Song of Songs 1

Song of Songs 1
Christian Standard Bible
1 The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s.

Woman

2 Oh, that he would kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!
For your caresses are more delightful than wine.
3 The fragrance of your perfume is intoxicating;
your name is perfume poured out.
No wonder young women adore you.
4 Take me with you—let’s hurry.
Oh, that the king would bring me to his chambers.

Young Women

We will rejoice and be glad in you;
we will celebrate your caresses more than wine.

Woman

It is only right that they adore you.

5 Daughters of Jerusalem,
I am dark like the tents of Kedar,
yet lovely like the curtains of Solomon.
6 Do not stare at me because I am dark,
for the sun has gazed on me.
My mother’s sons were angry with me;
they made me take care of the vineyards.
I have not taken care of my own vineyard.

7 Tell me, you whom I love:
Where do you pasture your sheep?
Where do you let them rest at noon?
Why should I be like one who veils herself
beside the flocks of your companions?

Man

8 If you do not know,
most beautiful of women,
follow the tracks of the flock,
and pasture your young goats
near the shepherds’ tents.

9 I compare you, my darling,
to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots.
10 Your cheeks are beautiful with jewelry,
your neck with its necklace.
11 We will make gold jewelry for you,
accented with silver.

Woman

12 While the king is on his couch,
my perfume releases its fragrance.
13 The one I love is a sachet of myrrh to me,
spending the night between my breasts.
14 The one I love is a cluster of henna blossoms to me,
in the vineyards of En-gedi.

Man

15 How beautiful you are, my darling.
How very beautiful!
Your eyes are doves.

Woman

​16 How handsome you are, my love.
How delightful!
Our bed is verdant;
17 the beams of our house are cedars,
and our rafters are cypresses.

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A word of warning before we start studying this book together.  This is a love song between Solomon and his first love.  It is erotic at times and while there is nothing wrong with him telling his wife-to-be how he feels about her, this book comes with its own warnings to not awaken love until the appropriate time (2:7, 3:5, 4:16, 8:4 and 8:5).  Therefore, I want to be very careful to give the same kind of warning here (though I'm aware that such a warning may cause a rebellious spirit to want to know what it is they are not supposed to know or see).  My recommendation is that this book be studied by young people who are becoming physically mature or who have physically matured in the context of a Marriage and Family Life conference or something similar (there are many Christian speakers who travel to speak to young people about the issues of marriage and sexuality and teach almost exclusively from this book of the Bible for their source material).  Second, I'll give the information that this is probably Solomon's first love and the person that God truly intended him to marry. and have children with.  Unfortunately, we'll see that later in life, Solomon disobeyed the LORD's commands in the book of Deuteronomy 17:14-20 and acquired many women as wives and concubines.  We see by the time that he wrote Proverbs and Ecclesiastes that he realized he had been foolish in doing so.  Therefore, I'll give this additional warning.  Do not learn the hard way but learn now that marriage is to be between one man and one woman throughout the terms of their natural lives as a symbol of the greater covenant bond between God and His people that will be forever (even death cannot separate us from one another).  We've seen much about that already in the New Testament Epistles.

I believe that's enough preliminaries, so now it's time to introduce the characters in this poem (and it is written like a play with headings to separate who is speaking).  We have "The Woman" who is the one Solomon is pursuing, "The Young Women" of Jerusalem who are friends of The Woman and "The Man" who is Solomon.  It is The Woman who first desires The Man (not surprising as Solomon is king at this point and I'm sure all the women of Jerusalem wanted to marry him).  Her friends support her and say they will be happy for her if she is successful.

The Woman tells of how she is not like the other women of Jerusalem, she is dark-skinned (we will learn later that she is a Shulamite woman--from a small village in the land of the tribe of Issachar).  She catches the eye of The Man (Solomon) and they sing poetic verses back and forth to each other to tell of other's beauty.  I won't quote or interpret all these verses, as I think you can see that they talk are two lovebirds telling how they are attracted to one another.