7-3-2 The Song Of Solomon

The Song Of Solomon: Psychology Of Marriage Out Of The Faith

The  Song  of  Solomon  is  the record of Solomon's romance with Pharaoh's  daughter.  Of  course, this was an explicit breach of the  crystal  clear commandment not to marry women from Egypt. He should  have  admired  neither the horses nor the women of Egypt (Song of Solomon  1:9);  yet he begins his Song with an unashamed breach of the command   not  to  desire  either  of  these  things.  The unashamedness of Solomon coupled with his spirituality indicates that  at  this  time he was genuinely convinced that what he was doing  was  deeply  spiritual;  when  in  fact it was completely carnal. He totally ignored his own advice about chosing a spiritual woman as a wife. The girl he loved liked wine- unusual, perhaps, in that culture; she loves him because of his ointment, and he loves her because of her jewellery (Song of Solomon 1:2,3,10; 4:4). He says that deep kissing with her gives the same after effect as drinking enough wine that you talk in your sleep afterwards (Song of Solomon 7:9). It’s all very human and carnal.  

There  is a sharp contrast throughout the Song between Solomon's girlfriend  and  the  " daughters  of Jerusalem" . She begins as a humble  girl  who  recognizes her inferiority to these Israelite girls;  she comments upon the way her skin is darker than theirs (Song  1:5,6), but she asks Solomon to overlook this. She deeply wished  that  Solomon was her brother, i.e. an Egyptian, because in  that  case  their relationship could be much more open, they would  not  be despised because of their love, and Solomon could come  and live in her mother's house back in Egypt (Song of Solomon 8:1,2). Clearly  she  was attracted to Solomon rather than to the God of Israel. In 8:2,3 she seems to be saying ‘I’ll have sex with you, as you offered in 7:12, if you agree to be an Egyptian’ (and 4:16; 5:1,4-6 could imply they did have intercourse). But throughout the Song, Solomon describes her in Jewish terms,  he  likens  her  to many well-known places in Israel: the Heshbon  fishpools,  the tower of Lebanon etc., seeing the way her hair draped over her breasts as reminiscent of how Mount Gilead looked (Song of Solomon 4:1,4). He wanted to  see  her  as  an  Israelite  girl,  and  so that was how she appeared  to  him.  She  even  starts to use similar language in praise of him (Song of Solomon 1:14). Solomon takes her on a tour of Israel (Song of Solomon 4:8), enthusing about the sights, speaking of them as the things  of  " our  land"   (Song of Solomon 2:10-13).  He  wanted  her  to  be  an Israelite,  and  he spoke to her as if she was, assuming that he could  psychologically  and  spiritually dominate her so that he could  have  a little of both- his own carnal fulfilment coupled with spiritual satisfaction. How many times has this been worked out in the experience of a spiritual brother enthusing about the beauty  of  the  Truth and spiritual Israel to an Egyptian girl, who  only  superficially  shares  his enthusiasm, longing in her heart to have him with her in Egypt. 

Solomon saw her as a “paradise”, a garden with rivers and exotic fruits, surrounded by a wall- exactly the language of Eden. And she was a fount of “living waters” (Song 4:12,13,15 RVmg.), the language of Messiah. He saw her as the Kingdom / Eden personified. And yet her response to being described in this way is almost inappropriate- for she invites him to come and eat the fruit of the garden (4:16), exactly after the pattern of Eve destroying Adam. Yet Solomon didn’t want to see this connection; she was the Kingdom to him, just as so many have felt that having their new partner means that nothing, not even the Kingdom, is meaningful any more.  

Solomon  comforted  her  with the thought that he saw her as far more  attractive  than  the  daughters  of Jerusalem, the Jewish girls  whom  he  should  have  been marrying: " As the lily among thorns,  so  is  my  love among the daughters" (Song of Solomon 2:2). Thorns are invariably  connected  with spiritual weakness and rejection; it was  as  if  Solomon  was  saying  that he found the daughter of Pharaoh  spiritually  more attractive than the Jewish girls. This is the basis for the sarcastic comments and tensions between Solomon’s girl and the daughters of Jerusalem. And she  went along with how he wanted to see her: " I am the rose of Sharon,  and  the  lily  of  the valleys" (Song of Solomon 2:1); even though her heart  was  far  away  in Egypt, she described herself in Jewish terms because that was how he saw her; he calls her his " sister" (Song of Solomon 4:9), as if she was actually Jewish- whereas she wanted him to be her Egyptian “brother”. The relationship was doomed from the start. She walked the streets of Jerusalem whilst he was confined in the palace (Song of Solomon 3:2). Her mother moved to Jerusalem from Egypt, but it wasn’t possible for Solomon and her to easily be together in that house (Song of Solomon 3:4; 8:2). When Solomon describes her painted lips as being like a thread of scarlet (Song of Solomon 4:3), he uses two Hebrew words which only occur together in Josh. 2:18, describing how the Gentile harlot Rahab hung the scarlet thread outside her home in order to bring about the salvation of her mother and her family. Solomon wanted to justify his Egytpian girlfriend by comparing her to Gentile Rahab. And such sophistry goes on at the beginning of every relationship that leads to a marriage out of the Faith. 

