Song of Songs 1 - 8

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Song of Songs 1 - 8

Discover the deeper meaning behind the biblical Song of Songs in Steve Gregg's insightful analysis. Drawing parallels between Solomon's love for his bride and the love between Christ and the Church, Gregg explores the intricate symbolism laced throughout the text. From the initial intimidation and fear to the blossoming courtship, he delves into the themes of purity, affection, and the pursuit of love. With references to vineyards, garments, and passionate desires, Gregg unravels the idyllic imagery and offers a unique perspective on the timeless story.

Transcript

We're going to take the entire Song of Solomon in this session. Since there are eight chapters, it's obvious we will not be going very deeply into it. As I mentioned in our introduction, I've never really enjoyed teaching the Song of Solomon, partly because I don't know how much there is really to teach.

It's more of a book to be experienced, and it is sort of the love diary of a couple, which has something to do with their courtship and their marriage and their sex life. It really seems quite personal, really seems quite private. When teachers seek to teach from the book, they can choose a number of ways to go with it.

The two main ways that Christian teachers go is to try to point out certain things about marital love, about chastity, about the sanctity of marriage, and things like that, which would be perhaps the things that are most on the surface of the book, what it talks about. The other way they go is, of course, to try to find analogies between Christ and the Church, and the love relationship between Christ and the Church. Now, I think that such analogies are justified.

I believe that Solomon in the Bible is a type of Christ. I do believe that it's not far-fetched for Solomon's love for his bride to be somewhat seen as having some parallels, perhaps, to Christ's love for the Church. But there's so much eroticism, frankly, in the book that I just have never had much of a taste.

Maybe it's because I'm a guy. I think women sometimes revel more in the imagery of being the bride of Christ, and I think guys sometimes, you know, they accept it because it's in the Bible, but it doesn't really ring their chimes as much as it rings a woman's chimes, because Christ is a male figure, obviously, and to have erotic language about our relationship with Christ is just not the kind of thing that guys can relate to, at least ordinary guys, and therefore, it's hard to teach it. It's more a book to be experienced, because it's the outpouring of emotions.

It's the outpouring of an emotional romantic relationship, and of almost a private diary of a couple of lovers. And so, to teach it, I'm not going to go in-depth in trying to make analogies to Christ and the Church, though I do not deny that some analogy may be legitimate in that area, but rather to just try to go through the story and see how they express themselves, and to make some suggestions as to what may be going on, what may be the backstory in what is being discussed. I've mentioned that there are seven idylls in this book, and an idyll is a poem, a love poem, and it is difficult, as is witnessed by the number of suggestions made by commentators, to know exactly what the backstory is, and the suggestion I've made is not authoritative.

It's possible that it's not correct. It's a backstory that I find fits, seems to me fits the material. It's not the only suggestion that could fit the material.

I mentioned that some, many scholars believe there are two men and one woman in this. The two men are a shepherd, on the one hand, a peasant shepherd who is the real love of this woman's life, and then Solomon, who's trying to win her from him. But it doesn't seem like that's really the story, because, as I say, it doesn't seem like Solomon would write a book in which he's the loser and the bad guy, the one trying to seduce the girl away from her true love, nor does it appear, from the way she talks, that she has any problems being in love with Solomon.

It seems to me that Solomon is her lover. And so the suggestion has been made that Solomon is seen both as the shepherd and the king. And to see it this way means that either Solomon is idealized as a shepherd, as, for example, the leader of a nation is the shepherd of his people, and therefore, when it talks about him feeding his flocks and such, it's really talking metaphorically of him being the leader of the nation.

It's a possibility. The other suggestion, which is what I suggested, certainly not original with me, I've heard it in the past, and it seems to me that it may fit. And in a sense, it then does sort of make it an overall analogy of Christ and the Church in a way, is that Solomon was in love with this girl, a peasant girl.

He first saw her when he was attired as king with all of his retinue with him, and she was intimidated by him, frightened of him, ran away from him. And then, in order to win her in a less intimidating way, he disguised himself as a shepherd, came back, took the role of a peasant, like herself, won her heart that way, and then disappeared mysteriously. And reappeared, dressed as king again, to claim her as his bride, once he knew that he had her love.

Now, if that is the story, it's very fairy tale-like, as I mentioned, and that might in itself be a reason not to trust it, because fairy tales are not true stories, and it's very strange to think of a king actually disguising himself as a pauper. It's not the only story that's ever emerged in the history of literature of kings that would reduce themselves, wish they were not the king for a while, or want to live among the paupers and know what it's like to do so. But this story, to my mind, can at least provide a structure that each of the idylls can be placed within, though not in any sense in a chronological order.

But then I don't know anybody who feels that the idylls belong in a chronological order, regardless of what their backstory is that they see to this story. The story begins with a wedding, and it would seem that the other idylls flash back to earlier points in the relationship. It would be very strange if all of the circumstances described in the later idylls somehow followed the wedding, because it would appear, really, that there is some single courtship going on in some of the later parts.

So I'm just going to go through, I'll tell you only, I'm going to do a light treatment of it, and just tell you as we go through what I'm seeing there. If you see something else there, it's possible that what you see is correct. I've never felt that I can give a very authoritative teaching on this book.

The first idyll is all of chapter 1 and into chapter 2, verse 7. That's how the first section is, and where it divides, naturally. The song of songs which is Solomon's. Initially the woman speaks.

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is better than wine. Because of the fragrance of your good ointments, your name is ointment poured forth. Therefore the virgins love you.

