230212 Song of Songs 6-7: The Heart/Mouth Connection

Word count

Simile heavy - like/as

Descriptive - your/beautiful

Possessive - my

Endearing - beloved

Context

His mouth is full of sweetness - His whole being true loveliness (K&D)

NAC - He is the best man, strong, vigorous - Shulamith is thinking about his kisses

Not necessarily young love but love that has gone through trials - loss of virginity (NAC)

Introduction: the Standard

Ephesians 5:22–27 | 22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless.

Song of Solomon 6 |

Inquiry | The Daughters of Jerusalem Inquire of the Bride | Public Chorus - the Request of the Searchers - Question (6.1)

1 “Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? Where has your beloved turned, That we may seek him with you?”

Exclusivity | Shulamite Soprano - the Response of the Shulamite and the definite place Solomon will be found (6.2-3)

2 “My beloved has gone down to his garden, To the beds of spices, To shepherd his flock in the gardens And gather lilies. 3 “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine, He who shepherds his flock among the lilies.”

observation - lilies important to solomon, an association furthered by Christ

luke 12.27 ““Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.”

K&D describe that the lily blooms wherever Solomon goes - enjoys the purity, height and bloom of the lily

Solomon is lily like - not אִישִׁי (my husband) but לְדוֹדִי֙ (my beloved) - He is with me/mine

3

Garden - a euphemism for her

shepherds his flock among the lilies - poetic language describing his lovemaking

Beauty | Solomon Tenor - Solomon sees the Radiance of the Shulamite in Anticipation (6.4-9)

4 “You are as beautiful as Tirzah, my darling, As lovely as Jerusalem, As majestic as an army with banners. 5 “Turn your eyes away from me, For they have overwhelmed me; Your hair is like a flock of goats That have leapt down from Gilead. 6 “Your teeth are like a flock of ewes Which have come up from their washing, All of which bear twins, And not one among them has lost her young. 7 “Your temples are like a slice of a pomegranate Behind your veil. 8 “There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, And maidens without number; 9 She is the only one—my dove, my perfect one; She is the only one of her mother; She is the pure one of her who bore her. The daughters saw her and called her blessed, The queens and the concubines also, and they praised her, saying,

4

Passion is undiluted by time

So much more beautiful with anticipation

Tirzah the first royal city between 930-874BC appx 50years

Shulamith is from the northern higher regions - not from Jerusalem which explains prominence

5

Her beauty is so powerful that she overpowers Solomon 5a - he cannot hold her gaze

He cannot take her by force

Attributes repeated from SS 4.1 ““Behold, you are beautiful, my darling, Behold, you are beautiful! Your eyes are like doves behind your veil; Your hair is like a flock of goats That have leapt down from Mount Gilead.”

6

Female lambs

8-9

More beautiful then on the day when they married - superior to all other women

Early in Solomon’s reign (1 Kings 11:3 “And he had 700 wives—princesses—and 300 concubines, and his wives turned his heart away.”

Hard to understand the crowd of women but K&D describe an inversion

in SS Solomon is not pure but Shulamith is

In the Church they are not pure but the Christ is

2nd Inquiry | Chorus - of the Harem - Question (6.10)

10 ‘Who is this that looks down like the dawn, As beautiful as the full moon, As pure as the sun, As majestic as an army with banners?’

Shulamith - although elevated to royalty she is still a lily of the valley

She climbs out of obscurity like the dawn - filling the horizon (K&D)

Soprano - Shulamith sings (6.11-12)

11 “I went down to the garden of nut trees To see the blossoms of the valley, To see whether the vine had flourished Or the pomegranates had bloomed. 12 “I did not know it, but my soul set me Among the chariots of my noble people.”

Shulamith lost track of time and position, engrossed with the vegetation

She is entering married life and leaving the jerusalem girls behind (NAC)

Hunger of the Harem | Public - Chorus (6.13-7.5)

13 “Come back, come back, O Shulammite; Come back, come back, that we may behold you!” “Why should you behold the Shulammite, As at the dance of the two companies?

Song of Solomon 7

1 “How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O noble’s daughter! The curves of your thighs are like ornaments, The work of the hands of an artist. 2 “Your navel is like a round basin Which never lacks mixed wine; Your belly is like a heap of wheat Encircled with lilies. 3 “Your two breasts are like two fawns, Twins of a gazelle. 4 “Your neck is like a tower of ivory, Your eyes like the pools in Heshbon By the gate of Bath-rabbim; Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon, Which faces toward Damascus. 5 “Your head crowns you like Carmel, And the flowing locks of your head are like purple threads; The king is captivated by your tresses.

13

Shulammite - Solomoness or Perfect One - hyperbole

13-3

Dancing not repulsive - an angelic angle to the text mahanaim

Not lewd - dancing will happen after Israel is restored Je 31.13 ““Then the virgin will be glad in the dance, And the young men and the old, together, For I will turn their mourning into joy And will comfort them and give them gladness for their sorrow.”

A demonstration of skill described from the point of view of the attending maids

4

Towers mentioned are definite locations and are not normal but superior descriptions of a superior beauty - symmetrical

5

Dark red hair - purple black

Hunger of Solomon | Solomon Speaks (7.6-8)

6 “How beautiful and how pleasant you are, My love, with all your pleasures! 7 “Your stature is like a palm tree, And your breasts are like its clusters. 8 “I said, ‘I will climb the palm tree; I will seize its fruit stalks.’ Oh, may your breasts be like clusters of the vine, And the fragrance of your breath like apples,

6-7

nothing more noble than love 1 Cor 13.13 “But now abide faith, hope, love—these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

8

Solomon observes his Shulamite - she is tall, slender

She will take effort to secure her fruit

breath perhaps a euphemism for nipples

Invitation | Shulamith Speaks (7.9-13)

9 And your mouth like the best wine!” “It goes down smoothly for my beloved, Flowing gently through the lips of those who fall asleep. 10 “I am my beloved’s, And his desire is for me. 11 “Come, my beloved, let us go out into the fields, Let us spend the night in the villages. 12 “Let us rise early and go to the vineyards; Let us see whether the vine has flourished And its blossoms have opened, And whether the pomegranates have bloomed. There I will give you my love. 13 “The mandrakes have given forth fragrance; And over our doors are all choice fruits, Both new and old, Which I have treasured up for you, my beloved.

9

Wine is the best - reference to smooth speech

Shulamith has complex feelings, arousal, shyness from being watched by so many others

Lets go back to a simpler time - lets get away from the courts and royal life and just enjoy each other