A Maturing Relationship – Song of Songs 6:4-8:4

The Song of Solomon, Part 5

More erotic poetry, and more inuedo. Twice in this long reading (be warned, it’s a big one), the man looks at the body of his wife and delights in what he sees.

Another warning, a strange one for a Christian blog post, this post is NSFW, Not Safe For Work.

He

⁴ You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love,
    lovely as Jerusalem,
    awesome as an army with banners.
⁵ Turn away your eyes from me,
    for they overwhelm me—
Your hair is like a flock of goats
    leaping down the slopes of Gilead.
⁶ Your teeth are like a flock of ewes
    that have come up from the washing;
all of them bear twins;
    not one among them has lost its young.
⁷ Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate
    behind your veil.
⁸ There are sixty queens and eighty concubines,
    and virgins without number.
⁹ My dove, my perfect one, is the only one,
    the only one of her mother,
    pure to her who bore her.
The young women saw her and called her blessed;
    the queens and concubines also, and they praised her.
¹⁰ “Who is this who looks down like the dawn,
    beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun,
    awesome as an army with banners?”

She

¹¹ I went down to the nut orchard
    to look at the blossoms of the valley,
to see whether the vines had budded,
    whether the pomegranates were in bloom.
¹² Before I was aware, my desire set me
    among the chariots of my kinsman, a prince.

Others

¹³  Return, return, O Shulammite,
    return, return, that we may look upon you.

He

Why should you look upon the Shulammite,
    as upon a dance before two armies?
7 How beautiful are your feet in sandals,
    O noble daughter!
Your rounded thighs are like jewels,
    the work of a master hand.
² Your navel is a rounded bowl
    that never lacks mixed wine.
Your belly is a heap of wheat,
    encircled with lilies.
³ Your two breasts are like two fawns,
    twins of a gazelle.
⁴ Your neck is like an ivory tower.
Your eyes are pools in Heshbon,
    by the gate of Bath-rabbim.
Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon,
    which looks towards Damascus.
⁵ Your head crowns you like Carmel,
    and your flowing locks are like purple;
    a king is held captive in the tresses.
⁶ How beautiful and pleasant you are,
    O loved one, with all your delights!
⁷ Your stature is like a palm tree,
    and your breasts are like its clusters.
⁸ I say I will climb the palm tree
    and lay hold of its fruit.
Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine,
    and the scent of your breath like apples,
⁹ and your mouth like the best wine.

She

It goes down smoothly for my beloved,
    gliding over lips and teeth.
¹⁰ I am my beloved’s,
    and his desire is for me.

¹¹ Come, my beloved,
    let us go out into the fields
    and lodge in the villages;
¹² let us go out early to the vineyards
    and see whether the vines have budded,
whether the grape blossoms have opened
    and the pomegranates are in bloom.
There I will give you my love.
¹³ The mandrakes give forth fragrance,
    and beside our doors are all choice fruits,
new as well as old,
    which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.

8 Oh that you were like a brother to me
    who nursed at my mother’s breasts!
If I found you outside, I would kiss you,
    and none would despise me.
² I would lead you and bring you
    into the house of my mother—
    she who used to teach me.
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
    the juice of my pomegranate.
³ His left hand is under my head,
    and his right hand embraces me!
⁴ I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
    that you not stir up or awaken love
    until it pleases.

Song of Songs 6:4-8:4

The Song of Solomon, also known as the Song of Songs, contains sensual songs in the Bible. It uses attraction and romance to symbolise the love of God.

The word “wife” is used in the introduction, but it’s unclear if the marriage in 3:4 – 5:1 is the same couple as the lovers in this poem. The Song of Solomon is a collection of poems, not just one. However, this poem reflects growth in love and intimacy, suggesting it’s likely set within marriage.

This song wasn’t written by Solomon, but it came soon after. After Solomon died, the country was divided into two: Judah in the south with Jerusalem as its capital, and the north, initially with Shechem, under the first king, Jeroboam, who later moved the capital to Tirzah. Eventually, during Omri’s rule, the capital was moved to Samaria. The mention of Tirza in 6:4 suggests that the poem was written within the first 100 years after Solomon.

This song begins with the couple together, where the man expresses appreciation for his beautiful lover.

The argument about who the lovers represent arises here. Traditionally, Christians view the man in these poems as Jesus, but when considering them as Wisdom literature alongside other books like Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, where God is often depicted as a female figure like Madam Wisdom, I interpret the female voice in these poems as representing the voice of God.

The Beloved looks at his wife’s face and expresses his feelings, turning it into a song of love for God, a psalm.

The psalm idea continues in the next section (6:11-13), where the woman searches for her beloved again. Her longing reflects God’s desire for us, as seen in Psalms 14, 53, and 139, which show God actively searching for us. This initiative connects to God walking in the Garden of Eden while Adam and Eve hid. The woman’s search for her beloved symbolises God searching for His people.

Then the couple is back together. This is the final passage (6:13b-7:5) where they express their physical attraction, using elaborate metaphors to describe one another. The beloved describes the woman as she dances for him, starting from her feet and moving up to her face. Some interpret the lilies (7:2) as a reference to her pubic area. The next part, and the last of these poems about physical attraction, depicts the beloved admiring his wife’s overall beauty.

It contains these beautiful verses describing his caresses:

⁷ Your stature is like a palm tree,
    and your breasts are like its clusters.
⁸ I say I will climb the palm tree
    and lay hold of its fruit.
Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine,
    and the scent of your breath like apples,
⁹ and your mouth like the best wine.

We’re now at the Not Safe For Work bit.

But first, let’s consider how the old Puritans viewed this. Some wanted the entire Song of Solomon removed from the Bible because it conflicted with their Christian values. Yes, you read that correctly; they believed they understood better than the Bible. I think that, despite debates over authorship and the writing date, and my belief that God did not dictate the words exactly, I still believe that the Bible we have is the one God intended for us.

But I’d like to have a bit of fun at the expense of the Puritans,

They found the book challenging, but John Trapp remarks, “The navel is baptism, nourishing newborns in the Church… Some interpret this as the Lord’s Supper, called a ‘heap of wheat’ for its great nourishment.” It’s an unusual perspective, likening the navel to a bowl that always holds mixed wine and the belly to a wheat heap surrounded by lilies. Trapp argues that this meaning should be free of eroticism, while I celebrate the text’s erotic elements. He also describes female breasts as “Even and equal. Consider the two Testaments; they resemble each other due to their perfect agreement and swift spread across the world.”

Could the Puritans have a Bible where God told Adam and Eve, “Be fruitful and multiply, but don’t enjoy it”? Those last four words aren’t in my Bible, so I try to ensure that my wife and I enjoy it together.

It’s not the foreplay I find important in these verses, but the intimacy. God desires closeness with His followers, even more than lovers share. When systems ignore the erotic nature of these poems, they diminish the bond between Christ and the church. If breasts symbolise the Old and New Testaments, intimacy fades. Christ wants to be as close to His church as two lovers in foreplay.

After the beloved has admired the woman, it’s her turn. She leads him into her mother’s house, to the place where she was conceived, to make love with him.

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¹John Trapp, quoted from the Enduring Word commentary by David Guzik.