Now there are two different words in the Hebrew for love in these two verses. In verse 2 where it says your love is better than wine, it is a specific word for sexual love. It is the closest Hebrew word in meaning to the Greek word eros that is available.

Whereas the second love, the virgins love you, is a different Hebrew word. It simply means friendly love. It's closer to the Greek word agape, love, in its meaning.

It means of course the virgins are fond of you. The virgins would be the young women of marriageable age. They are fond of him, probably would love to be chosen by him.

He is very popular among the young eligible women. But despite that, this one woman has won his heart, for the time being anyway. And she speaks about his love being better than wine.

Of course it is obvious that sexual hormones mess with your head like alcohol messes with your head. And that sexual love has a way of being intoxicating. Possibly even making people crazy or out of touch with reality sometimes.

And that's what wine does too. Only love is better. Although perhaps sometimes the hangover may be worse.

It's hard to say. Now she says, lead me away. And at that point the daughters of Jerusalem say, we will run after you.

We know this is a change of speaker because it is in the plural. And we know it is the daughters of Jerusalem because it is in the feminine plural. And only this one line at this point is that way.

So we have the interjection of a single line from the daughters of Jerusalem. And they serve sort of as a chorus, as in a Greek play. The chorus adds details, carries the story forward a little bit, interacts a little bit with the actors.

But I don't think we're necessarily supposed to always be assuming that these girls are hanging around. And when they speak up, it's more of a dramatic intrusion into the story rather than that they're standing by watching these two lovers make love. But in this case, they are saying, we will accompany you.

Now she's asking the bridegroom to lead her away into his chamber. This is at their wedding. We shall see that.

And so when they say we'll run after you, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to go into the honeymoon suite with the couple. But they will accompany them as bridesmaids or whatever, at least so far as they are supposed to go. Then the woman speaks again and says, the king has brought me into his chambers.

And they say, we will be glad and rejoice in you. We will remember your love more than wine. So her virgin friends, the daughters of Jerusalem, say that we will not forget the kind of love that you two have experienced and expressed.

And the woman says to her boyfriend, her husband actually, rightly do they love you. I am dark, but lovely. Oh, daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.

Now the tents of Kedar probably were made of goat's hair. Goats in the Middle East are black and sheep are white. And so she says, I'm like the tents.

You know, you can see that these nomadic Bedouin people and their tents out on the deserts, they're black, made of goat's hair in all likelihood. And therefore, she says, I'm dark like those. And she means that she's dark from the sun.

She's not making a reference to her ethnic origins, but rather to the fact that she has not lived the delicate life of royalty who are lily white. They don't go out in the sun much because they are attending matters indoors and they are protected from the elements. They don't have skin that has been affected by the outside environment like she.

She's been out working. She's a worker in a vineyard. And so she has had to be out exposed to the sun because the sun has tanned me.

My mother's sons were angry with me. They made me the keeper of the vineyards. But my own vineyard I have not kept.

Now, she says that my mother's sons did not treat me with deference. They made me keep vineyards, probably along with them, made me work with the rest of the family outdoors. And so I was exposed to the sun and my skin is dark.

That might make me seem a little less attractive in a culture where lily white skin is considered to be attractive. But that has not hindered Solomon from being attracted to her. And she says, though my brothers made me keep the vineyards, I have not kept my own vineyard.

And it's not clear exactly how this should be understood. It seems to be referring to she has not cultivated her own sexuality. She has not sought a mate.

She has not had fulfillment in a relationship. Her vineyard and other images of fruit, palm trees, apple trees, raisins, these sweet fruits are used throughout the book as metaphors, euphemisms of sexual pleasure. And so she's saying I've kept vineyards out in the sun, but I've not really ever, until this point at least, tended to my own sexual needs or need for a companion.

But this has changed, of course, now because she's getting married. She says to him, tell me, O you whom I love, where you feed your flock, where you make it rest at noon. For why should I be as one who veils herself by the flocks of your companions? Now one who veils herself would be probably a prostitute.

Remember that Tamar, when she put on the garb of a prostitute, put a veil over her face. And that was apparently how in those societies prostitutes identified themselves. And why should I be like a prostitute who approaches a man, you know, with proposition? Usually a woman would be more reticent, would hang back, wait for the man to approach.

Men were the aggressors in the relationships, except in the case of prostitutes, of course, where they went out and they sought to sell themselves to a man. And she's saying, why should I have to pursue you? Why don't you come to me? Tell me where you feed your flock, where you make it rest at noon. Obviously she's talking to a man in the terms of him being a shepherd.

And some think that she is here reminiscing about the questions she asked him. She's here at the banqueting table. She's at her own wedding, but she's reminiscing about when she first met him, this, in a mysterious shepherd garb, who is not necessarily giving much information about his background.

He's being rather mysterious. And she says, where are your flocks? I haven't seen you around these parts before. Where do you graze your flocks at? And he speaks and says, if you do not know, oh fairest among women, follow the footsteps of the flock and feed your little goats beside the shepherd's tents.

Now, this is thought by some to be a rather evasive answer on his part. If he had appeared to her early on in disguise and did not want to give her much background information, because he was really the king and didn't want her to know, then when she met him and said, well, where is it that you shepherd your sheep? You are obviously a shepherd. Where are your sheep? Where do you keep them? And he says, well, you can just kind of follow the sheep and find out where they are or something.

He doesn't really give any real answer to her. And so this is how some have thought would understand these words of his. He says, I have compared you, my love.

And notice he changes the subject to my filly among Pharaoh's chariots. Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with chains of gold. Now, the daughters of Jerusalem say, we will make you ornaments of gold with studs of silver.

