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Song of Solomon

      The Song of Solomon, called in the Vulgate and Septuagint, "The Song of Songs," from the opening words. This title denotes its superior excellence, according to the Hebrew idiom; so holy of holies, equivalent to "most holy" (Ex 29:37); the heaven of heavens, equivalent to the highest heavens (De 10:14). It is one of the five volumes (megilloth) placed immediately after the Pentateuch in manuscripts of the Jewish Scriptures. It is also fourth of the Hagiographa (Cetubim, writings) or the third division of the Old Testament, the other two being the Law and the Prophets. The Jewish enumeration of the Cetubim is Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra (including Nehemiah), and Chronicles. Its canonicity is certain; it is found in all Hebrew manuscripts of Scripture; also in the Greek Septuagint; in the catalogues of MELITO, bishop of Sardis, A.D. 170 (EUSEBIUS, Ecclesiastical History, 4.26), and of others of the ancient Church.

      ORIGEN and JEROME tell us that the Jews forbade it to be read by any until he was thirty years old. It certainly needs a degree of spiritual maturity to enter aright into the holy mystery of love which it allegorically sets forth. To such as have attained this maturity, of whatever age they be, the Song of Songs is one of the most edifying of the sacred writings. ROSENMULLER justly says, The sudden transitions of the bride from the court to the grove are inexplicable, on the supposition that it describes merely human love. Had it been the latter, it would have been positively objectionable, and never would have been inserted in the holy canon. The allusion to "Pharaoh's chariots" (So 1:9) has been made a ground for conjecturing that the love of Solomon and Pharaoh's daughter is the subject of the Song. But this passage alludes to a remarkable event in the history of the Old Testament Church, the deliverance from the hosts and chariots of Pharaoh at the Red Sea. (However, see on So 1:9). The other allusions are quite opposed to the notion; the bride is represented at times as a shepherdess (So 1:7), "an abomination to the Egyptians" (Ge 46:34); so also So 1:6 3:4 4:8 5:7 are at variance with it. The Christian fathers, ORIGEN and THEODORET, compared the teachings of Solomon to a ladder with three steps; Ecclesiastes, natural (the nature of sensible things, vain); Proverbs, moral; Canticles, mystical (figuring the union of Christ and the Church). The Jews compared Proverbs to the outer court of Solomon's temple, Ecclesiastes to the holy place, and Canticles to the holy of holies. Understood allegorically, the Song is cleared of all difficulty. "Shulamith" (So 6:13), the bride, is thus an appropriate name, Daughter of Peace being the feminine of Solomon, equivalent to the Prince of Peace. She by turns is a vinedresser, shepherdess, midnight inquirer, and prince's consort and daughter, and He a suppliant drenched with night dews, and a king in His palace, in harmony with the various relations of the Church and Christ. As Ecclesiastes sets forth the vanity of love of the creature, Canticles sets forth the fullness of the love which joins believers and the Saviour. The entire economy of salvation, says HARRIS, aims at restoring to the world the lost spirit of love. God is love, and Christ is the embodiment of the love of God. As the other books of Scripture present severally their own aspects of divine truth, so Canticles furnishes the believer with language of holy love, wherewith his heart can commune with his Lord; and it portrays the intensity of Christ's love to him; the affection of love was created in man to be a transcript of the divine love, and the Song clothes the latter in words; were it not for this, we should be at a loss for language, having the divine warrant, wherewith to express, without presumption, the fervor of the love between Christ and us. The image of a bride, a bridegroom, and a marriage, to represent this spiritual union, has the sanction of Scripture throughout; nay, the spiritual union was the original fact in the mind of God, of which marriage is the transcript (Isa 54:5 62:5 Jer 3:1, &c. Eze 16:1-63 23:1-49 Mt 9:15 22:2 25:1, &c.; Joh 3:29 2Co 11:2 Eph 5:23-32, where Paul does not go from the marriage relation to the union of Christ and the Church as if the former were the first; but comes down from the latter as the first and best recognized fact on which the relation of marriage is based Re 19:7 21:2 22:17). Above all, the Song seems to correspond to, and form a trilogy with, Psalms 45 and 72, which contain the same imagery; just as Psalm 37 answers to Proverbs, and the Psalms 39 and 73 to Job. Love to Christ is the strongest, as it is the purest, of human passions, and therefore needs the strongest language to express it: to the pure in heart the phraseology, drawn from the rich imagery of Oriental poetry, will not only appear not indelicate or exaggerated, but even below the reality. A single emblem is a type; the actual rites, incidents, and persons of the Old Testament were appointed types of truths afterwards to be revealed. But the allegory is a continued metaphor, in which the circumstances are palpably often purely imagery, while the thing signified is altogether real. The clue to the meaning of the Song is not to be looked for in the allegory itself, but in other parts of Scripture. "It lies in the casket of revelation an exquisite gem, engraved with emblematical characters, with nothing literal thereon to break the consistency of their beauty" [BURROWES]. This accounts for the name of God not occurring in it. Whereas in the parable the writer narrates, in the allegory he never does so. The Song throughout consists of immediate addresses either of Christ to the soul, or of the soul to Christ. "The experimental knowledge of Christ's loveliness and the believer's love is the best commentary on the whole of this allegorical Song" [LEIGHTON]. Like the curiously wrought Oriental lamps, which do not reveal the beauty of their transparent emblems until lighted up within, so the types and allegories of Scripture, "the lantern to our path" (Ps 119:105), need the inner light of the Holy Spirit of Jesus to reveal their significance. The details of the allegory are not to be too minutely pressed. In the Song, with an Oriental profusion of imagery, numbers of lovely, sensible objects are aggregated not strictly congruous, but portraying jointly by their very diversity the thousand various and seemingly opposite beauties which meet together in Christ.

