The Song of Songs of Solomon, commonly referred to as Song of Songs (Hebrew, שיר השירים, Shir ha-Shirim) or Song of Solomon, is a book of the Hebrew Bible—one of the megillot (scrolls)—found in the last section of the Tanakh, known as the Ketuvim (or "Writings"). It is also known as Canticle of Canticles or simply Canticles from the Vulgate title Canticum Canticorum (Latin, "Song of Songs").[1] It is known as Āisma in the Septuagint, which is short for Āisma āismatōn (Greek, ᾎσμα ᾀσμάτων, "Song of Songs").[2]
The protagonists of Song of Songs are a woman (identified in one verse as "the Shulamite")[3] and a man, and the poem suggests movement from courtship to consummation. For instance, the man proclaims: "As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters." The woman answers: "As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste."[4][5] Additionally, the Song includes a chorus, the "daughters of Jerusalem."
In spite of the lack of explicitly religious content, Song of Songs can also be interpreted as an parable of the relationship of God and Israel, or for Christians, Christ and the Church or Christ and the human soul, as husband and wife.
It is one of the shortest books in the Bible, consisting of only 117 verses. According to Ashkenazi Jewish tradition, it is read on Shabbat that falls during the intermediate days of Passover. In the Sephardi community it is recited every Friday night.
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The name of the book ("The Song of Songs, which belongs to Solomon") identifies the owner and possessor of the Song. Hebrew was originally written using pictographs much like that of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. In Hebrew language, the word "song" or "shayir" is written using the letter "shin", which is a picutre of "fire" meaning to 'meld together'; and "rosh", which is a picture of a "head", meaning 'top' or 'beginning'. Together these two symbols literally mean 'to meld together at the top'. In Hebrew agrarian culture this symbolic lettering would identify a rope or a string, which is tied together at the top and then woven or melded as one.
In the middle of this word is the letter "yud" or a "hand". This hand represents someone plucking the string to create a song, much like that of a harp. In this cosmic tale of love between God and His bride, the heart and its desires are considered strings and the hand of Solomon is the Master musician drawing the strings tightly to Himself to create a melodious tune. "The Song of Songs, which belongs to Solomon" sets the tempo to this grand love story, which surrounds the theme of drawing the woman's affections and attachments into the possession of One, the Beloved Solomon.[6]
"A Garden Enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed". [7] At the chiastic center, the heart of the Song of Solomon, His bride is a fountain that is shut up--sealed. She does not issue forth her essence to another lover. She is single in her affections, devoted in her love. "Should your fountains be dispersed abroad, like streams of waters in the streets?"[8] Song of Solomon Media.com
The issues that spew out of a person is what makes a person considered "unclean" by Old Testament law. "When any many has a running issue...he is unclean"[9]. Yet these issues that run out of a person are not just issues of the flesh, they are issues of the heart. When the heart is seeking love, validation and security it pours out its essence in order to purchase these rewards by the exchange of our talents. Our energy, loyalty and affection are all used as currency to gain these prizes. Yet when the Shulamite gives of her essence to someone else, other than the rightful owner to her streams--her husband, she will be considered unclean. For it is written "your desire (waters) shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you"[10].
It is the adultery of heart, the pursuit of other lovers that defiles their relationship. Therefore, the continued theme throughout the "Song of Solomon" is single eyed devotion and the process of setting a guard around the precious expressions of their love. Solomon desires to be the seal over her heart that Solomon alone may have the exclusive right to drink from her well. "Set me as a seal upon your heart"[11] And this is the seal, that the Garden of the Shulamite is enclosed, her spring is shut up, and her fountain sealed that no others may drink from it, save God.