Now, apparently she backed into reality again and they are talking about her ornaments. And apparently the daughters of Jerusalem are quite willing to cooperate to prepare ornaments for her. Although, I mean, and that's very gracious of them since many of them, no doubt, would like to have been chosen instead of her by the king.

But they are now, of course, resigned to their faith that she gets him. And so they're going to be celebrating with them and helping her with her ornaments. Now, she says, while the king is at his table, my spikenard sends forth its fragrance.

A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me that lies between all night between my breasts. My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blooms in the vineyards of En-Gedi. Now, this bundle of myrrh that lies all night between her breasts is a reference to the fact that women in those days sometimes would have a little pouch of aromatic spice of some kind, myrrh in many cases.

And they would hang it by a ribbon around their neck and it would hang on their chest between their breasts and they would wear it as they slept at night. And then the next day when they would be up and about, they'd have the lingering aroma of this myrrh on them. And she's essentially saying, my beloved is now going to be spending the night between my breasts.

He's going to be laying there instead of a bundle of myrrh. He's like a bundle of myrrh to me who's going to lie all night between my breasts. And so he says, behold, you are fair, my love.

Behold, you are fair. You have dove's eyes. Dove's eyes, it's hard to know what is about the eyes of doves that he compared them with her eyes.

Obviously, a dove is perhaps an emblem of purity. And maybe he just sees her as a pure and innocent, maybe even naive, undefiled girl. Her eyes reflect that purity rather than the jadedness of a woman who's had more experience.

And she says, behold, you are handsome, my beloved. This word handsome is the same word as fair in the previous verse, only in the masculine form. Both mean beautiful.

Yes, pleasant. Also, our bed is green. The beams of our houses are cedar and our rafters are fir.

Now, this statement has led many to believe that they are, after their wedding, actually out making love on the hillsides on the grass. Says our bed is green. There's no obvious reason why a bed would be green unless it just happened to be green.

I mean, if their wedding bed had green sheets or covers on it, then it would be green, of course. But some have thought the reference to the green bed and the house of cedars is a figurative way of saying we're out in the cedar forest. The walls of cedar are all around us, the trees, in other words, and we're laying out on the grass.

Of course, Solomon's house was built of cedar. And so if they were indoors, she'd have a house of cedar rising around her as well. But some feel that this is figurative.

She says, I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys. It's interesting how many Christian songs and poems have referred to Jesus by this term, the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley. Of course, they're borrowing it from this passage, but this is really the woman speaking about herself.

It's not the bridegroom speaking about himself. What she's saying is, I'm an ordinary flower. Sharon was a place that had many roses.

It was a place known for its many roses. So for her to say, I'm a rose of Sharon, just means I'm just one of a million. Sharon's full of roses.

I'm just another one. I'm just a lily in the valley. A valley's full of lilies.

I'm just a, again, there's nothing exceptional about me. I'm a flower in a place where there's millions of flowers, just like me. And he corrects her.

He says, like a lily among thorns, so is my love among daughters. That is, if you're just a lily in the valley, then all the others are like thorns. You'd stand out like a lily would stand out among briars and thorns.

You're not just another flower out of a bunch. Now she says about him, like an apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sun. I sat down in his shade with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

The commentators are agreed that this is a reference to them having sex. An apple tree and raisins and some of these kinds of things. The raisins have not been mentioned yet.

They will be. These are common images of sexual pleasure in Middle Eastern literature. And so they are talking about their consummation, apparently, of their marriage.

And she speaks to the daughters of Jerusalem. He brought me to the banqueting house. His banner over me was love.

She's reminiscing about the wedding itself. Sustained me with cakes of raisins. Refreshed me with apples, for I am lovesick.

Again, the cakes of raisins and apples are not references to food. For I am lovesick. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me or caresses me.

And she says, I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the does of the field. All that is lovely. Perhaps if they are, in fact, out on the hillside, there are does and gazelles.

At least they are out among where those animals live. And so she swears by them, or she charges them, by these gazelles of the field. Do not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.

Now I mentioned in our introduction this particular last line. It occurs three times in the book. At the end of three of the seven idils.

It's a closing remark. And it brings us to the end of the first idil. Its translation is disputed because some translations translate it, do not stir up or awaken my love until he pleases.

The word it can be he because it is a pronoun that can be, it's in the masculine form. It can mean it or he depending on what the antecedent is. If it means love in the abstract, then it is it.

But you do not wish to pre-awaken. If it is my love, my husband, then it is he. And some of the commentaries I've read seem to want to make this statement be an exhortation to premarital chastity.

Which it may well be. It's just not obvious to me that this wording means that. But it could.

If it is not saying don't awaken my love until he pleases. That is let him sleep as long as he wants to. If it is saying don't awaken love until it pleases.

It's a lovely sounding line. But it's not entirely clear how that would be understood or why it would be understood that way. Don't awaken love could certainly be thought to mean don't get sexually aroused.

Or don't get involved in sex. But until it pleases, I guess one would argue until it's appropriate. Which would be in marriage.

If that's what it means, then this would be her on the night of her first sexual encounter after her wedding. Urging the daughters of Jerusalem to stay sexually pure as they are referred to as virgins. Until the proper time, until they're married.

And she might well exhort them. Because if this is the occasion of her first deflowering. It may well be that she then is very happy that she saved herself for this occasion.

And there may be, since she was a beautiful woman. There may have been opportunities when men sought to woo her previously. And she turned down their overtures.

And that she is thinking now I'm glad I did. You daughters of Jerusalem keep yourselves pure until marriage. Because it's great to save yourself for this moment.

