Song of Solomon from Godrules Net
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Allusions And Symbols
In "Song Of Solomon" ARTICLE INDEX
Romance within the Song of Solomon 1. The attraction and articulation of beauty
Said about her
Dark am I, yet lovely (1:5)
I liken you, my darling, to a mare (1:9)
Your cheeks are beautiful with ear-rings (1:10)
How beautiful you are, my darling! (1:15)
I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys (2:1)
..show me your face...(2:14)
How beautiful you are, my darling! (4:1)
Your eyes behind your veil are doves (4:1)
Your hair is like a flock of goats (4:1)
Your teeth are like a flock of sheep just shorn (4:2)
Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon (4:3)
Your mouth is lovely (4:3)
your temples...like the halves of a pomegranate (4:3)
Your neck is like the tower of David (4:4)
Your two breast are like two fawns (4:5)
You have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes (4:9)
... there is no flaw in you (4:7)
You are beautiful, my darling, as Tirzah (6:4)
...lovely as Jerusalem (6:4)
...majestic as troops with banners (6:4)
Who is this that appears like the dawn? (6:10)
Your graceful legs are like jewels (7:1)
Your navel is a rounded goblet (7:2)
Your waist is a mound of wheat (7:2)
Your breasts are like two fawns (7:3)
Your neck is like an ivory tower (7:3)
Your eyes are the pools of Heshbon (7:4)
Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon (7:4)
Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel (7:5)
Your hair is like royal tapestry (7:5)
Your stature is like that of the palm (7:7)
...your breasts like clusters of fruit (7:7)
Said about him
How handsome you are, my lover! (1:16)
Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my lover (2:3)
My lover is radiant and ruddy (5:10)
My lover is like a gazelle or a young stage (2:9)
...the one my heart loves (3:1)
My lover is radiant and ruddy (5:10)
His head is purest gold (5:11)
His hair is wavy (5:11)
His eyes are like doves (5:12)
His cheeks are like beds of spice (5:13)
His lips are lilies (5:13)
His arms are rods of gold (5:14)
His body is like polished ivory (5:14)
His legs are pillars of marble (5:15)
His appearance is like Lebanon (5:15)
His mouth is sweetness itself (5:16)
He is altogether lovely (5:16)
This is my lover, this is my friend (5:16)
2. Erotic arousal
The five senses are brought into play in the Song:
Taste
The woman's initiatives
Sexual Allusions and Symbols
in the Song of Solomon
1:6 "my own vineyard" - her body.
1:9 "like my mare" - at that time in the Orient the horse was not a beast of burden, but the cherished companion of kings.
1:12 "at his table" - banqueting was done in a reclining position.
1:12 "my perfume spread its fragrance" - The perfume is nard, or spikenard, a very expensive perfume or ointment from a plant native to India. Origen, one of the great fathers of the early church, observed that the actual spikenard plant emits its scent only when its hairy stem is rubbed, thus hinting at some erotic connotations.
1:14 "henna" - a fragrant bush which grows and intertwines itself among the vines in a vineyard.
1:15 "dove" - symbol of innocence, gentleness and purity - indicating that the beloved was a virgin.
2:3 "shade," "fruit," "apple tree" - all ancient erotic symbols. Extra-biblical literature uses "fruit" and "apples" as a symbol of the male genitals, indicating here an oral genital caress.
2:5 "raisin cakes" were used as a religious ritual in fertility rites. The cakes were molded in the form of a female goddess. Along with apples, raisin cakes came to be viewed as an aphrodisiac.
2:5 "lovesick" - overcome with sexual passion
2:6 "embrace" - fondle her vulva(pelvic region).
2:7 "Do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases" = The experience of lovemaking is too powerful to be aroused before the couple have committed themselves in marriage.
2:9 "gazelle or young stag" - suggests sexual virility as gazelles and stags in the spring.
2:15 The meaning of the whole verse is: Let us give full expression to our love now while our bodies (vines) are young (tender grapes) before aging (the foxes) takes its toll on our bodies (spoil the vines).
2:16 "feeds among the lilies" - refers to kissing some tender part of each other's bodies.
