Song of Solomon 6:4-8:4
Dear RTB’ers,
While reading today, I had to wonder if I had already read these verses: Your hair is like a flock of goats that have descended from Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of ewes that have come up from their watering place, all of which bear twins, and not one among them has lost her young. (vv. 6:5b-6) Then I looked back and saw the same refrain in verses 4:1b-2.
I also remembered that we had read the following verse a few days ago, verse 2:6: His left hand is under my head, and His right hand embraces me! (v. 8:3) I remembered commenting on it then, that it’s a beautiful picture of God’s protection with His left hand and His love with His right hand. And it rings true again today.
Then I looked further (A.I. helped me!) and there are a number of other repeated verses in this Book. “Do not awaken love…” appears in verses 2:7, 3:5, and 8:4. I mentioned yesterday that “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine…” appears in 2:16 and 6:3, in addition to today’s verse 7:10. It’s poetry, not my forte…
But the verses that stood out for me today, There are sixty queens and eighty concubines and virgins without number. My dove, my perfect one, is the only one… (vv. 6:8-9a). Here I imagine that it is Solomon, the king speaking. I Kings 11:3 noted that he had 700 wives and 300 concubines. Today’s author only mentions sixty and eighty (and more), but of all these his attention is drawn to “She”. And in some infinite sense, I can imagine God looking down upon each and every one of His created beings and seeing their personal beauty and pouring out His infinite love on each and every one of them – me and you included! I am blown away by that thought!
Blessings!
Fred