This comparison of wine with blood and with a joy that carries beyond reason shows is what God means life to be. Blood stands for life in the Bible. Lev. 17:11 says: "For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life." And Ps. 16:11 links life to joy by saying: "You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand." The Song of Songs binds life, love and joy together. Life on the highest plane is a life of joy and love. This is the trinity of mysteries that God wants us to possess. Love is the key to the mystery. As the German poet Goethe has said: "Shouting for joy to high Heaven, or being sad unto death; only the soul that loves is happy."[ 5 ] The apostle Paul catches this vision in his Song of Love, which is the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians.
I know that Solomon speaks about erotic love, but we have to remember throughout the reading of this hymn that erotic love is an aspect of the whole complex of love. Divine love is a combination of agape, eros, phileo and the other. The fact that, as human beings, we experience and express love imperfectly and partially, does not mean that love itself is less than perfect. God is love.
After having carried us off with the intoxication of a kiss, the girl proceeds to say: "Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the maidens love you!" (vs. 3). She goes from one sensual experience to another. The nose follows the mouth. The perfume is what we smell.
We have to remember that "name" stands for character in the Bible. The Name of God is the character of God and people we given names, not just as appellations, but as identifications; that is to express their identity. So the perfume in this verse is not what is applied to the skin, but was is under the skin, inside. The girl loves the boy, not only because he is handsome but because of the beauty of his character. Real beauty is inside.
If a character that is flawed by sin can be beautiful and attractive, how much more the character of the only perfect human being who ever lived on earth: our Lord Jesus Christ. That is why we believe that, although this Song deals with love between two flawed human beings, it points in the direction of the perfect relationship of which marriage is a vague expression. One day the Song of Solomon will be the Song of Songs, the Song of the Lamb.
Some of the sacrifices that were brought in the Old Testament rituals were called "an aroma pleasing to the LORD." The expression is used seventeen times in the book of Leviticus. Paul, again, expresses this so beautifully in II Cor. 2:15-16 when he says: "For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life." It is what is inside of us that makes us smell bad or good.
This idea underlies also Peter's words in I Pet. 3:1-4 when he says: "Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight."
The difference between the city of Babylon and the New Jerusalem, the harlot and the bride of Christ, in the book of Revelation is that the prostitute is covered with jewels on the outside, but the bride of Christ has inner glory. Rev. 17:4 reads: "The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. But in Rev. 21:10-11 we read that "the Holy City, Jerusalem, [that is the bride of the Lamb] .... shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal."
It may seem strange to us that the girl continues with: "No wonder the maidens love you!" The KJV translates it with: "therefore do the virgins love thee." The Tyndale Commentary says: "Maidens are unmarried young women of marriageable age. The word itself does not necessarily mean 'virgin' (that is sexually inexperienced), but the common Old Testament position on pre-marital sexual purity is clear (cf. Dt.22:13-29). Every 'maiden' ('almah) is assumed to be virgin and virtuous until she is proven not to be. In 6:8, the only other use of this word in the Song, the 'maidens' are distinguished as a separate group from the 'queens and concubines.'" So, this reference to other girls points in the direction of the common infatuations girls have had for boys throughout the centuries, not to illicit relationships the young man might have had. The fact that, out of all the maidens the Shulammite is the chosen one adds considerably to the excitement she feels about her beloved. She knows she is unique.
Girls can be silly by falling in love with a handsome young man. But the object of the girl's love here is pictured as a perfect human being. Such a man does not exist on earth. It is only because love is blind that the feelings that are describe here can flow. Yet, the lover here is pictured as perfect, not because the girl is blind, but because the object of her love is perfect. We can dismiss this as poetical exaggeration, but we lose something if we do this. Just as God has put eternity in the heart of every man[ 6 ], so every man has a picture of perfection in his mind. We may never have seen perfection, but we would know it if we saw it. Deep down we know that man is created in the image of God and that he should be perfect. The only perfect man who ever lived is our Lord Jesus Christ. That is why many of the pictures in this poem are applied to Christ in Christians hymns.
Vs. 4 leads us into a problem which is crucial to the interpretation of the whole book. "Take me away with you-- let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers. We rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine. How right they are to adore you!" There is the urgency that is spurred by love and at the same time there is a lack of privacy in that the plural form is continued to be used.
The interpretation of the word "king" leads to various interpretations of the Song. The Tyndale Commentary says: "This section is a key one in the various dramatic theories of interpretation of the Song. .... It is one of five places in the Song where the word kings is used (1:4, 12; 3:9, 11; 7:5). Those who see three main characters in the Song, the beloved, the lover and King Solomon, understand this section to be a plea for the lover to hurry to save her from the king who has already taken her (against her will) into his bedroom. If there are only two characters in the poem (Solomon and his new bride), this is her acknowledgment that the consummation of the marriage is at hand. Such a view, however, has difficulty with the shift to the third person here from the cohortative in the first colon."
Evidently, it is impossible to be sure whether the passage really deals with Solomon or not. It could very well be that Solomon is drawn into the picture as a comparison. The love between the girl and the boy is "fit for a king." The use of the plural in "We rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine. How right they are to adore you!" could mean that the girl speaks for womanhood. Her joy, delight and praise is the praise of all women for a man such as he. It is an acknowledgment that God has put desire in a woman's heart that can only be fulfilled by the perfect lover. And, as we said before in quoting C. S. Lewis, we are all female in comparison with God's character. Only He can satisfy the desire that He has created in us. The consummation the girls longs for is more than mere sexual intercourse. It is the fulfillment of what she is meant to be; of what we are all meant to be.
In vs. 5-7 we read about, what the Tyndale Commentary calls " The girl's shy uncertainty." The "daughters of Jerusalem" are brought into the picture at this point. We find this group of young girls or virgins seven times in this book. The other references are 2:7; 3:5,10; 5:8,16 and 8:4. They are always addressed by the girl. They may be seen as the audience or as a chorus the form the decor for the various scenes described. Jesus uses the title when he addressed the women on His way to the cross. "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children." (Luke 23:28). Bach uses this particular group of women beautifully in his oratorio The Saint Matthew Passion. In the context in which Jesus uses the title those women represent the whole nation of Israel. They are God's people. It could very well be that they play the same role in the Song here and that they stand for that section of mankind that has surrendered to the will of God.
"Dark am I, yet lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, dark like the tents of Kedar, like the tent curtains of Solomon." Evidently the girl stands out from the crowd by the color of her skin. Some commentators suppose that she was a black girl, that is from Negroid descent. The rendering of the NIV "Dark am I," brings out the emphatic way in which the words are used. The Tyndale Commentary remarks that the expression "I am" is rather unusual because, normally, the first person is indicated in the verb ending instead of by the use of the first person singular pronoun.
The girl is, evidently, conscious of the fact that she is different from her peers by the color of her skin. The following verses that explain the reason for her deep tan suggest that she is a common working girl, who does not posses the refinement of the other girls. She compares herself to the tents of Kedar, the tents that are covered with the black goat hair skin of the nomadic tribes. TLB draws a line between the tents of Kedar and the tent curtains of Solomon by assigning the first part of the sentence to the girl and the second part to Solomon. "The Girl: 'I am dark but beautiful, O girls of Jerusalem, tanned as the dark tents of Kedar.' King Solomon: 'But lovely as the silken tents of Solomon!'"
It takes courage to stand out from the crowd. The fact that the girl is different from other girls would put her under a good bit of pressure. It is much easier to be fashionable. Yet it is the difference that attracts her lover to her. Of the other girls there may be thirteen in a dozen. She is unique.
Unfortunately, her uniqueness is a result of neglect. She had spent too many hours in the sun, not because she wanted to, but because she was forced into it by her brothers. Vs. 6 reads: "Do not stare at me because I am dark, because I am darkened by the sun. My mother's sons were angry with me and made me take care of the vineyards; my own vineyard I have neglected." The vineyard is, obviously, more than a piece of garden ground where grapes were grown. It stands for human life and personality. Later in the poem the girls private life is compared to a garden. "You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain. You are a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon. Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread abroad. Let my lover come into his garden and taste its choice fruits."[ 7 ] That image probably refers to her virginity and the consummation of the marriage.