      The unity of subject throughout, and the recurrence of the same expressions (So 2:6,7 3:5 8:3,4 2:16 6:3 7:10 3:6 6:10 8:5), prove the unity of the poem, in opposition to those who make it consist of a number of separate erotic songs. The sudden transitions (for example, from the midnight knocking at a humble cottage to a glorious description of the King) accord with the alternations in the believer's experience. However various the divisions assigned be, most commentators have observed four breaks (whatever more they have imagined), followed by four abrupt beginnings (So 2:7 3:5 5:1 8:4). Thus there result five parts, all alike ending in full repose and refreshment. We read (1Ki 4:32) that Solomon's songs were "a thousand and five." The odd number five added over the complete thousand makes it not unlikely that the "five" refers to the Song of songs, consisting of five parts.

      It answers to the idyllic poetry of other nations. The Jews explain it of the union of Jehovah and ancient Israel; the allusions to the temple and the wilderness accord with this; some Christians of Christ and the Church; others of Christ and the individual believer. All these are true; for the Church is one in all ages, the ancient typifying the modern Church, and its history answering to that of each individual soul in it. Jesus "sees all, as if that all were one, loves one, as if that one were all." "The time suited the manner of this revelation; because types and allegories belonged to the old dispensation, which reached its ripeness under Solomon, when the temple was built" [MOODY STUART]. "The daughter of Zion at that time was openly married to Jehovah"; for it is thenceforth that the prophets, in reproving Israel's subsequent sin, speak of it as a breach of her marriage covenant. The songs heretofore sung by her were the preparatory hymns of her childhood; "the last and crowning "Song of Songs" was prepared for the now mature maiden against the day of her marriage to the King of kings" [ORIGEN]. Solomon was peculiarly fitted to clothe this holy mystery with the lovely natural imagery with which the Song abounds; for "he spake of trees, from the cedar in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall" (1Ki 4:33). A higher qualification was his knowledge of the eternal Wisdom or Word of God (Pr 8:1-36), the heavenly bridegroom. David, his father, had prepared the way, in Psalms 45 and 72; the son perfected the allegory. It seems to have been written in early life, long before his declension; for after it a song of holy gladness would hardly be appropriate. It was the song of his first love, in the kindness of his youthful espousals to Jehovah. Like other inspired books, its sense is not to be restricted to that local and temporary one in which the writer may have understood it; it extends to all ages, and shadows forth everlasting truth

