Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.
Song of Solomon — also called Song of Songs — is a book of ancient Hebrew love poetry that celebrates romantic love with striking, almost startling openness. Many readers are surprised to find it in the Bible at all. This verse appears near the very end of the book, as its emotional climax. The beloved declares that love is stronger than death, more enduring than flame, more powerful than any flood — and that no amount of money could purchase it. If someone tried to buy love with everything they owned, they would be laughed at. Throughout history, many theologians have also read Song of Solomon as an allegory for God's relentless love for His people. The verse works on both levels at once.
God, I find it far easier to believe in your love as a doctrine than to feel it as something real. Help me trust that your love for me is not fragile — that my failures haven't ended it, that my doubts haven't drowned it. Let that love slowly change the way I love everyone else. Amen.
We live in a culture obsessed with pricing things. There's a dollar amount attached to almost every experience, every relationship, every curated moment. So when this ancient poem declares that all the wealth in the world would be laughed at as payment for love — that rivers can't wash it away, that floods can't drown it — it's saying something genuinely radical. Love isn't a transaction. It doesn't run on supply and demand. It cannot be negotiated, purchased, or earned with the right accumulation of merit. It just endures. It holds through things that should have ended it. Whether you read this as a love poem between two people or as a portrait of how God loves you, something should shift in your chest. Because the love described here isn't passive or fragile or contingent on your performance. It looks at every force arrayed against it and refuses to move. If you've been wondering whether you've finally done something to make God stop loving you — or whether the people in your life who said they loved you really meant it — this verse is an answer that predates every doubt you've had. Real love, the kind this poem is describing, doesn't have a price tag. It doesn't have an expiration date. It holds.
What specific images does this verse use to describe love's strength, and what do those images communicate that a straightforward definition of love never could?
Have you ever experienced love that genuinely felt unconditional — from God, a parent, a friend, or a partner? What made it feel different from love that came with conditions?
The poem says love cannot be bought. In what ways do you find yourself trying to earn love — from God or from other people — as if it were something you could accumulate enough merit to deserve?
If you actually believed, down in your bones, that God's love for you is truly unquenchable, how would that change the way you move through an ordinary Tuesday?
Is there a relationship in your life where you've been keeping score or treating love as something the other person must earn? What would it look like to offer something closer to the love described in this verse?
And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.
Genesis 29:20
When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
Isaiah 43:2
Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
Romans 13:8
Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
1 Corinthians 13:7
Quench not the Spirit.
1 Thessalonians 5:19
Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Romans 13:10
Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
Romans 12:20
But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.
Proverbs 6:31
"Many waters cannot quench love, Nor can rivers drown it. If a man would offer all the riches of his house for love, It would be utterly scorned and despised."
AMP
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised.
ESV
'Many waters cannot quench love, Nor will rivers overflow it; If a man were to give all the riches of his house for love, It would be utterly despised.'
NASB
Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.
NIV
Many waters cannot quench love, Nor can the floods drown it. If a man would give for love All the wealth of his house, It would be utterly despised.
NKJV
Many waters cannot quench love, nor can rivers drown it. If a man tried to buy love with all his wealth, his offer would be utterly scorned.
NLT
Flood waters can't drown love, torrents of rain can't put it out. Love can't be bought, love can't be sold— it's not to be found in the marketplace.
MSG