"Song of songs" is the title that attests to the greatness of the song, similar to "the lord of lords", "the king of kings" or "holy of holies" (used of the inner sanctuary of the Jerusalem temple). Rabbi Akiba declared, "Heaven forbid that any man in Israel ever disputed that Song of Songs is holy. For the whole world is not worth the day on which Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all the Writings are holy and Song of Songs is holy of holies." (Mishnah Yadayim 3:5). Similarly, Martin Luther called it das Hohelied (the high song). This is still its name in German, Danish, Swedish and in Dutch.
It is rightly so that Rabbi Akiva extolled the "The Song of Songs" as the "holy of holies" for in the "holy of holies", the inner chamber of the sanctuary, there was found the greatest revelation of God; and likewise is true in the "Song of Songs". In the inner chamber of the sanctuary there was found the Ark of the Covenant.[12] Within the Ark there was placed the 10 commandments, Aaron's rod that budded (a signature of His appointment as High Priest) and Manna from the wilderness.[13] Upon this Ark there was placed the Mercy Seat, a throne for their King, the God of Israel. The Law of God, His Priestly intercession and His tender care giving revealed the loving and sacrificial heart of Omnipotence. Upon the Mercy seat God would grant mercy for the sins of His people.[14] His willingness to save, to forgive, to be reconciled to His Beloved was a most precious revelation to His people for it was the pure and righteous heart of God unfolded in unrivaled passion. Such restraint from wrath, such humble patience with those who wound His heart, such willingness to give selflessly of His Love was all magnified on the Day of Atonement.
The Song of Solomon is likewise the "holy of holies" in scripture for it deals with the matter of Love in the context of Atonement. The word "atonement", which in Hebrew is written "kappor", means "to cover". As Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed[15], the love of Solomon to the Shulamite is a covering to her nakedness. Her vulnerabilities and weaknesses are vigilantly guarded by His care.
As Adam "named" the animals in the garden as an act of dominion, so Solomon names His Shulamite in the work of Atonement. Solomon is engaged in the process of gaining the rightful dominion over every portion of His Shulamite that they might be legally united together as One. Therefore, as in a marriage, He gives her His name. By all the goodness by which He is called, He calls her. The perfection of God is generously given to His beloved bride as her legal inheritance. "Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it [was] perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you, says the Lord GOD."[16].
Solomon declares that she is "my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled one"[17]. "Your neck is the tower of David" "You lips are like scarlet" These are all declarations designed to cover her nakedness, to make up for her insufficiency. For the Shulamite herself knows that she is "dark, but lovely".[18]. She is poor and needy, but God has vowed Himself to be her beauty by all the ways that He will provide.
For example, her "neck", which in Hebrew represents your service (for the neck is used to bear burdens), is now called a tower of David, with a thousand shields upon it! As her neck is employed in the service of love towards Solomon, Solomon vows to make her strong and to be her vigilant defense. In a thousand ways He will guard her vulnerabilities.
Through out the various exchanges in Song of Songs, Solomon names His Shulamite gaining rightful dominion over her body and spirit that He might have legal right to purchase her as His bride. All of this is the work of Atonement. Solomon in turn, in a most intimate act, subjects Himself to be named by His Shulamite. God humbles Himself to take on a name--a name that they will share. It is the name of her Lover--her Beloved. "My Beloved is Mine and I am His"[19] "My Beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand"[20].
In the chiastic center these two separate and distinct lovers become One, just as God became One with His people on the Day of Atonement. He removed the division of their sin and forgave their transgressions, making restitution of their behalf. And so they became One. The most mature understanding of this atonement by the Shulamite is one of her final statements "I am my Beloved's and His desire is for me"[21]. She understands her identity as being wrapped up with His, that she is His possession--the possession of Solomon. And as a result this knowledge brings peace; and all she cares to know from that point on is that His desire is for her. She is no longer enamored by her great love for God or focused upon her self, but she remains in awe over the one true wonder: God's matchless love for her.