And thus ends this first idyll. Which seems to be set at the wedding itself. And I guess the wedding night we could say.

And which also might have those, if I'm understanding correctly. This brief section chapter 1 verses 7 and 8. Where she's reminiscing about when she first met him. When she mistook him for a shepherd.

Maybe not. There's a lot of maybes here. Now when you come to the second idyll.

This is chapter 2 verse 8 through chapter 3 verse 5. The voice of my beloved. Behold he comes leaping upon the mountains. Leaping upon the mountains.

Excuse me. Skipping upon the hills. My beloved is like a gazelle.

Or young stag. Behold he stands behind our wall. He is looking through the windows.

Gazing through the lattice. This apparently is a reference to when he was courting her. In this back story I suggested perhaps when he's in the shepherd's garb.

And when he's winning her heart. He's coming to her door and trying to call her to come outside. And romp with him.

She says my beloved spoke and said to me. Rise up my love my fair one and come away. For lo the winter is past the rain is over and gone.

The flowers appear on the earth. The time of singing has come. The voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land.

The fig tree puts forth her green figs. And the vines with the tender grapes give a good smell. Rise up my love my fair one and come away.

It's spring time. Winter is past. It's the time for courtship.

It's time for love. Come out and let's romp around on the hillside. Oh my dove.

In the clefts of the rock. In the secret places of the cliff. Let me see your countenance.

Let me hear your voice. For your voice is sweet and your countenance is lovely. Now here he is courting her.

Inviting her to spend time with him. However her brothers speak up. And they say catch us the foxes.

The little foxes that spoil the vines. For our vines have tender grapes. Now what I think this is referring to is that her brothers are saying hey it's no time for all this nonsense of courtship.

We have grape vines to tend. Little foxes have broken through into the vineyard. And they're gnawing at the stems of the grapes.

And we need to round them up and get them out of there. This is part of keeping a vineyard. It's keeping the wild animals out.

Keeping them from the grapes. There's been an intrusion. So that we have the woman being drawn two ways.

She's kind of being, she's hearing her lover invite her to come out and enjoy the spring. And to enjoy romance. And her brothers bring her back to the harsh realities of hey you've got a job to do here.

These little foxes are going to ruin the grapes if we don't round them up and catch them. Now this statement of the little foxes that spoil the grapes. It seems like commentators do want to make this some kind of a warning about the little irritations.

That kind of ruin the blissfulness of a relationship of love. And you know maybe you could see it that way. But it's not clear to me why the brothers would be the ones giving this exhortation.

I could see her or him saying it to the other one. If that's what they mean. If grapes and vineyard in this case are being used in a figurative sense of love and sex.

Or sexual intimacy. Then I could see one of them warning the other. We need to avoid those nasty little intrusions.

Those disagreements and irritations that kind of dull the edge of our passion and of our love for each other. And that's what commentators seem to think these little foxes mean. However I don't know why the brothers would bring this up.

The brothers don't seem to be overly supportive of this relationship. And it sounds to me like they're just trying to call the girls attention back to duty. Back to her job.

And away from the lurings of this young man. And she says, my beloved is mine and I am his. He feeds his flock among the lilies.

And she says to him, until the day breaks and the shadows flee away. Turn my beloved and be like a gazelle or like a young stag upon the mountains of Bither. Not clear what she means but she means.

It sounds like she means that he should leave. And should stay away all night rather than stay with her all night since they're not married. She is, when she says he feeds among the lilies it's not entirely clear if it's talking about he feeds his flocks.

In places where, in the valleys where there's lots of lilies. Or if it means something figurative like, you know, he's feasting on her affections. And on her romantic love with him.

But she seems to send him away for the night because she's trying to remain chaste. However, having sent him away, she has dreams about him in the night. And in chapter 3 verse 1, by night on my bed I sought the one I love.

She apparently had sent him away for the night until morning comes. Because spending the night together was not appropriate for them at this point. But while she was away from him in the night she longed for him.

I sought him but I did not find him. I will rise now, I said, and go about the city in the streets and in the squares. I will seek the one I love.

I sought him but did not find him. The watchman who go about the city found me. To whom I said, have you seen the one I love? Scarcely had I passed by them when I found the one I love.

I held him and would not let him go until I had brought him to the house of my mother and into the chamber of her who conceived me. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the does of the field, do not stir up or awaken love until it pleases. Now, this night experience could well have been a dream.

I say this because there is a dream of a similar sort mentioned later on in chapter 5. In the 4th Edel. In chapter 5 verse 2 she says, I sleep but my heart is awake. So this is a dream.

And in this dream she again goes looking for her beloved in the city in the middle of the night. So she may be having repeated dreams in the time of their courtship. They can't stay together all night but in the night she wishes he was there.

She dreams that she goes and finds him in the middle of the night. This is what she's obsessed with. And so probably in the dream she looks for him and as dreams often have frustrations as part of their stories, she can't find him immediately.

She has to ask where he is and so forth. But finally the dream ends happily. She finds him.

She embraces him. And doesn't want to let him go until she can take him home to her mother's house. Now that's probably not where they ended up having their honeymoon when in fact they got married in Jerusalem.

She probably did not take him into her mother's house. But this in her dream that was the familiar place that she had grown up and that's where she wanted to take him. And so she ends this Edel with the same lines as the first.

And this leads us to the beginning of the third. And in chapter 3 verse 6 I believe this is a reference to his coming and proposing to her. Remember in the story I've suggested he courted her in the garb of a shepherd which is I believe what we read about in the second Edel.

