Thursday, October 31, 2024

Song of Songs 5, Slipping Away into the Night

We continue the poetry of two lovers. At the end of the last chapter, the man has described the woman as a beautiful locked garden, with wonderful floral scents overwhelming him. The woman responds to his overtures by saying, "Yes, lover, come into this garden and taste it fruits!" That poem continues for one more verse.

Song of Songs 5:1a, Wine and milk
I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride;
 I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. 
I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; 
I have drunk my wine and my milk.

The man answers his lover's invitation and says, "Yes!" He then excitedly responds with a declaration of possession with "my", "my garden, my sister, my bride, my myrrh, my spice, my honeycomb, my honey, my wine, my milk." The possessive "my" is not a separate Hebrew word but part of an ending that appears on each of the nouns.

Song of Songs 5:1b, Chorus
Eat, O friends, and drink; 
drink your fill, O lovers.

Closing out the mutual declaration of love-making, this act of the poem ends with the narrators stepping in, a chorus spoken by a third party. Drink your fills, O lovers, say the narrators, as the curtain comes down.

There is a natural break here.  In the next verses begin a new poem or a new act of the play, an act that probably ends at 6:3.

Song of Songs 5:2, Knocking at my door
I slept but my heart was awake. 
Listen! My lover is knocking: 
"Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one. 
My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night."

The woman is sleeping but her heart responds to a knock at her door. Her lover pleads for her to let him in from the dampness of the night. (Davidson believes this portion, Song of Songs 5:2-6:3, is a dream sequence.)

Song of Songs 5:3, But I'm in bed
I have taken off my robe-- must I put it on again? 
I have washed my feet-- must I soil them again?  

The woman has retired for the night. She has taken off her robe and (typical in ANE culture) washed her feet. Must she get dressed again, and get her feet dirty? Some suggest that she may be being a little coy, deliberately responding slowly to his call.

Song of Songs 5:4-5, I reached out, too late
My lover thrust his hand through the latch-opening;
my heart began to pound for him.  
I arose to open for my lover, 
and my hands dripped with myrrh, 
my fingers with flowing myrrh, 
on the handles of the lock.  

Her lover reaches through the latch to open the door himself. The woman reports her heart pounding with rising excitement. She arises to answer the door, trying to undo the lock. Her hands are dripping with myrrh, a fragrant oil. 

Both Alter and Davidson see hints to sexual arousal in the description of the woman's hands and fingers "flowing with myrrh", in the man's desire to open the latch and her desire (next verse) to "open" to him. Davidson remarks on various attempts to hide the sexuality of this passage (and others) says
"It is strange how certain older commentators, aware of this meaning, tend to dismiss it as 'obscene'. This is to read our perverted sense of values into the biblical text, instead of allowing the text to speak to us frankly of sexuality as one of God's good gifts to man and woman."
I heartedly agree. As I mention in my introduction to this book, the attitude I absorbed in my youth (high school and college) was that sex was bad, promoted by Hugh Hefner and was to be ignored or suppressed. But since God created human sexuality, it should be Christians who are open and transparent about the beauty of sex and the strength of sexual desire!

Song of Songs 5:6, Gone!
I opened for my lover, 
but my lover had left; 
he was gone.

My heart sank at his departure.
I looked for him but did not find him.
I called him but he did not answer.

But by the time the woman gets to her door and unlocks it, her lover is gone. Now she is awake and eager to be in his arms but he has disappeared into the night. She calls for him and runs into the streets after him.

Song of Songs 5:7, Watchmen bruise me!
The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. 
They beat me, they bruised me; 
they took away my cloak, those watchmen of the walls!

In the dark city the night watchmen find her and mistreat her. They think that she is a prostitute and tear her cloak off of her. This time the watchmen mistreat the woman; in chapter 3 they leave her alone.

Song of Songs 5:8, Where is my lover?
O daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you--
 if you find my lover, what will you tell him? 
Tell him I am faint with love.

The woman begs for the daughters of Jerusalem to help her find her lover. (I imagine a narrator, or audience, being brought into this play.)

Song of Songs 5:9, Why?
How is your beloved better than others,
 most beautiful of women? 
How is your beloved better than others, 
that you charge us so?

The narrators/spectators challenge the woman:  "Is he really worth it? Tell us about him."

Song of Songs 5:10-12, He is wonderful!
My lover is radiant and ruddy,
 outstanding among ten thousand.
His head is purest gold; 
his hair is wavy and black as a raven.
His eyes are like doves by the water streams, 
washed in milk, 
mounted like jewels.

In response to the request from the daughters of Jerusalem, the woman gushes forth with descriptions of her lover's beauty. He is "radiant" and "ruddy."  His head (face?) is pure gold, although like most Israelites, his hair is dark and wavy.  And, oh, his wonderful eyes...

This is an example of a wasf, says Alter, an ancient form of poetry where the loved one's physical beauty is described, beginning with his/her head and going down to the feet.

Song of Songs 5:13-16a, Sweetness itself
His cheeks are like beds of spice yielding perfume. 
His lips are like lilies dripping with myrrh.
His arms are rods of gold set with chrysolite.
His body is like polished ivory decorated with sapphires. 
His legs are pillars of marble set on bases of pure gold.
His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as its cedars.
His mouth is sweetness itself; 
he is altogether lovely. 

The woman continues her praise, speaking of his cheeks and lips in sweet and fragrant terms. His arms are rock hard, as is all of his body. And yet, his mouth is the very essence of sweetness. Just as her lover has described her as perfect, she returns the description. The emotional infatuation of love is visible in the praise ushering from both of them.

Alter says there is a bit of a pun in the Hebrew word bachar, translated "choice" in verse 14. The word also often means "young man." So her bachar is bachar!

Song of Songs 5:16b, My lover, my friend
This is my lover, 
this my friend, 
O daughters of Jerusalem.

The woman's final statement to the daughters of Jerusalem is a statement of love and friendship. The implied question is "Does this satisfy you? Do you understand how wonderful he is?"

The poem continues into at least the first three verses of chapter 6, beginning with a response from the daughters of Jerusalem.

No comments:

Post a Comment