Some people translate the first clause of the title as "which is of Solomon", meaning that the book is authored by Solomon. Rabbi Hiyya the Great said Solomon first wrote Book of Proverbs, then Song of Songs, and afterward Ecclesiastes. Rabbi Jonathan said Solomon first wrote Song of Songs, then Proverbs, then Ecclesiastes. The Talmud, however, states the order of the canon, listing Proverbs first, then Ecclesiastes, and then Song of Songs.
Others translate the first clause as "which is for Solomon", meaning that the book is dedicated to Solomon. This theory is confirmed in the text itself when the author seems to contrast himself with Solomon "Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon... My vinyard, my very own, is for myself" (8.11-12)[22] It was common practice in ancient times for an anonymous writer seeking recognition for his work to write eponymously in the name of someone more famous. Some read the book as contrasting the nobility of monogamous love with the debased nature of promiscuous love, and suggest that the book is actually a veiled criticism of Solomon, who, according to 1 Kings 11:3, had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines.
The Jewish Sages themselves considered this a prophetic work that was written during the time of the Prophet Jeremiah by his colleagues (see the Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra, pages 14b-15a), but these latter prophets then attributed their result to king Solomon, just as other writings of Jewish Scripture have been written by one prophet while being attributed to another, such as the Book of Hosea, Isaiah, and others (ibid.).
Another approach to the authorship is that offered by Rashi, consistent with allegorical interpretations, rendering the narrator "he to whom peace belongs", i.e.: God. The Hebrew name of Solomon, Shlomo, can also be inflected to mean the constructed form of the noun shalom, peace, which through noun declension can be possessive. This means that the author is in fact Solomon, but he narrates the book from the perspective of God, who is conversing with the Jewish people, his allegorical and future bride.
Twenty first century linguistic work, including re-examining the dating of early Hebrew poetry, according to evidence of dialectic variation, has been applied to the Song by a number of scholars from different traditions. Noegel and Rendsburg, for example, conclude as follows.
The Song of Songs was written circa 900 BC, in the northern dialect of ancient Hebrew, by an author of unsurpassed literary ability, adept at the techniques of alliteration and polyprosopon, able to create the most sensual and erotic poetry of his day, and all the while incorporating into his work a subtext critical of the Judahite monarchy in general and Solomon in particular.[23]
Other scholars have argued that some of the words used in the text are Persian, which sets the written date to the postexilic period. Solomon lived in the tenth century BCE which is much earlier than the postexilic period. Solomon may not have been the author based from some of the words being used.[24]
Song of Songs for the first time gives literary representation to the everyday post-exilic vernacular. It contains loan words from languages with which Hebrew had contact in post-exilic times, such as Persian, Greek, and Aramaic, and contains numerous items of vocabulary that are otherwise unknown in Biblical Hebrew but are known from Rabbinic Hebrew, and these expressions give the impression of being part of a living language and not the result of an archaic or artificial style. There are longer phrases that are typical of Rabbinic Hebrew in word order and are different from Biblical Hebrew. [25]
Although it is commonly held that an allegorical interpretation justified its inclusion in the Biblical canon, scholarly discussion has not reached any consensus yet on Song of Songs and leaves other possibilities open.[26]
According to Jewish tradition in the Midrash and the Targum, the book is an allegory of God's love for the Children of Israel. In keeping with this understanding, it is read by Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews on Shabbat eve, to symbolize the love between the Jewish People and God that is also represented by Shabbat. Italian Jews read it on the eve of the first Yom Tov and Yom Tov Sheni of Passover, just before Arvit. Most traditional Jews also read the Song on Shabbat Chol HaMoed of Passover, or on the seventh day of the holiday, when the Song of the sea is also read.