Then I believe he disappeared for a time and came back dressed as king to propose to her after he had won her heart. And I believe that in chapter 3 verse 6 we have an Edel that describes his coming at that time. Apparently and undisguisedly as the king of Jerusalem, king of Judah, of Israel.

And he comes to propose to her whom he has now won over in his other persona. Verse 6, who is this coming out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke perfumed with myrrh and frankincense with all the merchants fragrant powders? Behold it is Solomon's couch. The word couch could mean what is called a palanquin which was something that was an enclosed chair with poles that you know slaves or somebody would carry it on their shoulders and the king or a noble person would ride in this chair carried by people on their shoulders.

And that's the word that is here referred to as his couch. With 60 valiant men around him of the valiant of Israel. They all hold swords being experts in war.

Every man has his sword on his thigh because of fear in the night. That is Solomon has his bodyguard with him. There are dangers traveling at night especially.

And so he's got 60 bodyguards around him as he comes to her home to propose to her. Of the wood of Lebanon Solomon the king made himself a palanquin. He made its pillars of silver.

It's support of gold. It's seat of purple. It's interior paved with love by the daughters of Jerusalem.

Go forth oh daughters of Zion and see King Solomon with the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his espousals. The day of gladness of his heart. Now this is again the day of his espousals.

Apparently his engagement where he is coming to espouse her to be his wife. And he says to her, behold, this is his proposal to her, behold you are fair my love, behold you are fair. You have dove's eyes behind your veil.

Your hair is like a flock of goats. Going down from Mount Gilead your teeth are like a flock of shorn sheep. Now when sheep are not recently shorn they are pretty dark and dirty.

But when they are first shorn they are very white and pure looking. And so your teeth are white he's saying. And we need to appreciate that.

Because we picture people's teeth being like our teeth in ancient times. But we have dentists, we have toothbrushes, we have dental hygiene. In ancient times teeth rotted just like ours would if we didn't care for them.

And they didn't have the ways to care for them. So it was very common for people's teeth to be very ugly. They didn't have orthodontics.

They would lose teeth if they had a rotten tooth. They ended up losing teeth. And they didn't have a replacement to put in there.

Probably the majority of adults had really irregular teeth. Crooked in many cases, not very white. And probably missing teeth, gaps in their smile.

This woman however happens to have none of those defects. Speaking of her teeth, they are like a flock of shorn sheep which have come up from the washing. Every one of which bears twins.

And each of them has its partner. There's a corresponding tooth to each one. None missing.

None is barren among them. Your lips are like a strand of scarlet and your mouth is lovely. Your temples behind your veil are like a piece of pomegranate.

Now pomegranate is red so it may be speaking of the color. Pomegranate is also sweet so he may be talking about the taste. It says, your neck is like a tower of David built for an armory on which hang thousands of bucklers, all shields of mighty men.

It's very possible she had a long statuesque neck and that she was wearing some jewelry of disks, shiny disks that reminded him of the shields of David hanging on David's tower. He had a lot of military imagery in his praise for her. I don't know whether a woman would find that as alluring as a man, but for her to look like a tower with shields and so forth, I don't know if that turns women on, but that turned him on.

He's a guy. He likes the idea of military strength and all that. It says, your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle which feed among the lilies.

Now the likeness of breasts to fawns is not obvious. Someone suggested that she had small breasts and that fawns are small, little baby deer. There is a reference to her having small breasts in the last chapter.

Her brothers make reference to her not having any breasts, but it's very possible they are describing her in her prepubescent time because later she mentions that her breasts are in fact like towers. I don't know that he's speaking of the size of her breasts necessarily. Perhaps they bounce when she walks and it reminds him of bouncy little fawns prancing around.

Who knows? He is talking dirty here. No, he's not talking dirty. He's talking sexy here.

At least it says they're like twins, so at least they're the same as each other. That would be kind of, I guess, a defect if they were not. It says they're like twins of a gazelle.

Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, I will go my way to the mountain of Myrrh and to the hill of frankincense. Now the mountain of Myrrh and the hill of frankincense are no doubt poetic references to lovemaking. He says I'm going to make love all night long until the day breaks, until the shadows flee away.

Now this is his proposal, of course, to her. He wants to do that, but he's proposing marriage. You are all fair, my love, and there is no spot in you.

Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse. With me from Lebanon. That's where she lived, in Lebanon.

He wants her to go to Jerusalem and be his wife. Look from the top of Ammanah, from the top of Sinai and Hermon, from the lion's dens and the mountains of the leopards. You have ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse.

You have ravished my heart with one look of your eyes, with one link of your necklace. How fair is your love, my sister, my spouse. How much better than wine is your love, and the scent of your perfumes than all spices.

Your lips, oh my spouse, drip as a honeycomb. Now in Proverbs, actually, it says that the harlot's lips are that way too. But she's not being described that way, just that she's alluring.

Her lips are alluring to him. Like honey and milk, they're under your tongue. And the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

So she smells good and tastes good, looks good. A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. That is, she's a virgin.

He's proposing to her and praising her for having kept her garden closed to other men, keeping her spring shut. This imagery of sexuality as a spring or a fountain is also found in Proverbs chapter 5, where Solomon's exhorting his son to not have sex with anyone other than his wife. He says, don't let your fountains be dispersed in the streets, but rejoice in the wife of your youth instead.

So she's kept herself a virgin. Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, fragrant henna and spikenard, spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all these, excuse me, all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices, a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon. This is how he's describing her sexual allurement.

She says, awake, oh north wind, and come, oh south wind. Blow upon my garden that its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come to his garden and eat its pleasant fruits.