She sarcastically comments to the Jerusalem girls: “Go forth, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, and behold king Solomon”, and goes on to mock the crown his mother Bathsheba had made for him, wishing instead that he would be under the influence of her mother (Song of Solomon 3:11,4). Her sarcasm turns to angry defence at times, e.g. when she warns the Jerusalem girls not to stir up “my love” (Song of Solomon 2:7)- i.e. ‘Hands off my Solomon!’. In turn, they ask her where Solomon has “turned aside” so that they can come and seek him with her (Song of Solomon 6:1), using a word elsewhere associated with ‘turning aside’ in apostasy to other gods. They in their turn sarcastically comment to her: “Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women…that we may seek him with thee?” (Song of Solomon 6:1), quoting Solomon’s terms of endearment back to her.  

Solomon boasts that he has many Jewish queens and concubines, but there is only one woman, the Egyptian, that he truly loves (Song of Solomon 6:8,9); he even calls her his “sister”, associating himself thereby with Egypt. Perhaps this tension between the two groups- the Jerusalem women and the Egyptian girl and her family- is behind the enigmatic reference to “the company of two armies” or “the dance of the two camps” (Song of Solomon 6:13). Solomon  went  on  to  say  that the bed he had prepared for the daughters  of Jerusalem he was now giving to his Egyptian bride. The  bed is described in the language of the tabernacle; made of wood,  but  covered with gold and surrounded by silver pillars, with  a mercy seat of purple (Song of Solomon 3:9,10 Heb.). He persuaded himself that  his  marriage to this woman was some kind of expression of spirituality.  The bed was made from cedar brought from Lebanon- and yet the same wood was used for the temple (Song of Solomon 3:9). Such was his dualism. The Song is shot through with allusion to the Law and  tabernacle  rituals; he speaks of making her borders on her clothes  (Song of Solomon 1:11),  probably alluding to the borders of blue to be worn  by  the  faithful  Israelite.  Solomon  wanted her to be a spiritual  woman,  and  he  was  going  to  make her one; many a preacher,   teacher,  husband,  wife,  father, mother,  child,  boyfriend has had to learn the impossibility of this.  He wanted to see her as a spiritual woman, and eventually he became persuaded that she was just this. It seems likely that Solomon wrote down his inspired Proverbs (a result of the wisdom God  gave  him) and the Song about the same time. In Proverbs he uses  the figure of a well of living water to describe spiritual words  and  thinking (Prov.10:11; 13:14; 14:27; 16:22). Yet this is  the  very  figure which he uses concerning his worldly bride (Song of Solomon  4:15).   This   typifies   the   massive  imputation  of righteousness  which  the  Lord  Jesus grants to us, his worldly Gentile bride.

There  are  a  number  of  connections  between the behaviour of Solomon  and  his  girlfriend  in  the  Song  and  Solomon's own warnings against Gentile marriage in Proverbs.  

Yet  Solomon  was  aware, at least theoretically, of the foolish path  he was going down. God had inspired him with the wisdom of Prov. 2:16,17, which warned that wisdom would save a man from the Gentile  woman who made a covenant with the God of Israel in her youth (in order to marry an Israelite, by implication), but soon forgot it. This was exactly, exactly the case of Solomon; yet he just  couldn't  see  the personal relevance of his own wisdom to himself. Solomon could write of the folly of the ruler who oppressed the poor (Prov. 22:16)- and yet do just that very thing. The Proverbs so frequently refer to the dangers of the house of the Gentile woman; yet the Song shows the Egyptian girl dearly wishing that Solomon would come with her into her house. And  Solomon,  just  like  the foolish young man he wrote about, went right ahead down the road to spiritual disaster he so often warned others about. He warns the young man of the dangers of the Egyptian woman who perfumes her bed with myrrh (Prov. 7:16,17)- and then falls for just such a woman (Ps. 45:8). This woman he warns of appears to want to serve Yahweh, and presents herself in the very language of the tabernacle (Prov. 7:14,16,17). And yet Solomon goes and falls for just such a woman. One can only conclude that the more true spiritual knowledge we have, the more prone we are to do the very opposite. Such is our nature.

