Moving from chp 2 to chp 3 in Song of Songs moves us from a scene where the young woman has invited her lover into her home for the night \u2026 and suddenly she declares to the women of Jerusalem (either in a dream or in reality):
\n3:1 Upon my bed at night
\nI sought him whom my soul loves;
\nI sought him, but found him not;
\nI called him, but he gave no answer.
\nIf we think this book is a continuous narrative, we might think we\u2019ve skipped the love scene and now discover that the Shulamite\u2019s lover has left the bed. She awakes to find him gone and now pursues him. Or, we might think this yet another poetic section of the young woman\u2019s yearning for her lover. That \u201cat night\u201d could be translated \u201cnight after night\u201d (Bloch) would suggest the latter interpretation. Either way, she longs for him on her own bed.
\nIn 3:2 she turns the language into how she experienced that awakening and longing:
\n\u201cI will rise now and go about the city,
\nin the streets and in the squares;
\nI will seek him whom my soul loves.\u201d
\nAnd then back to memory: \u201cI sought him, but found him not.\u201d
\nThe scene is powerful \u2026 this young woman, awakened and stirred to love, discovers her lover gone and longs to find him. Searching for him through the city, she encounters the sentinels who are protecting the city. \u201cHey,\u201d she says to them, \u201cdid you happen to see the most beautiful man in the city?\u201d She doesn\u2019t report their answer \u2014 why? Probably because she found him before they had a chance to speak. Or perhaps because she had no time to pause for an answer. She was determined and intent on finding her lover and that meant an all-out search.
\nAh, she finds him whom she loves:
\n3:4 Scarcely had I passed them,
\nwhen I found him whom my soul loves.
\nI held him, and would not let him go
\nuntil I brought him into my mother\u2019s house,
\nand into the chamber of her that conceived me.
\nAnd now she turns to the young women of Jerusalem: \u201cDo not stir up or awaken love until it is ready!\u201d Why does she say this to them? Perhaps because she knows the pain of absence of what total delight in your lover brings. She longed for her lover; he was absent so she searched for him. When she found him she \u201cheld him\u201d (seized him for good) and \u201cbrought him into my mother\u2019s house.\u201d
\nThe love scene is again absent. We move on.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Moving from chp 2 to chp 3 in Song of Songs moves us from a scene where the young woman has invited her lover into her home for the night \u2026 and suddenly she declares to the women of Jerusalem (either in a dream or in reality):<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1756],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-love-and-marriage"],"yoast_head":"\n