Song of Solomon 1: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The song of songs, which is Solomon's. A woman speaks of her longing for the man she loves, says his love is better than wine, and tells the daughters of Jerusalem not to look down on her because the sun has darkened her. Her mother's sons made her keeper of the vineyards, and she did not keep her own. She asks where he pastures his flock, and the two praise each other.

Claim by Claim

1. 1:1
   • This is the song of songs, the greatest of songs.
   • The song is Solomon's, though whether by him, for him, or about him is not specified.
2. 1:2
   • The woman wishes that he would kiss her with the kisses of his mouth.
   • She says his lovemaking is better than wine.
3. 1:3
   • The fragrance of his oils is good.
   • His name is like oil poured out.
   • For this reason the young women love him.
4. 1:4
   • She asks him to draw her after him.
   • She says they will run.
   • The king has brought her into his chambers.
   • They will be glad and rejoice in him.
   • They will call his love to mind more than wine.
   • They love him rightly, though whether the word describes the manner of their loving or names the upright as those who love him is unclear.
5. 1:5
   • The woman says she is black.
   • She says she is lovely, whether alongside her blackness or in spite of it being left open.
   • She addresses the daughters of Jerusalem.
   • She is like the tents of Kedar.
   • She is like the curtains of Solomon.
6. 1:6
   • She tells them not to stare at her because she is dark.
   • The sun has scorched her.
   • Her mother's sons were angry with her.
   • They made her keeper of the vineyards.
   • She has not kept her own vineyard.
7. 1:7
   • She asks the one her soul loves to tell her something.
   • She asks where he pastures his flock.
   • She asks where he makes the flock lie down at noon.
   • She asks why she should be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of his companions, the word meaning either one who is veiled or one who wanders aside.
8. 1:8
   • He speaks of the case in which she does not know.
   • He calls her the fairest among women.
   • He tells her to go out following the tracks of the flock.
   • He tells her to pasture her young goats beside the shepherds' dwellings.
9. 1:9
   • He compares her to a mare among Pharaoh's chariots.
   • He calls her his darling.
10. 1:10
    • Her cheeks are lovely with ornaments.
    • Her neck is lovely with strings of beads, which the King James calls chains of gold.
11. 1:11
    • They will make her ornaments of gold.
    • The ornaments will have studs of silver.
12. 1:12
    • The king is at his table.
    • Her nard gives off its fragrance.
13. 1:13
    • Her beloved is to her a pouch of myrrh.
    • He lies through the night between her breasts.
14. 1:14
    • Her beloved is to her a cluster of henna blossoms.
    • The henna is in the vineyards of En-gedi.
15. 1:15
    • He says she is beautiful.
    • He calls her his darling.
    • He says again that she is beautiful.
    • He says her eyes are doves.
16. 1:16
    • She says he is handsome.
    • She calls him her beloved.
    • She says he is pleasant.
    • She says their bed is green with foliage.
17. 1:17
    • The beams of their houses are cedars.
    • Their rafters are cypress wood.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

1:1

"The song of songs" is a Hebrew way of forming a superlative, the same construction as "king of kings", so it means the best or greatest of songs. "Which is Solomon's" is ambiguous in Hebrew: the phrase can mean written by Solomon, written for him, dedicated to him, or belonging to a collection associated with his name.

1:2

The speaker begins by talking about the man ("let him kiss me") and then turns to address him directly ("your love"). This abrupt switch between speaking about someone and speaking to them is normal in ancient Hebrew love poetry and is not a copying error. The word translated "love" here is a plural noun meaning caresses or lovemaking, not affection in general.

1:3

There is a play on words that English cannot carry: the Hebrew for "oil/perfume" (shemen) sounds almost identical to the word for "name" (shem). Perfumed oils were expensive imported luxuries, and a person's "name" meant their reputation, so the line compares his reputation spreading to a scent filling a room. The "young women" are unmarried girls of marriageable age.

