Song of Solomon5:3

Translation

I have taken off

my tunic,

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must I put it on again?

I have washed

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my feet,

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must I soil them again?

Paraphrase

I am vulnerable for I have stripped away all my protection;

I don’t know what to do, be vulnerable, or put up my guard again.

I have made sure that I am pure in the way I am doing things.

Should I risk becoming impure by responding to his overtures?

Footnotes

1

This word can mean “a tunic, robe, or coat,” although tunic is probably the closest to the main idea. A cloak was the outermost layer and the tunic was the inner layer, worn against the skin. Context must determine which layer was meant, but in this situation, since it is all symbolism, context does not provide much help.

Re: the imagery: Whatever way one chooses to translate this, the imagery still has the same emphasis, that of protection. I have chosen to translate the word as tunic which makes it a symbol of her last layer of protection; once it is taken away she is completely vulnerable.

2

Washing is a symbol of purification.

3

Feet appear in many word pictures and with much variety of meaning, yet the underlying similarities are that feet usually have to do with agency (the means necessary to do something) or position.