So she's accepting his proposal, in other words. And he says, I have come to my garden, my sister, my spouse. I have gathered my myrrh with my spice.

I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey. I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, oh friends, drink, yes, drink deeply, oh beloved ones.

Now, the invitation to his friends to eat and drink is obviously not that he's going to share his wife, but probably that he's inviting them to come and feast at his wedding. When he says, I have come to my garden, my sister, my spouse, etc., etc., it may sound as if he's saying, I have had sex with you already. But he has instead said that she is still a garden enclosed and she has not given herself to him.

So it seems like he's just speaking by way of anticipation. I've proposed, you have accepted, I'm all in. And so we're getting married and I'm inviting my friends to the feast.

And thus ends the third idyll. Then in the fourth idyll, this one's made up of a sort of a dream that she had also. This is apparently a dream she had during the time of the courtship when her shepherd boy had disappeared.

And she says, I sleep, but my heart is awake. It is the voice of my beloved. So she's hearing him at her door when she's in bed in her dream.

She imagines he's knocking. He knocks, saying, open for me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one, for my head is covered with dew, my locks with the drops of the night. In other words, I'm stuck out here in the weather.

Let me indoors where it's warm and dry. And she says to him, I have taken off my robe. How can I put it on again? I've washed my feet.

How can I defile them? My beloved put his hand by the latch of the door and my heart yearned for him. I arose to open for my beloved and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh on the handles of the lock. Well, apparently, as she arose from her bed, reluctantly and belatedly, because she had gone to bed and washed her feet and didn't want to put them down on the floor again, and so she dips her fingers in some perfumed oils as she gets up and goes to the door so that her fingers are dripping with that as she puts her hands on the handles.

She says, I opened for my beloved, but my beloved had turned away and was gone. My heart went out to him when he spoke. I sought him, but I could not find him.

I called him, but he gave me no answer. The watchmen who went about the city found me. They struck me.

They wounded me. The keepers of the walls took my veil away from me. I charge you, oh, daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him I am lovesick.

Now, this dream is a troubling dream as opposed to the previous one she had. She had a similar dream, obviously, where she woke in the night, went looking for him in the city, and the watchmen were cooperative but didn't know where he was, and so she eventually found him in that dream, and it had a happy ending for her. But here she's having a troubled dream.

Maybe because he has left, she's having thoughts that he's lost interest in her after all, symbolized in the dream she had of him being at the door. She delayed just a moment too long, and then he changed his mind, went away, and she never did find him in this particular dream. And the daughters of Jerusalem say to her, What is your beloved more than another beloved, oh, fairest among women? What is your beloved more than another beloved that you so charge us? That is, she said to the daughters of Jerusalem, If you find him, tell him I'm looking for him, I'm lovesick.

And they say, What's so great about this guy? And so she answers, My beloved is white and ruddy, white and red, apparently red-haired. Remember, David was said to be ruddy also, and maybe he and Solomon had reddish skin or reddish hair, although we do read of his locks being black in the next verse, so it may be his face that's ruddy. My beloved is white and ruddy, chief among ten thousand.

That is, there's no one like him among ten thousand good-looking guys. His head is like the finest gold, his locks are wavy, and black as a raven. His eyes are like doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk and fitly set.

These are not the ways that I would probably describe someone I found attractive, but they have their own oriental, you know, tastes, and what they, you know, how they would flatter a person. These are all flattering things, obviously, but we sometimes think, Well, is that really the way I would want to be described by someone, if they're trying to say I'm attractive? His cheeks are like a bed of spices, like banks of scented herbs. His lips are lilies dripping liquid myrrh.

His hands are rods of gold, set with beryl. His body is carved ivory, inlaid with sapphires. His legs are pillars of marble, set on bases of fine gold.

His countenance is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet, yes, it is altogether, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

And they say, Where has your beloved gone, O fairest among women? Where has your beloved turned aside, that we may seek him with you? And she says, My beloved has gone to his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed his flock in the gardens, and to gather lilies. I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine. He feeds his flock among the lilies.

Now, this business of feeding in the gardens and the beds of spices is used in some parts of the book as a reference to sexual behavior, and thus it might be argued that she's saying he's gone off to have sex. But it doesn't seem like that's what she'd be saying, since she says in verse 3, I am my beloved's and he is mine. In other words, she seems to be confident, or at least trying to be confident, that he still loves her uniquely, and she belongs to him and he belongs to her.

So she may be talking about literal shepherding, that he must have gone off to take his flocks to some other pasture. He's not neglecting me, he's not rejecting me. He's mine and I'm his, but he's obviously gone off somewhere to take care of his sheep.

This would be, again, the way she's thinking during the time of the courtship when she does not yet know this is Solomon, and she thinks there's a shepherd courting her. And then the fifth idyll begins, chapter 6, verse 4, O my love, he says to her, you are as beautiful as Tirzah, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners. Turn your eyes away from me, for they have overcome me.

Your hair is like a flock of goats going down from Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of sheep which have come up from the washing. Everyone bears twins, and none is barren among them.

Like a piece of pomegranate are your temples behind your veil. He's got quite an imagination, but there are limits to his imagery, so he has to repeat himself sometimes. There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, doesn't that sound romantic? And virgins without number.

My dove, my perfect one, is the only one, the only one of her mother, the favorite of the one who bore her. The daughters saw her and called her blessed. The queens and the concubines, they praised her.

Now, I don't know why he mentions the sixty queens and eighty concubines. We know that at one point he had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, so this story apparently takes place at an earlier time in his life before he had taken so many. But he's saying, you know, despite how many women are available to me, there's none like you.