Solomon's assumption that he was Messiah, the promised seed of David, presumably led him to assume that he was likewise the promised seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. No less that four times he calls his Egyptian girlfriend "my sister, my spouse" (Song 4:9,10,12; 5:1). This repeated emphasis seems to me to be an allusion to the way in which the patriarchs called their wives their sisters (Gen. 12:10-20; 20:1-18; 26:6-11). And yet clearly enough, these incidents were lapses of faith for which they were rebuked. Yet Solomon didn't want to see it like that; they did it, therefore he could. David his father had horses and many wives; therefore he could. His sense of morality, of right and wrong, was controlled by the precedents set by his worthy ancestors. And so often we see this in supposedly Christian lives- the weak elements of our fathers we tend to feel are perfectly acceptable for us too. We do just what Paul says we should not do- we compare ourselves amongst and against ourselves, rather than against the Lord Jesus (2 Cor. 10:12).

Parts of the Song are very sexually explicit once the fairly obvious allusions are figured out. He's describing the vaginal lips of his girlfriend, his intended spouse (Song 4:1,3,8 etc.); and he has seen "behind your veil", the symbol of her virginity (Song 4:1 RV). And yet he glorifies all this in his song. Quite clearly, Solomon was guilty of fornication with the one whom he wished to marry, although the ending of the Song seems to imply the relationship somehow broke up. And this was all right at the beginning of his reign. He seems to have assumed that if he thought his behaviour was OK, then it was. It's rather like how he declared the middle court to be "holy" and a kind of extended altar (2 Chron. 7:7)- he doesn't ask God if God would sanctify it, he just decides what is holy and what isn't- Solomon played God, and it led him into sin and loss of faith in God.

The Song Of Solomon: No Eternal Romance

The key to understanding the Song is to appreciate that we have here a set of dialogues- Solomon to his Egyptian girlfriend, the Egyptian girl to him, words of the daughters of Jerusalem to the girl and the girl to them. Breaking up the text into these sections isn't easy, as sometimes the break can occur within a verse. The best attempt I'm aware of is in the Net Bible.

The Song begins by the daughters of Jerusalem and the Egyptian girl being in some kind of competition for Solomon; they both state their desire for him, and both of them compare his love to wine (1:2, 4). Note how the Song doesn't begin as a romance is supposed to- with the first meeting, love at first sight scene. As early as 1:2 she comments that "your lovemaking is more delightful than wine". This is all a subversion of the whole genre of romance. So the Song begins with the relationship already advanced, and with intense rivalry between the girl and the "daughters of Jerusalem". The Egyptian justifies her darker complexion to the Jerusalem girls, and praises her own beauty: "I am black but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem" (1:5). There's evident aggression from her to them: "Don't stare at me because I am dark!" (1:6). Her despisal of the Jerusalem girls is perhaps reflected in 1:6,7, where she asks Solomon: "Where do you rest your sheep during the midday heat? Tell me lest I wander around beside the flocks of your companions!". His "companions" presumably were the daughters of Jerusalem, and she didn't want to be anywhere near them. She likewise yells at them not to sexually stimulate her lover, Solomon (2:7). And I take "My beloved is mine" (2:16) to be the same catty kind of defensiveness. The girl is jealous of how the daughters of Jerusalem admire Solomon, not least because of his fame in Israelite circles: "thy name is as ointment poured forth; therefore do the virgins love thee" (1:3); "How rightly the young women adore you!" (1:4). "Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? Where has your beloved turned? Tell us, that we may seek him with you" (6:1) appears none less than sarcasm from the daughters.

So often there's the sense of urgency and haste- perhaps rooted in the girl's fear of competition from the daughters of Jerusalem: "Draw me after you; let us hurry! May the king bring me into his bedroom chambers!" (1:4). This would also explain the quite unabashed sexual seduction practiced by the girl- she begs Solomon to take her to his bedroom right here at the start of the Song (1:4), and later says things like "May my beloved come into his garden and eat its delightful fruit!" (4:16). This is all inappropriate for a romance, and in ancient Israel such forwardness would have been greatly frowned upon. In Proverbs, Solomon often warns against falling for the forwardness of the Gentile immoral woman; and yet he falls for it himself.