Evidence for the reading of the Song of Songs during Passover dates back only to the 8th Century C.E.[27]
Song of Songs is one of the overtly mystical Biblical texts for the Kabbalah, which gave esoteric interpretation on all the Hebrew Bible. Following the dissemination of the Zohar in the 13th century, Jewish mysticism took on a metaphorically anthropomorphic erotic element, and Song of Songs is an example of this. In Zoharic Kabbalah, God is represented by a system of ten sephirot emanations, each symbolizing a different attribute of God, comprising both male and female. The Shechina (indwelling Divine presence) was identified with the feminine sephira Malchut, the vessel of Kingship. This symbolizes the Jewish people, and in the body, the female form, identified with the woman in Song of Songs. Her beloved was identified with the male sephira Tiferet, the "Holy One Blessed be He", central principle in the beneficent Heavenly flow of Divine emotion. In the body, this represents the male torso, uniting through the sephira Yesod of the male sign of the covenant organ of procreation. Through beneficent deeds and Jewish observance, the Jewish people restore cosmic harmony in the Divine realm, healing the exile of the Shechina with God's transcendence, revealing the essential Unity of God. This elevation of the World is aroused from Above on the Sabbath, a foretaste of the redeemed purpose of Creation. The text thus became a description, depending on the aspect, of the creation of the world, the passage of Shabbat, the covenant with Israel, and the coming of the Messianic age. "Lecha Dodi", a 16th century liturgical song with strong Kabbalistic symbolism, contains many passages, including its opening two words, taken directly from Song of Songs.[28]
Song of Songs is not quoted anywhere in the New Testament. One possible allusion to the Song of Songs in the New Testament might be Revelation 3:20, which speaks of knocking at doors, as does Song 5:2. John 7:38, speaks of "living water," using the language for spiritual life found in places like Jeremiah 17:13, Jeremiah 2:13, and Zechariah 14:8, but the phrase is also used poetically in Song 4:15. Useful for reference purposes is that the expensive nard perfume spoken of in John 12:3 and Mark 14:3 is mentioned in Song 1:12, 4:13, 4:14.
The Song was regarded by Christian theologians either as a typological set of songs describing of the relationship of Christ and the Church or as an allegory of the soul's relationship to Christ and God, until late in the 19th century. Since that time Christian scholars have generally become more interested in the literal sense of the Song. The earliest attested Christian interpretation of the Song is found in an influential commentary by Hippolytus. This commentary covered only the first three chapters to 3:7. Hippolytus' Commentary on the Song of Songs interprets the Song as referring to a complicated relationship between Israel, Christ and the Gentile Church. The commentary returns often to the topic of the anointing of the Holy Spirit and was originally written as a mystagogy, an instruction for new Christians.[29] The commentary survives in two Georgian manuscripts, a Greek epitome, a Paleo-Slavonic florilegium, and fragments in Armenian and Syriac. Origen interpreted the Song largely as an allegory of the soul and Christ. He differed with Hippolytus and felt that the Song should be reserved for the spiritually mature and that studying it might be harmful for the novice. In this he followed third-century Jewish interpretive traditions. His commentary—apart from a few fragments of the original Greek—survives in a Latin translation due to Tyrannius Rufinus. A celebrated medieval series of commentaries was that composed by the Cistercians Bernard of Clairvaux, Gilbert of Hoilandia, and John of Ford over the course of several decades, each continuing the work of the previous.[30] Other prominent and accessible traditional commentaries are those of Apponius and Nilus of Ancyra (Sources Chrétiennes) and Gregory of Nyssa and Rupert of Deutz (Fontes Christiani).
In 1561 Luis de León, a Spanish lyric poet and an Augustinian friar, translated the Song of Songs into Spanish for his cousin, Isabel Osorio, a nun who could not read the Latin text, and wrote an accompanying commentary. This work became highly popular among his peers. However, at this time in Spain, translation of biblical texts into Spanish was not viewed favorably, and the translation of the Song of Songs was one of the main charges of supposed heresy brought against him when in 1572 he was imprisoned in Valladolid - though released after four years with an admonition.