So, the point the girl wants to make is that her brothers did not allow her to live her own life. In our day and age, were it is fashionable to search for one's identity and where invasions of privacy are viewed as emotional abuse, this image is very powerful and relevant. It tells us that a lack of love and respect, such as the brothers of the girl demonstrated, leads to a sense of loss of identity. We only know who we are when we are loved. As the girl starts to experience this love she realizes what had gone wrong in her life. In Ezek. 17:3-10 God compares the nation of Israel to a vine.
The use of this image reaches its climax in Jesus' words in John 15:1-8, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." Immediately following these words Jesus speaks about love. The two are linked together there, as well as in the Song of Solomon. A human life will only be fruitful and meaningful as it experiences love; love on a human level, but ultimately the love of God.
So, the girl comes to the one she loves and who loves her with her scorched life and she starts to experience immediate healing. She starts to feel good about herself and her self image improves, to use those ugly modern terms. When I express myself sarcastically it is because of the fad of the search for identity that permeates of our day, not because there is no reality behind it. Outside of the love of God we are being used and abused, not only by our "brothers" but by the devil. We only become ourselves as we surrender ourselves to the Lord.
Vs. 7 reads: "Tell me, you whom I love, where you graze your flock and where you rest your sheep at midday. Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your friends?"
The next picture has the same pastoral character as the first one, but it is more idyllic. We move from the vineyard to the pasture. This is poetry to the highest degree. We should look beyond the image of the shepherd and the sheep in the same way as we must do in Psalm 23:1-2, "The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters," is not about sheep and shepherds but about God and man. So it is in this poem. The grazing flock gives color and rest and at the same time is speaks about a job. What the girls is asking is, "What are you doing today? Where will you be?" TLB brings this out quite well by saying: "Tell me, O one I love, where are you leading your flock today? Where will you be at noon? For I will come and join you there instead of wandering like a vagabond among the flocks of your companions."
The Hymn writer Joseph Sevain wrote the beautiful hymn: O Thou, in Whose Presence my Soul takes Delight.[ 8 ] This hymn is based, at least partly, upon this verse. The 2nd and 3rd stanza read:
Where dost Thou, dear Shepherd resort with They sheep,
To feed them in pastures of love?
Say, why in the valley of death should I weep, Or alone in the wilderness rove?
Oh, Why should I wander, an alien from Thee,
Or cry in the desert for bread?
My foes will rejoice when my sorrows they see.
And smile at the tears I have shed?
The work in the vineyard was hard labor. It was related to the curse Adam brought upon this earth. The girl had toiled in "the sweat of her brow." Shepherding sheep is not an image of the curse. The strenuous part of the job is overlooked for the sake of the atmosphere of peace and rest. David, in his painting of the 23rd Psalm said: "He restores my soul." There is a healing element in the picture. The restoration loves brings is expressed in a pastoral scene. The question: "Tell me, you whom I love, where you graze your flock and where you rest your sheep at midday," is not just an inquiry into the man's time schedule, but a desire to share love and rest.
The part about the girl being veiled is considered by most commentators as a reference to the practice of girls of ill repute to keep the company of shepherds. The Tyndale Commentary says: "The girl seeks to avoid the scandal of appearing as a wandering harlot among the shepherds." I doubt that this is what the girl has in mind in the use of the verb "veiled." Being in love the way she is, the thought of the possibility of giving herself illicitly to someone else could hardly have entered her mind.
Prostitutes are not the only persons who wear veils. Most people do, although not in a physical way. The veil is just as much part of the shame of sin as the clothes we wear. It is embarrassing to be seen naked in the physical sense; it is unbearable to be found naked emotionally. Even people who love each other deeply never open up completely for one another. We are too much a mystery to ourselves to be able to unveil all our secrets to another person. Only God can see through us. And since the love in this poem is a reflection of the perfect love of God for us and the love we will be able to demonstrate for Him in Heaven, the unveiling of the girl for the boy expresses this deep truth of perfect love.
The apostle Paul expresses this beautifully several times in his first epistles to the Corinthians. "But the man who loves God is known by God. ... Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."[ 9 ]
There seems to be something strange in the advice to follow the tracks of the sheep, especially if there were other herds around. It sounds as if the shepherd boy is saying that his sheep are not the same as the others. They are special to him and he expects the girl to recognize their special features as well as he does. He would be able to look at the prints of the hoofs and recognize his herd.
This reminds us of Jesus words in John 10: "The sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice. I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me."[ 10 ]
If a shepherd is good to his sheep he will also be good to his fellowmen. I know people who love their pets more than their fellow human beings. But this is an abnormal tendency. I also know people who cannot stand pets. A healthy soul will love all God's creatures, great and small. The way the lover invites the girl to be with him is an indication to her of his sweet character.
The girl is pictured as a shepherd girl herself. The advice of her lover is that she "graze your young goats by the tents of the shepherds." She is no longer the little slave girl in the vineyard. Goats are stubborn and obnoxious creatures, but young goats are among the cutest species of animals. The are not soft and fluffy like lambs, but playful and capricious. The girls is drawn into the pastoral picture in a sweet and frisky way. We have to remember that we are reading poetry. The couple may, in reality, be miles away from any kind of herd. But they express their feelings and emotions with pictures the evoke sentiments of peace, loving responsibility, tenderness and playfulness. A little goat, that jumps up at all fours and dances a capriccio for us shows us the joy of living. Joy and love complement each other.
2. Expressions of Mutual Love 1:9-2:7
1:9 I liken you, my darling, to a mare harnessed to one of the chariots of Pharaoh.
10 Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels.
11 We will make you earrings of gold, studded with silver.
12 While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance.
13 My lover is to me a sachet of myrrh resting between my breasts.
14 My lover is to me a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi.
15 How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves.
16 How handsome you are, my lover! Oh, how charming! And our bed is verdant.
17 The beams of our house are cedars; our rafters are firs.
2:1 I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.
2 Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the maidens.
3 Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my lover among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
4 He has taken me to the banquet hall, and his banner over me is love.
5 Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love.
6 His left arm is under my head, and his right arm embraces me.
7 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.
In vs. 9-11 the boy beholds the girl in ecstasy. He exclaims: "I liken you, my darling, to a mare harnessed to one of the chariots of Pharaoh. Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels. We will make you earrings of gold, studded with silver." The comparison of the girl with one of the horses that draw Pharaoh's chariot would not go over too well in our day and age. We do get the point, though, that the girl has beauty, strength and nobility in her bearing. Her body is compared to one of the masterpieces of God's creation.
The Tyndale Commentary makes the following interesting observation here: "The comparison with a mare of Pharaoh's chariots has produced a plethora of translations and interpretations. In the ancient Near East, Egyptian horses were the most desirable strains, and of course the royal steeds would be the best of the best. But the meaning of this text is usually missed. As Pope correctly notes, in ancient Egypt after the middle of the second millennium BC, mares were never used to draw chariots. Stallions, hitches in pairs, were the standard motive-power of both war-chariots and other royal vehicles. Yet the text here has the feminine singular mare. The preposition linked with chariots is better translated 'among' rather than as a possessive. These factors suggest that the comparison here underscores the girl's attractiveness. A mare loose among the royal stallions would create intense excitement. This is the ultimate in sex appeal! Cf. 3:10; 6:12."
It is this image that makes some commentators think that Solomon may have written this poem on the occasion of his marriage to Pharaoh's daughter. This marriage is mentioned in I Kings 3:1, "Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt and married his daughter. He brought her to the City of David." She was, evidently, his first love. The fact that his future loves spoiled his character of a role model does not diminish the beauty of the poem he wrote.
There is no unity of interpretation regarding the ornaments or jewelry the lover wants to bestow upon his beloved. The NIV text says in vs. 10 "Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels." TLB translates it with: "How lovely your cheeks are, with your hair falling down upon them! How stately your neck with that long string of jewels." The Tyndale Commentary says: The precise nature of these decorations is unclear. NEB and ASV translate plaited hair, and the NIV reads ear-rings, while the others are more generally jewels or ornaments." Evidently the root meaning of the word used is "one's turn." The Commentary continues: "In the context here, the 'turnings' could be either braided 'turned' hair that covered her cheeks, as the manes of the horses were sometimes twisted into fancy patterns, or the elaborately fashioned jewelry that covered her face, much as the bridle covered the cheeks of the horse. So, too, is her neck decorated with stringed jewels."
