Song of Songs 1: Her Initial Concerns
Preliminary Comments: Please ensure you have read the notes in the Introduction. Very well, to begin with, the study which simply seeks to help the reader absorb the text more easily without too much guidance:
Possible breakdown [ignoring ‘the Friends’]:
- v.1 Title
- v.2-8 Her initial concerns
- v.9-17 Initial expression of the other by both of them
v.1 song identified, accepted by most as written by Solomon
v.1 Solomon’s Song of Songs.
She
v.2 she anticipates his intimate love
v.2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth –
for your love is more delightful than wine.
v.3 she anticipates being close to him and even when his name is mentioned she is affected
v.3 Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes;
your name is like perfume poured out.
No wonder the young women love you!
v.4 she anticipates him taking her away to where they can be alone
v.4 Take me away with you – let us hurry!
Let the king bring me into his chambers.
Friends
the chorus exult in what will come
We rejoice and delight in you;
we will praise your love more than wine.
She
v.4b she knows his reputation
How right they are to adore you!
v.5 but she is no fair-skinned maiden
v.5 Dark am I, yet lovely,
daughters of Jerusalem,
dark like the tents of Kedar,
like the tent curtains of Solomon.
v.6 she has been colored by the sun
v.6 Do not stare at me because I am dark,
because I am darkened by the sun.
v.6b her brothers unfairly demanded she take her share of the family work outside in the vineyards – this had been to her own loss – her color?
v.6b My mother’s sons were angry with me
and made me take care of the vineyards;
my own vineyard I had to neglect.
v.7a she wonders where she would find this one she idolizes from a distance
v.7 Tell me, you whom I love,
v.7b would he be where his flocks were? where you graze your flock
v.7b and where you rest your sheep at midday.
v.7c she who mourns his love not yet being hers
v.7c Why should I be like a veiled woman
beside the flocks of your friends?
Friends
v.8 the chorus tells her to take her own flock to be with the other flocks [where she might find him?]
v.8 If you do not know, most beautiful of women,
follow the tracks of the sheep
and graze your young goats
by the tents of the shepherds.
He
v.9 Pharaoh’s horses were perfect, a mare stood out – so does she
v.9 I liken you, my darling, to a mare
among Pharaoh’s chariot horses.
v.10 here ‘ornaments’ only accentuate her beauty even more
v.10 Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings,
your neck with strings of jewels.
v.11 we will do what we can to do it even more
v.11 We will make you earrings of gold,
studded with silver.
She
v.12 she imagines being at his table & her scent impacting him
v.12 While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance.
v.13 she longs for the closeness of intimacy
v.13 My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh
resting between my breasts.
v.14 his close presence almost overpowers her
v.14 My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms
from the vineyards of En Gedi.
He
v.15 he declares her beauty
v.15 How beautiful you are, my darling!
Oh, how beautiful!
Your eyes are doves.
She
v.16 she declares how handsome he is
v.16 How handsome you are, my beloved!
Oh, how charming!
And our bed is verdant.
He
v.17 he imagines the woods are like their home
v.17 The beams of our house are cedars;
our rafters are firs.
[Concluding Comment: Note in this first chapter there is no clue to who he is – except a shepherd [v.7,8] – or who she is – except a young girl with brothers who has to work in the family vineyards [v.6]. There is no mention of Solomon.]
For those who may wish to make a study of this chapter, to perhaps think some more about what you have been reading, use the link below: