Read
The Groom
Their Friends Speak:
6What do we see approaching
from the desert
like a cloud of smoke?
With it comes the sweet smell
of spices, including myrrh
and frankincense.
7It is King Solomon
carried on a throne,
surrounded by sixty
of Israel's best soldiers.
8Each of them wears a sword.
They are experts at fighting,
even in the dark.
9The throne is made of trees
from Lebanon.
10Its posts are silver,
the back is gold,
and the seat is covered
with purple cloth.
You women of Jerusalem
have taken great care
to furnish the inside.
11Now come and see the crown
given to Solomon by his mother
on his happy wedding day.
What a Beautiful Bride
He Speaks:
1My darling, you are lovely,
so very lovely—
as you look through your veil,
your eyes are those of a dove.
Your hair tosses about
as gracefully as goats
coming down from Gilead.
2Your teeth are whiter
than sheep freshly washed;
they match perfectly,
not one is missing.
3Your lips are crimson cords,
your mouth is shapely;
behind your veil are hidden
beautiful rosy cheeks.
4Your neck is more graceful
than the tower of David,
decorated with thousands
of warriors' shields.
5Your breasts are perfect;
they are twin deer
feeding among lilies.
6I will hasten to those hills
sprinkled with sweet perfume
and stay there till sunrise.
7My darling, you are lovely
in every way.
8My bride, together
we will leave Lebanon!
We will say goodbye
to the peaks of Mount Amana,
Senir, and Hermon,
where lions and leopards
live in the caves.
9My bride, my very own,
you have stolen my heart!
With one glance from your eyes
and the glow of your necklace,
you have stolen my heart.
10Your love is sweeter than wine;
the smell of your perfume
is more fragrant than spices.
11Your lips are a honeycomb;
milk and honey
flow from your tongue.
Your dress has the aroma
of cedar trees from Lebanon.
12My bride, my very own,
you are a garden, a fountain
closed off to all others.
13Your arms are vines,
covered with delicious fruits
and all sorts of spices—
henna, nard, 14saffron,
calamus, cinnamon,
frankincense, myrrh, and aloes
—all the finest spices.
15You are a spring in the garden,
a fountain of pure water,
and a refreshing stream
from Mount Lebanon.
She Speaks:
16Let the north wind blow,
the south wind too!
Let them spread the aroma
of my garden,
so the one I love
may enter and taste
its delicious fruits.
He Speaks:
1My bride, my very own,
I come to my garden
and enjoy its spices.
I eat my honeycomb and honey;
I drink my wine and milk.
Their Friends Speak:
Eat and drink until
you are drunk with love.
Reflect
The titles in the CEV (and ESV), e.g. “the Groom and the Wedding Party” before 3:6, “What a Beautiful Bride” (4:1) and “The Wedding Dance” (7:1) have been added by the translators. There is no particular reason to read this section as a wedding, though many people do understand it this way. Incidentally the headings “He speaks,” “She speaks,” “Their friends speak” have also been added and these headings are helpful.
The descriptions in 4:1-5 (technically known as a “blazon”) read strangely to us. This is because we are used to thinking of comparisons like this as visual. What is happening in the Hebrew is a much looser association. Again, think how you would feel in the presence of the things described here. Extravagant descriptions (including the arrival of Solomon in all his glory in 3:6-11), are characteristic of the love poetry of the ancient Near East.
Other metaphors pervade this poem. A garden was a walled, private, place of beauty. Flowers and spices evoke extravagance, appealing to sight and taste and smell. Vineyards are a place of fertility, providing delicious grapes and raisins, wine that brings pleasure or ruin. Apples are symbols of sex in all Mediterranean countries. Springtime and night time are evocative. The deer and gazelle suggest elegance and tenderness in a pastoral setting. Read with all your senses alert and a mind open to suggestion.
Did you notice how the lover speaks? He is absorbed with the beauty of the woman he loves. Everything about her gives him intense pleasure. But there is no hint of the selfish possessiveness that we’re so familiar with. The woman is never an object. Did you notice the balance between the man and the woman? No dominance, power, self-assertion – or cringing subjection.
“If we read . . . 4:9-5:1 in terms of God’s approach to us, we are reminded of the extraordinary sense of being touched by the Spirit in a totally tangible way . . . [in] testimony to God’s courteous gentleness, intensity and excess. . . The enormity of God’s presence is not such that it can never be experienced, but that it can, in the ‘sober inebriation of the Spirit’” (Philip Seddon). Have you known God’s presence like this? I have.
Respond
Dear God, let me know the amazing power of your love. Let it penetrate even “the most tender, painful and frightened parts of me” (Philip Seddon), rebuking me, healing me, transfoming me, comforting me. Let me be drunk not with wine but with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18 NIV).
Annabel Robinson
Annabel was born in Kew, near London, England. She committed her life to Jesus Christ at a Scripture Union camp when she was 16, and immediately found joy and peace. At Oxford she was active in the Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union, where she met her husband, Reid. They emigrated to Canada in 1965, where she taught Classics at the University of Regina until 2007. She has two children, Heather in Oslo and Alasdair in Calgary.