2:17 "until the day breaks" - she wants it to last until the morning.
2:17 "upon the mountains of Bether" - run your hands and mouth over the contours of my body.
3:6-11 The groom's wedding procession. Solomon is a kind of code name for the lover as Shulamite (see 6:13, i.e., "Solomoness") is for the beloved. The picture of the processional with its entourage and trappings is hyperbolic, deliberately exaggerated to heighten the significance of the event. Behind this poem may lie a royal wedding song from Solomon's time which helped to shape its extravagant descriptions of royal largesse expended in the services of love.
3:11 "crown" - In ancient times garlands were worn on weddings and the bride and groom were called queen and king.
4:3 "temples" - cf. Judges 4:21-22, describe more generally the side of the face. Hence "cheeks" is meant. Her cheeks are compared with the rosy, roundness of "pomegranate" halves.
4:4 "neck like tower of David" - erect and queenly carriage.
4:4 "shields" - tiered or layered coins or ornaments of precious metal that adorned her neck as she walked in public. The coins or ornaments were her dowry.
4:5 "Thy two breasts" "two fawns," "twins of a gazelle" - The reference is to the dorcus gazelle, an animal about two feet high at the shoulders, and a marvel of lightness, beauty, and grace. The gentle beauty of its eyes was proverbial. The attractiveness of the gazelle invited petting and affectionate touching. One of the most common associations with the gazelle was that it was a delicacy served at Solomon's table (1 Kings 4:23). They are delicious to eat. As gazelles were warm and affectionate, so was the beloved as a sexual partner.
4:10 "wine" - symbol of supreme pleasure.
4:10 "the scent of your perfumes" - those she naturally produces.
4:11 "your lips drip with honey" - speaks of the sweetness of her kisses.
4:11 "honey and milk are under your tongue" - points to the depth and fullness of the kissing.
4:12 "garden" - The garden refers to her vulva(pelvic region). When the lover says it is locked, he is saying it has never been entered; she is a virgin. Thus to describe his wife's vulva as a garden is to say it is beautiful to behold, like flowered gardens of the East.
4:12 "a spring shut up" - its precious liquid is reserved for private use. Because water was scarce in the East, owners of fountains sealed the fountain with clay which quickly hardened in the sun. Thus, a walled fountain was shut against all impurity, no one could get water out of it except its rightful owner. Fountain alludes to fluids produced by the vaginal region in arousal.
4:13 "orchard of pomegranates" - depicts the beauty and colortone of her vulva which abounds in delights to his senses.
4:13 "pleasant fruits" - Her vulva(vaginal region) is a source of sexual refreshment for him to experience. As a carefully cultivated Eastern garden yields delicious "fruit", so his bride's garden is a source of delicious fruit (sexual pleasure), when "cultivated." Furthermore, it is a source of fertility. To make love with her is like entering Paradise. Her pleasures are secret and hidden from all but her husband - the rightful owner of the garden.
4:15 "rivers of water" - One inference of this picture of abundant moisture is that her body is prepared by its own secretions for the long-awaited consummation.
4:16 "Awake, O north wind and come, O south!" - The north wind brings clear weather and removes clouds, and the south brings warmth and moisture. When they blew across a garden in Palestine, coolness and sultriness, cold and heat, would promote the growth of the garden. She is asking her spouse to stimulate her garden with caresses to promote the growth of her sexual passion.
4:16 "Let my beloved come to his garden" - The Hebrew word (literally, "enter" or "come into") is used frequently of sexual penetration (Genesis 16:2).
5:1 "I have come into...have gathered....have eaten...have drunk" - The past tenses are a clear clue to what has happened. The invitation has been responded to in every detail and more. The fullness of covenant-love ("my sister, my spouse") has been experienced. The true marriage feast has been completed.
5:1 "wine and milk" - readily understood in that culture as fertility symbols.
5:2-6 These verses can be read on one level as the lover coming and knocking on the door of his beloved's house. But many commentators see an underlying meaning. The word "open" is twice used without door in Hebrew as object. "Head covered with dew," "hand by the latch," "feet" and "hand" (which can be euphemisms for genitals) -- all of these point to double meanings.