Solomon clearly was aware of the tension between the Egyptian girl whom he loved, and the daughters of Jerusalem- from whom he should've been choosing a wife. The girl says she is merely a common "meadow flower from Sharon", but Solomon responds that in his eyes, "like a lily among thorns, so is my darling among the maidens" (2:1,2). He likens the Jerusalem girls to thorns- he was besotted with this Gentile. Ironically enough, Num. 33:55 had warned that the Gentiles within the land promised to Abraham would be "thorns" to Israel if they married them. And yet Solomon sees the Israelite women as "thorns" and the Gentile as a lily amongst them... . He likewise compares her to them in 6:8,9: "There may be sixty queens, and eighty concubines, and young women without number. But she is unique...". But despite this, the girl seems to always fear Solomon's attraction to the Jerusalem girls. She challenges him: "Why do you gaze upon the Perfect One [as Solomon called her] like the dance of the Mahanaim?" (6:13), the dance of the two camps / lines. She suspects there may be two camps in Solomon's mind.

It was because of the impossible tension between the Egyptian girl and the Jerusalem maidens that there's the constant theme of needing to hold meetings in secrecy, often in the countryside or mountains around Jerusalem ("in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places of the mountain crags, let me see your face", 2:14), and to "go away" in order to be together- e.g. 2:13 "come away my darling; my beautiful one, come away with me!”. They appear to have slept together in the open air, beneath the trees: "The lush foliage is our canopied bed; the cedars are the beams of our bedroom chamber;the pines are the rafters of our bedroom" (1:16,17). The same impression of outdoors secret romance is to be found in 7:11 "Come, my beloved, let us go to the countryside; let us spend the night in the villages". 2:17 and 4:6 suggest they spent a night together in the hills, and then before dawn Solomon got back to Jerusalem. 5:2 has Solomon coming to her room secretly at night, wet with the night dew. Chapter 3 appears to tell of a dream she has, a nightmare actually, of how Solomon failed to turn up at a night time rendezvous in Jerusalem, and she distraught and desperate wanders around the city, is picked up by the night watchmen, but finally finds Solomon and drags him back to her mother's house [in Egypt]. I find the passage very powerful- it's so imaginable as a nightmare which a girl in her situation would have. Her deepest desire was to get Solomon back to Egypt, into her family... and thus she dreamt of it. And likewise her subconscious awareness of the tension between her and the people of Jerusalem comes out too; yet again she charges the daughters of Jerusalem not to stimulate Solomon. Straight after this is the passage which speaks about Solomon's wedding (3:6-11), with the daughters of Zion looking on as Solomon rides in from the desert and goes through the wedding day procedures (3:11), and they do no more than decorate the interior of his wedding chariot (3:10). I take this to be part of her night time dream which began in 3:1. The daughters of Jerusalem mock her for it at the very end: " Who is this coming up from the desert, leaning on her beloved?" (8:5). We expect a romantic song to end with the wedding; but it doesn't. It ends with the couple parting; and this dream wedding is no more than the Egyptian girl fantasizing. The fact the wedding 'scene' or dream comes in the middle of the song rather than at the end is again a subversion of the whole genre of romance. The climax is in the wrong place. And this just indicates how unfulfilling are relationships which flout Divine principles.

Because of all this, there is a sense of on-off relationship throughout the Song. One moment she is sick of love (2:5), the next she claims Solomon had caressed her head with one hand and fingered her with the other (2:6). The very explicit language of 2:6 sits strangely if the Song is intended to be some wonderful romance building up to the climax of marriage. Another example is in 5:8, where after Solomon gives up on visiting the girl one night, she angrily tells the daughters of Jerusalem that as far as she's concerned, they can tell Solomon that she [too?] is sick of love. But when they sarcastically call her "O most beautiful of women" and enquire what she exactly loves about Solomon (5:9). she comes out with a great speech of praise for him (5:10-16). The seeking and not finding him of chapter 5 all suggests he had temporarily rejected her, after she had been lazy to open the door to him (Song of Solomon 3:2; 5:6- these passages are the basis of NT teaching about Christ’s rejection of his unworthy bride. See Judgment To Come and ‘Loving His Appearing’ in Beyond Bible Basics).

