Song of Solomon 7:5

Thine head upon theeis like Carmel Mount Carmel, looked at from the North especially, is the crown of the country, towering over sea and land in solitary majesty; hence the comparison to a head proudly held. The A.V. margin, following some Jewish authorities, renders -crimson," regarding karmelas equivalent to karmîl, and Ginsburg, adopting this explanation, thinks that the words mean that her hair was arranged in the form of a murex shell.

the hair of thine head The word translated -hair," which occurs nowhere else in the O.T., appears to mean flowing tresses.

like purple Apparently the text means to indicate that the bride's hair was of that intense black which is sometimes called blue black. For argâmânsee note on Song of Solomon 3:10.

the king is held in the galleries Better (cp. R.V.), a king is held captive in the tresses thereof. The word translated -tresses" occurs in the O.T. three times only, Genesis 30:38; Genesis 30:41, and Exodus 2:16, where it means -water troughs." The connexion between these and a woman's hair is not obvious, unless it be that it flows down like water from a water trough. That is hardly satisfactory, but that tresses is intended seems certain. The idea of a lover being held captive in the hair of his lady is common in the love poetry of all lands. Cp. Lovelace's poem To Althea from Prison:

"When I lie tangled in her hair,

And fettered to her eye,

The birds that wanton in the air

Know no such liberty."

Budde and Siegfried take the -king" here to mean as usual the young husband of the king's week. But in that case it would more naturally be theking.