Song of Solomon


                AN OUTLINE OF THE SONG OF SONGS
                                

MESSAGE STATEMENT:
GOD'S GOOD DESIGN FOR MARRIAGE UNFOLDS THROUGH THE LIVES OF
SOLOMON AND THE SHULAMITE WOMAN IN THEIR COURTSHIP, MARRIAGE, AND
GROWTH WITHIN MARRIAGE1

I.   Introduction:2 In the book's superscription Solomon is
     identified as the author of the book and its content is
     identified as a superlative book of wisdom  1:1
II.  Meeting and Courtship:3 The relationship between the
     Shulamite woman and Solomon developed from her own personal
     desire through their meeting, personal attraction to one
     another, expressions of love, the need for patience and a
     dream of loss and marriage by the Shulamite 1:2--3:5
     A.   Personal Desire for the King: The Shulamite woman
          expresses to herself her desire for the king whereupon
          she is brought into the king's palace where the harem
          praises Solomon  1:2-4
     B.   Personal Embarrassment: The Shulamite woman is
          embarrassed before Solomon's harem because her
          appearance showed that she had worked in the field  1:5-
          6
     C.   Meeting of Solomon & Shulamite: Solomon and the
          Shulamite woman meet and are mutually attracted to each
          other complimenting one another  1:7-17
     D.   First Expressions of Love: Continuing to compliment one
          another, they express their love for one another, and
          Solomon exhorts the harem to let love develop naturally
          2:1-7
     E.   Building Their Relationship: Solomon and the Shulamite
          woman spend time together getting to know one another
          in order to build their relationship  2:8-17
     F.   A Fearful Dream: Near to her wedding day the Shulamite
          woman dreamed that she has been separated from her
          beloved, but upon finding him she led him to her
          mother's house (the house of marriage). When she awoke,
          she reminded herself to be patient  3:1-5
III. Marriage and Consummation:4  Through the beautiful, polar
     descriptions of Solomon's wedding procession and the
     physical consummation of the relationship the glorious
     marriage of Solomon and the Shulamite woman is affirmed  3:6-
     -5:1
     A.   Solomon's Wedding Procession: Solomon's glorious
          wedding procession to his bride to be, the Shulamite
          woman, is vividly described  3:6-11
     B.   The Consummation of Marriage: Solomon beautifully
          described his bride on their wedding night and then the
          two of them consummated their marriage with God's
          blessing  4:1--5:1
          1.   The Beauty of the King's Wife: 4:1-7
          2.   The King's Request: 4:8
          3.   The King's Praise of His Wife's Love: 4:9-11
          4.   The King's Praise of His Wife's Purity: 4:12-15
          5.   The Consummation of Their Marriage:  4:16--5:1
IV.  Rise of Difficulties and Their Resolution:5 When the bride
     refuses her husband's approach for intimacy, a rift arises
     between them and finds its resolution as she begins to
     pursue him, is reminded of her love for him, realizes his
     love for her, and then is received by him in the garden
     where he waits for her   5:2--6:13
     A.   The Rise of Difficulties--Indifference: Probably
          sometime after the marriage the bride refused to let
          her husband into her bedroom, but when she changes her
          mind, he was gone, so she began to seek him  5:2-8
     B.   A Reminder of His Value: In the bride's search for her
          husband she came across the harem who reminded her of
          how much he meant to her inspiring her to break out
          into an ecstatic description of him  5:9-16
     C.   An Intuitive Confirmation of Resolution: When the harem
          asks the Shulamite where Solomon is, she replies that
          his is in his favorite garden and that their
          relationship is secure  6:1-3
     D.   Resolution Realized: When the bride went down to the
          garden to seek Solomon, he saw her and broke out into
          compliments of her bringing about the resolution of
          their relationship  6:4-13
V.   Deepening and Maturity of Marriage over Time:6 Although the
     love of Solomon and his bride deepens with new expressions
     that reflect personal growth, and although there is much to
     remember in the preparation of the Shulamite for this time,
     there is still room for patience and growth in their
     relationship  7:1--8:14
     A.   Deepening of Love: Love deepens between Solomon and his
          Shulamite bride as he expresses his love for her in
          terms of her newly found royalty and she feels free to
          express her love to him in the fields and vineyards,
          but patience is still needed for their love to develop
          even more deeply on a daily bases  7:1--8:4
          1.   Solomon's Expression of Love: Once again (after
               about a year from their courtship [cf. 2:12--
               7:12]) Solomon describes the physical beauty of
               his wife in a way which affirms her personal
               growth, probably in their bedroom  7:1-9
               a.   The Royal Beauty of Solomon's Wife: 7:1-6
               b.   Solomon's Desire: 7:7-9
          2.   The Shulamite's Initial Response: The Shulamite
               woman responds to Solomon's words by offering
               herself to him, but not where they now are, rather
               in the fields and vineyards  7:10-13
          3.   The Shulamite's Continual Response: The Shulamite
               woman expressed her desire to constantly show her
               affection for Solomon as she does for a natural
               brother in public, but again affirms that love
               must develop naturally  8:1-4
     B.   Maturity of Marriage: The love of Solomon and the
          Shulamite woman in its maturity has much to remember
          and yet room to grow  8:5-14
          1.   Setting: As Solomon and his bride approach her old
               home, the villagers seem to be surprised to see
               her with Solomon as his bride  8:5a
          2.   Remembering Their First Meeting: As Solomon and
               his bride approach her old home, Solomon
               reminisces about their first meeting  8:5b
          3.   The Desire of Solomon's Wife: Solomon's wife
               desires to be his most prized possession  8:6-7
          4.   Care of Her Brothers: The bride recalls how her
               brothers took an interest in her purity and then
               how it was that she was pure and found favor in
               Solomon's eyes  8:8-10
          5.   A Request to Remember Her Family: The bride
               describes how it was that she and her family
               worked for Solomon but now she offers her life to
               Solomon and only asks that he remember her family:
               8:11-12
          6.   Enduring Love: Solomon and his bride describe the
               durability and freshness of their love as in the
               day they met  8:13-14
Song of Solomon

