Song 6:9
The reason the speaker began to talk about the women was so that he could compare them to his beloved.
While there are maidens without number, there is only one he loves.
He calls her dove, a recurring image in the Song of Songs (Song 1:15; 4:1; 5:12).
The second term of endearment means “perfect one.”
If some might think that the mother’s preference is not objective, the other women’s recognition is.
The riddle opened with the gaze of the woman at the window; it concludes with her beauty as seen by other women.
Chapter 6: Real or Imagined? A Woman’s Dream in Song of Songs 5:2-6:3
This post will be a very brief introduction to the chapter.
In the Bible, we read of dreamers and their dreams. However, all of the dreamers are men: Jacob, Joseph, Solomon, and Nebuchadnezzar. Also, their dreams are all prophetic although an exception is the dream mentioned by Isaiah (Isa. 29:8).
This is not the case in the Song of Songs.
There are poems that are daydreams (Song 1:2-4; 2:4-7,8-13; 6:11-12; 8:1-4), two that explicitly describe night.
The dreams are the dreams of a woman. They are not about the future but rather her feelings and desires.
The First Poem (Song 5:2-8) – The Failed Meeting
Song 5:2
At the beginning of the verse, the poet creates a dream-state.
The woman lies in bed at home, and in her dream, her lover is outside.
At first, she hears a noise. Then, she understands he is knocking, but she hasn’t yet heard his voice.
Knocking is necessary for one who wants to enter (see Judg. 19:22).
The root for “to knock” can also convey the sense of “to urge” as in Gen. 33:13.
The lover talks of his beloved using four endearments that can be classified into two pairs. The first expresses their intimacy (my sister, my friend). The second expresses his admiration for her beauty (my dove, my perfect one).
While it appears his desire springs from love, then we read of his need for a roof over his head! Of course, it could very well be his way of teasing her by mentioning his hair. Hair, especially for a man, is an emblem of beauty (2 Sam. 14:25-26).
Song 5:3
The woman answers her lover’s teasing with some of her own.
If the man’s mention of his hair was an attempt to arouse his lover, her response is even more daring as she alludes to the fact that she is naked.
The other excuse that she gives about having already washed her feet is full of sexual innuendo (2 Sam. 11:8-11).
Heiser was an interesting figure. (Unfortunately he died last year.) He had the scholarly credentials, the languages etc. But he was virtually a fundamentalist. He took Genesis more or less literally, believing in a real Adam and Eve, a real Flood, etc. In this video he’s mostly correct but he doesn’t note that Second Temple Judaism was thouroughly Hellenized. The dichotomy he sees between Greco-Roman thought and Judaism on these matters simply didn’t exist. And the earliest account in Luke was written by a Gentile anyway.
Song 5:4
To better understand the verse, we need to know a little bit about what doors and locks were like at the time.
The lover passes his hand through a hole in the door (see Mishnah Oholot 13:3), his fingers gripping the key that opens the latch fastened to the door’s interior.
Song 5:5
While up until now the man has been the initiator, the woman finally fulfills his request to open for me.
The word that is translated as dripped shares the same root as the word earlier translated soiled (Song 5:3) but with the letters rearranged.
The change of verbs indicates a change in mood. Before, she didn’t want to dirty herself, now she is dripping with fragrant myrrh, the smell of which fills the air as she goes to open the door.
The verb dripped also extends to her next words that refer to myrrh dissolved in oil (Est. 2:12).
Song 5:6
Since in the previous verse the poet took time to describe the woman, we are not really sure if her lover is still behind the door.
When she does open it, she discovers he is gone.
The contrast between her expectations and the man’s behavior can be seen in the quick repetition of my beloved.
The two verbs one after another convey a sense of finality.
The verb used to describe the young woman’s soul figuratively going after her lover’s voice is the same one used when she actually set out to search for him in Song 3:2 and did not find him.
Song 5:7
The beginning of the verse resembles Song 3:3.
The watchmen patrolling the city also function as a morality patrol.
In the dream in Song 3, the watchmen didn’t harm her, but here they do.
Not only do they beat her, but they also remove her shawl to shame her. This may reflect a ban on the covering of faces by prostitutes as found in the Middle Assyrian Laws. If so, page 8 in ** you do not have permission to see this link ** is worth looking at.
Song 5:8
While the woman was trying to find her lover, she was stopped by the watchmen.
We are not told how she manages to free herself from them.
The quick transition to her exchange with her friends keeps with the poem’s dream-like quality.
She calls her companions as if she needs their assistance in finding her lover. She hasn’t found him, the guards her, and now she turns to them for help.
It remains uncertain whether this interaction is part of her dream, or it occurs after she wakes up. We also don’t know if the lover of whom she speaks really exists or is just a figment of her imagination.
This verse is the conclusion of the poem’s first section.
Intriguing. What a voice.
Are the lyrics somewhat hard to decipher or is it just my age catching up with me? I was able to pick up most of them but not all by any means. I searched online to find the lyrics but to no avail.
I read up a little on the singer – daughter of an Ethiopian Orthodox priest!
In the second section (Song 5:9-16) of the poem, the daughters of Jerusalem ask about her lover, and the woman responds with a description of his body.
Song 5:9
When the woman speaks, her companions wonder about this man who merits such love.
The daughters of Jerusalem compliment her beauty as well.
The repetition of the question shows just how immense their astonishment is.
Song 5:10
The woman’s answer (vv. 10-16) is a ** you do not have permission to see this link **.
The description, which moves downward from his head to his feet, begins and ends with generalities about how beautiful he is.
He is dazzling, white, radiant, and ruddy. (see 1 Sam. 16:12; 17:42; Lam. 4:7).
The man towers above ten thousand – in other words, he’s taller than anyone else and can be identified from a distance.
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
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