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Monday, September 1st, 2025
the Week of Proper 17 / Ordinary 22
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Bishop's Bible

Song of Solomon 6:8

There are threescore queenes, fourescore wiues, and damselles without number.

Bible Study Resources

Dictionaries:

- Easton Bible Dictionary - Queen;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Canticles;   ;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Virgin, Virgin Birth;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Song of Songs;   Virgin;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Concubines;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Maid;   Queen;   Song of Songs;   Virgin;   Wisdom of Solomon, the;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Abraham ben Elijah of Wilna;   AḥiḴar;   Hadassi, Judah ben Elijah Haabel;   Nations and Languages, the Seventy;   Numbers and Numerals;   Sifra;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
There are sixty queensand eighty concubinesand young women without number.
Hebrew Names Version
There are sixty queens, eighty concubines, And virgins without number.
King James Version
There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number.
English Standard Version
There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and virgins without number.
New American Standard Bible
"There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, And young women without number;
New Century Version
There may be sixty queens and eighty slave women and so many girls you cannot count them,
Amplified Bible
"There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, And maidens without number;
World English Bible
There are sixty queens, eighty concubines, And virgins without number.
Geneva Bible (1587)
There are threescore Queenes and fourescore concubines & of the damsels without nober.
Legacy Standard Bible
There are sixty queens and eighty concubines,And maidens without number;
Berean Standard Bible
There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and maidens without number,
Contemporary English Version
What if I could have sixty queens, eighty wives, and thousands of others!
Complete Jewish Bible
There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, as well as young women beyond number;
Darby Translation
There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, And virgins without number:
Easy-to-Read Version
There might be 60 queens and 80 slave women, and young women too many to count,
George Lamsa Translation
There are sixty queens and eighty concubines and virgins without number.
Good News Translation
Let the king have sixty queens, eighty concubines, young women without number!
Lexham English Bible
Sixty queens there are, eighty concubines, and maidens beyond number.
Literal Translation
Sixty of them are queens, and eighty concubines, and virgins without number.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
There are thre score quenes, foure score concubynes, and yonge weme without nombre.
American Standard Version
There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, And virgins without number.
Bible in Basic English
There are sixty queens, and eighty servant-wives, and young girls without number.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and maidens without number.
King James Version (1611)
There are threescore Queenes, and fourescore concubines, and virgins without number.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
My dove, my perfect one is one; she is the only one of her mother; she is the choice of her that bore her. The daughters saw her, and the queens will pronounce her blessed, yea, and the concubines, and they will praise her.
English Revised Version
There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Sixti ben queenys, and eiyti ben secundarie wyues; and of yong damesels is noon noumbre.
Update Bible Version
There are sixty queens, and eighty concubines, And virgins without number.
Webster's Bible Translation
There are sixty queens, and eighty concubines, and virgins without number.
New English Translation
There may be sixty queens, and eighty concubines, and young women without number.
New King James Version
There are sixty queens And eighty concubines, And virgins without number.
New Living Translation
Even among sixty queens and eighty concubines and countless young women,
New Life Bible
There are sixty queens, and eighty women kept who act like wives, and there are too many young women to number who have never had a man.
New Revised Standard
There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and maidens without number.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Threescore, are the queens, and, fourscore, are the concubines, - and, virgins, there are, without number.
Douay-Rheims Bible
(6-7) There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and young maidens without number.
Revised Standard Version
There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and maidens without number.
Young's Literal Translation
Sixty are queens, and eighty concubines, And virgins without number.
THE MESSAGE
There's no one like her on earth, never has been, never will be. She's a woman beyond compare. My dove is perfection, Pure and innocent as the day she was born, and cradled in joy by her mother. Everyone who came by to see her exclaimed and admired her— All the fathers and mothers, the neighbors and friends, blessed and praised her:
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, And maidens without number;

Contextual Overview

4 Thou are beautifull O my loue as is [the place] Thirza, thou art faire as Hierusalem, fearefull as an armie of men with their banners. 5 Turne away thine eyes from me, for they haue set me on fire: Thy heery lockes are lyke a flocke of goates shorne vpon the mount of Gilead. 6 Thy teeth are lyke a flocke of shorne sheepe which go out of the wasshyng place, where euery one beareth twinnes, and not one vnfruitfull among them. 7 Thy cheekes are like a peece of a pomegranate within thy lockes of heere. 8 There are threescore queenes, fourescore wiues, and damselles without number. 9 One is my doue, one is my dearlyng: She is the only beloued of her mother, and deare vnto her that bare her: When the daughters sawe her, they sayde she was blessed, yea the queenes & wiues praysed her. 10 What is she this that loketh foorth as the mornyng, faire as the moone, cleare as the sunne, and fearfull as an armie of men with their banners?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

1 Kings 11:1, 2 Chronicles 11:21, Psalms 45:14, Revelation 7:9

Reciprocal: Judges 19:1 - a concubine Psalms 45:9 - Kings' Proverbs 31:10 - can Proverbs 31:29 - thou Song of Solomon 1:3 - the virgins Isaiah 7:15 - Butter Matthew 25:1 - ten Mark 2:19 - Can Revelation 14:4 - for

