Song of Songs 4 Study Notes

4:1-5:1 The wedding night begins with praise of seven aspects of Shulamith (4:1-7), then proceeds to invitation (4:8), lovemaking (4:9-11), and poetic consummation (4:12-5:1).

4:1-7 The praise begins and ends with compliment of the whole person. Within these comprehensive statements Solomon admired Shulamith’s eyes, hair, teeth, lips, mouth (see notes at v. 2,3), neck, and breasts. Between the compliment of her breasts and the concluding summary compliment is Solomon’s answer to Shulamith’s request of 2:17. The placement of the answer just after the imagery of her breasts but within the overall praise is significant in that it supports the interpretation that “divided mountains” of 2:17 and “mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense” in 4:6 are metaphors for her breasts.

4:1 Doves were associated with love in the ancient world, appearing as literal messengers of love in Egyptian art. Shulamith’s eyes were messengers of love to Solomon (see note at 1:15-2:3). A flock of goats streaming down Mount Gilead describes her long, flowing hair. Streaming derives from a verb meaning “bubbling” or “boiling,” suggesting movement within the whole, as if individual animals were leaping within the group, though merged within it. The metaphor suggests lively curls and healthy, flowing hair.

4:2 Shulamith’s teeth were gleaming and white. A festive sheep-shearing may be suggested, too, by coming up from washing, occurring after they were shorn, so perhaps Solomon praised her smile as well.

4:3 The prostitute Rahab hung a scarlet cord from her window as a sign to the invading Israelites to protect her home (Jos 2:18). Shulamith’s speech, which expressed her character, was her protection. This indicated she belonged to God, just as Rahab’s scarlet ribbon indicated she belonged to God and his people (see Craig Glickman, Solomon’s Song of Love). Your brow could be translated “your lips” (Hb raqqah). In addition, the word translated slice is more precisely rendered “sliced opening,” which is consistent with the drawings from this era that show the pomegranate sliced open but not cut into slices (see Othmar Keel, The Song of Songs). These compliments are a dazzling array of movement and color. The colors proceed from white doves to black goats to white sheep to red lips and mouth. They also alternate movement: doves flying out, a flock scampering down, shorn sheep scurrying up, lips beckoning in.

4:4 The neck expresses the body language of character. If Shulamith’s neck was like a military fortress, she had a character that demanded respect: Solomon admired her completely. The tower shields probably correspond metaphorically to her necklace (v. 9).

4:5 The lilies, or lotus flowers (see note at 2:1), suggest the life-giving effect of her breasts. The comparison to fawns perhaps suggests Solomon responded as if to playful, baby animals he wanted to hold and caress.

4:6 Until (see note at 2:17) suggests the promise of love through the night. This mountain imagery occurs at the end of the first two sections (2:17), at the end of the last two sections (8:14), and here in the center of the central section.

4:7 No imperfection refers to both inner and outer perfection, so it is an apt summary of Solomon’s praise of Shulamith’s beauty and character.

4:8 The Hebrew for the end of v. 6 and beginning of v. 7 is hallevonah kulak and is translated as “. . . frankincense. You are absolutely,” where “absolutely” is literally “completely.” This phrase sounds like the phrase here translated as from Lebanon, my bride (Hb millevanon kallah). This wordplay draws attention to a connotation of “bride” as the “completed one,” and furnishes an alliterative transition between the closely related sections. The use of the simpler bride here rather than “my sister, my bride” (vv. 9-10,12; 5:1) allows for the wordplay. From the peak . . . from the dens of the lions, from the mountains of the leopards perhaps are metaphors of the fearful places within Shulamith that she must leave in order to open her heart fully to Solomon.

4:9 Sister and brother were terms of endearment in Egyptian love songs as well as Sumerian love poetry. It is perhaps implied in Adam’s expression of unity with Eve: “This one, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” (Gn 2:23)—a level of unity particularly fitting for siblings, and a metaphor, therefore, of the closest possible relationship. The “brother” metaphor for Solomon in 8:1 justifies a gentle kiss from Shulamith even in public. My sister, my bride—a phrase implying a bond as close as that of Adam and Eve—introduces each stage of increasing sexual intimacy: arousal from her presence; delight in her love and fragrance (v. 10); beginning of consummation (v. 12); and the celebration of their union (5:1). Captured my heart may also be rendered “made my heart beat faster.”

4:10 The phrase translated your caresses are much better than wine occurs also in 1:2,4. Balsam refers to an aromatic resin that oozes from the balsam tree when cut. It was used to make perfume and beauty treatments. See 1Kg 10:2,10; Est 2:12.

4:11 The phrase your lips drip sweetness like the honeycomb is alliterative in Hebrew, suggesting the sound of dripping honey. Honey and milk not only describes passionate kisses but likely alludes to the richness of the land that God gave Israel (Ex 3:8,17; Nm 14:8; 16:13-14). Solomon found the same richness in Shulamith and implied she was also a gift from God.

4:12-5:1 These lyrics include three principal metaphors in the consummation sequence: a garden, a fountain, and a banquet. Solomon compared Shulamith to a garden and spring, or fountain (4:12), expanding first upon the garden (4:13-14) and then the spring (4:15). Shulamith continued the metaphor in her invitation to the wind to blow upon the garden, causing its spices to “flow like a stream” (lit for “spread” in spread the fragrance of its spices, 4:16). Solomon then celebrated in the metaphor of a festive banquet (5:1) that drew together the imagery of the garden (4:12,16) with its myrrh and spices (4:14) and the honey and milk of Shulamith’s kisses (4:11). The banquet imagery continues in the songwriter’s encouragement to celebrate (5:1; Craig Glickman, Solomon’s Song of Love).

4:12 The phrases locked garden and sealed spring praise virgin purity in the imagery of a garden paradise and pristine mountain streams (cp. v. 15).

4:13-14 The word paradise may mean simply “park” or “orchard,” but it may also allude to the perfection of Eden. The Hebrew rendered branches is difficult to translate but not difficult to understand. It refers to all the “extensions” from the garden soil: all the fruits, trees, and spices. It is not the word for “garden,” but for all that the garden contains, so it anticipates the entire description in vv. 13-14. Pomegranates were symbols of lovemaking and fertility; henna had small red and white blossoms; nard was famous for its aroma; saffron was linked with nard, possibly because the spices were in the saffron’s stigmata, which when gathered together resembled a handful of yarn, perhaps providing a delicate metaphor of Shulamith’s sexuality. Calamus (Hb qaneh) and cinnamon (Hb qinnamon) are alliterative and, like nard and saffron, combine plant (the long, green-ribboned leaves of the calamus that grew in marshes) with fragrance. The trees of frankincense continue the movement to the larger, more overwhelming beauty of the garden, perhaps a metaphor for the increasing intensity of the experience.

4:15 Garden spring joins the metaphors of garden and spring. Water from Lebanon completes the embellishment of spring water with the image of pure, mountain streams. An allusion to Shulamith’s sexual response in the metaphor of the waters is consistent with the metaphor of a well in Pr 5:15-18.

4:16 If the previous imagery suggests the peak of excitement, then Shulamith’s invitation to Solomon is perfectly placed. She continued the previous metaphors in her poetic request for the winds to blow on her garden and spread the fragrance of its spices (lit “let its spices flow like a stream”; the verb rendered “flowing water” in v. 15 is the same as “flow like a stream” here). So Shulamith resumed both the garden and the spring metaphors. She asked the winds to entice Solomon into the garden with its intoxicating fragrances. Awaken is the same word used in the refrain advocating patient restraint (2:7; 3:5). The songwriter thus reminds the reader that such restraint is no longer needed.