The Start of the Couple’s Love
v1 The most beautiful of songs. For Solomon.
The Young Woman
v2 I want your lips to give me many kisses.
Your love is better than wine.
v3 Your perfume smells wonderful.
But your name is better than the best perfume.
That is why the young women love you.
v4 Take me away with you, and we will run away.
Let the king bring me into his room.
Friends
We are very happy for you.
We will say that your love is better than wine.
The Young Woman
How right the women are to love you!
v5 I am dark but lovely too, young women in Jerusalem.
I am dark like the tents of Kedar.
But I am beautiful as Solomon’s curtains.
v6 Do not stare at me because I am dark.
The sunshine has made me dark.
My brothers were angry with me.
They made me look after the vineyards.
So I could not look after my own vineyard.
v7 You are the only person that I love.
Tell me where you feed your sheep.
Tell me where you rest your sheep at midday.
Or I will be like a woman who veils herself.
And I will sit among the flocks of your friends.
The Young Man
v8 You are such a beautiful woman!
Perhaps you do not know where to go.
Follow the tracks of the sheep.
Let your young goats eat by the shepherd’s tents.
v9 Let me describe you, my dear.
You are like a mare of one of Pharaoh’s chariots.
v10 Your hair is beautiful upon your cheeks.
So is your neck with its precious stones.
v11 We will make a chain of gold for you.
We will use silver to make you pretty.
The Young Woman
v12 The king is at his table.
The smell of my perfume is in the air.
v13 My lover is like a collection of perfumes.
This lies all night between my breasts.
v14 My lover is like a bundle of henna flowers.
These flowers are from Engedi.
It is where people make wine.
The Young Man
v15 How beautiful you are, my dear!
Oh! How beautiful!
You have eyes like dove’s eyes.
The Young Woman
v16 You are so handsome, my dear;
You are such a delight to me.
Our bed will be green.
v17 We can have wood from tall trees.
We can use it in our house.
We can use other types of wood for our ceiling.
Commentary
Verses 2-3
From the beginning, the woman feels very strong desires for the man. And his desire for her is very strong too. Even his name seems special to her. But they do not yet have a real relationship. As the woman says in verse 3, other women feel love for the man, too.
Verse 4
By the ‘king’, the poet means the young man. Sometimes the poet describes him as a king, but sometimes as a shepherd. It is already clear that the young woman wants to marry him.
In the middle of verse 4, a group of people add to what the woman has said. We do not know who they really were. We have called them the ‘friends’ here. They praise the young man. It is clear that they agree with the young woman’s description of the man.
Verses 5-6
The woman emphasizes the darkness of her skin. It is dark because she has to work outside. She worries that the young man will not like this. Her skin is dark, like the tents of the Arabs who lived in Kedar. Their tents were probably very plain. But her skin is also beautiful. It is like the curtains that the king owned.
The woman’s brothers were strict with her. They did not allow her to look after her own possessions. They gave her many tasks.
Verse 7
The woman wants to be with the young man. The poet now describes him as a shepherd. A shepherd has to wander to many places as he leads his sheep. So people will not know where to find him. But this woman wants to find him.
Verse 8
The man replies that it is easy to find him. She should simply follow the route that his sheep have gone. There, she will find him. And she can bring her own animals with her. It is his desire that she should be with him.
Verse 9
Experts do not think that mares actually pulled the chariots of Pharaoh (the king of Egypt). But the fact is unimportant in the poem. Clearly, the young man does not think that the woman’s dark skin makes her unattractive. In fact, he thinks that she is impressive. Those royal horses were tall, beautiful and very strong.
Verses 10-11
The young man considers that she is very beautiful. But he wants to make her even more beautiful. Gold and silver would make her seem so pretty!
Verse 12
The poet mentioned the idea of royal things in verse 9. Here again he describes the young man as a king. But the young woman seems present all round him! The smell of her perfume is everywhere. It is as if he cannot escape her! But of course, he does not want to escape her.
Verse 13
And she does not want to escape him either! She wants him to be present with her always. She wants him to be like a small quantity of precious perfume that she carries about her body.
Verse 14
Engedi is a special place. It is a beautiful village with gardens that is in the middle of a desert. So these flowers, which came all the way from those gardens, would seem very special. That is how special this woman considers this man to be.
Verses 15-17
They express how attractive they consider each other to be. And together, they start to describe a word picture of their love. They are like doves. And like doves, green leaves surround them. And like doves, they will choose a home in the forest. The trees become the beams and the ceiling of their house. People would use those trees to build a beautiful wooden house.
The man and woman are not actually building a house. This is just a word picture.
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