As the above mentioned quote indicates, the text conveys the excitement of the lover when he sees the object of his love. Love is a multifaceted jewel. There is tenderness and sweetness, but also strength and excitement. Love implies sacrifice and death and, at the same time, life and vitality. Love is the divine in man and, at the same time, the animal.
The desire of the boy to decorate his beloved with jewels could be seen as the presentation of an engagement ring, like a marriage proposal in our time.
The last verses of this chapter, vs. 12 through 17, suggest a change of scene. For the second time the king is mentioned. Some commentators suggest that the place is the palace where the king reclines at his table. The NIV says: "While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance." TLB renders it with: "The king lies on his bed, enchanted by the fragrance of my perfume." The Tyndale Commentary remarks, however, that the practice of reclining at a table does not seem to have been used in Israel in the pre-exilic period. It is true that the last verses of this section suggest a bedroom. "And our bed is verdant. The beams of our house are cedars; our rafters are firs." But it seems to me that the girl is describing the rural setting in which they lie down on the grass under the trees. This is the way TLB renders it: "lying here upon the grass, shaded by the cedar trees and firs." The reference to the king may be another poetical touch, although Solomon could still have said this himself.
The scene is heavy with erotic references. As the Tyndale Commentary remarks, this is reinforced by the reference the girl makes to three different perfumes: Nard, myrrh and the flowers of the henna plant. We quote from the commentary: "Nard ... was a very expensive perfume/ointment derived from a plant native to the Himalayan region of India. The scarcity, and hence the value of this exotic fragrance made it much in demand as a love-potion. Myrrh is a resinous gum gathered from a species of a South Arabian tree. It was used as a perfume in Canaan at least as early as the Ugaritic period. (17th - 14th centuries BC). Myrrh was a major ingredient in the holy oil used in the tabernacle (Ex. 30:23-33), and was also traditionally associated with death and the embalming process (cf. Mt. 2:11; Mk.15:23; Jn. 19:39). In liquid form it would be carried in small bottles like nard, but it was also used in solid form. .... The henna plant (AV camphire, mg. cypress) is a common Palestinian shrub. The leaves, when crushed, produce a bright orange-red to yellow dye often used to colour hair or finger nails. Here, however, the girl refers to the fragrant blossoms from the plan. Cf. 7:11. In all probability, she was not in actual possession of any of these items. Rather, they are similes that express her sweet feeling toward her lover. The lush oasis En-gedi, 'the place of the wild goats' about half-way down the western shore of the Dead Sea, has for millennia been a traveller's delight. The vineyards include grapes, but are not limited to them. All sorts of tropical and semi-tropical plants grow there. Historically, the major crops of the area were exotic spices and plants that were manufactured into cosmetics and perfumes. Just as in Song 1:9, where Pharaoh's horses were the best, so here, the produce from En-gedi is the best of the best. The girl returns her lover's compliments in terms of the best she knows."
In using the images the girl paints the picture of the intensity of love, as expressed in the love potion nard. There is also the element of death, as represented by the myrrh and then the color and scent of the henna blossom which speak of the fragrance and beauty of the relationship. The first picture shows the love as emanating from the girl. The other two refer to the presence of the boy who loves here.
Love is not just the excitement of sexual attraction to one another. The death theme that is woven into it by the use of myrrh-image gives it a basis of sacrifice. If a man loves his wife to death, that is, if he is willing to die for her, as Christ gave his life for His bride in order to save her, the woman has the security that makes love real. Without the myrrh the love of these two would be nothing but an egoistic desire to enjoy oneself. A man who love a woman for his own satisfaction does only love himself. The same can be said for the desire of the woman. Fulfillment is a by-product of sacrificial love. It is the sacrifice that makes love meaningful. Human love has only depth and meaning if it is modeled on the love of Christ. Nobody expressed this better than the apostle Paul in Eph. 5:21-25 where he says: "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her."
The image of vs. 15 has puzzled the commentators. "How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves." TLB says: "How beautiful you are, my love, how beautiful! Your eyes are soft as doves." The Tyndale Commentary remarks: "The exact point of the simile is obscure; most probably the comparison is to the deep smoke-gray colour with flashes of iridescence. Beautiful eyes were a hallmark of perfection in a woman (cf. Rachel and Leah, Gn. 29:17). Rabbinic tradition identifies beautiful eyes with a beautiful personality."
That eyes are the mirrors of the soul is common knowledge. I cannot see doves, either when they are flying around or when they are cooing to one another, without getting excited about their grace and beauty. More than any other member of the human body, the eye expresses feeling and emotions. Both light and darkness are expressed by the eye. I take the image to mean that the boy recognizes in the girl the charming beauty of her character.
The dove in the Bible is a symbol of peace. It was the dove from Noah's ark that became the symbol of peace when it brought the olive branch back to Noah as a token of the renewal of the earth.[ 11 ] Jesus advises His disciples to be "as innocent as doves."[ 12 ]
This scene of mutual admiration takes place in the open, where the two are lying in the grass under a tree. "And our bed is verdant. The beams of our house are cedars; our rafters are firs." Although the image is suggestive and erotic, yet the atmosphere is pure and lovely. The desire for consummation of a marriage is obviously there. But it doesn't seem there is more than a desire here. The picture painted is one of pure intense love for one another, not of an illicit relationship. It is the glow and excitement of courtship. The bed is not the real bed yet and the ceiling is the ceiling of their dream house.
It is not clear whether the first part of the second chapter still play at the same place. The mention of the trees and flowers would suggest this. Tradition puts the words: "I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys," in the mouth of the boy. Spiritualizing them, they are applied to the Lord Jesus. TLB attributes them to the girl. The Tyndale Commentary says: "The traditional translation rose of Sharon (asphodel, NEB) is not really satisfactory. Nor are the ancient versions much help, most of them simply using some broad generic term. Some species of wild rose probably grew in Palestine in Old Testament times, but the word so translated here is derived from a Hebrew verb, 'to form bulbs'. Certainly the rose bush produces bulbous fruit, the hips, but the general consensus is that the plant described here is one of the bulb family. Crocus, narcissus, iris, daffodil are the usual candidates. Sharon, or more correctly the Sharon, is the low coastal plain stretching south from Mount Carmel. In ancient times it was a swampy area, due to the presence of impermeable kurkar ridges running parallel to the shore, which trapped the run-off from the Samaritan hills. The combination of low sandy hills and the swampy lowlands produced heavy vegetation. Various types of wild flowers were abundant in the area. The lily of the valleys is not our common white, bell-shaped plant of that name. The word may be derived from the root for 'six' i.e. six-leaved or six-petaled flower; but more likely it is cognate with the Egyptian and Akkadian words for the lotus or water lily, and may refer to any similarly shaped flower that grew along the fertile, watered valleys (Hebrew plural)."
When the girl compares herself with a rose of Sharon or a lily of the valley, she does not extol her unique beauty but rather the commonness of it. She is only a wild flower is any flower at all. The boy retorts with a comparison that lifts her up above her surrounding: "Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the maidens." The lily among the thorns is like a blessing among the curses. Thorns are an expression of the curse man brought upon this world by breaking off his relationship with God. God had said to Adam: "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field."[ 13 ] Wild flowers are a reminder of God's grace in a fallen world. They are perfection in a surrounding of death and corruption. Such is the love of these two young people. "Love is as strong as death," as ch. 8:6 says. Actually it is stronger because it conquers death.
Although this does not fit in the dialogue here, it is hard not to think of Jesus' crown of thorns in this context. He was crowned with the symbol of the curse when He died because He loved more than anyone else ever loved.
The girl steps up the imagery by moving from wild flowers to trees and from lesser value to greater value. In vs. 3 she says: "Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my lover among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste." The grass may be their bed and the cedars the beams of their bedroom, the real enjoyment of love is expressed in this image. The translation "apple tree" is questioned by the Tyndale Commentary. The meaning of the word in the original is uncertain. The NEB translates it with apricot.
