Deeper Commentary
Song of Solomon 3:1 By night on my bed, I sought him whom my soul
loves. I sought him, but I didn’t find him-
Seeking but not finding is the language of condemnation. All the time
we get hints in the language used that this Gentile woman is not of God at
all, and is the pathway to condemnation. Just as Solomon had warned in
Prov. 7. Having slept with him the night before (Song 2;16,17), she now
has a nightmare about him having left her. And indeed this is absolutely
psychologically likely. Her dream or nightmare reflected her deepest
fears.
Song of Solomon 3:2 I will get up now, and go about the city; in the
streets and in the squares I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought
him, but I didn’t find him-
Her dream reflects the way she walked the streets of Jerusalem whilst
he was confined in the palace. Her mother moved to Jerusalem from Egypt,
but it wasn’t possible for Solomon and her to easily be together in that
house (Song 3:4; 8:2). Again [as noted on Song 2:14,15] we have an
allusion to spiritual things, but out of context. Jeremiah on God's behalf
ran through the streets and squares of Jerusalem to search for men who
would love God in truth (Jer. 5:1). But she runs through the same streets
and squares looking to turn a man away from God.
Song of Solomon 3:3 The watchmen who go about the city found me; I asked, Have you
seen him whom my soul loves?-
Constantly she fears the opposition of the people of Jerusalem. Later
in this chapter she has another nightmare of Solomon's kingly bed prepared
not for her but for the daughters of Jerusalem, and protected by Israelite
soldiers. The implication would be that Solomon's marriages to Gentile
women were not popular with Israel, and this contributed to the resentment
against Solomon at the end of his life (1 Kings 12:11). We note that
although she comes over as forward and manipulative, she seems to love
Solomon from her "soul" (also in :4), although that love was based upon
being in love with an image of a man rather than reality, and was totally
based upon externalities.
Song of Solomon 3:4 I had scarcely passed from them, when I found him whom my soul
loves. I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into
my mother’s house, into the room of her who conceived me-
There is some historical evidence that in Egypt, discussions about
marriage were held in the mother's house. Her deepest psychological
positions, as reflected in this dream, were that she would get Solomon
away from his mother, who had warned him against women like her in Prov.
31, and into the house of her and not his mother. She says she will not
let him go. Perhaps despite the break up of the relationship at the end of
the book, they did in fact marry, and Solomon laments that her hands were
as bands (Ecc. 7:26) and his relationship with her was a being caught in a
net.
She was the fulfilment of what Solomon had written at the same time in Prov. 7:27: " Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the rooms of death". Solomon's wisdom was given to him as a young man, and the book of Proverbs appears to be collections of the various statements of that wisdom. But about the same time, he also got involved with multiple Gentile women who led him astray from God and to idolatry. The very warnings he gives against the adulteress and Gentile woman were ignored by him; he became the young man who went wrong with women. His girlfriend speaks in the very language of the Gentile woman of Proverbs: "I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house... into her chamber" (Song 3:4 AV). Compare this with "She caught him... come not near the door of her house... her house... the chambers of death" (Prov. 7:13,27; 5:8). We see here the warning for all time; that we can know God's ways in theory, whilst disobeying them in practice, absolutely to the letter. Indeed it may be so that the more we know them, the more strongly we are tempted by our nature to break them.
Yet Solomon was aware, at least theoretically, of the foolish path he was going down. God had inspired him with the wisdom of Prov. 2:16,17, which warned that wisdom would save a man from the Gentile woman who made a covenant with the God of Israel in her youth (in order to marry an Israelite, by implication), but soon forgot it. This was exactly the case of Solomon; yet he just couldn't see the personal relevance of his own wisdom to himself. Solomon could write of the folly of the ruler who oppressed the poor (Prov. 22:16)- and yet do just that very thing. The Proverbs so frequently refer to the dangers of the house of the Gentile woman; yet the Song shows the Egyptian girl dearly wishing that Solomon would come with her into her house. And Solomon, just like the foolish young man he wrote about, went right ahead down the road to spiritual disaster he so often warned others about. He warns the young man of the dangers of the Egyptian woman who perfumes her bed with myrrh (Prov. 7:16,17)- and then falls for just such a woman (Ps. 45:8). This woman he warns of appears to want to serve Yahweh, and presents herself in the very language of the tabernacle (Prov. 7:14,16,17). And yet Solomon goes and falls for just such a woman. One can only conclude that the more true spiritual knowledge we have, the more prone we are to do the very opposite.
Song of Solomon 3:5 I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the hinds of
the field, that you not stir up, nor stimulate love, until he so desires-
An oath was typically taken in the name of God in Israel (Dt. 6:13;
Josh. 9:18; 2 Chron. 15:14). But again, this woman is portrayed as lacking
any spirituality or relationship with God. She seems terrified that the
daughters of Jerusalem would sexually attract Solomon, and this fear leads
to her further nightmare which follows.
Song of Solomon 3:6 Who is this who comes up from the wilderness like pillars of
smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all spices of the
merchant?-
Again the imagery of pillars of smoke coming from the desert towards
Jerusalem (:1) is the prophetic image for judgment coming. There is always
the hint that this relationship leads to condemnation. The spices brought
by merchants connect with the merchant trading of Solomon which resulted
in these things being brought to him. Clearly this is Solomon in all his
God given glory.