The girl wants to see in Solomon one as dark and Egyptian-looking as herself. Having said that she is "dark" in complexion (1:4,6), she later comments in 5:11 that to her, Solomon is also "dark" [s.w.]. She says 5:11 to the daughters of Jerusalem, as if in defence of her relationship with Solomon, and his choosing her rather than them. In the same way as he tried to see in her an Israelite woman, "O daughter of my princely people" (when she was the daughter of the Egyptian Pharaoh, 6:12 cp. 7:1), comparing her body parts to various geographical places in Israel (e.g. goats on Gilead, 4:1; the tower of David, 4:4; "as beautiful as Tirzah, as lovely as Jerusalem" 6:4), so she tried to see him as an Egyptian. They were trying to see each other as who they were not... and so the relationship was doomed to failure. Right from the start, the girl feels that Solomon isn't giving her the complete passion of his love: "Oh, how I wish you would kiss me passionately! For your lovemaking is more delightful than wine" (1:2).

The Song ends without the famous final scene which we expect in a romance. The expectation of a wedding and walking off into the sunset is subverted by the concluding songs. The girl laments how she can't kiss Solomon publically or be with him without being despised; and longs to be able to take him back to her mother in Egypt (8:1,2). She utters the final warning to the daughters of Jerusalem not to stimulate Solomon, and then breaks down with the lament that jealousy is cruel as death (8:6) and unrequited love is impossible; Solomon's true love cannot be bought by her. The daughters of Jerusalem then speak of how they have a younger sister whose breasts aren't yet developed, but they will care for her until she is ready for Solomon (8:8,9). The Egyptian girl then reminisces in the past tense: "I was a wall, and my breasts were like fortress towers. Then I found favor in his eyes" (8:10). Solomon throughout the Songs has commented positively upon her breasts; and now she is left to lament that that is all just how it was, it's all over now. She then makes the enigmatic comment about how Solomon has a vineyard which he leases out, and yet she is a vineyard which belongs to her alone: "My vineyard, which belongs to me, is at my disposal alone". The Songs have likened her to a vineyard (Song 2:13,15), and her romantic meetings with Solomon appear to have sometimes been in a vineyard. Solomon spoke of her breasts as grapes (7:7). But Solomon's vineyard, she says, was associated with Baal-Hamon- Lord / husband of a multitude. She finally realized that he was a womanizer, who would go on to have over 1000 women in his life... Lord [or husband] of a multitude. Perhaps his 1000 wives and concubines lay behind her reference to the 1000 shekels that Solomon can have for his vineyard (8:12). But now she was splitting up with him, her vineyard was hers alone, her grapes were now solely at her disposal and were not his any more. The final couplet of the Song is one of bitter sarcasm, typical of the worst order of romantic breakup. Solomon says that his "companions"- the daughters of Jerusalem whom she had so hated- are listening carefully to her, as he is. And she responds by telling him to run away, whilst still calling him her "beloved"- for although jealousy is cruel as the grave, her love for him was unquenchable by many waters. So the Song ends with Solomon in rather a bad light- off to his next women, whilst the Egyptian girl walks off the scene bitterly protesting her love for him and how she's a victim of circumstance and jealousy. Yet Solomon, presumably, authored the Song. I read it therefore in the same way as I do Ecclesiastes- his jaded statement of how life has been for him, how he sought fulfilment of his human lusts but it never worked out, leaving him with a tragic sense of unfulfilment because he had not gone God's way.

APPENDIX: Song Of Solomon [NET Bible translation]

1:1Solomon’s Most Excellent Love Song.

The Beloved to Her Lover: 

1:2 Oh, how I wish you would kiss me passionately! For your lovemaking is more delightful than wine. 1:3 The fragrance of your colognes is delightful; your name is like the finest perfume. No wonder the young women adore you!1:4 Draw me after you; let us hurry! May the king bring me into his bedroom chambers!  

The Maidens to the Lover:

We will rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine.

The Beloved to Her Lover:

How rightly the young women adore you!

The Beloved to the Maidens:

1:5 I am dark but lovely, O maidens of Jerusalem,dark like the tents of Qedar, lovely like the tent curtains of Salmah. 1:6 Do not stare at me because I am dark,for the sun has burned my skin. My brothers were angry with me;they made me the keeper of the vineyards.Alas, my own vineyard   I could not keep!

The Beloved to Her Lover:

1:7 Tell me, O you whom my heart loves,where do you pasture your sheep?Where do you rest your sheep during the midday heat?Tell me lest I wander around beside the flocks of your companions!