Cross-References

Genesis 6:12
And God loked vpon the earth, and beholde it was corrupt: for all fleshe had corrupt his way vpon earth.
Genesis 6:17
And beholde, I, euen I do bryng a fludde of waters vpon the earth, to destroy all fleshe wherin is the breath of lyfe vnder heauen, and euery thyng that is in the earth shall perishe.
Genesis 19:19
Beholde thy seruaunt hath founde grace in thy syght, and thou hast magnified thy mercy which thou hast shewed vnto me in sauyng my lyfe: Beholde I can not be saued in the mountayne, lest some harme fall vppon me, and I dye.
Psalms 84:11
For God the Lorde is a sunne and a shielde: God geueth grace and worship, he withholdeth no good thyng from them that liue in any perfection.
Psalms 145:20
God preserueth all those that loue him: but he wyll bring to nothyng such as be vngodly.
Proverbs 3:4
So shalt thou finde fauour and good vnderstandyng in the sight of God and men.
Proverbs 8:35
For whoso findeth me, findeth life, and shall obtaine fauour of the Lorde.
Proverbs 12:2
A good man is acceptable vnto the Lorde: but the wicked imaginer wyll he condempne.
Jeremiah 31:2
Thus saith the Lord: The people of Israel which escaped in the wildernesse from the sworde, founde grace to come into their rest.
Luke 1:30
And the Angel saide vnto her: Feare not Marie, for thou hast founde grace with God.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number. In this verse and Song of Solomon 6:9 the church is commended as she stood related to others; and is compared with them, and preferred to them. The words may be considered either as an assertion, "there are", c. or as a supposition, "though there be", c. yet Christ's church is but one, and excels them all. "Queens" are principal and lawful wives of kings "concubines", secondary or half wives, as the word i signifies who were admitted to the bed, but their children did not inherit: "virgins", unmarried persons, maids of honour, who waited on the queen. The allusion is to the custom of kings and great personages, who had many wives, and more concubines, and a large number of virgins to wait on them; see 1 Kings 11:3; or to a nuptial solemnity, and the ceremony of introducing the bride to the bridegroom, attended with a large number of persons of distinction; and so Theocritus k speaks of four times sixty virgins attending the nuptials of Menelaus and Helena; see Psalms 45:9. By all which may be meant either the kingdoms and nations of the world; by "queens", the more large, rich and flourishing kingdoms; by "concubines", inferior states; and by "virgins without number", the vast multitudes of inhabitants that fill them; but all, put together, are not equal to the church; see Song of Solomon 2:2; or else false churches; by "queens", such who boast of their riches and number, as the church of Rome, Revelation 18:7; by "concubines", such as are inferior in those things, but equally corrupt, as Arians, Socinians, c. and by "virgins without number", the multitudes of poor, weak, ignorant people, seduced by them and what figure soever these make, or pretensions to be the true churches of Christ, they are none of his, his spouse is preferred to them all. Or rather true believers in Christ, of different degrees, are here meant; queens, those that have the greatest share of gifts grace, most nearness to Christ, and communion with him; by "concubines", believers of a lower class, and of a more servile spirit, and yet sometimes are favoured with, fellowship with Christ; and by "virgins", young converts, who have not so large an experience as the former; and this distribution agrees with 1 John 2:13; and the rather this may be the sense, since each of these are said to praise the church in Song of Solomon 6:9, who is preferable to them, and includes them all.

i פילגשים "secundariae uxores", Michaelis. k Idyll. 18. v. 24.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The section might be entitled, “Renewed declaration of love after brief estrangement.”

Song of Solomon 6:4

Tirzah ... Jerusalem - Named together as the then two fairest cities of the land. For Jerusalem compare Psalms 48:2. “Tirzah” (i. e., “Grace” or “Beauty “)was an old Canaanite royal city Joshua 12:24. It became again a royal residence during the reigns of Baasha and his three successors in the kingdom of the ten tribes, and may well therefore have been famed for its beauty in the time of Solomon.

Terrible as ... - Awe-inspiring as the bannered (hosts). The warlike image, like others in the Song, serves to enhance the charm of its assured peace.

Song of Solomon 6:5

Even for the king the gentle eyes of the bride have an awe-striking majesty. Such is the condescension of love. Now follows Song of Solomon 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 Song of Solomon 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.

Song of Solomon 6:9

The king contrasts the bride with the other claimants for her royal estate or favor Song of Solomon 6:8. She not only outshines them all for him, but herself has received from them disinterested blessing and praise.

This passage is invaluable as a divine witness to the principle of monogamy under the Old Testament and in the luxurious age of Solomon.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Song of Solomon 6:8. There are threescore queens — Though there be sixty queens, and eighty concubines, or secondary wives, and virgins innumerable, in my harem, yet thou, my dove, my undefiled, art אצת achath, ONE, the ONLY ONE, she in whom I delight beyond all.


 
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