Song of Solomon 2: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The woman and the man trade praise: she calls herself a flower of the field, he calls her a lily among thorns, and she calls him an apple tree among forest trees. She describes being brought to the banquet house under his banner of love, and tells the daughters of Jerusalem not to stir up love before its time. The man calls her out into the spring countryside, and she answers that she and he belong to each other, telling him to come to her over the hills.

Claim by Claim

1. 2:1
   • The speaker says she is a flowering plant of the plain of Sharon, a bulb flower whose exact species is uncertain and which the King James calls a rose.
   • The speaker says she is a lily of the valleys.
2. 2:2
   • The speaker's beloved compares her to a lily growing among thorns.
   • He says that is how his darling stands among the young women.
3. 2:3
   • The speaker compares her beloved to a fruit tree, apple or apricot, standing among the trees of the forest.
   • She says that is how her beloved stands among the young men.
   • She says she desired to sit in his shade and sat there.
   • She says his fruit was sweet to her palate.
4. 2:4
   • The speaker says he brought her to the house of wine.
   • She says his banner over her was love.
5. 2:5
   • The speaker asks to be sustained with raisin cakes.
   • She asks to be refreshed with apples.
   • She gives as the reason that she is sick with love.
6. 2:6
   • The speaker says his left hand is under her head.
   • She says his right hand embraces her.
7. 2:7
   • The speaker puts the daughters of Jerusalem under oath.
   • She adjures them by the gazelles or by the does of the field.
   • The oath is that they not stir up love.
   • The oath is that they not awaken love.
   • The restriction lasts until love itself is willing.
8. 2:8
   • The speaker hears the voice of her beloved.
   • She says he is coming.
   • She says he is leaping upon the mountains.
   • She says he is bounding upon the hills.
9. 2:9
   • The speaker says her beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
   • She says he is standing behind their wall.
   • She says he is gazing in through the windows.
   • She says he is peering through the lattices.
10. 2:10
    • The speaker's beloved answered and spoke to her.
    • He told her to rise up.
    • He called her his darling and his beautiful one.
    • He told her to come away.
11. 2:11
    • He said the winter has passed.
    • He said the rain is over and gone.
12. 2:12
    • He said the blossoms have appeared in the land.
    • He said the time has arrived, the word meaning either pruning or singing.
    • He said the voice of the turtledove is heard in their land.
13. 2:13
    • He said the fig tree has ripened its early figs.
    • He said the vines in blossom give off fragrance.
    • He again told her to arise.
    • He again called her his darling and his beautiful one.
    • He again told her to come away.
14. 2:14
    • He calls her his dove.
    • He says she is in the clefts of the rock.
    • He says she is in the hiding place of the steep cliff.
    • He asks her to let him see her face.
    • He asks her to let him hear her voice.
    • He says her voice is sweet.
    • He says her face is lovely.
15. 2:15
    • A call is given to catch the foxes for us, the animal being either foxes or jackals.
    • The foxes are described as little.
    • The foxes are described as ruining vineyards.
    • Our vineyards are in blossom.
16. 2:16
    • The speaker says her beloved is hers.
    • She says she is his.
    • She says he grazes, or pastures his flock, among the lilies.
17. 2:17
    • The speaker sets a limit until the day breathes.
    • The speaker sets a limit until the shadows flee.
    • She tells her beloved to turn.
    • She tells him to be like a gazelle or a young stag.
    • She places him upon the mountains of Bether, a name that may be a place or may mean cleft or divided mountains.

Words Worth Explaining

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

2:1

The Hebrew has no speaker labels; the "The woman says" and "The man says" headings are supplied by translators, who work out the speaker from the gender and number of the Hebrew verbs and pronouns. Sharon is the fertile coastal plain running north from Joppa, proverbial for wild flowers and pasture. The flower named here is not the modern rose: the Hebrew word probably means a bulb flower of the open country, such as a crocus or a meadow saffron.

2:2

In the King James, "my love" does not mean the feeling of love. It means the person: my darling. "The daughters" means the young women of the town.

2:3

The Hebrew tappuach, traditionally "apple," is a fruit tree that is not certainly identified; apricot and quince have both been proposed, since apples grew poorly in that climate. The point of the comparison is that it is a cultivated fruit tree standing among ordinary forest trees, giving both shade and something to eat.

2:4

"Banqueting house" is literally "the house of wine", the room or building where wine was served at a feast. A banner was a military standard carried on a pole so that troops could see where their unit was; to raise one over someone was to claim them publicly and openly.

2:5

"Flagons" in the King James does not mean jugs of drink; the Hebrew word means pressed cakes of raisins, a concentrated sweet eaten as a delicacy and as a quick restorative. "I am sick of love" in 1611 English meant made ill or faint by love, not tired of it.

2:7

"I charge you" translates a formal Hebrew verb for putting someone under oath. The "daughters of Jerusalem" are the young women of the city, who are addressed several times in this book as a kind of audience. Swearing by gazelles and does rather than by God is unusual; the Hebrew words for them sound close to two of the standard oath phrases involving God's names, so the wording may be a deliberate softened substitute. The last clause is ambiguous in Hebrew and can mean "until it (love itself) is ready," "until he pleases," or "until she pleases."

2:9

Windows in an ordinary house had no glass; the opening was covered with a wooden grille of crossed strips, which let in air and light while keeping the room private. Someone outside could look in through the gaps but was only partly visible from within.

2:10

"Fair" meant beautiful. "My fair one" means my beautiful one.

2:11

In this climate the rain falls in one winter season, roughly from late autumn to early spring, and then stops almost entirely. Its ending is the sign that travel, fieldwork and courtship out of doors become possible again.

2:12

"Turtle" here is not the reptile: it is the turtledove, a migratory bird whose return and cooing call marked the arrival of spring in the region.

2:13

The "green figs" are the small early figs that form on the branches before the leaves are fully out, the first fruit of the year and a recognized sign that the season has turned. Grape vines in flower give off a strong sweet scent for a short period in spring.

2:14

The word rendered "stairs" in the King James means a steep place or cliff face; the image is of a rock dove nesting on a ledge high on a cliff, out of reach and out of sight.

2:15

Foxes, or possibly jackals, the Hebrew word covers both, damaged vineyards by digging under the vines and by eating the fruit and shoots, so they were trapped while the vines were in flower and the crop still at risk. The Hebrew gives no indication of who is speaking this verse, and it may be a snatch of a separate song.

2:16

"He feedeth among the lilies" means he pastures his flock there; the verb is the ordinary one used of a shepherd grazing animals. It can also be read without an object, as "he grazes among the lilies," continuing the picture of the gazelle.

2:17

The Hebrew of the first line is literally "until the day breathes and the shadows flee." Interpreters disagree whether this means dawn, when the shadows of night disappear, or late afternoon, when the evening breeze comes up and the shadows lengthen and are lost. "Bether" is otherwise unknown as a place name; the word can also be read as a common noun meaning cleft or division, giving "the mountains of separation" or "the rugged mountains."