5:2 "my head is covered with dew" - pre-ejaculation fluid drips from the lover's penis.
5:3 There is a difference in intensity between the lover's ardor (v. 2) and the beloved's reluctance to inconvenience herself and respond to his overture (v. 3). She tries to put off his advances.
5:3 "feet" - often a euphemism for genitals.
5:4 "hand by the latch" - "Latch" is literally keyhole. It was the ancient custom to secure the door of a house by a cross bar or by a bolt, which at night was fastened with a little button or pin. In the upper part of the door, there was a round hole (a keyhole) through which any person from the outside might thrust his arm and remove the bar, unless the hole was sealed up. "Hand" is often a euphemism for genitals.
5:4 "my heart yearned for him" - her mood changes.
5:6 "my beloved had turned away and was gone" - too late.
6:11 "garden," "vine," "pomegranates" - all occur most frequently in sections where the man is speaking. He uses them to paint poetic pictures of the woman's erogenous zones.
6:13 "Shulamite" - a feminine form of Solomon and, therefore, part of the royal motif which threads through the song.
7:2 "navel" - incorrect translation. While the Hebrew word could take that meaning, it is generally translated today as "vagina or vulva(pelvic region)."
7:2 "round goblet" - The Hebrew for "round goblet" should be rendered "a bowl in the shape of a half moon." The allusion to the female genitals is obvious.
7:2 "heap of wheat" - In Syria, the perfect skin was considered to be that which could be compared in color to the yellowish-white of wheat after it had been threshed and winnowed.
7:2 "set about with lilies" - pubic hair that guards and graces the "banquet bowl" of the vulva.
7:8 "climb the palm trees" - To "climb the palm tree" had a special meaning. In the Ancient Near East the artificial fertilization of the female palm tree flowers by the male palm tree flowers has been practiced from the earliest times. The male and female flowers are born on separate trees in clusters among the leaves. In order to fertilize the female tree, one must climb the male tree and get some of its flowers. One then ascends the female tree and ties among its flowers, a bunch of the pollen-bearing male flowers. Thus, to climb the palm tree is to fertilize it.
7:8 "I will take hold of its branches" - The man says he will take hold of her branches, i.e. fruit stalks of the date palm - her breasts. Now he changes images from date palms to grape clusters for breasts, which seems more appropriate. Grapes swell and become increasingly round and elastic as they ripen, similar to the female breasts when sexually aroused.
7:12 "vine has budded," "grape blossoms are open," "pomegranates are in bloom" - all of these terms are capable of a literal, horticultural meaning; yet each is used in the Song as an image with erotic implications.
7:13 "mandrakes" - considered to be an aphrodisiac in the ancient world.
8:6 "seal over your heart..seal on your arm" - The seal of a king was commonly a sign of his ownership. It signified something of great value. She desires to be set as a seal on her husband's heart -- the place of his affection. To be set like a seal on his arm is to be in the place of his strength or protection.
8:10 "breasts were like towers" - The towers on the walls of the city were the first things an enemy saw. But because of the ability of the tower to provide a defense for the wall and city, the sight of those towers discouraged an attack. In a similar way, the beloved's fully developed breasts, ready for love, were inaccessible. She was impressive to look at, like the towers of the city. But any enemy of her virtue was quickly repelled.
8:8 The brothers' strategy depends on the sister's character. If she is a wall - impervious to the advances of men - they will simply encourage and praise her for her virtuous stand. Just as a battlement of silver increases the beauty of the wall and attractiveness of the city, they will increase her good character by adding to her dowry (which was worn around the neck). There is, however, another possibility. It could be that their sister will turn out to be a door - easily entered, easily seduced. Should that prove to be the case, they will take a different approach. They will barricade her with planks of cedar. In other words, they will be very strict with her and protect her from men's advances.
8:11,12 "my own vineyard is before me" - The man probably speaks this. In these verses he compares his vineyard, i.e. his wife, with Solomon's vineyard at Baal Hamon. His bride was to him a vineyard beyond price.
