Song of Songs 7
We are on the penultimate chapter of the Song, and things are getting “steamy”: if we hadn’t read anything we considered erotic yet, this chapter can definitely break that illusion.
In previous chapters, the Lover’s descriptions have started with her facial features, and mostly stayed there. Here we start in Song 7:1 with descriptions of the beauty and allure of her feet, then thighs, navel, belly, breasts, and finally facial features. There is beauty and delight in all of the body God has given us, and in enjoying its delights, as has been amply demonstrated in the Song, especially verses Song 7:6-9 here.
In her response, Song 7:10-13, she invites him to enjoy her “wine” and “every delicacy, both new and old, that I have stored up for you, my beloved.”
That said, there is evidence throughout the Song that the desire they have for each other has been tempered with restraint until the time is right. Here they go to “see if the vines have budded, if their blossoms have opened, …” before she will “give you my love” (v. 12).
——
On another note, after John mentioned that he didn’t see the references to the shepherd that Fred had seen, we realized Fred’s bible often gives different translations of certain words. For example, in Song 6:2,3, both verses mention the Lover going to “pasture his flock.”
And so it goes, giving more weight to the alternate interpretation mentioned in my study notes about the shepherd vs. king motif. (Of course, we can make all kinds of connections to David as a shepherd/king, as well as Jesus as the Good Shepherd/King of Heaven, etc. etc. …)
Happy reading!
Just to be clear, in my previous comment, I was not intending to say that I did not see any shepherding of flocks in Song of Songs. What I was trying to say was that I do not see any “love triangle” wherein some otherwise unnamed shepherd is competing with King Solomon for the woman’s affections, where she really loves the rustic shepherd, but is being wooed and tempted by the king, with all his magnificence. It seems to me that that interpretation requires an extraordinary imagination to supply a framework that the Song itself simply doesn’t provide. There might be some really great and valid lessons that one might be able to draw from such an interpretation, but I’d rather confine myself to what Scripture actually says rather than flights of fancy. Again, I might be wrong; perhaps such a “love triangle” really is there, but I just don’t see it.