The Lover to His Beloved:

1:8 If you do not know, O most beautiful of women,simply follow the tracks of my flock,and pasture your little lambs beside the tents of the shepherds.

The Lover to His Beloved:

1:9 O my beloved, you are like a mare among Pharaoh’s stallions. 1:10 Your cheeks are beautiful with ornaments;your neck is lovely with strings of jewels.1:11 We will make for you gold ornaments studded with silver.  

The Beloved about Her Lover:

1:12 While the king was at his banqueting table, my nard gave forth its fragrance. 1:13 My beloved is like a fragrant pouch of myrrh spending the night between my breasts.1:14 My beloved is like a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of En-Gedi.  

The Lover to His Beloved:

1:15 Oh, how beautiful you are, my beloved! Oh, how beautiful you are!Your eyes are like doves!  

The Beloved to Her Lover:

1:16 Oh, how handsome you are, my lover! Oh, how delightful you are!The lush foliage is our canopied bed; 1:17 the cedars are the beams of our bedroom chamber;the pines are the rafters of our bedroom.

The Beloved to Her Lover:

2:1 I am a meadow flower from Sharon, a lily from the valleys.

The Lover to His Beloved:

2:2 Like a lily among the thorns, so is my darling among the maidens.

The Beloved about Her Lover:

2:3 Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste. The Banquet Hall for the Love-Sick

The Beloved about Her Lover:

2:4 He brought me   into the banquet hall, and he looked at me lovingly. 2:5 Sustain me with raisin cakes, refresh me with apples, with love. 2:6 His left hand caresses my head,  and his right hand stimulates me.

The Beloved to the Maidens:

2:7 I adjure you, O maidens of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and by the young does of the open fields: Do not awaken or arouse love until it pleases! 

The Beloved about Her Lover:

2:8 Listen! My lover is approaching! Look! Here he comes,leaping over the mountains,bounding over the hills! 2:9 My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag.Look! There he stands behind our wall, gazing through the window, peering through the lattice.

The Lover to His Beloved:

2:10 My lover spoke to me, saying: “Arise, my darling; My beautiful one, come away with me! 2:11 Look! The winter has passed, the winter rains are over and gone. 2:12 The pomegranates have appeared in the land,the time for pruning and singing has come;the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.2:13 The fig tree has budded,the vines have blossomed and give off their fragrance.Arise, come away my darling;my beautiful one, come away with me!”

The Lover to His Beloved:

2:14 O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,in the hiding places of the mountain crags,let me see your face,let me hear your voice;for your voice is sweet,and your face is lovely.

The Beloved to Her Lover:

2:15 Catch the foxes for us,the little foxes, that ruin the vineyards –for our vineyard is in bloom.

The Beloved about Her Lover:

2:16 My lover is mine and I am his;he grazes among the lilies.  

The Beloved to Her Lover:

2:17 Until the dawn arrives and the shadows flee,turn, my beloved –be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountain gorges.

The Beloved about Her Lover:

3:1 All night long on my bed I longed for my lover. I longed for him but he never appeared. 3:2 “I will arise and look all around throughout the town,and throughout the streets and squares;I will search for my beloved.”I searched for him but I did not find him. 3:3 The night watchmen found me – the ones who guard the city walls. “Have you seen my beloved?”. 3:4 Scarcely had I passed them by when I found my beloved! I held onto him tightly and would not let him go until I brought him to my mother’s house, to the bedroom chamber of the one who conceived me.

The Beloved to the Maidens:

3:5 I admonish you, O maidens of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and by the young does of the open fields: “Do not awake or arouse love until it pleases!”

The Speaker: 

3:6 Who is this coming up from the desert like a column of smoke, like a fragrant billow of myrrh and frankincense, every kind of fragrant powder of the traveling merchants? 3:7 Look! It is Solomon’s portable couch! It is surrounded by sixty warriors, some of Israel’s mightiest warriors. 3:8 All of them are skilled with a sword, well-trained in the art of warfare.Each has his sword at his side, to guard against the terrors of the night. 3:9 King Solomon made a sedan chair for himself of wood imported from Lebanon. 3:10 Its posts were made of silver; its back was made of gold. Its seat was upholstered with purple wool; its interior was inlaid with leather by the maidens of Jerusalem. 3:11 Come out, O maidens of Zion, and gaze upon King Solomon! He is wearing the crown with which his mother crowned him on his wedding day,on the most joyous day of his life.

