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New Testament
The Song of Songs
The Song of Songs may be the most challenging book in the Bible. The Song is so difficult, on so many levels, that it has been compared to a lock for which the key has been lost.
There are four basic interpretations of the Song. These four basic approaches are established by answering two questions: 1) Is the Song about God and man or about man and woman? 2) Is the Song about real people or literary characters? Answering these two questions produces four possible interpretations: 1) The Song uses Solomon and one of his wives as types of the love of Christ for the church. 2) The Song uses two literary characters as types of the love of Christ for the church. 3) The Song uses Solomon and one of his wives as models of the love of a man and woman. 4) The Song uses two literary characters as models of the love of a man and woman.
The Song establishes an ongoing mood of love by viewing the same basic emotions of love a number of different times, each time from a different angle.
In the Song, scenes that appear in the first half of the book are revisited in reverse order in the second half of the book.
Both a purely sexual approach and a purely spiritual approach to the Song fail to account for all of the depths of the Song. As you read the Song, ponder the mystery and beauty of love between man and woman, but let your sight also rise above this to the love of God and his people.
There is no reason to reject the information in the title which attributes this book to King Solomon, as many commentators do. This information meshes well with the other wisdom literature attributed to Solomon, namely, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. This would place the writing of the book around 940 BC.
The headings which identify the speakers are not present in the Hebrew text, but they are based on the grammatical gender and number of the Hebrew forms.
Title
11The Song of Songs which is Solomon's.
Anticipation—Take Me Away
The Woman
2Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.
Experiencing your love is better than wine.
3Your perfumes are fragrant.
therefore the virgins love you!
4Carry me away with you—let us run.
Let the king bring me into his chambers.
Best Wishes to the Man
The Friends
We rejoice and are happy because of you.
We celebrate the way you show love
more than we celebrate wine.
My Own Vineyard
The Woman
5Dark am I, but lovely,
O daughters of Jerusalem,
dark like the tents of Kedar,
like the tent curtains of Solomon.
6Do not stare at me because I am dark
because the sun gazed at me.
My mother's sons were angry with me.
They made me take care of the vineyards.
I could not take care of my own vineyard.
Escape to the Country
The Woman
7You whom my soul loves, tell me
where you pasture your flock,
where you rest your sheep at noon.
Why should I be like a veiled woman
beside the flocks of your companions?
A Reply to the Woman
8If you do not know, most beautiful of women,
go out and follow the tracks of the flock
and graze your young goats
by the dwellings of the shepherds.
Most Beautiful of Women
The Man
9My darling, I compare you
to a mare among the chariots of Pharaoh.
10Your cheeks are adorned with earrings,
your neck with strings of jewels.
11We will make for you gold earrings decorated with silver.
The Woman
12While the king was at his couch,
13My lover is to me a sachet of myrrh,
spending the night between my breasts.
14My lover is to me a cluster of henna blossoms
from the vineyards of En Gedi.
Our House
The Man
15How beautiful you are, my darling!
How beautiful! Your eyes are doves.
The Woman
16How beautiful you are, my lover
How delightful!
Yes, our bed is fresh.
17The beams of our house are cedar.
Our rafters are fir.