The Meeting Between the Young Man and the Young Woman
The Women in Jerusalem
v1 Where has your lover gone,
most beautiful among women?
Tell us which way your lover went.
Then we can help you to look for him.
The Young Woman
v2 My lover has gone down to his garden,
to the places where spices grow.
He will eat food from the garden.
He will gather flowers there.
v3 I belong to my lover
and my lover belongs to me.
It is he who eats near the flowers.
The Young Man
v4 You are beautiful, my special young woman.
You are as beautiful as Tirzah,
as lovely as Jerusalem.
You are as wonderful as those great cities.
v5 Turn your eyes away from me.
They excite me too much!
Your hair is long.
It is like a flock of goats that are coming down from Gilead.
v6 Your teeth are like a flock of sheep.
Their wool is clean.
Each sheep has its twin.
None of the sheep is alone.
v7 Your cheeks are red behind your veil.
They are like the halves of a pomegranate.
v8 There might be 60 queens.
There might be 80 women who live in the palace.
There might be too many virgins to count.
v9 But my dove, my perfect young woman, is special.
She is the only daughter of her mother.
Her mother prefers her to any other person.
The young women see her and they praise her.
There are queens and women in the palace.
They praise her too.
The Women in Jerusalem
v10 Who is this woman?
She seems to shine like the dawn.
She seems as beautiful as the moon.
She seems as bright as the sun.
She is as wonderful as the stars.
The Young Woman
v11 I went down to the group of nut trees.
I went to see the young plants in the valley.
I went to see if the vines were beginning to flower.
Or the pomegranates were beginning to flower.
v12 Then my hope came true.
I was next to my prince.
We were in a chariot.
The chariots belonged to the king.
I was with people that I knew.
This happened before I realized it.
The Women in Jerusalem
v13 Come back, come back, Shulamite.
Come back, come back. Then we can stare at you.
The Young Man
Do not stare at the Shulamite!
Do not stare as she dances the Mahanaim dance!
Commentary
Verse 1
In chapter 5, the woman refused to open her door when the man visited her. The man went away, and then she changed her mind. She opened the door, but he had left. So she began to search desperately for him. She asked the women in Jerusalem to help her. First, they asked her to describe the man. And then they asked her which way he went.
Verses 2-3
The woman knows where the man went. In fact, it was she who told him to go there (4:16)!
He has gone to the garden where there are many plants with beautiful smells. Those beautiful smells are a word picture for their love. She has lost him, but he has found love! That is, he knows constant love for her. But for a short time, she seemed to forget her love for him.
She repeats phrases from 2:16-17. She spoke those phrases when he first proposed marriage to her. At that time, she was not ready for him or for his love. But now she speaks these phrases because she is ready. She wants their love to be complete. She wants him to find the beautiful things that their love will provide.
When she expresses these thoughts, something wonderful happens. She discovers that he is very near to her. She worried so much that she had lost him. But his love for her is as strong as it ever was. When, at last, she was ready to love him, he was ready for her.
That is like God’s love. Elsewhere, the Bible compares God to a husband whose wife has left him. (See especially the Book of Hosea.) Such a husband may eagerly wait for his wife to return. And God eagerly waits for people to return to him. When people are ready to return to God, God is pleased to receive them. (See also Luke chapter 15.)
Verse 4
The man begins another wonderful description of the woman. She is like the city called Jerusalem. Jerusalem was well-known for its beauty. Or she is like the city called Tirzah. We do not know much about that city. For several years, it was the capital city of the northern part of Israel. Probably therefore, it had great houses and palaces.
Verses 5-7
For the second time, the man describes the woman’s body. On this occasion, he only describes her face. It is interesting that she is still wearing her veil. So he still cannot see her face clearly. This description is like the one in 4:1-3.
Verses 8-9
Since the beginning of chapter 3, the poet has been describing how the couple became engaged and married. But often, we have not been sure what events he is describing. That is because we do not know all the traditions. Those traditions were, of course, very familiar to the first readers of the Song.
However, the poet is now describing traditions that seem more familiar.
At the end of the wedding parties, the bridegroom would take his new wife home. This seems to be the event that 6:8-13 describes. It is important to realize that those parties would usually last for several days. So the man and the woman were already married. And this was a final opportunity for the woman’s friends and relatives to say goodbye to her.
It was the tradition that the wife’s family would try to delay this occasion. They would urge the woman (and her new husband) to remain with them. They would continue to arrange more parties that the couple would have to attend! They would give many excuses why the couple could not leave yet. The strongest example of this is perhaps Jacob. He had to remain with his wives’ parents for another 14 years after the marriage. And still, they did not want him to return home! (See Genesis chapters 29 to 31.)
In verse 8, the poet describes the many wives of different ranks that kings often had. King Solomon was well-known for all his wives! He married them for political reasons. When he wanted to make peace with another king, he married that king’s daughter. In the end, he had 700 wives and 300 women of lower rank. He built palaces for them in Jerusalem.
There were all these beautiful women in Jerusalem. But if this man could choose any of the women in the palace, he would still choose this woman. In fact, if he could choose any of the beautiful young women in Israel, he would not select another woman. That is how special he considers her. That is how much he loves her.
And it was not just the man who praised her. Everyone in Jerusalem could see her beautiful character. Even the queens and the other women in the palace praised her.
Verse 10
Some translations consider that verses 10-12 are the words of the man. We cannot be sure.
But in our translation, the women in Jerusalem speak the words in verse 10. As the man said in verse 9, they praise her. They compare her with four different things that give light.
Previously the man has compared her with things that give beautiful smells. And now the people compare her with things that give light. The meaning of these word pictures is probably similar. She impresses people. Her beauty, her wisdom, and her kindness seem so wonderful. Everyone benefits when she is with them.
Verse 11
When the woman wanted to know the right time for love, the man advised her to look at nature (2:10-15). The plants and animals seem to know the right time for love. And now the young woman followed this advice. She examined the plants, as a farmer would examine them. She saw that, in Spring, they were beginning to grow. And this was like a promise that there would be fruit and nuts in the Autumn.
Verse 12
This is a difficult verse to understand. It seems to mean that, at once, it was time for her to enter her husband’s chariot. That may be the carriage in 3:7. But she uses a different word for it in the original language.
It was time for her to leave with her husband. Again, she uses royal words to describe him. On this occasion, he seems like a king or a prince. And she is like the queen who rides next to him.
Verse 13
The woman’s friends and family do not want her to leave. She seems so wonderful that they want her to stay! They want to look at this woman who seems to give light (verse 10)! They urge her not to leave them.
They use the word Shulamite to describe her. That may mean that she is from the town called Shulem. But the word is also the female form of the name Solomon. And Solomon is the name that the poet uses for the young man.
So when the people call her the ‘Shulamite’, perhaps they mean this. They know that she belongs to her husband. She does not still belong to them. They have no right to order her to remain with them. They realize that she must leave. But they feel desperate for her to stay.
She does not reply. Her new husband replies on her behalf. They want to look at her as they look at a dancer. He says that her dance has a name: ‘Mahanaim’.
Mahanaim was the name of a town in Israel. The Bible mentions it in a few places. But it seems that the dance has this name because of the word’s meaning. Mahanaim means ‘two armies’ or ‘two camps.’
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