The Lover to His Beloved:

4:1 Oh, you are beautiful, my darling! Oh, you are beautiful!Your eyes behind your veil are like doves. Your hair is like a flock of female goats descending from Mount Gilead.4:2 Your teeth are like a flock of newly-shorn sheep coming up from the washing place; each of them has a twin,and not one of them is missing.4:3 Your lips are like a scarlet thread; your mouth is lovely.Your forehead behind your veil is like a slice of pomegranate.4:4 Your neck is like the tower of David built with courses of stones; one thousand shields are hung on it –all shields of valiant warriors. 4:5 Your two breasts are like two fawns,twins of the gazelle grazing among the lilies.4:6 Until the dawn arrives and the shadows flee,I will go up to the mountain of myrrh,and to the hill of frankincense.4:7 You are altogether beautiful, my darling!There is no blemish in you!

4:8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride,come with me from Lebanon.Descend from the crest of Amana,from the top of Senir, the summit of Hermon,from the lions’ dens and the mountain haunts of the leopards.4:9 You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride!You have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.4:10 How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride!How much better is your love than wine;the fragrance of your perfume is better than any spice!4:11 Your lips drip sweetness like the honeycomb, my bride,honey and milk are under your tongue.The fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

The Lover to His Beloved:

4:12 You are a locked garden, my sister, my bride;you are an enclosed spring, a sealed-up fountain.4:13 Your shoots are a royal garden full of pomegranates with choice fruits:henna with nard,4:14 nard and saffron;calamus and cinnamon with every kind of spice,myrrh and aloes with all the finest spices. 4:15 You are a garden spring, a well of fresh water   flowing down from Lebanon.

The Beloved to Her Lover:

4:16 Awake, O north wind; come, O south wind!Blow on my garden so that its fragrant spices may send out their sweet smell. May my beloved come into his garden and eat its delightful fruit!

The Lover to His Beloved:

5:1 I have entered my garden, O my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my balsam spice. I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk!

The Poet to the Couple:

Eat, friends, and drink! Drink freely, O lovers!

The Beloved about Her Lover:

5:2 I was asleep, but my mind was dreaming. Listen! My lover is knocking at the door!  

The Lover to His Beloved:

“Open for me, my sister, my darling,my dove, my flawless one!My head is drenched with dew,my hair with the dampness of the night.”

The Beloved to Her Lover:

5:3 “I have already taken off my robe – must I put it on again?I have already washed my feet – must I soil them again?”

5:4 My lover thrust his hand through the hole, 5:5 I arose to open for my beloved;my hands dripped with myrrh –my fingers flowed with myrrh on the handles of the lock.5:6 I opened for my beloved,but my lover had already turned and gone away. I fell into despair when he departed. I looked for him but did not find him;I called him but he did not answer me.5:7 The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city.They beat me, they bruised me;they took away my cloak, those watchmen on the walls!

The Beloved to the Maidens:

5:8 O maidens of Jerusalem, I command you –If you find my beloved, what will you tell him?Tell him that I am lovesick!  

The Maidens to The Beloved:

5:9 Why is your beloved better than others, O most beautiful of women?Why is your beloved better than others,that you would command us in this manner?

The Beloved to the Maidens:

5:10 My beloved is dazzling and ruddy; he stands out in comparison to all other men. 5:11 His head is like the most pure gold. His hair is curly – black like a raven.5:12 His eyes are like doves by streams of water,washed in milk, mounted like jewels.5:13 His cheeks are like garden beds full of balsam trees yielding perfume.His lips are like lilies dripping with drops of myrrh.5:14 His arms are like rods of gold set with chrysolite.His abdomen is like polished ivory inlaid with sapphires.5:15 His legs are like pillars of marble set on bases of pure gold.His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as its cedars.5:16 His mouth is very sweet; he is totally desirable. This is my beloved!This is my companion, O maidens of Jerusalem!

The Maidens to the Beloved:

6:1 Where has your beloved gone,O most beautiful among women?Where has your beloved turned?Tell us, that we may seek him with you.  

The Beloved to the Maidens:

6:2 My beloved has gone down to his garden,to the flowerbeds of balsam spices, to graze in the gardens,and to gather lilies.

The Beloved about Her Lover:

6:3 I am my lover’s and my lover is mine; he grazes among the lilies.

