Night Passions

The woman of the Song of Songs is too overwhelmed with passion and longing for her man that she gets up from bed and roams around looking for him, until she can “arrest” him and bring him back home (3:1-5).  As Keel points out, her actions are not unlike the adulteress of Proverbs 7:11, who also wanders the streets in search of a lover.

It’s not the first time that faithful love looks like unfaithful.  Ruth sneaks up to the wine-filled Boaz at night; while apparently following the example of her ancestress, the daughter of Lot (Genesis 19), she in fact is reversing it.