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Song of Solomon

שִׁיר הַשִּׁירִים Shir HaShirim, “song of songs”. Love poetry. 8 chapters, 117 verses.

A sequence of love poems in which a woman and a man speak of their desire for each other, and of love “strong as death.”

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Overview

The Song of Songs, also called the Song of Solomon, is a collection of love poetry. Its title, “The Song of songs” (1:1), means the greatest of songs. Most of it is spoken by two lovers, a young woman and the man she calls “my beloved,” with a chorus of “daughters of Jerusalem.” They praise each other’s beauty in rich images drawn from gardens, vineyards, spices, animals and the landscape of Israel, and they long for each other when apart.

The woman speaks more than anyone else in the book, and she opens it: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth” (1:2). Twice she searches for her beloved at night through the city streets. Three times she charges the daughters of Jerusalem “that you not stir up, nor awaken love, until it so desires” (2:7). Near the end comes the book’s central claim: “love is strong as death” (8:6).

Author and date

The title reads “which is Solomon’s” (1:1), and Solomon is named several times in the poems, though he does not appear to be the speaker throughout.

Traditional view

Solomon · 10th century BC

Jewish and Christian tradition take the title as a statement of authorship. 1 Kings 4:32 says that Solomon’s songs numbered 1,005, and the poems’ images of Lebanon, Tirzah, Jerusalem and En Gedi fit his day, when Israel was still a single kingdom.

Academic view

Uncertain · 10th–3rd century BC

Many scholars note that the Hebrew phrase in the title can also mean “for Solomon” or “about Solomon.” Some date the poems late, in the Persian or Hellenistic (Greek) period, because of features of their Hebrew and words borrowed from other languages. Others argue for an early date, or see an anthology of love songs from different periods.

Audience and setting

The poems may first have been sung at weddings or other celebrations, though the book gives no setting of its own. Its imagery ranges over the whole land, from Lebanon and Mount Hermon in the north to En Gedi by the Dead Sea, and it comes back often to Jerusalem. In Jewish practice the Song is read at Passover.

Genre, and how to read it

The Song is poetry, and it is not always clear who is speaking; many translations add headings for the woman, the man and the friends. Readers disagree on its structure. Some find a story with a wedding at its centre (3:6–5:1); some even find a drama with a king and a rival shepherd. Others read a loosely linked collection held together by refrains.

For most of its history the Song was read as allegory. Jewish interpreters, including the Targum (an ancient Aramaic paraphrase), read it as the love between God and Israel, and Rabbi Akiva called it the holy of holies among the scriptures. Christian writers such as Origen and Bernard of Clairvaux read it as the love between Christ and the church, or Christ and the soul. Many modern readers take it first as poetry celebrating love between a man and a woman, and many hold the two readings together.

My beloved, my love

The Song’s two lovers have their own words for each other. Her name for him is dod, my beloved, and the word comes 39 times in all, 13 of them in chapter 5, where she searches the city for him and the daughters of Jerusalem ask what makes him better than any other. His for her is ra‘yah, my love, 9 times. And three times the same oath stops the poem, I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, that you not stir up, nor awaken love, until it so desires (2:7).

dod beloved 39

ra‘yah my love 9

shava adjure 5

Counted in the site’s Hebrew. Dod also means love itself, so a few uses read your love, and in 4:10 it is the man who says it; the WEB keeps both senses. The refrain comes at 2:7, 3:5 and 8:4; at 5:8 the oath turns into a request to find him, and at 5:9 the daughters throw it back. Who speaks each line is not marked in the Hebrew, though the grammar usually shows whether a man or a woman is speaking.

Outline

Key themes

Love and desire
The book celebrates physical love openly and without embarrassment: “My beloved is mine, and I am his” (2:16).
Mutuality
The lovers speak as equals, and the woman’s voice leads. The refrain is turned both ways: “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine” (6:3).
Patience
The warning not to “awaken love, until it so desires” (2:7, 3:5, 8:4) sets love in its proper time.
Love’s strength
“Many waters can’t quench love” (8:7). The book’s one possible mention of God comes here, when love’s flashes are called “a very flame of Yah” (8:6).

At a glance

4 people and 15 places named.

Most mentioned: Solomon, David, Kedar, Pharaoh (of the Exodus)

Main places: Jerusalem, Lebanon, Gilead, Amana, Baal-hamon