Book of Song of Solomon
Solomon’s wisdom was great, and therefore, he wrote in a specific book entitled The Song of Solomon. The date of this book was around 960 BC, and it encompasses a wedded love theme. This book outlines a lot of wisdom about love, and may be based on a true story or just a fictional narrative. There are many interpretations that can be made, and therefore, there are a lot of symbols and innuendos that people recognize. However, this book is likely to bring God glory more than thinking obscenely about the innuendos stated in this book. Solomon and a Shulammite girl are the main characters, and their story is involving a shepherd and just a girl respectively. There are many ways to divide this book, but it seems the book is already divided into understandable sections of poems. There are six poems in all, it appears, and all of them have a specific meaning behind them.
The first poem outlines a bride longing for her bridegroom. She expresses longing for the bridegroom, and has support and advice from her friends. The bridegroom appears and speaks to her. For her lover was absent and now he is here, so she focuses on him only. The author inserted that starry-eyed appeal when two lovers get private with each other and are just focused one-on-one. This is the kind of intimacy that people should naturally have. The two of them exchange affection and compliments before the poem ends soon after.
The second poem starts right after, as the lovers seek and find each other. In this, the bride spots her bridegroom coming, expresses exclusive love unto him, to him being lost again, and finally found him again. She spoke that when two people have such a love for one another, it doesn’t do any good to stir up feelings further.
Then, the third poem begins, where we see the wedding procession. As the wedding day approaches, the girl pictures the coming of the bridegroom for her, which would be a royal wedding with King Solomon in all his glory coming to her humble town. She pictures the scene, and other imagery is noted. The bridegroom is shown as approaching her, giving her affection, and then the two of them come together – taking the girl as his own. He declares the bride has stolen his heart, everything about her is pure and lovely, and she’s like a fragrant garden – to which he can find delight forever. The friends finally announced their blessing for the couple as the third poem ends.
As we look at the fourth poem, we see the bride in fear of losing her bridegroom. The bride has a dream at night, which reflected the girl’s unfulfilled longing as she waits impatiently for the wedding day. She dreams that while she’s asleep, her lover travelled through the night to come unto her and knocks on the door. In the dream, she awoke partially to find that her lover was at the door, but that she took too long to come to the door. She begs people to find him, and would like people to go with her to meet with him. She realizes that she never really lost him, for she had only a dream. He is at home on the farm, faithful as ever!
The fifth poem begins and talks about the beauty of the bride. The bridegroom describes how beautiful the bride is, and then the bridegroom and his friends discuss her as well. A short song was added expressing his desire for her, and the girl replies that she has sole belonging to him. She desires to walk with him through the fields and vineyards, enjoying each other’s love.
At last, the sixth poem begins, where we see outlined the ultimate beauty of love, where elements such as intensity and contentment are used to describe this ultimate beauty. The lovers are walking alongside the road on their way home, and as they approach the house, the girl remembers the place where they fell in love. She praises the power/intensity of her love that binds the two together. True love is indestructible and beyond value. After this, we see that she enjoys the contentment with her true love. Solomon maintains his harem and vineyards, continuing to work and keep his wealth. But, the girl is not for hire, for she belongs only to her lover, who was Solomon. He asks his girl to speak, so that he and his friends may hear her voice, so she echoes her words from previous times of a man who’d come and take her as his own. This concludes this poem and the entire book. Just like other wisdom books, the symbols can be detailed for each verse or group of verses.