The Lover to His Beloved:

6:4 My darling, you are as beautiful as Tirzah, as lovely as Jerusalem, as awe-inspiring as bannered armies!6:5 Turn your eyes away from me –they overwhelm me!Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Mount Gilead.6:6 Your teeth are like a flock of sheep coming up from the washing; each has its twin; not one of them is missing.6:7 Like a slice of pomegranate is your forehead behind your veil.6:8 There may be sixty queens,and eighty concubines,and young women without number.6:9 But she is unique! My dove, my perfect one!She is the special daughter of her mother,she is the favorite of the one who bore her.The maidens saw her and complimented her; the queens and concubines praised her: 6:10 “Who is this who appears like the dawn? Beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun,awe-inspiring as the stars in procession?”

The Lover to His Beloved: 

6:11 I went down to the orchard of walnut trees, to look for the blossoms of the valley,to see if the vines had budded or if the pomegranates were in bloom.6:12 I was beside myself with joy!There please give me your myrrh, O daughter of my princely people.

The Lover to His Beloved:

6:13 (7:1) Turn , turn, O Perfect One! Turn, turn, that I may stare at you!

The Beloved to Her Lover:

Why do you gaze upon the Perfect One like the dance of the Mahanaim?

The Lover to His Beloved:

7:1 (7:2) How beautiful are your sandaled feet,O nobleman’s daughter! The curves of your thighs are like jewels,the work of the hands of a master craftsman.7:2 Your navel is a round mixing bowl - may it never lack mixed wine! Your belly is a mound of wheat,encircled by lilies.7:3 Your two breasts are like two fawns,twins of a gazelle.7:4 Your neck is like a tower made of ivory. Your eyes are the pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bath-Rabbim. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon overlooking Damascus.7:5 Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel. The locks of your hair are like royal tapestries –the king is held captive in its tresses!7:6 How beautiful you are! How lovely,O love, with your delights!

The Lover to His Beloved:

7:7 Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts are like clusters of grapes. 7:8 I want to climb the palm tree, and take hold of its fruit stalks.May your breasts be like the clusters of grapes, and may the fragrance of your breath be like apricots! 7:9 May your mouth be like the best wine,flowing smoothly for my beloved,gliding gently over our lips as we sleep together.

The Beloved about Her Lover:

7:10 I am my beloved’s,and he desires me!  

The Beloved to Her Lover:

7:11 Come, my beloved, let us go to the countryside;let us spend the night in the villages.7:12 Let us rise early to go to the vineyards,to see if the vines have budded,to see if their blossoms have opened,if the pomegranates are in bloom –there I will give you my love.7:13 The mandrakes send out their fragrance;over our door is every delicacy, both new and old, which I have stored up for you, my loverr

The Beloved to Her Lover:

8:1 Oh, how I wish you were my little brother, nursing at my mother’s breasts;if I saw you outside, I could kiss you –surely no one would despise me! 8:2 I would lead you and bring you to my mother’s house,the one who taught me. I would give you spiced wine to drink,  the nectar of my pomegranates.  

The Beloved about Her Lover:

8:3 His left hand caresses my head,and his right hand stimulates me.

The Beloved to the Maidens:

8:4 I admonish you, O maidens of Jerusalem:“Do not arouse or awaken love until it pleases!”

The Maidens about His Beloved:

8:5 Who is this coming up from the desert, leaning on her beloved?

The Beloved to Her Lover:

Under the apple tree I aroused you; there your mother conceived you, there she who bore you was in labor of childbirth.  

The Beloved to Her Lover:

8:6 Set me like a cylinder seal over your heart, like a signet on your arm. For love is as strong as death, passion is as unrelenting as Sheol. Its flames burst forth, it is a blazing flame. 8:7 Surging waters cannot quench love; floodwaters   cannot overflow it. If someone were to offer all his possessions to buy love, the offer would be utterly despised.

The Beloved’s Brothers:

8:8 We have a little sister, and as yet she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is spoken for? 8:9 If she is a wall, we will build on her a battlement of silver; but if she is a door, we will barricade her with boards of cedar.

The Beloved:

8:10 I was a wall, and my breasts were like fortress towers. Then I found favor in his eyes.  

The Beloved to Her Lover:

8:11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-Hamon;he leased out the vineyard to those who maintained it.Each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit.8:12 My vineyard, which belongs to me, is at my disposal alone. The thousand shekels belong to you, O Solomon,and two hundred shekels belong to those who maintain it for its fruit.

The Lover to His Beloved:

8:13 O you who stay in the gardens,my companions are listening attentively for your voice;let me be the one to hear it!  

The Beloved to Her Lover:

8:14 Make haste, my beloved!Be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spice