The image conveys sensations of joy and love. It has a suggestion of erotic pleasure. In ch. 7:8 the boy tells the girl: "the fragrance of your breath [is] like apples." Even stronger is the image in ch. 8:5, "Under the apple tree I roused you; there your mother conceived you, there she who was in labor gave you birth." Love making and birth are connected to the image there. The prophet Joel announces judgment and the end of human joy by saying: "The vine is dried up and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree-- all the trees of the field-- are dried up. Surely the joy of mankind is withered away."[ 14 ]
So, whatever the actual tree may have been, the meaning of the picture is clear. Love is like the enjoyment of eating a sweet, juicy fruit. Isn't that the original meaning of the image? Eve fell into sin because she thought that the taste of the fruit would be sweet. In Gen. 3:6 we read: "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it." The fact that Eve was tricked does not diminish the beauty of the image used here. Love is like a sweet fruit.
But the comparison goes beyond the enjoyment of love. The girl does not compare love to apples but her lover to an apple tree. Not the act or the enjoyment but the person is at the center of the picture. The boy is identified with love. He is love. Sin makes a distinction between making love and being love. God does not draw this line.
In reading this poem we should, continuously, bear in mind that it deals with the ideal situation: perfect love. All we know is imperfect relationships between flawed personalities. These lovers are perfect, not because they are perfect in each other eyes only and love is blind, but because they represent perfection. That makes supernatural light shine through these pages. That makes this poem "The Song of Songs."
The scene doesn't necessarily change in the fourth verse: "He has taken me to the banquet hall, and his banner over me is love." The place remains probably the same. They are lying in the grass under the cedar trees. But the tasting of the fruit turns into a banquet. The commentators do not agree on the interpretation of the word "banner." In the royal banquet hall banners would have been present. The simplest way to understand this picture seems to be that the girl is comparing their being together with a banquet and that she completes the picture by describing what can be seen in the hall of the palace. I see no problem with the "military overtones", as Dr. Carr calls it.
The Tyndale Commentary says that the verbal form of the word used here can be translated as "to look with astonishment or admiration." One translation reads: "His look upon me was in love." This can be further interpreted as "His wish regarding me was love-making," or "His intentions were to make love." TLB uses the idea of "looking upon" but connects it to another subject by saying: "He brings me to the banquet hall, and everyone can see how much he loves me." Since we are dealing with poetry, we have to remember that the purpose is to evoke emotion and atmosphere, not to describe a place. When the girl sees herself under the royal banner at the great table in the banquet hall, she is probably still lying under the tree with her lover.
The verse is often used as a chorus: He brought me to His banqueting table and His banner over me was love. The Tyndale Commentary remarks about this: "The practice of setting this verse to music and using it as a chorus celebrating the believer's relationship with Christ is widespread in the contemporary church. It is no doubt well-intentioned and could be broadly defended on the grounds that the Song illustrates the relation of Christ to his church. But such an application runs into serious difficulty if the text is correctly understood. The crux in the interpretation is the meaning of bet hayyayin (banqueting house; wine-garden, NEB) and the meaning of the root "dgl" in the second colon. The bet hayyayin is literally 'the house of wine'. This combination is found only here in the Old Testament. .... Idiomatically, the 'house of wine' could be the place where wine is grown (i.e. a vineyard), manufactured, stored or consumed. The frequent use of the outdoor motifs in the Song, particularly of the garden as a place for the lover's rendezvous, suggests that the vineyard itself is what is intended here." This interpretation accentuates the problem of the meaning of the banner. Where do we put it in the vineyard? The simplest way to understand the picture seems to be that the girl compares her being with the boy with a banquet in the palace.
The "raisins" and "apples" of vs. 5 make perfect sense in the context of the banqueting table. The rendering of TLB, "Oh, feed me with your love-- your 'raisins' and your 'apples'-- for I am utterly lovesick," seems to grasp the meaning perfectly. The girl is overwhelmed by her feelings. She has come to the point where she cannot stop.
There is in a love relationship a point of no return which, for a married couple ends in the consummation of sexual unity. For courting, unmarried people, this is the watershed. Either you wait, which takes strong moral restraint, or you cause irreparable damage. This seems to be the meaning of the exhortation the girl issues in vs. 7, "Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires."
This verse, which occurs in the same form in 3:5 and in modified form in 8:4 has sent commentators scurrying in all directions. Some take the reference to the gazelles and does of the field as an oath. This has led to comparisons between the Song and pagan fertility rites, which we reject, of course.
Some commentators take it that the animals are brought into the picture because they are known for their sexual potency. The most logical explanation seems to me that the girl takes the animals as an example of behavior that would be wrong to follow. Humans should not act like animals in following their desire without any restraint. The "until it so desires" or "until it please," (RSV), could, probably, be better rendered as "until the proper time." In other words, sexual relations are a beautiful expression of love within the framework of marriage. Outside this framework they are sin. The Bible uses the words "adultery" and "fornication" for those relationships. Their is a fine line between that which is perfect and that which is corrupt. The line is easily crossed and the traffic is one way only.
3. Visit of the King to the Bride's Home. 2:8-17
2:8 Listen! My lover! Look! Here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills.
9 My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look! There he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.
10 My lover spoke and said to me, "Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me.
11 See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone.
12 Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves I sheard in our land.
13 The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me."
14 My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.
15 Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.
16 My lover is mine and I am his; he browses among the lilies.
17 Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn, my lover, and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the rugged hills.
There is an obvious change of scene in this section. The girl is at home and her lover comes to ask her to come outside. It is Spring in all its gorgeous beauty; Spring in nature and Spring in the hearts of these two young lovers. The outside world corresponds to the inside. New life is budding and blossoming both inside and out. A Spring Song is being sung outside and in. The newness of life and love fuse together in this sparkling poem.
The question is how much of this section is action and how much is imagination? This stanza may only be an expression of the girl's desire, not her actual experience. It could also be, as some suggest, that she reminiscences here. This does not, however, diminish the freshness and beauty of the poem.
The opening verses of this section depict sound and motion. There is excitement in the girl's exclamations: "listen!" "look!" The leaping and bounding, such as young animals do, suggest youth, life and joy. It is the playfulness of the gazelles and of young lovers.
We have a tendency to ascribe to God's love a solemnity and pomp that make it foreign to the reality of life. After all, Who invented Spring? Who gave young gazelles and young lovers the idea that they should jump up and down for joy? In his book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis depicts the scene of Aslan's resurrection from the dead. He lets the Lion and the two girls who are with Him celebrate the event with a dance and a chase such as only kittens and kids can perform. Evidently, Lewis knew what real life and love were all about. Love is exciting because God's love is exciting. It is no accident that we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Spring. I am not inferring, of course, that we are correct about the date, but the person who first equated the new life of our Lord with the new life of nature after the season of death, understood something about God's nature.
Our text says: "See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone." In the setting of the Palestinian seasons this means that the rainy season is over and that nature is clothing itself in color and beauty. The more inclement our winter the prettier spring becomes.
We don't know how much the climate of our globe has changed since the flood. The garden of Eden must have had the beauty of all our present seasons combined into one. Moses may have accommodated the report of the fall of Adam and Eve to the conditions of the world he knew when he wrote: "Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden."[ 15 ] So, Solomon speaks about winter and spring as the people of his time knew it.
The wooing of the lover's voice is irresistible. The girl is inside her room and is, probably, lying on her bed. He peeks through the window and bids her to get up and come with him. The fact that the poem begins with the girl who sees the boy coming down the hills and the looking of the boy through the window to see the girl in bed, seems contradictory. She could not have seen him coming unless she would be looking out herself. This would indicate that she was in fact lying down and dreaming this sweet dream. But, what is the difference! There is nothing wrong with dreaming about love, especially if one knows to be loved. The anticipation of the joy to come makes the experience the richer. Heaven will become more heavenly as we dream about it on earth. Isn't this what Peter meant when he wrote: "Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls?"[ 16 ] It is God Who says to us: "Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me." The love between the boy and the girl, the love the girl dreams about, is the reflection of God's eternal love for us. That is why Jeremiah says: "The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: 'I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.'"[ 17 ]
In vs. 14 it is obviously the boy who speaks and says: "My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely." There is a Rock Dove in Palestine that nestles preferably in sheltered ledges or caves, according to the Tyndale Commentary. The girl is compared to this bird, which is a pet name for her. She, probably, reminds her lover of the bird in the cleft of the rock, as she is hiding inside her room. She may have drawn the veil over her face. He want to draw her out and see her face. He wants to kiss the bride.