Song of Solomon 3:7 Behold, it is Solomon’s carriage! Sixty mighty men are
around it, of the mighty men of Israel-
"Carriage" is also "bed". She has been having a secret open air tryst
with Solomon on a bed made from leaves under a bower of tree branches. And
now she sees with some shock (:6,7) a kingly bed coming toward her... but
not for her to sleep with him in. It is for the daughters of Jerusalem
(:10)! This continues her vision of fear which she has on her bed at night
(:1). The relationship is full of such distrust and fear that the
daughters of Jerusalem will finally get Solomon, and she will not.
Song of Solomon 3:8 They all handle the sword, and are expert in war.
Every man has his sword on his thigh, because of fear in the night-
This nightmare (:1) of Solomon's bed advancing as a carriage [hence
the confusion in the translations between "bed" and "carriage"] was
guarded by Israel's best soldiers. They feared something might happen at
night; and at night she had slept with Solomon and they had parted from
each other at dawn (Song 2:17). Her nightmare reflects her deepest fears;
that the men of Israel were against her relationship with Solomon, and
fiercely guarded his kingly bed for the daughters of Jerusalem, and
intended to keep her away from it. These men are another form of the night
watchmen patrolling Jerusalem at night, whom she imagines had caught her.
Song of Solomon 3:9 King Solomon made himself a carriage of the wood of
Lebanon-
"Carriage" can also be "bed" as AV. The Egyptian word here used
suggests that Solomon really had a relationship with this woman and spoke
to her in terms she understood. This failed, illicit romance really
happened. For these are the thoughts of the girl in her nightmare (:1).
Solomon "made himself" many things (Ecc. 2:4-8). That he had made his own
wedding bed is therefore unsurprising.
Song of Solomon 3:10 He made its pillars of silver, its bottom of gold,
its seat of purple, its midst being paved with love-
"He made..." pillars with silver, gold and purple recalls the
language of how Solomon made the temple (1 Kings 7:6-8). He admits in Ecc.
2 that he loved making things. His apparent zeal for building the
temple was really just an expression of his own native temperament and
character type, rather than particular love for God's work. And we must
analyze our own service of God to see if we aren't doing the same thing,
just serving Him in ways which are convenient and reinforce our own native
personality type. Such service is not the service of sacrifice and
carrying a cross which is required.
The bed is described in the language of the tabernacle; made of wood, but covered with gold and surrounded by silver pillars, with a mercy seat of purple (3:9,10 Heb.). He persuaded himself that his marriage to this woman was some kind of expression of spirituality. The bed was made from cedar brought from Lebanon- and yet the same wood was used for the temple (Song 3:9). Such was his dualism. The Song is shot through with allusion to the Law and tabernacle rituals; he speaks of making her borders on her clothes (Song 1:11), probably alluding to the borders of blue to be worn by the faithful Israelite. Solomon wanted her to be a spiritual woman, and he was going to make her one; many a preacher, teacher, husband, wife, father, mother, child, boyfriend has had to learn the impossibility of this. He wanted to see her as a spiritual woman, and eventually he became persuaded that she was just this.
For the daughters of Jerusalem-
I suggested on :7 that this is a nightmare she has on her bed (:1),
having slept with Solomon on a bed of leaves in the open air. Now she
imagines him having made a luxurious bed... but not for her. For the
daughters of Jerusalem, her rivals! There is always the tension with the
daughters of Jerusalem, who can be understood as Solomon’s Jewish wives,
or those who were his Jewish harem. In Song 2 she wants to bring him into
her mother’s bedroom in Egypt, but this is contrasted in the next Song
with Solomon’s bed in Jerusalem, prepared for the “daughters of Jerusalem”
(3:4,10) whom he should have married. Then, with this bed in the
background, he tells her how he especially loves
her
(Song 4:1), trying to persuade her that her fears have no basis in
reality.
Song of Solomon 3:11 Go forth, you daughters of Zion, and see king Solomon, with the
crown with which his mother has crowned him in the day of his weddings, in
the day of the gladness of his heart-
In Prov. 31 Bathsheba lays the law down with him about his girlfriends,
about not marrying Gentiles, and about not drinking, yet here we see
Bathsheba with all her motherly pride crowning Solomon on the day of
engagement to his wives. Note the plural "weddings". Like David,
Bathsheba taught Solomon the principles with great enthusiasm, but
she allowed parental pride to make her dismiss the possibility
that her son was seriously going astray. But in this nightmare, the
Egyptian girl imagines Bathsheba approving Solomon's marriages to the
daughters of Zion / Jerusalem
Or perhaps here we have the girl sarcastically commenting to the
Jerusalem girls: “Go forth, O you daughters of Jerusalem, and behold king
Solomon”, and goes on to mock the crown his mother Bathsheba had made for
him, wishing instead that he would be under the influence of
her mother (Song 3:11,4). Her
sarcasm turns to angry defence at times, e.g. when she warns the Jerusalem
girls not to stir up “my love” (Song of Solomon 2:7)- i.e. ‘Hands off my
Solomon!’. In turn, they ask her where Solomon has “turned aside” so that
they can come and seek him with her (Song of Solomon 6:1), using a word
elsewhere associated with ‘turning aside’ in apostasy to other gods. They
in their turn sarcastically comment to her: “Whither is thy beloved gone,
O thou fairest among women… that we may seek him with thee?” (Song of
Solomon 6:1), quoting Solomon’s terms of endearment back to her.