Song of Songs 3: Searching but seeing another?

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:

Possible breakdown [ignoring ‘the Friends’]:

• v.1-3 When he didn’t come at night she went looking for him in the morning
• v.4-5 She finds him and takes him home
• v.6-11 She sees Solomon coming in his splendor

v.1 all through the night I wondered if he would come

v.1  All night long on my bed
    I looked for the one my heart loves;
    I looked for him but did not find him.

v.2 but now it is early morning I will go out to look for him – but I couldn’t find him

v.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.

v.3 I came across the watchmen and asked them

v.3  The watchmen found me
    as they made their rounds in the city.
    ‘Have you seen the one my heart loves?’

v.4 but then I saw him [and in my mind’s eye], grabbed him and took him home

v.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.

v.5 you observers, don’t expect love to blossom too fast

v.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.

v.6 I saw him coming with a cloud of dust

v.6 Who is this coming up from the wilderness
    like a column of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and incense
    made from all the spices of the merchant?

v.7,8 It was Solomon in his carriage with an armed escort

v.7  Look! It is Solomon’s carriage,
    escorted by sixty warriors,
    the noblest of Israel,
v.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.

v.9,10 He had made for himself a wonderful carriage

v.9  King Solomon made for himself the carriage;
    he made it of wood from Lebanon.
v.10 Its posts he made of silver,
    its base of gold.
Its seat was upholstered with purple,
    its interior inlaid with love.
Daughters of Jerusalem,

v.11 come out you observers and see his splendour

v.11  come out,
    and look, you daughters of Zion.
Look on King Solomon wearing a crown,
    the crown with which his mother crowned him
on the day of his wedding,
    the day his heart rejoiced.

[Concluding Comment: The first half of this fairly short third chapter is taken up with her thoughts about her loved one who she hoped would come to her at night, but when he doesn’t, she goes out looking for him in the morning, finds him and takes him home.

The second part is all about Solomon who she sees coming in his chariot. We are perhaps left to speculate whether Solomon will win her heart away from the one she initially professes to love or whether in fact the young man of her dreams is a younger Solomon who is replaced in the second part by the older, now regal prince. Was this in fact written by the older and perhaps [in line with Ecclesiastes] more cynical Solomon?

Note in this chapter the first question, “Who is this?” – 3:6 and the answer is clearly 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: