Song of Songs
...or your love is better than wine. 3 Your anointing oils are fragrant, your name is sweet smelling oil. So the maidens love you. (1:2-3) The male lover has just as rich an appreciation of his companion. 15 You are beautiful, my lover, you are beautiful, your eyes are doves. 16 You are beautiful, my lover, really beautiful. Our couch is rich, 17 the beams of our house are cedar, the rafters cypress. (1:15-17) The daughters of Jerusalem, to whom the female lover addresses herself at times, seem to be her companions, sometimes encouraging her to rush into the relationship. The female lover more than once urges them to stop pushing her. I implore you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and wild does, not to stir up or rouse love until it is ready! (2:7 ; see also 3:5 and 8:4) The male lover unceasingly praises her physical attributes, but appears to get a little impatient for love. Throughout the poems he calls her by the endearing term "sister." 12 A locked garden is my sister, my bride, a locked garden, a sealed spring. (4:12) The imagery of the garden seems to give shape to their shared experience. Female lover 16 Awake north wind, come on south wind, blow on my garden so its fragrance wafts away. Let my lover come to his garden and eat its luscious fruit. (4:16 ) Male lover 1a I've come to my garden, my sister, my bride. I've gathered my myrrh mixed with spices, I've eaten my honeycomb with honey, I've drunk my mixed wine and milk. (5:1a ) Companions 1b Eat, lovers, and drink. Be drunk with love. (5:1b ) The book ends with a stirring affirmation of the ultimacy of love. 6 Set me as a seal on your heart, a seal on your arm. For love is strong as death, passion fierce as Sheol. Its flashes are fire flashes, a blazing fire. 7 Mighty waters cannot quench love, nor floods sweep it away. If anyone would offer all his wealth for love, he would be laughed to scorn. (8:6-7) Sheol is the term referring to the underworld, the residence of the dead. Nothing can compare in power to love, and love even transcends death (see Figure 16.1). Indeed, the Song itself is notable for its frank, and at times frankly erotic, love language. Many of the metaphors are at best thinly veiled allusions to human sexuality. Physical love and sensuality are the source of deep satisfaction in the Song. The book abounds with interpretive problems. For one, is the book to be read as having dramatic movement, or are the poems simply unconnected sketches? If simply poems, were they intended to be used in wedding ceremonies or celebrations? Another issue: Is the male lover the same as the king, with king just being love language, or is the king in competition with a country-boy lover? However one finally decides in regard to the dramatis personae of the book and its dramatic movement (if any), the unmistakable message of the book is the complexity and power of human love. Although it is one of the five scrolls, the Song of Songs has connections with the wisdom tradition of the Hebrew Bible by virtue of its connection to Solomon. English versions tend to call this book the Song of Solomon, though in Hebrew it is the Song of Songs. This phrase "song of songs" is the Hebrew way of stating the superlative, in other words, this is the greatest song. Similar biblical constructions are "lord of lords" and "king of kings." Pope (1977) translates it "the sublime song." The book received the title Song of Solomon because the first verse appends the words li-shlomo to the phrase "song of songs." Depending on one's interpretation, li-shlomo can either be "by Solomon" or "for Solomon." Perhaps the Solomonic connection was made because Solomon is mentioned in chapters 3 and 8 (though not as author), and because 1 Kings 4:32 says he composed 1,005 songs. Various theories of the origin of the poems have been suggested. Some of the songs may go back to the early monarchic period, though this cannot be proven. The songs have their closest affinity in the ancient period with Egyptian love songs (White 1978, Fox 1985). An Egyptian Love Song The love of my sister is on yonder side Of the stream in the midst of the fish. A crocodile stands on the sandbank Yet I go down into the water. I venture across the current; My courage is high upon the waters. It is thy love which gives me ...