There is a parallel place in the Bible where God puts Moses in the cleft of a rock and hides His face from him. We read in Ex. 33:18-23 that Moses says to God: "'Now show me your glory.' And the LORD said, 'I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,' he said, 'you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.' Then the LORD said, 'There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.'"
This spiritual reality was probably nowhere to be found in the girl's dream about her lover, but that doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit didn't think of it when He inspired Solomon to write this. We are not spiritualizing the poem, but we just want to draw a line from the dream to reality. The boy wants to draw the girl out and see her face. He wants to know her and enter into the secrets of her life. God's glory is as much a mystery to us as it was to Moses. In Moses' experience God put a veil on Moses by covering him with His hand and Moses could look when God had passed. In the dream the boy wants the girl to come out of the cleft and take off her veil and show him her glory. In the Song of Songs God says to us: "I will show you My glory, if you show Me yours!" Our reaction is usually: "My glory? What glory?" We have so little idea what happens inside us when God touches our lives with His light. The darkness is gone, winter is past and it is spring time in our souls. The apostle Paul puts it this way: "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"[ 18 ]
Vs. 15 doesn't seem to fit into the idyll: "Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom." The verse poses a problem for the interpreters. It is not obvious who is speaking; some think the girl, others the boy, and other again the bystanders. There seems to be the possibility of a word-play in Hebrew. The word for "foxes" which is "su`al" in Hebrew comes from a root s'l which also means "hollow" or "deep place", and the verbal root hbl can mean either "ruin, destroy," or "be pregnant, in travail" or "pledge."[ 19 ] This variety of possible interpretations has opened vistas of different opinions. Some believe that Solomon addresses a hunting party here, others see a plea by the girl for sexual relations and others the opposite. One commentator believes that the girl may be singing a ditty here.
The phrase "ruin the vineyards" has an obvious negative connotation and as such it should be accepted. If correct, this would be the second reference to the presence of undesirable tendencies in the poem. The first being: "Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires," in 1:7 and parallel verses. If the vineyard is a poetical image of virginity and not a place, the thrust of the two warnings could be the same, that is: not to let desire go without restrain because it would ruin the perfection the poem wants to depict. And since the first plea came from the girl, this one, probably, is uttered by her also. The vineyard can be ruined by little foxes. It doesn't take big beasts to ruin perfect conditions.
Vs. 16 is the first mention of a re-occurring theme: "My lover is mine and I am his; he browses among the lilies." The words are repeated in different form in 6:3 and 7:10. A subtle change of attitude is expressed in the progression of thought. In 2:16 the girl presents herself as the prime possessor. In 6:3 she sees herself foremost as the object of his love but she has a claim on him also: "I am my lover's and my lover is mine; he browses among the lilies." In 7:10 she is no longer the subject but the object: "I belong to my lover, and his desire is for me." The shades of difference express the progression of surrender in love. The word "browses" is translated "feeds [his flock]" in other translations. The text says literally, "He feeds among the lilies." This is probably meant in a metaphorical way. The Tyndale Commentary supposes that it suggests intimacy in the sense of "sharing kisses."
The progression of surrender in relation to God is best expressed by John the Baptist in John 3:30, where, talking about Jesus, he says: "He must become greater; I must become less." The secret of love is to be loved. As John says in I John 4:1019, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. We love because he first loved us."
The above is, probably, still part of the girl's dream. She imagines her lover to be with her, but in reality he is not and she is longing for him. This is most clearly expressed the in last verse: "Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn, my lover, and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the rugged hills." The KJV uses the words "the mountains of Bether." TLB speaks of "the mountain of spices." The latter preserves the poetical tone, but whether it is a correct translation remains to be seen.
4. Bride's Dream of Separation 3:1-5
3:1 All night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves; I looked for him but did not find him.
2 I will get up now and go about the city, through its streets and squares; I will search for the one my heart loves. So I looked for him but did not find him.
3 The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. "Have you seen the one my heart loves?"
4 Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him to my mother's house, to the room of the one who conceived me.
5 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.
Chapter 3, obviously, starts with the girl waking up from the dream that was described so beautifully in the previous verses. The tone of the poem is very intense here. The way the NIV translates the first verse, the girl is in bed alone and wakes up from her dream. Other translations suggest that the boy had been with her but is no longer there.
- "Upon my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but found him not; I called him, but he gave no answer." (RSV).
- "By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.(KJV).
- "The Girl: 'One night my lover was missing from my bed. I got up to look for him but couldn't find him.'" (TLB). The latter rendering is probably the most compromising because it suggests that the boy and the girl had been in the habit of sleeping together. It is true that in the Hebrew "night" is in the plural. But the rendering "All night long," as given by the NIV is quite acceptable. If we see the girl's reaction as a waking up from a sweet dream into the reality of her loneliness, the text becomes quite understandable. The Tyndale Commentary says: "The impact of the poetry is lost in most of the translations. Verse 2 ends with the anguished cry 'And I found him not.'"
Separation of lovers is a form of death and death is the ultimate separation. Love is expressed in intimacy and intimacy is impossible when there is separation. Shakespeare may say that parting is sweet sorrow, but the French catch it better in the proverb: "Leaving is like dying a little."[ 20 ]
If this is so keenly felt on a human level, how much more should we experience separation from God. David expresses his thirst for God's presence in verses like, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?"[ 21 ] And in John 14:16-18 Jesus reassures His disciples about the upcoming separation in, what has become the ultimate death ever died in this world, by saying: "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."
We live in a world where separation from God is the prevailing condition of mankind. Thirst for God, the desire to experience the love of God in an intimate relationship is at the base of all human actions and frustrations. Most people do not realize this, but that doesn't make it less true. God wants us to seek Him, so we can be found by Him. He assures us in Jer. 29:13, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."
Bach uses the theme of this portion of Scripture in the opening Aria of the second part of the Saint Matthew Passion. Jesus has been arrested and is led away to be sentenced and crucified. The alto sings: "O, Where is my Jesus gone?"[ 22 ] and the choir of the daughters of Jerusalem answers her. This application goes, of course, beyond the thoughts expressed by the girl in these verses, but it is legitimate. After all, if separation is death, Jesus experienced the ultimate separation on the cross, where He cried: "'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?'-- which means, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'"[ 23 ] He bore the anguish of us all.
We may smile at the girl's anguish in the poem, since it was only the dream of a person in love. But the girl did express reality more deeply than is apparent on the surface. Love, separation and death are common experiences of mankind. The dichotomy of life is apparent in the girl's awakening and her search. She knows that love should be presence. The one she loved should be with her; but he isn't. We all live in that tension of faith in and hope for what we cannot see, even if we do experience the love of God in our lives.
The anguish of the girl is lived against the back ground of a walled city where watchmen are on duty. In the previous chapter the girl and the boy were outside in the open field. They were not protected by city walls, but their love for one another made them feel safe. Here, the girl is actually much safer then before, but the absence of the one she loves makes her feel unsafe. Love is the ultimate protection.
We all live in a world that is not safe for humans. We try to compensate for this by building walls of protection: walls of financial security or any other kind of security. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews captures our sense of insecurity when he says: "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.' So we say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?'"[ 24 ]
The reason for the break-up of so many marriages is often that the woman does not experience the love of her husband as a wall of protection around her. Love is the only protection that makes us feel protected. It is the God Who loves us Who says: "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."
We read in vs. 3, "The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. 'Have you seen the one my heart loves?'" Dr. Carr remarks in the Tyndale Commentary that the girl's encounter with the watchmen of the city makes little sense, since those men could not be expected to know who she was talking about. Yet, the scene makes more sense than shows on the surface. The girl meets the men who are responsible for the safety of the city. She tells them that their protection is not enough. City walls are built by human hands and watchmen are paid salaries to keep their eyes open for danger. But they are unable to provide for what the girl needs in the depth of her soul. City Hall, nor any other human organization can keep us safe. We need supernatural protection.
Vs. 4 adds an interesting dimension to the action. We read: "Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him to my mother's house, to the room of the one who conceived me." The reaction of the girl is similar to that of the women who saw Jesus on the day of His resurrection. There, too, are watchmen who guard the tomb. In Matt. 28:9 they meet Jesus Who says: "'Greetings,' They came to him, clasped his feet and worshipped him." And John 20:16-17 tells how Mary Magdalene encounters the risen Lord. "Jesus said to her, 'Mary.' She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, 'Rabboni!' (which means Teacher). Jesus said, 'Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" The girl had experienced the separation as death, but in a dream. The women at Jesus' tomb had gone through real separation and death. Both find the one they love and receive him back alive.
