MY COMPANION — the man's name for the woman, nine times in the Song and in this form nowhere else in the Bible. It is the feminine of re'a, FRIEND or NEIGHBOUR — the same word as 'love your neighbour as yourself' (Leviticus 19:18). The English versions reach for endearments ('my love,' 'my darling') and lose the thing the Hebrew actually says: the word he picks for her is the word for a friend. → first discussed at Song of Solomon 1:9