8:14 "mountains of spices" - She sees her body as a veritable mountain range alive with fragrances. Thus she invites her husband to make love.
http://inkaboutit4u.com/?p=Song_of_Solomon_from_Godrules_Net
Allusions And Symbols
In "Song Of Solomon" ARTICLE INDEX
Romance within the Song of Solomon 1. The attraction and articulation of beauty
Said about her
Dark am I, yet lovely (1:5)
I liken you, my darling, to a mare (1:9)
Your cheeks are beautiful with ear-rings (1:10)
How beautiful you are, my darling! (1:15)
I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys (2:1)
..show me your face...(2:14)
How beautiful you are, my darling! (4:1)
Your eyes behind your veil are doves (4:1)
Your hair is like a flock of goats (4:1)
Your teeth are like a flock of sheep just shorn (4:2)
Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon (4:3)
Your mouth is lovely (4:3)
your temples...like the halves of a pomegranate (4:3)
Your neck is like the tower of David (4:4)
Your two breast are like two fawns (4:5)
You have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes (4:9)
... there is no flaw in you (4:7)
You are beautiful, my darling, as Tirzah (6:4)
...lovely as Jerusalem (6:4)
...majestic as troops with banners (6:4)
Who is this that appears like the dawn? (6:10)
Your graceful legs are like jewels (7:1)
Your navel is a rounded goblet (7:2)
Your waist is a mound of wheat (7:2)
Your breasts are like two fawns (7:3)
Your neck is like an ivory tower (7:3)
Your eyes are the pools of Heshbon (7:4)
Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon (7:4)
Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel (7:5)
Your hair is like royal tapestry (7:5)
Your stature is like that of the palm (7:7)
...your breasts like clusters of fruit (7:7)
Said about him
How handsome you are, my lover! (1:16)
Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my lover (2:3)
My lover is radiant and ruddy (5:10)
My lover is like a gazelle or a young stage (2:9)
...the one my heart loves (3:1)
My lover is radiant and ruddy (5:10)
His head is purest gold (5:11)
His hair is wavy (5:11)
His eyes are like doves (5:12)
His cheeks are like beds of spice (5:13)
His lips are lilies (5:13)
His arms are rods of gold (5:14)
His body is like polished ivory (5:14)
His legs are pillars of marble (5:15)
His appearance is like Lebanon (5:15)
His mouth is sweetness itself (5:16)
He is altogether lovely (5:16)
This is my lover, this is my friend (5:16)
2. Erotic arousal
The five senses are brought into play in the Song:
Taste
- His fruit is sweet to my taste (2:3)
- ...and taste its choice fruits (4:16)
- I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey (5:1)
- ...your mouth like the best wine (7:9)
- Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes (1:3)
- ...my perfume spread its fragrance (1:12)
- ...perfumed with myrrh and incense (3:6)
- ...the fragrance of your perfume (4:10)
- ...the fragrance of your garments (4:11)
- ...your love [caresses] is more delightful than wine (1:2)
- His left arm is under my head, and his right arm embraces me (2:6; also at 8:3)
- I held him and would not let him go (3:4)
- ... let me hear your voice (2:14)
- Listen! My lover is knocking (5:2)
- You who dwell in the gardens ...let me hear your voice! (8:13)
- Do not stare at me because I am dark (1:6)
- ...show me your face (2:14)
- You have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes (4:9)
- Turn your eyes from me; they overwhelm me (6:5)
- ...come back, that we may gaze on you! (6:13)
- ...your love is more delightful than wine (1:2)
- ...resting between my breast (1:13)
- ...his fruit is sweet to my taste (2:3)
- I am faint with love (2:5)
- ...he browse among the lilies (2:16; also at 6:3)
- Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn, my lover, and be like a gazelle, or like a stag on the rugged hills (2:17)
- I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of incense (4:6)
- You have stolen my heart (4:9)
- ...my heart began to pound for him (5:4)
- ...my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with flowing myrrh, on the handles of the lock (5:5)
- Why would you gaze on the Shulammite as on the dance of Mahanaim? (6:13)
