In a 2006 Vetus Testamentum article, Hector Patmore takes aim at Michael Fox’s claims about strong parallels between the Song of Songs and Egyptian love lyrics.  He points out that even Fox recognizes significant differences: Egyptian love poems are monologues not dialogs (reminds me of Don Quixote , where the whining courtly lover is interrupted by the “cruel” shepherdess who doesn’t see why she’s villainized for not loving him back); the girls in Egyptian poems are passively waiting, not seeking... Read more

All three-character versions play with smoke and mirrors to create the illusion of a love triangle. Nowhere does the Song have a poem in which more than two main characters appear or speak. The only direct mention of a shepherd figure occurs in 1:7–8, but this is hardly adequate to create a full-fledged character around whom to reconstruct an elaborate dramatic love triangle. Many speeches that are most naturally read as uttered by Solomon must be assigned to his alleged... Read more

Song of Songs 7:11-12 contains a neat little allegory of redemptive history.  It begins with an invitation from the bride to the lover to “lodge the night” in the field.  The NASB’s “in the villages” in 7:11 might be translated “in the coverings,” since the Hebrew uses a form of the word kaphar .  To spend the night under coverings is to live through the Old Covenant. But the morning invitation of verse 12 is an invitation to go out... Read more

Yahweh breathed into Adam’s nostrils and he became a living soul. According to the Song, it’s the fruity breath of the beloved that enlivens the lover (7:8).  Keel notes that apples were considered an aphrodisiac in the ancient world. Soul is desire in Scripture.  Having received the breath of life from Yahweh, Adam became a living soul – that is to say, a hungry and thirsty soul.  But when he saw Eve, he came alive in a new way, his... Read more

Song of Songs 7 contains a number of references to the conquest.    The bride’s eyes are like “pools in Heshbon” (7:4), and Heshbon is the capital city of Sihon of the Amorites (Numbers 21:26), who was one of the first kings conquered by the Hebrews as they came to the Transjordan.  The bride is a tree with “clusters” from the vine (Song of Songs 7:7-8;  eshcol ), recalling the clusters gathered from the land, so huge that the place... Read more

The romantic approach in the Song of Songs mimics the liturgical approach of Bride Israel to her Husband in sacrificial worship.  She is spiced and fragrant, so the King can delight in her aroma.  He inspects her and finds her “flawless” (4:7), and draws her near to taste her (4:10-11), draws her near to the garden to eat and drink (5:1).  That is the sequence of sacrifice: A flawless animal is  ishshah or “bridal food,” as James Jordan has noted;... Read more