchmen that go about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my mantle from me. The intention is to show into what evil she fell by having to seek her beloved instead of being with him. She is mistaken and misjudged; she is smitten and wounded with reproaches and false accusations, as though she were a guilty and evil minded woman. She is subjected to abuse and ill treatment from those who should be her guardians. She had hard work to escape, leaving her robe behind her. (cf. Gen_39:12) The redhidh, like ridha in Arabic, is a plaid-like upper garment thrown over the shoulders so says Aben Ezra; but it is derived, no doubt, from the root "to make broad or thin," to spread out perhaps, therefore, "a thin, light upper robe" which was worn over the chiton, a summer overdress, a cloak (LXX, yeristron : Jerome, pallium; Luther, Schleier ). If we take the dream thus described, and which seems to conclude at this point, as related to the surrounding ladies, then we must suppose that it is introduced for the sake of what follows. The bride feels that she does not love her beloved one half enough; she is so conscious of deficiencies, that she might even have acted as her dream represented. It had entered her soul and made her ill with inward grief and self-reproach. She might so act, she might so treat her husband. So she adjures her companions to tell him how much she loves him. The spiritual application is not difficult to see. When the soul loses its joy in Christ, it becomes the prey of fears and self accusations, and even of reproaches from Christ"s servants and the guardians of his Church. For when our religion ceases to be a spontaneous delight to us, we are apt to carry on even the active work of our life in a manner to be misunderstood by sincere believers around us. Yea, the very efforts we make to recover peace may bring reproach upon us. Any Christian minister who has had to deal with religious despondency will quite understand this dream of the bride"s. We may often smite and wound, and even deprive of the garment of reputation and esteem, those who are really seeking for Christ, because we have misunderstood them.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain The watchmen that went about the city
THE SEARCH AND ITS RESULTS
Son_5:7
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The watchmen that went about the city
Found me; they smote me; they wounded me:
The keepers of the walls
Took away my veil from me.
A painful experience awaited the Bride on returning to herself and her duty. Those who should have been for her protection and her help, now add to her distress. Her character suspected, and her veil taken from her as an immodest woman (Eze_23:25-26). Her experience in seeking the Bridegroom and the conduct of the watchmen towards her, much more painful than in a former search. The reason, that was before marriage, this after it. The greater our privileges, and the higher the degree attained in the Divine life, the greater the sin in backsliding from and unfaithfulness to it. Hence the greater the difficulty and the more painful the experience in returning to it. The ways of transgressors hard, even in the case of
Backsliders.
Often the most painful of all experiences connected with a missing Saviour, and a backslidden state. The very means of grace and messages of the Word often an aggravation of the grief. Promises apparently silent, and threatenings only uttering their voice. The two-edged sword of the Word felt only to cut and wound. Ministers seem only commissioned to smite. The backslider apt to lose the character of the spouse of Christ, and to be taken for a hypocrite. No help now, for a time at least, received from the ministers of the Word, as at a former period. No word now of Shulamite finding her beloved after only passing a little from them as before. Different effects from the preaching of the Word according to the condition of the hearer. Ministers and their messages only what the Master is pleased to make them. When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes his enemies to be at peace with him. When the opposite is the case, even his friends may be made to appear against him. Nevertheless, the conduct of the watchman unjustifiably rigorous, harsh, and unfeeling. On the part of
Ministers,
the greatest tenderness due to backsliders who are seeking Jesus sorrowing. The example of Jesus towards Peter. The braised reed not to be ruthlessly broken. An un-tender minister a great affliction to an exercised soul. The ‘tongue of the learned’ required to ‘speak a word in season to him that is weary’ (Isa_50:4). Sad when ministers talk to the grief of those whom God has wounded (Psa_69:26). The part of hireling shepherds to thrust with the side and shoulder, and push at the diseased instead of healing them (Eze_34:21). A sore calamity to the Church when its pastors become brutish (Jer_10:21). False shepherds hunt the souls of God’s people, making the righteous sad, instead of binding up their wounds (Eze_13:20). The reproofs of ministers to be an excellent oil which shall not break the head (Psa_141:5). The truth to be spoken, but to be spoken in love. Ministers to be both plain and faithful, but neither harsh nor severe. The conduct of the watchmen in the text realised in that of the Jewish priests and elders in their treatment of the spouse of Jesus after His departure to heaven (Act_4:1-3; Act_5:17-18; Act_5:33; Act_5:40). The same spouse not unfrequently smitten by ecclesiastical rulers, as heretics and schismatics. Church rulers to be themselves a part of the spouse, and so acquainted with her exercises and temptations. Jesus Christ the model of Ministers. Had compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way. Is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Having Himself suffered in being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted (Heb_2:18; Heb_4:15; Heb_5:2). Ministers to be not only lawfully called, but spiritually qualified.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 The watchmen
The watchmen
men who have the job of keeping guard of the town at night to keep the people safe. See how you translated this in Song of Songs 3:3.
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as they were making their rounds in the city
"who were walking around the city on the walls." See how you translated this in Song of Songs 3:3.
found me
found the woman
struck me
"beat me" or "hit me"
wounded me
"injured me"
the guards on the walls
"the men who guard the walls"
cloak
a garment that people wore over the other clothing on their upper body when they went outdoors in public
translationWords
watch
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 5:7 The night watchmen . . . beat and…
5:7 The night watchmen . . . beat and bruised me: The watchmen who were protectors in 3:3 now become demonized characters in her dream (5:2). What they do describes how she feels—pummeled and wounded. • stripped off my veil: She feels that she has lost her dignity.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.