Pope John Paul II in his five-year catechesis on the Theology of the Body dedicates a major portion of the section on marriage to a study of Song of Songs. The Pope speaks of the way in which the lovers in the Song provide a true and liberating vision of the love that results when men and women allow the divine fire of agape to penetrate and permeate eros.
Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical Deus Caritas Est (God is Love) of 2006 refers to Song of Songs in both its literal and allegorical meaning, stating that erotic love (eros) and self-donating love (agape) is shown there as the two halves of true love, which is both giving and receiving.[31]
It has been suggested that the book is a messianic text,[32]:333 in that the lover can be interpreted as the Messiah. It could refer to the Messiah because it often speaks of the Davidic king Solomon. Nathan's prophecy in 2 Samuel 7 showed that the promised Messiah would issue from the progeny of David. Each Davidic king was viewed as a potential Messiah, so the Song's speaking of the Temple-builder Solomon would bring to readers’ minds their Messianic hopes.[32]:336 When the Song references "mighty men" (3:7), it brings to mind David and his mighty men (2 Samuel 23). Describing the lover as "ruddy" (5:10) again brings to mind David (c.f. 1 Samuel 16:12). The Aramaic Jewish targums also interpreted the lover as the awaited Messiah.[33] All these references to kingship, to shepherding, to David, and to Solomon bring to mind the expected Messiah.
In the New Testament, Jesus later claimed his identity as Messiah when he presented himself as greater than Solomon (Matthew 12:42) because, as the builder of the Temple, Solomon was an "obvious messianic model."[34]
The king's garden (for example 5:1) can be viewed in the light of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:8-25),[35] bringing to mind the Messiah who was expected to restore Israel to an Edenic state. The lovers are portrayed as having overcome the alienation produced by the Fall. The state of woman whose "desire shall be for your husband" (Genesis 3:16) has even been reversed: "his desire is for me" (7:10).[36]
Scholars have noted that Song of Songs shows similarities of various kinds with other Ancient Near Eastern love poetry in general,[37] but particularly some Sumerian erotic passages,[38] and the Ramesside Egyptian love poetry.[39] Duane A. Garrett points out that it is in the genre of Egyptian love poetry.[40] Discussion of similarities with Tamil love poetry was also of interest in scholastic discussion in the late 20th century.[41]
Feminist scholars of biblical literature have offered a range of different responses to the Song. The feminist companion to the Bible series, edited by Athalya Brenner, has two volumes (1993, 2001) devoted to the Song, the first of which was actually the first volume of the whole series. Phyllis Trible, however, published "Depatriarchalizing in Biblical Interpretation" in 1973, offering a reading of the Song with a positive representation of sexuality and egalitarian gender relations, which was widely discussed, notably (and favourably) in Marvin Pope's major commentary for the Anchor Bible. Cheryl Exum, whose work on the Song is also widely known and highly regarded, considers, however, that "The subjectivity conferred upon the woman by the poet inevitably reflects a patriarchal worldview; how could it not?".[42]
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement, does not recognize the book as inspired,[43] although it is included in the church's canon and printed in church-published copies of the Bible.
| Books of the Ketuvim (Hebrew Bible) |
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| Three poetic books |
| Psalms Proverbs Job |
| Five Megillot |
| Song of Songs Ruth Lamentations Ecclesiastes Esther |
| Other books |
| Daniel Ezra – Nehemiah Chronicles |
Jewish translations and commentary:
Christian translations and commentary:
Canticum Canticorum. Eloge De L'amour. La Cantique Des Cantiques à la Renaissance, Capilla Flamenca, 2004 (Eufoda 1359).
This article incorporates text from Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897), a publication now in the public domain.
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Song of Songs
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| Preceded by Job |
Hebrew Bible | Succeeded by Ruth |
| Preceded by Ecclesiastes |
Protestant Old Testament |
Succeeded by Isaiah |
| Roman Catholic Old Testament |
Succeeded by Book of Wisdom |
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| E. Orthodox Old Testament |
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