Song of Solomon 7
Big idea: The third and last descriptive poem, and the only one that starts at the feet and works up — ending with a king held captive by hair. Then she takes the poem back and turns it into a plan: let us go out to the fields, spend the night in the villages, and see whether the vines have budded.
Her plan ends with fruits stored up for him at their own door. Chapter 8 opens with the wish that would make all this simple — that he were her brother, so she could kiss him in the street.
7:1–9 — The king is held captive
The direction is the tell: this poem starts with her feet in sandals and works upward, the reverse of chapter 4, and the comparisons are more architectural as it climbs — an ivory tower, the pools at Heshbon, the tower of Lebanon looking toward Damascus. The wheat and lilies at the centre are agricultural abundance rather than shape, and the palm-tree image at the end is the most direct in the book.
1 How beautiful are your feet in sandals, prince’s daughter! Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a skillful workman. 2 Your body is like a round goblet, no mixed wine is wanting. Your waist is like a heap of wheat, set about with lilies. 3 Your two breasts are like two fawns, that are twins of a roe. 4 Your neck is like an ivory tower. Your eyes are like the pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bathrabbim. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon which looks toward Damascus. 5 Your head on you is like Carmel. The hair of your head like purple. The king is held captive in its tresses. 6 How beautiful and how pleasant you are, love, for delights! 7 This, your stature, is like a palm tree, your breasts like its fruit. 8 I said, “I will climb up into the palm tree. I will take hold of its fruit.” Let your breasts be like clusters of the vine, the smell of your breath like apples. 9 Your mouth is like the best wine, that goes down smoothly for my beloved, gliding through the lips of those who are asleep.
7:10–13 — Let us go out into the fields
She takes the refrain for the third time and it has changed again: I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me. Then she makes the plans — out to the country, a night in the villages, an early start to the vineyards to see what has budded — and the vineyards, which she once could not keep, are now the place she chooses to go.
10 I am my beloved’s. His desire is toward me. 11 Come, my beloved! Let’s go out into the field. Let’s lodge in the villages. 12 Let’s go early up to the vineyards. Let’s see whether the vine has budded, its blossom is open, and the pomegranates are in flower. There I will give you my love. 13 The mandrakes produce fragrance. At our doors are all kinds of precious fruits, new and old, which I have stored up for you, my beloved.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).
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