The girl brings her lover to her paternal home. "To my mother's house, to the room of the one who conceived me." Had her intend been on sexual intimacy, she would not have done so. The reference to the place establishes in a poetical way, a chain of life. The sexual reference is not to her own experience, but to that of her parents. It is the place where she was created, the place where she came into the world. The suggestion is that the fruit of the marriage she anticipates will be the birth of their own children. She sees herself as a link in the miracle chain of life. The picture she paints is more than one of mere enjoyment of intimacy with her lover; it is a picture of life. This is not the typical attitude of people in love. Young lovers tend to forget the consequences of their behavior. This girl is level-headed enough to realize that if she and her lover would have pre-marital sex it would spoil the reality of their love. This we understand from the following exhortation in vs. 5, "Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires."[ 25 ]
B. United in Love 3:6 - 5:1
1. Wedding Procession 3:6-11
6 Who is this coming up from the desert like a column of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and incense made from all the spices of the merchant?
7 Look! It is Solomon's carriage, escorted by sixty warriors, the noblest of Israel,
8 all of them wearing the sword, all experienced in battle, each with his sword at his side, prepared for the terrors of the night.
9 King Solomon made for himself the carriage; he made it of wood from Lebanon.
10 Its posts he made of silver, its base of gold. Its seat was upholstered with purple, its interior lovingly inlaid by the daughters of Jerusalem.
11 Come out, you daughters of Zion, and look at King Solomon wearing the crown, the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, the day his heart rejoiced.
The Tyndale Commentary states that this unit is in many ways the heart of the Song. It proceeds to say: "These six verses pose one of the most difficult questions in the interpretation of the Song: how does this unit fit with the rest of the book? At first glance it seems to have nothing to do with the context: 3:4 records the girl's determination to take her lover to her own home; 4:1-7 is a detailed description of the physical charm of the bride. This section is a description of a procession with soldiers and one or more palanquin/chariot/sedan-chair conveyances, and a wedding celebration for King Solomon. What is the connection, if any?" A few pages later we find the very revealing remark: "According to the rabbinic materials, 'a bridegroom is compared to a king' and until the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome in AD 70, 'crowns' were worn by ordinary brides and bridegrooms." Unfortunately, the commentary does not draw any conclusions of the lines it quotes.
Most of the problems the interpreters face seem to come from the fact that they try to analyze poetry as prose. If we take the above verses as an exalted comparison, such as is common to poetry, I see no difficulty in the coming of the boy to the girl as Solomon would send his royal carriage to fetch his bride.
The girl seems to add a divine element to her love relationship with the words: "Who is this coming up from the desert like a column of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and incense made from all the spices of the merchant?" In the history of Israel the column of smoke and fire was the visible demonstration of the presence of God. It was the Shekina glory. We have seen before that love on a human level portrays the character of God. God is love and all human love is derived from Him.
When God created the earth there were no deserts. Deserts appeared after sin entered the world. Moses talked about "that vast and dreadful desert." In Deut. 1:19 we read: "Then, as the LORD our God commanded us, we set out from Horeb and went toward the hill country of the Amorites through all that vast and dreadful desert that you have seen, and so we reached Kadesh Barnea." It was God's glorious presence that kept people alive in a place of death. We could hardly imagine a more beautiful description of the girl's experience than this: in the dreadful desert of her life appears the column of smoke and fire that lights up her soul with love. It is like light that shines in the darkness.
Isaiah expresses this so beautifully when he says: "The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God."[ 26 ] Such is God's salvation in the life a lost man.
The column of smoke is the smoke of a sacrifice of praise, such as was brought upon the gold altar in the temple. It was "perfumed with myrrh and incense made from all the spices of the merchant." It combined all the fragrance and beauty in the world.
For the Old Testament believer, worship was a feast of the five senses. His eyes saw the glory of the Lord. His ears heard the praise that was being sung. His tongue tastes the food that had been sacrificed. He touched the building where God was present and he smelled the fragrance of the incense. Perfume is the proof of the indefinable. Paul says: "For we are to God the aroma of Christ."[ 27 ] If God smells Christ in us, others will too.
The image the girl uses to depict the arrival of her lover contains elements of splendor, danger and protection. In ch. 1:11 the boy decorated his beloved with jewelry: "We will make you earrings of gold, studded with silver." He did this, while lying next to her in the grass under the shadow of a tree. It was part of the "sweet nothings" lovers say to each other. Here, the girl carries her decoration even farther. She puts her lover in Solomon's carriage and surrounds him with a life guard. In modern terms we could say that the girls lets her fiancee drive up to her house in a Cadillac. It is the inner beauty that exteriorizes itself. In this world we go around in disguise. The image of God does not present itself to the eye as outward glory. When Jesus came to earth, "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him."[ 28 ] Only once did Jesus' divine glory shine through while He walked around on earth. In Mark 9:2-3 we read: "After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them." The day will come when this glory will shine through our clothes also. "When he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at in all who have believed."[ 29 ]
The girl clothes her lover with glory and makes him ride in Solomon's carriage, because she sees the beauty and splendor of his soul. This beauty is exteriorized by love. That is why God sees so much more in us than we see in ourselves.
The theme of protection from danger is heard in the mentioning of the body guard, the "sixty warriors, the noblest of Israel, all of them wearing the sword, all experienced in battle, each with his sword at his side, prepared for the terrors of the night." What the girl is saying is that she is not afraid of the dark when the one she loves is with her.
It sounds almost childish, but, maybe, we should be more afraid of the dark than we are. I believe that a child is afraid of the dark, where an adult is not, because a child sees more in the dark than an adult does. Physical darkness is an image of spiritual darkness, just as physical light portrays a spiritual reality. We should be afraid of the real darkness. That is, if we are outside the love of God. There is no fear in love, as John says in I John 4:18, "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."
The description of Solomon's carriage and of his coronation show that the girl is not giving us an account of a historical fact, but that she uses a poetic image. The Bible doesn't mention Solomon's carriage, although he must have used one. The only mention is found in I King 10:26 where we read: "Solomon accumulated chariots and horses; he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem." The king must have gone overboard with his vehicles as he did in his marriage to his one thousand wives. Undoubtedly, the chariots mentioned above were vehicles of war. The girl does refer to an "armored car" in her description of her lover's mode of transportation, but the carriage she describes is unique. It is not one of fourteen hundred, but one of a kind.
The love element is emphasized in the mentioning of the daughters of Jerusalem. The NIV credits them with the inlaid work of the carriage: "its interior lovingly inlaid by the daughters of Jerusalem." The RSV says, basically, the same: "it was lovingly wrought within by the daughters of Jerusalem." TLB renders it with the phrase: "the back is inlaid with these words: 'With love from the girls of Jerusalem!'" But the KJV turns the meaning around by making Solomon the author and the daughters of Jerusalem the object of the decoration. We read: "the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem." Evidently, the Hebrew words allow different kinds of interpretation. The Tyndale Commentary says: "At Ugarit, samples of beds inlaid with erotic scenes have been found. Perhaps this is what is being described here."
The girl brings her lover towards her in a carriage of love. The gold, silver and inlaid motives are not material things but spiritual and emotional experiences of love.
The crowning of the king is not a description of the actual coronation of Solomon either. It is true that Solomon's mother interceded with David, which led to Solomon's coronation, but he was crowned by the high priest. We read in I Kings 1:39, "Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the sacred tent and anointed Solomon. Then they sounded the trumpet and all the people shouted, 'Long live King Solomon!'" The Hebrew word for crown here means "diadem" or "wreath" like the decoration used at the Olympic games. The image probably refers to the boy's natural grace and royal bearing. His mother brought him into this world as a boy who was destined to be the king of the girl's life.
We could compare the scene to a modern marriage ceremony in which the bridegroom stands at the altar and sees his bride come into the church on the arm of her father. In Jewish weddings it was the groom who came to fetch his bride. But the thrill and joyful anticipation are the same.
2. Bride's Beauty Is Praised 4:1-15
4:1 How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes behind your veil are doves. Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Mount Gilead.
