How to Read Song of Songs (Song of Solomon)
Since love songs are always popular, many people approach Song of Songs with great expectations. However, readers often find the book different from what they had expected.
Two main problems may hinder today's reader. One is the poetic imagery. No modern lover would say, "Your hair is like a flock of goats" (4:1), "Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon" (7:4). While some images in Song of Songs appeal-"His banner over me is love" (2:4) or "Love is as strong as death" (8:6)-the majority of the book's metaphors sound strange to our ears.
Most of the comparisons aren't visual, but emotional. For instance, when the lover tells his beloved that "your two breasts are like two fawns" (4:5), he isn't saying that her breast looks like deer. Hhe is saying that they bring out the same tender feelings baby deer do. When you read strange-sounding metaphors in Song of Songs, don't ask, "What did these things (pomegranates, myrrh, a flock of sheep) look like?" but ask, "What did the lovers feel when they thought of them?"
A second problem: Song of Songs is hard to follow. One part doesn't seem connected to the next. Think of it as a series of snapshots of a couple in love-snapshots not necessarily in order. Put together in one photo album, they show the profound feelings of newly married lovers.
Though Song of Songs is primarily about love on the human level, many Christians and Jews have read it as a book about God's love. This was probably not the author's original intent, but it is a legitimate and inspiring way to look at the book. After all, God made human love, and other parts of the Bible suggest its similarity to God's love. (See Hosea 1-3 and Ephisians 5:22-33.) Song of Songs never makes his connection, but it does represent a love so rich, so full, so unashamed that it's natural to think of God and his love for us.
Two main problems may hinder today's reader. One is the poetic imagery. No modern lover would say, "Your hair is like a flock of goats" (4:1), "Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon" (7:4). While some images in Song of Songs appeal-"His banner over me is love" (2:4) or "Love is as strong as death" (8:6)-the majority of the book's metaphors sound strange to our ears.
Most of the comparisons aren't visual, but emotional. For instance, when the lover tells his beloved that "your two breasts are like two fawns" (4:5), he isn't saying that her breast looks like deer. Hhe is saying that they bring out the same tender feelings baby deer do. When you read strange-sounding metaphors in Song of Songs, don't ask, "What did these things (pomegranates, myrrh, a flock of sheep) look like?" but ask, "What did the lovers feel when they thought of them?"
A second problem: Song of Songs is hard to follow. One part doesn't seem connected to the next. Think of it as a series of snapshots of a couple in love-snapshots not necessarily in order. Put together in one photo album, they show the profound feelings of newly married lovers.
Though Song of Songs is primarily about love on the human level, many Christians and Jews have read it as a book about God's love. This was probably not the author's original intent, but it is a legitimate and inspiring way to look at the book. After all, God made human love, and other parts of the Bible suggest its similarity to God's love. (See Hosea 1-3 and Ephisians 5:22-33.) Song of Songs never makes his connection, but it does represent a love so rich, so full, so unashamed that it's natural to think of God and his love for us.
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