Solomon, king of ancient Israel (reigned 961-922 BC), son of David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 12:24). He is noted frequently in history and literature as the builder of the Temple and also is said to have possessed great wisdom. Solomon succeeded his father as king and divided Israel into 12 parts for administrative purposes. His territory extended "from the river [Euphrates] unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt" (4:21).

An able administrator, Solomon kept the united kingdom of Israel largely intact, strengthened its fortifications, and made alliances with several surrounding nations. International commerce and an extensive copper-mining industry were encouraged. Contact with other nations also resulted in a marked intellectual advance. Despite his reputation for wisdom, much of Solomon's success occurred because larger empires were preoccupied with their own affairs, leaving Israel's trade and industry to flourish without outside interference.

Solomon, Song of - called also, after the Vulgate, the "Canticles." It is the "song of songs" (1:1), as being the finest and most precious of its kind; the noblest song, "das Hohelied," as Luther calls it. The Solomonic authorship of this book has been called in question, but evidences, both internal and external, fairly establish the traditional view that it is the product of Solomon's pen. It is an allegorical poem setting forth the mutual love of Christ and the Church, under the emblem of the bridegroom and the bride. (Compare Matt. 9:15; John 3:29; Eph. 5:23, 27, 29; Rev. 19:7-9; 21:2, 9; 22:17. Compare also Ps. 45; Isa. 54:4-6; 62:4, 5; Jer. 2:2; 3:1, 20; Ezek. 16; Hos. 2:16, 19, 20.)
Solomon wrote this book around 950 B.C., after his marriage to his first wife in 971 B.C. and prior to his marrying 1000 wives as described in Eccelesiastes. This was early in his reign in Jerusalem at quite possibly the only truly happy time in his life.