And even the other women acknowledge this. Even the other queens and concubines praise you. In verse ten it says, who is she who looks forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, awesome as an army with banners.

Now, here, I believe she is, in verse eleven and following, going to remember when he first showed up, before, at the very beginning of the alleged story, where he was, he first saw her, he was the king, she was afraid, she ran away. This is before he reappeared as a shepherd. She retells, apparently, I went down to the garden of nuts to see the vendure of the valley, to see whether the vine had budded and the pomegranates had bloomed.

She's taking care of a vineyard and apparently other fruit trees. Before I was even aware, my soul had made me as the chariots of my noble people. What it apparently means, she suddenly was alarmed and ran away.

Before she even knew what was happening, she was dashing away like a chariot. And he calls out to her, return, return, O Shulamite, return, that we may look upon you. And she says, what would you see in this Shulamite? As it were, a dance of the double camp? The double camp in the Hebrew is mehaniim, that's the name of an actual place, it means two camps.

It plays significance in several stories in the Old Testament. But the dance of the double camp may refer to the line dancing that Hebrews sometimes did at their feasts and so forth, where they get in lines facing each other and dance a certain way. If you've seen Fiddler on the Roof, you might remember some of the famous dancing scenes where, in those cases, not men dancing with women, but just men with men and women with women and so forth.

She may be saying, why do you want to look at me? You just want some entertainment, like watching some dancers dance? And so it sounds like she's saying, you know, I don't, she ran away from him. And he called and said, come back, I want to see you, get a better look at you. And she said, you don't want to see me, you just want some entertainment.

And so that could be a reflection back on when they first saw each other. And he says, how beautiful are your feet in sandals, O prince's daughter. Now she's not a prince's daughter, she's a peasant girl, but she's like royalty as he sees her.

The curves of your thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a skillful workman. Your navel is a rounded goblet, which lacks no blended beverage. Apparently he wants to drink from her navel.

Your waist is as a heap of wheat, set about with lilies. A heap of wheat is not how most women like to have their waist described, but in other cultures, sometimes weight and fat are actually valued in a woman. We have to remember not all cultures are like our own, obsessed with leanness and obsessed with thinness.

I mean, many cultures in the past actually saw a woman who had extra weight on her as an asset. Either because she was strong or she looked like she'd be good for having babies or whatever. There was something about a woman with a belly, a woman with some weight on her that was desirable.

When we picture this woman, we picture someone probably according to our standards of what movie actresses would look like. Now we're models. Thin and tall or whatever.

But really, this woman might have, if we'd seen her with our cultural eyes, we might not have seen her as the model of the ideal womanhood. But it was in his culture, in his way of seeing, she was the model of ideal womanhood. And he says, your belly is like, or your waist is like a heap of wheat.

I think the King James says belly. Said about Wille, your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle. Your neck is like an ivory tower.

Your eyes like the pools in Hedgman by the gate of Bath-Rabbin. Your nose is like the Tower of Lebanon, which looks toward Damascus. Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel.

And the hair of your head is like purple. Not purple colored, but like purple cloth, I'm sure. Probably silk.

Silky hair. The King is held captive by its tresses. How fair and how pleasant you are, O love, with your delights.

This stature of yours is like a palm tree. Your breasts are like its clusters. Coconuts, apparently.

I said, I will go up to the palm tree. I will take hold of its branches. Let now your breasts be like clusters of the vine.

The fragrance of your breath like apples, and the roof of your mouth like the best wine. She says, the wine goes down smoothly for my beloved, moving gently the lips of sleepers. I am my beloved's and his desire is toward me.

Come, my beloved. Let us go forth to the field. Let us lodge in the villages.

Actually, I should have mentioned at verse 10, I believe that's the end of the fifth idyll. So verse 11 begins the sixth idyll. And it seems that maybe this is after they've been married for some time.

She's been living in the palace in Jerusalem and she's longing for the old rural life. She'd like to go back and revisit the vineyards and so forth where she grew up. So she says to him, verse 11, at the beginning of the sixth idyll, a short one.

Come, my beloved. Let us go forth to the field. Let us lodge in the villages.

Let us get up early to the vineyards. Let us see if the vine has budded, whether the grapes blossomed are open, and the pomegranates are in bloom. There I will give you my love.

Let's go in other words, make love in my home village and sort of have a second honeymoon there. The mandrakes give off a fragrance and our gates are pleasant fruits. All manner of new and old, which I have laid up for you, my beloved.

Chapter 8. Oh, that you were like my brother who nursed at my mother's breasts. If I should find you outside, I would kiss you. I would not be despised.

Now, when she says, I wish you were like my brother, some think this means I just wish I knew you all my life, like I knew my brother. I wish I hadn't waited so long to meet you, but that you could have been in my life from my childhood on. But she mentions that she wishes he was like her brothers in that she could show overt affection to him publicly, and no one would think badly of it.

You know, a sister can hug and kiss her brothers in public and no one thinks it inappropriate, but she would like to show public affection to him without it being looked down upon as a public spectacle that is inappropriate. And she thinks maybe if he was like her brothers, she could do that. I would lead you and bring you into the house of my mother.

She who used to instruct me. I would cause you to drink of the spiced wine or of the fruit of my pomegranate. That doesn't mean that that's what she did with her brothers, but that's what she would like to do with him back at the place of her upbringing.

Then she repeats in verse 3 and 4, his left hand is under my head and his right hand embraces me. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases. Why this is thrown in here, I'm not sure, except it may well be that we are seeing them again making love at the place where the vineyards are that she grew up in.

