In the previous chapter, the woman has run out into the dark streets, trying to find her lover. The daughters of Jerusalem have asked, "What is special about him?" and she has responded. Now the daughters of Jerusalem follow up on their question, volunteering to help look for him.
Song of Songs 6:1, How can we help?
Where has your lover gone, most beautiful of women?
Which way did your lover turn, that we may look for him with you?
The daughters/narrators/spectators are convinced. Now they would like to help.
Song of Songs 6:2-3, Found
My lover has gone down to his garden,
to the beds of spices,
to browse in the gardens
and to gather lilies.
I am my lover's
and my lover is mine;
he browses among the lilies.
And now, suddenly, the woman has found her lover. She is happy. Indeed, she describes the resolution as the lover browsing in the garden, "among the lilies", and declares their commitment to each other.
Song of Songs 6:4, As beautiful as Tirzah
You are beautiful, my darling,
as Tirzah,
lovely as Jerusalem,
majestic as troops with banners.
The man describes his lover. This may be the beginning of a new act. In the description of his lover, there are some similarities with chapter 4.
Tirzah was, for a time, the capital of the northern kingdom. Both Tirzah and Jerusalem, capital of the southern kingdom, are described as beautiful cities and so the woman is compared to them.
Song of Songs 6:5-7, You overwhelm me
Turn your eyes from me;
they overwhelm me.
Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Gilead.
Your teeth are like a flock of sheep coming up from the washing.
Each has its twin, not one of them is alone.
Your temples behind your veil are like the halves of a pomegranate.
This passage is very similar to Song of Songs 4:1-3. There I commented on the metaphors here, strange to our modern culture, but expressed in terms of value of the ANE. For example, if a man watched flocks of black goats descending Mount Gilead, he might think of his lover's long black tresses. Furthermore, not all metaphors are intended to give visual images; if I tell my wife, "You look like a million bucks," I am not comparing her to a stack of dollar bills. In the ANE, flocks of goats and flocks of sheep were signs of wealth.
Song of Songs 6:8-9, Sixty and eighty
Sixty queens there may be,
and eighty concubines,
and virgins beyond number;
but my dove, my perfect one, is unique,
the only daughter of her mother,
the favorite of the one who bore her.
The maidens saw her and called her blessed;
the queens and concubines praised her.
Suddenly the man's praise is set aside to describe the harem of a mighty man, most likely that of Solomon. A poetic flourish starts with 60 wonderful women, raises the number to 80 in then next line and then "beyond number" in the next. The gist of the passage, of course, is that the man cares not for 60 queens, 80 concubines or an infinite number of virgins, but only has one, very unique woman in his mind. Surely the harem of Solomon is jealous of her beauty!
Song of Songs 6:10, Fair as the moon
Who is this that appears like the dawn,
fair as the moon,
bright as the sun,
majestic as the stars in procession?
The woman is like the most beautiful of celestial objects.
Song of Songs 6:11-12, Have vines budded?
I went down to the grove of nut trees
to look at the new growth in the valley,
to see if the vines had budded
or the pomegranates were in bloom.
Before I realized it, my desire set me among the royal chariots of my people.
The man wanders into the spring growth in the valley. Are the vines and pomegranates ready to reproduce? Are they budding? (Love is in the air.) Davidson says that walnuts, like mandrakes, might have had erotic associations. Certain the reproductive blossoming of spring fits the man's thoughts.
Suddenly the man is among royal chariots. (Thus the allusion to a king's harem above?) Some argue that this chapter points to Solomon's court and suggests that the man in question is, in fact, King Solomon. In that interpretation, the entire book is about a peasant woman that Solomon pursues. Alter, however, translates the last line as "I scarcely knew myself, she set me in the noblest chariot" in which case it is the woman who is providing the best place for the man to be; the "chariot" here is then the beautiful garden of previous chapters.
Song of Songs 6:13-14, Come back and dance with us
Come back, come back, O Shulammite;
come back, come back, that we may gaze on you!
Why would you gaze on the Shulammite
as on the dance of Mahanaim?
The word transcribed Shulammite is unclear and apparently does not occur elsewhere in the Old Testament.
The narrators call for the beautiful woman to return. Davidson sees this as a new poem or a separate act. The ancient Hebrew text puts this verse into chapter 7.
It is not clear who raises the question, "Why would you gaze...?". This could be the man speaking or the narrator. Davidson suggests it is a coy response from the woman, encouraging the man to praise her. Regardless, it is followed by a statement of adoration in the next chapter.
The last Hebrew word machaneh, transcribed by the NIV as a place name, is literally "two camps." Alter suggests that there was a dance of two rows, possibly with the Shulamite woman dancing between them. (Or, says Alter, we might have two choruses.) Davidson agrees that the woman is being asked to dance between two "camps" or "lines." The woman's dance continues in the next chapter.
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