2 Your teeth are like a flock of sheep just shorn, coming up from the washing. Each has its twin; not one of them is alone.
3 Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon; your mouth is lovely. Your temples behind your veil are like the halves of a pomegranate.
4 Your neck is like the tower of David, built with elegance; on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors.
5 Your two breasts are like two fawns, like twin fawns of a gazelle that browse among the lilies.
6 Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of incense.
7 All beautiful you are, my darling; there is no flaw in you.
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.
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.
10 How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much more pleasing is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume than any spice!
11 Your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb, my bride; milk and honey are under your tongue. The fragrance of your garments is like that of Lebanon.
12 You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain.
13 Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits, with henna and nard,
14 nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree, with myrrh and aloes and all the finest spices.
15 You are a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon.
With the exception of vs. 16 the speaker is obviously the boy, who sings the beauty of his bride. The way he describes her body, it sounds as if she stands naked before him. But her veil is mentioned in vs. 1, which means that she is fully dressed and decent. Vs. 12, "You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain." should be read as a description of the girl's virginity. Prov. 5:15-18 uses the same imagery to describe the enjoyment of sex relations within the marriage as opposed to adultery. We read there: "Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth."
So the description of the girl's body is a poetical expression of the joyful anticipation of the marriage about to be consummated. This is no sinful glee but healthy joy. A boy and a girl who are engaged to be married have a right to indulge joyful fantasies. The human body is as much a masterpiece of God's creative hand as the human mind. The French sculptor Rodin created a figure cut in stone, who rests his arms on his knees and his head on his hands and is lost in deep thought. Marble expresses thought. So does the human body express the contents of the soul.
The boy starts with the complete picture of beauty. "How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful!" She takes his breath away. He is like the bridegroom standing at the altar who sees his bride enter the church. He starts tingling with excitement.
We have a hard time imagining that God would get excited about us. Some of God's excitement rings through in John's description of the New Jerusalem. It must have been God's idea to show this to John in a vision. We read: "One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, 'Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.' And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal." God sees His own glory reflected in the bride He has intended to present to His own Son. It is beauty beyond description. Rodin expressed profound thought in marble. God expressed inner beauty in a human body and He expresses spiritual love and perfection in human love. It is a triple comparison. But the ultimate truth is the last one. The other two are pictures of reality.
There seems to be a contradiction in the exclamation, "Your eyes behind your veil are doves." If the girl were veiled her face would be hidden. The veil here is probably a poetical way of expression, indicating that the girl does not yet belong to the boy. It is a symbol of anticipation, not a cloth that covers her face. The comparison of the eyes with doves is used three times in the Song. In 1:15 the boy uses it for the girl but in 5:12 the girl describes the eyes of her lover. As we have seen above, in connection with 1:15, the eyes are the mirrors of the soul and we believe that the image means that the boy recognizes in the girl the charming beauty of her character.
The next picture, "Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Mount Gilead," is very expressive. The Palestinian goats are said to be mostly black haired. When a herd of goats descends from the hillside it looks from a distance like a head of wavy black hair.
The comparison of the girl's teeth with "a flock of sheep just shorn, coming up from the washing. Each has its twin; not one of them is alone," suggests in the first place that the girl is laughing, because her teeth are showing. The sheep that have just been shorn and washed as wet and shiny as they come up from the water. The regularity of the teeth is painted in the presence of the twins. The Tyndale Commentary says that twins among sheep were the exception, rather than the rule. So the poem suggests a mouth that shows teeth of exceptional beauty and regularity.
The red lips invite to be kissed. Undoubtedly that is what the boy intends to do. The phrase: "your mouth is lovely" seems to refer more to the speech than to the outward form of the mouth. The Hebrew word is "midbar" not "pik" which would be the normal word for mouth. The Tyndale Commentary says that the former word means the mouth "as the instrument of speech." It could also refer to the voice. In the verse 11 the boy says: "Your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb, my bride; milk and honey are under your tongue." It seems most likely that the words here are a parallel to that verse and that speech is meant.
The comparison to the temples with halves of pomegranates leads the Tyndale Commentary to some humorous remarks. Dr. Carr says: "Most commentators take the word 'slice' or 'piece' to indicate the interior of the pomegranate with its juicy red flesh, hard white seeds and yellowish membranes, and then have trouble dealing with this image. It sounds like a description of an advanced case of acne.[ 30 ] Nothing in the words, however, demands the inside of the fruit. It means simply 'piece' .... and could mean the outside surface as easily as the inside. The blush-red smoothness of the pomegranate skin fits the imagery far better." Obviously, the boy intends to describe something beautiful.
The comparison of the girl's neck with "the tower of David," sounds like a strange image to our modern ears, especially since the boy decorates it with a thousand shields of warriors. The key word is elegance. Maybe if we could see the tower of David as the boy saw it, we would more appreciate his poetry at this point. The stately bearing of the girl is the point.
A Dutch poet once wrote: "I saw a woman walk as if she was immortal."[ 31 ] The tower of David should not be seen as a picture of defense but as a monument of victory. The woman in the Dutch poem gave the impression as if she had conquered death. The boy cannot imagine that this kind of beauty would ever perish.
We all know deep down in our hearts that beauty should not perish. Yet we live in a world that will one day cease to exist, not because God made it for corruption and destruction, but because it has been corrupted and will therefore be destroyed. Our planet is full of life and color and beauty which touch our hearts with a sense of eternity. The colors of the rainbow are the colors of the throne of God, the colors of God's glory. Look at the color the apostle John paints for us in his picture of God's glory: "And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne."[ 32 ] There is a direct link between beauty and glory; that means that real beauty is eternal.
Yet the beauty we know fades and disappears. The boy describes the neck of the girl he loves. She may have been sixteen or eighteen years old. Fifty years later he would not say those things again, when looking at her wrinkled face. He may still have loved her and seen her inner beauty, but the outside glory had faded. Worse: sin has the tendency to wipe out every trace of this lilting beauty that makes the heart sing. One of the most heart renting verses in the Bible is this, when the great city of Babylon is thrown down, never to be found again, the voice of the prophet says: "The voice of bridegroom and bride will never be heard in you again."[ 33 ] Even the Song of Songs will not be song on earth again, but we know it will be song in heaven. If it will not, what value does it have here then??
Beginning with verse 5 the images become more erotic. Our Western sense of modesty tells us that female breast should remain covered. In other cultures this is not the case. As far as we know the dress code in Israel was very modest. If a woman wore a veil, certainly her breasts would be covered. In these verses the boy gives free reign to his erotic fantasies and describes his feelings in the anticipation of the consummation of their marriage. He describes this part of her body as "twin fawns of a gazelle." Innocent beauty could not be described any better. The eyes of young deer radiate the magic of a fairy tale. Not only are those two young animals there, but they feed upon lilies. This is certainly not a factual description of the habit of deer. They may go after green leaves of any kind, but it is doubtful that they would have a taste for fragrant flowers. In this deviation from reality, however, the boy adds color and fragrance to the picture that create the atmosphere of ecstasy. In the next step he sees himself feeding upon fragrance and beauty all night long. All this is joyful and healthy anticipation.
The Tyndale Commentary says about vs. 7 "All beautiful you are, my darling; there is no flaw in you," "i.e. no physical or moral shortcoming which would detract or mar her beauty. The word is used only eighteen times in the Old Testament, ten in Leviticus and four in Numbers and Deuteronomy, generally in describing the perfect sacrificial animals which were required (cf. Mal. 1:12-14)." This makes us think of what Peter says about Jesus Christ: "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect."[ 34 ] It is true that in the context of the poem the words are used to describe the bride, not the bridegroom, but there would have been no bride if there had not been a bridegroom who was "a lamb without blemish or defect."
Vs. 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," forms again a problem for the interpreters who try to find the exact geographical locations. They question whether the girl is fleeing from king Solomon to Lebanon or is coming from there. If we take the references to these places simply as poetical images which convey atmosphere and feeling, the problem fades away. The couple could stay where they were and imagine themselves taking a honeymoon in the Swiss Alps. The issue is the joy and excitement, which is the same as if one would stand on top of a snow peaked mountain. It is like the feeling Isaiah captures when he says: "Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."[ 35 ]
The NIV translates vs. 9 with, "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." Other translations say: "You have ravished my heart." The Hebrew word is libabtini, which is variously translated as, "to take heart" or "to lose heart," "to stir him up" or "to devastate him." The Tyndale Commentary allows for a sexual connotation here in saying that "aroused my passion" would fit the context.