1:4

The Hebrew text has no labels marking who is speaking; speakers are identified only by whether the verbs and pronouns are masculine or feminine, singular or plural. Here the singular "take me" belongs to the woman, while "we will be glad" is plural, most readers take it as a group of women responding, though some read it as the woman speaking for herself and her lover. "His rooms" are the private inner rooms of a house, where guests did not go. Calling the beloved "the king" may be literal or may be a lover's flattery; ancient Near Eastern love poetry often addressed an ordinary lover as king or queen.

1:5

The Hebrew conjunction can be translated either "and" or "but," so the line may mean "dark and lovely" or "dark but lovely", the text itself does not settle it. Her darkness is sunburn from outdoor work (see the next verse), which in this society marked a laborer rather than a woman of leisure. Kedar was a nomadic Arab people whose tents were woven from black goat hair. "The daughters of Jerusalem" are a group of city women who function as a chorus, addressed repeatedly through the book.

1:6

"My mother's sons" rather than simply "my brothers" is the wording of the Hebrew; brothers held authority over an unmarried sister and her marriage prospects. A vineyard required constant tending and guarding, so "keeper of the vineyards" means real physical labor under the sun. Her closing line turns the word into a double meaning: her "own vineyard" is herself, and what she has left untended is her own body or beauty.

1:7

Flocks were brought into shade at midday because the heat made grazing impossible; finding the shepherd meant knowing where he rested. The Hebrew word behind "one that turneth aside" is uncertain. As written it means a woman who veils or wraps herself, which could suggest a prostitute soliciting among the herdsmen (compare Genesis 38:14–15); with one letter changed, as some ancient versions read it, it means a woman wandering about looking for someone. Either way she is describing an embarrassing figure she does not want to become.

1:8

Sheep leave marks in the dirt with their feet. A shepherd can follow those marks to find the flock.

1:9

Egyptian chariots were pulled by teams of stallions. A single mare turned loose among them would throw the whole formation into confusion: that is the force of the comparison, not simply that she is as fine as a horse. Egyptian horses were also expensive imported luxuries in Israel.

1:10

The Hebrew words for these ornaments are rare and their exact sense is uncertain. They appear to describe strings of beads or discs hanging from a headdress down beside the cheeks, and a necklace of similar strung pieces.

1:11

The "we" is plural, either the chorus of women speaking, or a lover using a formal plural. "Studs of silver" are small silver beads or points set into gold work.

1:12

"At his table" translates a word meaning a couch or divan; diners reclined rather than sitting on chairs. Spikenard (nard) was an oil imported from the Himalayas and was among the costliest perfumes in the ancient world.

1:13

Myrrh is a fragrant gum resin that seeps from a desert shrub and hardens into lumps. Women wore a small cloth pouch of it on a cord around the neck so that it hung between the breasts and warmed against the skin, releasing scent all night.

1:14

"Camphire" is the older English name for henna, a shrub bearing dense clusters of cream-colored flowers with a strong sweet scent; its leaves also yield a reddish dye used on hands and hair. En-gedi is a freshwater oasis on the western shore of the Dead Sea, a pocket of green in otherwise bare desert, so anything grown there was rare and prized.

1:15

The Hebrew says only "your eyes are doves"; it does not state what is being compared, the shape, the softness, the glance, or the doves' association with love and gentleness in ancient poetry. "My love" here translates a term of endearment meaning something like "my darling" or "my companion."

1:16

The word rendered "bed" also means a couch, and "green" means leafy or verdant. The scene has moved outdoors: their bed is the grass itself, which the next verse extends into a house made of living trees.

1:17

Cedar from Lebanon was the prestige building timber of the region, used for palaces and the temple; ordinary houses were not made of it. The tree behind "fir" is uncertain, probably juniper or cypress. The couple are picturing the forest around them as a grand house, with trunks for beams and branches for rafters.