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The remainder of Solomon's love song is a bit mushy. It's filled with the lovers' expressions of admiration and praises for each other; which more or less speak for themselves and require neither explanation nor comment.
To cap our remarks, I'd like to borrow a pertinent line from the 1995...
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This next section smacks of braggadocio; roughly defined by Webster's as boasting. I rather suspect that Solomon tended to be a bit ostentatious; defined by Webster's as attracting or seeking to attract attention, admiration, or envy; often by gaudiness or obviousness.
● Song 3:6a . . Who is...
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● Song 3:4 . . It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.
It appears that Shulah had to practically drag Shiloh away from...
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● Song 3:3 . .The watchmen stopped me as they made their rounds, and I said to them: Have you seen him anywhere, this one I love so much?
It appears that Shulah felt that the night watchmen should know the identity of the man for whom she searched without her having to tell them. Perhaps they...
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● Song 2:17 . . Before the dawn comes and the shadows flee away, come back to me, my love. Run like a gazelle or a young stag on the rugged mountains.
Why her Shiloh would be away at night, is a mystery, but Shulah is apparently concerned that he was away too long and should've been back by...
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● Song 2:16a . . My beloved is mine, and I am his;
You don't own me,
I'm not just one of your many toys.
You don't own me,
Don't say I can't go with other boys.
(Lesley Gore, 1963)
The lyrics of that song depict a defiant girl standing up to a possessive boyfriend. Well; that defiance may...
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● Song 2:15 . .Catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines. For our vines have tender grapes.
The Hebrew word for "foxes" actually means jackals. Why it's translated foxes I haven't a clue. But whether foxes or jackals makes no real difference because it's just a metaphor...
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● Song 2:14a . . O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the secret place of the steep pathway,
The Hebrew word for "dove" is very often translated pigeon; a peaceable bird that prefers roosting in confined spaces; preferably with a roof over its head like docks, wharfs, bridges, and roadway...
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● Song 2:9b . . Look! There he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.
(chuckle) That makes Shiloh appear to be sort of a peeping Tom but really his behavior is no different than a boy tossing little pebbles at a girl's window to get her attention.
●...
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● Song 2:8-9a . . Listen! My lover! Look! Here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills. My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag.
Many years ago I was driving to a date with my best girl when I got a hankering to take a roundabout route through a valley that I had...
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● Song 2:7 . .
I left the scripture for that passage blank because there is so much disagreement as how to translate the Hebrew into English. But myself, I prefer Rashi's version; which reads like this:
"I bind you under oath-- by the gazelles and the does --that you do not cause hatred nor...
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● Song 2:5a . . Stay me with flagons,
Webster's defines a flagon as a large usually metal or pottery vessel (as for wine) with handle and spout and often a lid and/or a large bulging short necked bottle, and/or the contents of a flagon
The Hebrew word must be difficult because not every...
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● Song 2:4a . . He brought me to the banqueting house,
The Hebrew word for "banquet" is yayin (yah'-yin) which refers to a fermented beverage; one containing alcohol.
Another of that's word's appearances is located in the book of Esther where she arranged a sort of special tea party for her...
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● Song 2:3a . . Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men.
The Hebrew word for "apple" is somewhat vague. It's possibly a generic term that can pertain to any number of fruit-bearing trees, e.g. oranges, quince, citron, etc which are trees that...
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● Song 2:1a . . I am a rose of Sharon
Apparently nobody really knows the species of flower meant by a rose in that passage. Some say it's the narcissus, and other say it's the saffron. Personally I prefer the saffron because of it's full bloom, and it's very blue color.
● Song 2:1b . . a...
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● Song 1:16 . . How handsome you are, my beloved, and so pleasant! Indeed, our couch is luxuriant.
The Hebrew word for "luxuriant" actually means verdant, defined by Webster's as green with growing plants; in other words: fertile; which is just the opposite of a land that's so arid, and its...
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● Song 1:12 . .While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance.
To be "at table" doesn't necessarily refer an item of furniture. The Hebrew word also suffices for just sitting around in a circle, e.g. a picnic. It appears to me that the herders mentioned in verse 8 were on a...
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This next section in the song appears to me a grandiose day dream wherein Shulah imagines herself utterly irresistible and gives herself quite a variety of compliments. I mean, just look at some of this language.
● Song 1:9 . . I liken you, my darling, to a mare harnessed to one of the...
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● Song 1:7 . . Tell me, you whom I love, where you graze your flock and where you rest your sheep at midday. Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your friends?
A veiled woman following flocks in that day was sort of like the loose women that followed cow towns and mining...
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● Song 1:5 . . I am black but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.
The Hebrew word for "black" is shachor (shaw-khore') which means dusky, defined by Webster's as somewhat dark in color, i.e. somewhere between light and dark; viz: tanned...