The verses 10 and 11 paint a word-picture of intoxication, sweetness and beauty. All the senses are involved. The eye feasts on beauty, the tongue tastes the honey, the ear hears the words and the touch, although not mentioned, is implied. Love draws out the whole of human experience.
The picture is not a silent one. "Your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb, my bride; milk and honey are under your tongue," implies that the girl is speaking and her words are not meaningless. Love may express itself in "sweet nothings" but sweet nothings convey a meaning too. The image of honey in a love relationship has been carried over into our modern times. Throughout the ages lovers have called each other "honey" and newly weds go on their "honeymoon." Love is as old as man is.
"Milk and honey" are terms used to describe the character of the promised land. God says to Moses at the burning bush: "So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey."[ 36 ] The term is used fifteen times in the Pentateuch for Canaan. So, there may be a suggestion of divine promise in the choice of words here. This marriage that is about to be consummated is part of the fulfillment of God's promise to man. All marriages are meant to be such a fulfillment. There is a divine element in all human love.
Love expresses itself not in only fragrance and beauty, but also in words that have meaning. "The Word was God."[ 37 ] Love is creative, as the Word is creative.
Vs. 12 reads: "You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain." The Tyndale Commentary says here: "This verse marks the first occurrence of the garden in the Song, but this theme, which will reappear in 4:15f; 5:1; 6:2, 11; 8:13, has already been introduced in 1:8 with 'my vineyard'. the image of the garden behind its walls and with the gate locked suggest the unapproachableness of the area to all but those who rightfully belong. Metaphorically the 'garden' is used as a euphemism for the female sexual organs ... and here, a fountain sealed and a garden locked speak of virginity. The couple, while approaching consummation of their love, still have not reached that level of intimacy."
The boy continues to describe the garden with plants and trees that fill the air with fragrance. "Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits, with henna and nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree, with myrrh and aloes and all the finest spices."
Some of God's creatures have a better sense of smell than humans do. A dog recognizes his master by his smell. Our odor is a better identification than we realize. Smells are also the finishing touch of the mental pictures of our memories. A Dutch poet wrote a poem under the title The Smell of Mother's Hair bun.[ 38 ]
There is more involved in the picture the boy paints of the girl he loves than the perfume she uses. He describes her character, not her deodorant. It is interesting to trace the history of deodorants. The French excelled in the use of deodorants in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, because the people were not in the habit of bathing regularly. Deodorants were not used to enhance our sweet odor, but to offset the bad odor that we exude naturally. A human body, left to itself, exudes decay. Obviously, this is the result of the fall. Adam and Eve did not need any deodorant in Paradise. The fact that our dog likes our smell is not necessarily a compliment. Dogs are scavengers. In the natural we give out the scent of our sinful nature.
What the boy describes is the scent of an inner beauty that cannot be found in sinful man. He describes the ideal person, the person God wants us to become, the person who has been redeemed and cleansed by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. His love for the girl enables him to reach beyond the present reality into eternity with its glory and perfection. The apostle Paul captures this thought when he writes to the Corinthian Church: "But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?"[ 39 ] When Jesus Christ becomes visible in our lives we will be like a garden "with henna and nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree, with myrrh and aloes and all the finest spices." And our bridegroom will express the same joy and excitement about us as this lover has about his beloved.
The image of vs. 15, "You are a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon" speaks again of sexual intimacy that is anticipated. The picture of marriage relations as the drinking from a well or fountain is also found in Prov. 5:15-18. We read there as a warning against extra-marital relations: "Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth." The boy is not satisfied, however with the picture of a cistern in a courtyard. He places his love life in the beautiful surrounding of the forest of Lebanon where the water flows down the mountains. The poem is full of lilting beauty, joy and fragrance. It describes the indescribable.
3. The Marriage Is Consummated 4:16-5:1
4:16 Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread abroad. Let my lover come into his garden and taste its choice fruits.
5:1 I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk. Eat, O friends, and drink; drink your fill, O lovers.
The Tyndale Commentary says about these verses: "The third major division of the song comes to a climax with these two verses. They form the exact middle of the Hebrew text with 111 lines (60 verses, plus the title, 1:1) from 1:2 to 4:15, and 111 lines (55 verses) from 5:2 to 8:14. These two verses contain five lines of text, but they also contain the climax of the thought of the poem. Everything thus far has been moving towards the consolidation and confirmation of what has been pledged here. The sister/bride now becomes the 'consummated one' ... as lover and beloved extend to each other the fullness of themselves."
Some commentators are confused as to who the speaker is in 4:16. Some divide the verse and two and assign the first part "Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread abroad" to the boy and "Let my lover come into his garden and taste its choice fruits" to the girl. There can be little doubt but that the girl is speaking in the last sentence. But I see no reason why the first part should not attributed to her also.
The moment of the wedding has arrived and consummation of the marriage has to take place. As the Tyndale Commentary remarks: "The injunction that concludes sections 1,2 and 4 do not awaken love until it please (2:7; 3:5; 8:4), here turns positive as she invokes the wind to awake, for love has pleased to stir." We saw before, in connection with the above mentioned quotations, that "do not awaken love until it please" suggested that sexual intercourse should only take place within the framework of a legitimate marriage relationship. We do not specifically read that a ceremony has taken place, but the implication is unavoidable. Now, as they are officially married, the bride invites the bridegroom to come to her and take her for his wife.
There is nothing vulgar in the description of the consummation. The wind is invited to come and blow so that the fragrance may spread. Fragrance is spread by the stirring of the petals of the flowers. The flower gives itself and releases its aroma by shedding her pollen. It is like the breaking of a bottle of perfume. The woman who anointed Jesus' feet in Luke 7 and Mary who anointed Jesus' head in John 12, had to break the bottle of perfume in order to poor out its contents. As the wind releases the fragrance so the seal of virginity of the bride is broken and love finds its consummation in the two becoming one.
The use of the wind as an image has a strong spiritual connotation. Jesus uses it in His conversation with Nicodemus. Speaking about the new birth, He says: "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."[ 40 ]
[ 1 ]
Eph. 5:31,32
[ 2 ]
Matt 12:42
[ 3 ]
1:2,4; 4:10; 5:1; 7:2,9; 8:2
[ 4 ]
Ex. 29:38-40
[ 5 ]
"Himmelhoch jauchent, zum Tode betrubt,
Glucklich allein ist die Seele die liebt."
[ 6 ]
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men." (Eccl. 3:11)
[ 7 ]
Song 4:12, 15-16
[ 8 ]
Hymns of Christian life no. 324
[ 9 ]
I Cor 8:3; 13:12.
[ 10 ]
John 10:3-5, 10-11, 14
[ 11 ]
Gen 8:11, "When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth."
[ 12 ]
Matt. 10:16
[ 13 ]
Gen. 3:17-18
[ 14 ]
Joel 1:12
[ 15 ]
Gen. 3:8
[ 16 ]
I Pet. 1:8,9.
[ 17 ]
Jer. 31:3
[ 18 ]
II Cor. 4:6; 5:17
[ 19 ]
Tyndale Commentary 17 pg. 101.
[ 20 ]
Partir c'est mourrir un peu.
[ 21 ]
Ps. 42:1-2
[ 22 ]
"Ach, Wo ist mein Jesus hin?"
[ 23 ]
Matt 27:46
[ 24 ]
Heb. 13:5,6
[ 25 ]
See the comment on 2:7
[ 26 ]
Isa. 35:1-2
[ 27 ]
II Cor. 2:15
[ 28 ]
Isa. 53:2
[ 29 ]
II Thess 1:10 (RSV)
[ 30 ]
Italics are mine
[ 31 ]
"Ik zag een vrouw die schreed alsof zij nooit zou sterven."
[ 32 ]
Rev. 4:3
[ 33 ]
Rev. 18:23
[ 34 ]
I Pet. 1:18-19
[ 35 ]
Isa. 40:31
[ 36 ]
Exod. 3:8
[ 37 ]
John 1:1
[ 38 ]
De geur van moeders haarrong
[ 39 ]
II Cor. 2:14-16
[ 40 ]
John 3:8
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