Song of Solomon 2 explained: Love Calls in the Springtime

Wildflower and fruit tree (vv. 1-3)

In verse 1 she likely calls herself a flower of Sharon, a coastal plain. The plant is uncertain and probably not a garden rose, and readers differ on whether she sounds modest or proud; he then calls other women thorns beside her, and she calls him a fruit tree full of shade and sweetness beside other men.

Faint with love (vv. 4-6)

He brings her to a 'house of wine', a place of feasting, and his love over her is pictured like a flag flown in the open, though translations differ on whether she remembers this or longs for it. Faint with longing, she asks for raisin cakes and fruit to revive her and pictures him holding her close.

An oath to the young women (v. 7)

She has the young women of Jerusalem swear by gazelles and wild deer, which some scholars think plays on the sound of oaths made by God. Translations differ on whether she means 'do not stir up love until it is ready' or 'do not wake my love until he is ready', and the line returns in 3:5 and 8:4.

He comes calling (vv. 8-13)

She hears him coming, quick as a gazelle, and he peers through the lattice, a wooden screen over a window, to call her outside. His reason is spring: the winter rains are over, and flowers, doves, early figs and blossoming vines all say the season has turned.

The hidden dove and the foxes (vv. 14-15)

He calls her a dove tucked away in the rocks, shy or hard to reach, and asks to see her face and hear her voice. Foxes really did damage vines, and because the Song often pictures the woman or the couple's love as a vineyard, many read these foxes as whatever could spoil a love just coming into bloom, though who speaks verse 15 is unclear.

Belonging to each other (vv. 16-17)

She says they belong to each other, and he grazes among the lilies, probably a picture of him delighting in her. Verse 17 is unclear in Hebrew, including the time of day and the hills of 'Bether', so translations differ and readers disagree on whether she sends him off until morning or invites him to come to her.

Key verse: Song of Solomon 2:16

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether this chapter is mainly love poetry between a man and a woman or a picture of God's love, read in Jewish tradition as God and Israel and in long Christian tradition as Christ and the church, while many today hold that it is both.

Something to think about

Does the idea of two people belonging to each other sound freeing, confining, or both to you, and why?