And the seventh idyll, I mean the last idyll, somebody, I don't know why they say a relative here, but somebody says, who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved? It's obviously a reference to the Shulamite and Solomon. And it says, I awakened you under the apple tree. There your mother brought you forth.

There she who bore you brought you forth. Now I'm not sure who is saying this or what the significance is. What we have mostly in this final idyll is a renewal of their wedding vows because she tells Solomon that she's rather jealous, and no wonder that there's a lot of women in Solomon's life.

And so she speaks about her jealousy and he reaffirms his love for her and that's what this last idyll mainly is doing. She speaks to him, set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is as strong as death, jealousy as cruel as the grave. It's flames are flames of fire, most vehement flame.

Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it. If a man would give for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly despised. So she's saying that love cannot be really destroyed or quenched like fire, even with much water, nor could it be purchased.

If someone tried to buy somebody's love, it'd be an insult. If someone offered all the wealth of their house in exchange for love, it'd be insulting. It's like, I heard that Winston Churchill once asked a woman at a dinner party, would you sleep with me for a million dollars? And she said, yes.

And he said, how about for a hundred dollars? And she said, what kind of woman do you think I am? He said, well, we've already established that. We're just negotiating the price now. You know, if you offer a million dollars for love, the answer should still be no.

Whether it's a hundred dollars or a million dollars, no matter what the price is, it should be despised. The price should be despised as an insult if someone offers money for love. And it says, we now have her brothers speaking, which is quite obvious in verses eight and nine.

They say, we have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister in the day when she is spoken for? If she is a wall, we will build on her a battlement of silver. And if she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar.

Now, I've read some commentators speculating about what these images refer to. And frankly, I don't find them compelling, and I don't have an alternative. I don't know exactly what these words are intended to mean.

But it does seem that she is remembering an earlier time in her life, before she was married, before she had a suitor, when she was perhaps a late bloomer and still very undeveloped. And her brothers were saying, our little sister, I don't know if we're ever going to find a guy for her. Who's going to want her? She's totally without breasts.

And yet, now, she's thinking, well, the laugh is on them, because the king himself found me desirable. And in fact, apparently she did develop, because she says, I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers. Then I became, in his eyes, as one who found peace.

Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-Hammam. He leased the vineyard to keepers. Everyone was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.

Now, this may be a reference to the vineyard she grew up tending, she and her brothers. And she may be remembering that they used to be paid by Solomon to tend his vineyard. But he says, my own vineyard is before me.

In other words, you are my vineyard, he says to her. You, O Solomon, may have a thousand, and those who keep its fruit, two hundred. So, this imagery is rather difficult to decipher.

But it sounds like she's remembering her upbringing as a vineyard keeper for Solomon. She and her brothers receiving wages for it. And they were keeping his vineyard for him.

He says, well, you're my real vineyard. And she says, you can have me for, you know, you can have your thousand. You don't have to pay for this vineyard to be kept.

I think that's what she's saying. But he says to her at the end, near the end, he says, you who dwell in the gardens, the companions, listen for your voice. Let me hear it.

And she says, make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices. Now, earlier she had said that very same thing, but apparently telling him to run away like a gazelle. When they were unmarried in chapter 2, verse 17, she said to him, until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a stag upon the mountains of Bather.

Apparently telling him to leave for the night and then having regrets about it after she went to bed alone. But here she's telling him to be like a stag or a gazelle on the mountains in the other sense, that he should come running to her. And she's giving herself to him.

This is not, frankly, the kind of love poem that would really, I would think, do much for Western romance. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe women and some men may find this very romantic.

To me, as I've said from the beginning, the whole thing is somewhat spoiled by knowing that Solomon had so many women. And that whatever he was saying to her at this point was how he was feeling at the moment toward her. But I wonder if he said that to all the women.

There were a lot of women in his life. And also, remember later when he wrote Ecclesiastes, he said he had never found a good woman. Seemingly, even including in his mind this one.

So, I don't mean to ruin it if it's something that really charms you, this book, but I've never really found this book to really do a lot for me. As I said, if it does have as its back story the image of a king wanting to woo a peasant girl, so that he takes on peasant garb to win her heart, and then he reveals himself to be the king and brings her to the palace, that general theme would have a very interesting parallel to God's coming to us. Initially, in his splendor and his awesomeness in the Old Testament, more or less frightening people, but coming then as a peasant type in Jesus to win his people.

And finally, coming back as king to bring his bride to himself. The overall story, if that's what it is, does have an interesting correspondence to Christ and the church. The details of it, like I said, I feel like I'm kind of looking in someone else's bedroom.

It's never been extremely comfortable to read it or to teach it, but it's an obligation when you're teaching the whole Bible, you've got to teach this book too. So, those of you who like it as a romantic story, you might want to get maybe a woman teacher to teach where he's making fun of all kinds of romantic things, and I'm sure find it very romantic. I'm kind of more of a dud when it comes to getting into this kind of imagery and getting excited about somebody else's love life.

Not that I don't like my own love life, but I'm just not that interested in someone else's. And so, we get that out of the way. I'm sorry to have to take that kind of a negative approach to it, but Solomon is not my hero.

And as a man faithful to a woman, he's certainly not a good example. And so, we kind of have to lift ourselves beyond the intimacies and so forth to that and say, well, is there some kind of a general picture here that is edifying? And what I've suggested is the problem of that story is somewhat edifying, and I don't mind bringing that up. Going through the actual verses.

I'm glad to have it behind us. All right. You'll never hear me speak so negatively about any other Muslim man.