I came to my garden, my sister, my bride,
I gathered my myrrh with my spice,
I ate my honeycomb with my honey,
I drank my wine with my milk.
Others
Eat, friends, drink,
and be drunk with love!
The Bride Searches for Her Beloved
She
2 I slept, but my heart was awake.
A sound! My beloved is knocking.
“Open to me, my sister, my love,
my dove, my perfect one,
for my head is wet with dew,
my locks with the drops of the night.”
3 I had put off my garment;
how could I put it on?
I had bathed my feet;
how could I soil them?
4 My beloved put his hand to the latch,
and my heart was thrilled within me.
5 I arose to open to my beloved,
and my hands dripped with myrrh,
my fingers with liquid myrrh,
on the handles of the bolt.
6 I opened to my beloved,
but my beloved had turned and gone.
My soul failed me when he spoke.
I sought him, but found him not;
I called him, but he gave no answer.
7 The watchmen found me
as they went about in the city;
they beat me, they bruised me,
they took away my veil,
those watchmen of the walls.
8 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
if you find my beloved,
that you tell him
I am sick with love.
Others
9 What is your beloved more than another beloved,
O most beautiful among women?
What is your beloved more than another beloved,
that you thus adjure us?
The Bride Praises Her Beloved
She
10 My beloved is radiant and ruddy,
distinguished among ten thousand.
11 His head is the finest gold;
his locks are wavy,
black as a raven.
12 His eyes are like doves
beside streams of water,
bathed in milk,
sitting beside a full pool.
13 His cheeks are like beds of spices,
mounds of sweet-smelling herbs.
His lips are lilies,
dripping liquid myrrh.
14 His arms are rods of gold,
set with jewels.
His body is polished ivory,
bedecked with sapphires.
15 His legs are alabaster columns,
set on bases of gold.
His appearance is like Lebanon,
choice as the cedars.
16 His mouth is most sweet,
and he is altogether desirable.
This is my beloved and this is my friend,
O daughters of Jerusalem. Song of Solomon 5 ESV
Song of Solomon 6
Where has your beloved gone,
O most beautiful among women?
Where has your beloved turned,
that we may seek him with you?
Together in the Garden of Love
She
2 My beloved has gone down to his garden
to the beds of spices,
to graze in the gardens
and to gather lilies.
3 I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine;
he grazes among the lilies.
Solomon and His Bride Delight in Each Other
He
4 You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love,
lovely as Jerusalem,
awesome as an army with banners.
5 Turn away your eyes from me,
for they overwhelm me—
Your hair is like a flock of goats
leaping down the slopes of Gilead.
6 Your teeth are like a flock of ewes
that have come up from the washing;
all of them bear twins;
not one among them has lost its young.
7 Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate
behind your veil.
8 There are sixty queens and eighty concubines,
and virgins without number.
9 My dove, my perfect one, is the only one,
the only one of her mother,
pure to her who bore her.
The young women saw her and called her blessed;
the queens and concubines also, and they praised her.
10 “Who is this who looks down like the dawn,
beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun,
awesome as an army with banners?”
She
11 I went down to the nut orchard
to look at the blossoms of the valley,
to see whether the vines had budded,
whether the pomegranates were in bloom.
12 Before I was aware, my desire set me
among the chariots of my kinsman, a prince.
Others
13 Return, return, O Shulammite,
return, return, that we may look upon you.
He
Why should you look upon the Shulammite,
as upon a dance before two armies? Song of Solomon 6 ESV
Song of Solomon 5 & 6
1-2 He comes to the door.
My sister: One suggestion with this title is permanence. One remains a sister forever, and that is how long the beloved wanted to be connected with his maiden.
ii. My love, my dove: “The title of dove signifies her chastity and constant faithfulness to her Husband, for which doves are famous.” (Poole)
iii. My perfect one: “The AVundefiled suggests ‘virgin’, but that connotation is absent from the Hebrew. Ethical and moral blamelessness is more the idea.” (Carr)
…19 Those I love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me. 21 To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.… Revelation 3: 19-21
3-8 She is settled for the night, already comfortable, and while she delays for fear of soiled feet and the beckoning of her pillow, he leaves.
…39 Going a little farther, He fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.” 40 Then Jesus returned to the disciples and found them sleeping. “Were you not able to keep watch with Me for one hour?” He asked Peter. 41“Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”… Matthew 26: 39-41
They beat me, they bruised me, and in this part of her dream I am not certain whether the watchman are a picture of her own conscience, insecurity over the first tiff in their relationship, or what others would say. The watchman were no help to her finding him the first time, and now they are a brutal deterrent.
…12 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. 13 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter. … Matthew 23: 12-13
9 She must have been quite the sight to them, beaten, bruised, coming straight from bed and now without her cloak. A crazy woman, perhaps as Hannah was perceived.
…12 As Hannah kept on praying before the LORD, Eli watched her mouth. 13 Hannah was praying in her heart, and though her lips were moving, her voice could not be heard. So Eli thought she was drunk 14 and said to her, “How long will you be drunk? Put away your wine!”… 1 Samuel 1: 12-14
“Her anguish at her loss was so extreme, her heart-sickness was so agonizing, her frenzy so bewildering, that they were startled into feeling that he of whom she was bereft was no common lover.” (Meyer)
10-16 She describes her beloved, an answer for her despair. He is not just a lover but also her friend, and this is a painful part of love, but quite beautiful, that perhaps I have hurt him, and my soul cannot bear that.
…74 At that he began to curse and swear to them, “I do not know the man!” And immediately a rooster crowed. 75 Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly. Matthew 26: 74-75
1-10 I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine; what sweet comforts to remind ourselves with, regardless of how little help others may afford.
Queens - those also married to.
Concubines - his harem.
Virgins - potential rivals.
I think she is first, and not only in sequence, but looking at the statement about her mother, she had siblings, but she is the number One, favored.
11-13
“Guilt had turned her eyes inward, but he brought them outward. She went down to the garden in self-conscious guilt in hope of renewal, and she was met with praise which turned her eyes from herself to him, and once to him, back to herself through eyes of forgiveness.” (Glickman)
The end is difficult and your mind can wonder at what may have been more clear to people back then, but I am not certain about the dance of the two camps. If it is in the context of this internal battle, starting in chapter 5, that of complacency followed by guilt, desperation met with loathing, running towards the possibility of the only utterly crushing rejection, yet finding and accepting forgiveness. In a fallen world, love like this would be the greatest battle, yet most noble.
…7“Why then,” they asked, “did Moses order a man to give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?” 8 Jesus answered, “It was because of your hardness of heart that Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but it was not this way from the beginning. 9 Now I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman, commits adultery.”… Matthew 19: 7-9
36 A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ 37 Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; 38 and anyone who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.… Matthew 10: 36-38
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