- I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its fruit (7:8)
- The mandrakes send out their fragrance, and at out door is every delicacy, both new and old, that I have stored up for you (7:13)
- I would give you spiced wine to drink, the nectar of my pomegranates (8:2)
- Under the apple tree I roused you (8:5)
- Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth (1:2)
- He has taken me to the banquet hall (2:4)
- Your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb (4:11)
- His mouth is sweetness itself (5:16)
- ...your mouth like the best wine. May the wine go straight to my lover, flowing gently over lips and teeth (7:9)
- I would kiss you, and no-one would despise me (8:1)
- Your graceful legs (= rounded thighs) (7:1)
- Your navel (lit., vulva) (7:2)
- Your waist (lit., belly) (7:2)
- Your breasts (7:3)
The woman's initiatives
- Let him kiss me (1:2)
- Take me away with you (1:4)
- Tell me, you whom I love (1:7)
- ...turn, my lover, and be like a gazelle (2:17)
- I looked for the one my heart loves (3:1)
- I will get up now and go about the city (3:2)
- I will search for the one my heart loves (3:2)
- Let my lover come into his garden (4:16)
- I arose to open for my lover (5:5)
- Come, my lover, let us go to the countryside, let us spend the night in the villages (7:11)
- ...there I will give you my love (7:12)
- I would kiss you (8:1)
- Under the apple tree I roused you (8:5)
- Come away, my love (8:14)
- He has taken me to the banquet hall (2:4)
- Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me (2:10)
- ...show me your face (2:14)
- Come with me from Lebanon (4:8)
- My lover is knocking! (5:2)
- I will climb the palm tree: I will take hold of its fruit (7:8)
- ...resting (= spending the night) (1:13)
- Until the day breaks and the shadows flee (2:17)
- Let us spend the night in the villages (7:11)
- Let us go early to the vineyards (7:12)
- Let the king bring me into his chambers (1:4)
- ...where you rest your sheep at midday (1:7)
- The beams of our house are cedars, our rafters are firs (1:17)
- He has taken me to the banquet hall (2:4)
- ...over the hills (2:8-13)
- ...in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding-places on the mountainside (2:14)
- I...brought him to my mother's house (3:4)
- ...let us go the countryside (7:11)
- I would lead you and bring you to my mother's house (8:2)
- Under the apple tree (8:5)
- You who dwell in the gardens (8:13)
- Let my lover into his garden and taste its choice fruits (4:16)
- I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride (5:1)
- ...there I will give you my love (7:12)
Sexual Allusions and Symbols
in the Song of Solomon
1:6 "my own vineyard" - her body.
1:9 "like my mare" - at that time in the Orient the horse was not a beast of burden, but the cherished companion of kings.
1:12 "at his table" - banqueting was done in a reclining position.
1:12 "my perfume spread its fragrance" - The perfume is nard, or spikenard, a very expensive perfume or ointment from a plant native to India. Origen, one of the great fathers of the early church, observed that the actual spikenard plant emits its scent only when its hairy stem is rubbed, thus hinting at some erotic connotations.
1:14 "henna" - a fragrant bush which grows and intertwines itself among the vines in a vineyard.
1:15 "dove" - symbol of innocence, gentleness and purity - indicating that the beloved was a virgin.
2:3 "shade," "fruit," "apple tree" - all ancient erotic symbols. Extra-biblical literature uses "fruit" and "apples" as a symbol of the male genitals, indicating here an oral genital caress.
2:5 "raisin cakes" were used as a religious ritual in fertility rites. The cakes were molded in the form of a female goddess. Along with apples, raisin cakes came to be viewed as an aphrodisiac.
2:5 "lovesick" - overcome with sexual passion
2:6 "embrace" - fondle her vulva(pelvic region).
2:7 "Do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases" = The experience of lovemaking is too powerful to be aroused before the couple have committed themselves in marriage.
2:9 "gazelle or young stag" - suggests sexual virility as gazelles and stags in the spring.
