Song of Solomon
Author: Solomon
The Song of Solomon is a poem of desire between a woman and a man, set in gardens, fields, and the city.
Outline
Longing and the beloved’s arrival (1–2)
The woman desires her beloved, and he comes over the hills like a gazelle.
The search at night (3–5)
She seeks him in the city, the wedding procession passes, and a separation follows.
Praise and the vineyard (6–8)
The lovers describe each other, and the poem ends with a seal of love stronger than death.
Key verses
Song of Solomon 2:16
The woman says her beloved is hers and she is his.
Song of Solomon 8:6
Love is called strong as death, and jealousy hard as the grave.
Song of Solomon 8:7
Many waters cannot quench love, and wealth is despised as a way to buy it.
The Song of Solomon, also called the Song of Songs, announces itself as Solomon’s, the best of songs. It is not a story with a court chronicle and not a set of laws. It is lyric. A woman, a man, and sometimes a chorus of the daughters of Jerusalem speak in turn. The scenes move between a vineyard, a pasture, a garden locked, a palanquin in the street, and a city at night. There is no sermon explaining the images. The poem trusts desire, praise of the body, and the fear of losing the beloved to carry the meaning.
The woman speaks first. She wants the kisses of his mouth. She is dark and lovely, burned by the sun because her brothers made her keeper of the vineyards, and she has not kept her own. The note of someone else’s claim on her work is already there. The man answers with comparison: a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots, cheeks like a piece of pomegranate, and a name like ointment poured out. She asks where he pastures his flock. He tells her to follow the tracks of the flock. The poem’s love is not cut off from ordinary ground. It smells of nard, myrrh, cedar, and apples, the goods of the land and of trade.
He comes leaping on the mountains and invites her out, for the winter is past. She warns of the little foxes that spoil the vineyards. She also charges the daughters of Jerusalem not to stir up love until it pleases. That charge is repeated. Love in this poem is strong, and it is not to be forced awake on someone else’s schedule. At night she seeks him and does not find him. The watchmen find her. Later they strike her and take her veil, a harsher encounter that the poem does not soften. She asks the daughters to tell him she is sick with love, and she describes his body in the same kind of praise he has given hers. The descriptions are specific and unembarrassed. Readers who want the Bible to be silent about sexual joy will not get that silence here.
A wedding procession in chapter 3 shows Solomon’s palanquin coming up from the wilderness, and the poem uses his name. How much of the speaking man is Solomon, and how much the name is part of the royal imagery, the text does not settle in a footnote. What it does settle is the mutual belonging. My beloved is mine and I am his. Later she says I am my beloved’s and his desire is for me. The order of those lines matters. She is not only the one who wants. She is wanted.
The closing chapter returns to a vineyard. Solomon has a vineyard at Baal-hamon. The woman has her own vineyard, and she will not hand its fruit to anyone who demands it. Then comes the line the book is often remembered by. Set me as a seal on your heart. Love is strong as death. Jealousy is fierce as the grave. Many waters cannot quench it. If a man offered all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly despised. The poem that began with a kiss ends by saying love is not for sale. In a Bible full of covenants, battles, and laws, this song insists that desire between a man and a woman, faithful and mutual, is not a distraction from wisdom. It is one of the things wisdom has to make room for.