2:15 The meaning of the whole verse is: Let us give full expression to our love now while our bodies (vines) are young (tender grapes) before aging (the foxes) takes its toll on our bodies (spoil the vines).
2:16 "feeds among the lilies" - refers to kissing some tender part of each other's bodies.
2:17 "until the day breaks" - she wants it to last until the morning.
2:17 "upon the mountains of Bether" - run your hands and mouth over the contours of my body.
3:6-11 The groom's wedding procession. Solomon is a kind of code name for the lover as Shulamite (see 6:13, i.e., "Solomoness") is for the beloved. The picture of the processional with its entourage and trappings is hyperbolic, deliberately exaggerated to heighten the significance of the event. Behind this poem may lie a royal wedding song from Solomon's time which helped to shape its extravagant descriptions of royal largesse expended in the services of love.
3:11 "crown" - In ancient times garlands were worn on weddings and the bride and groom were called queen and king.
4:3 "temples" - cf. Judges 4:21-22, describe more generally the side of the face. Hence "cheeks" is meant. Her cheeks are compared with the rosy, roundness of "pomegranate" halves.
4:4 "neck like tower of David" - erect and queenly carriage.
4:4 "shields" - tiered or layered coins or ornaments of precious metal that adorned her neck as she walked in public. The coins or ornaments were her dowry.
4:5 "Thy two breasts" "two fawns," "twins of a gazelle" - The reference is to the dorcus gazelle, an animal about two feet high at the shoulders, and a marvel of lightness, beauty, and grace. The gentle beauty of its eyes was proverbial. The attractiveness of the gazelle invited petting and affectionate touching. One of the most common associations with the gazelle was that it was a delicacy served at Solomon's table (1 Kings 4:23). They are delicious to eat. As gazelles were warm and affectionate, so was the beloved as a sexual partner.
4:10 "wine" - symbol of supreme pleasure.
4:10 "the scent of your perfumes" - those she naturally produces.
4:11 "your lips drip with honey" - speaks of the sweetness of her kisses.
4:11 "honey and milk are under your tongue" - points to the depth and fullness of the kissing.
4:12 "garden" - The garden refers to her vulva(pelvic region). When the lover says it is locked, he is saying it has never been entered; she is a virgin. Thus to describe his wife's vulva as a garden is to say it is beautiful to behold, like flowered gardens of the East.
4:12 "a spring shut up" - its precious liquid is reserved for private use. Because water was scarce in the East, owners of fountains sealed the fountain with clay which quickly hardened in the sun. Thus, a walled fountain was shut against all impurity, no one could get water out of it except its rightful owner. Fountain alludes to fluids produced by the vaginal region in arousal.
4:13 "orchard of pomegranates" - depicts the beauty and colortone of her vulva which abounds in delights to his senses.
4:13 "pleasant fruits" - Her vulva(vaginal region) is a source of sexual refreshment for him to experience. As a carefully cultivated Eastern garden yields delicious "fruit", so his bride's garden is a source of delicious fruit (sexual pleasure), when "cultivated." Furthermore, it is a source of fertility. To make love with her is like entering Paradise. Her pleasures are secret and hidden from all but her husband - the rightful owner of the garden.
4:15 "rivers of water" - One inference of this picture of abundant moisture is that her body is prepared by its own secretions for the long-awaited consummation.
4:16 "Awake, O north wind and come, O south!" - The north wind brings clear weather and removes clouds, and the south brings warmth and moisture. When they blew across a garden in Palestine, coolness and sultriness, cold and heat, would promote the growth of the garden. She is asking her spouse to stimulate her garden with caresses to promote the growth of her sexual passion.
4:16 "Let my beloved come to his garden" - The Hebrew word (literally, "enter" or "come into") is used frequently of sexual penetration (Genesis 16:2).
5:1 "I have come into...have gathered....have eaten...have drunk" - The past tenses are a clear clue to what has happened. The invitation has been responded to in every detail and more. The fullness of covenant-love ("my sister, my spouse") has been experienced. The true marriage feast has been completed.
5:1 "wine and milk" - readily understood in that culture as fertility symbols.
5:2-6 These verses can be read on one level as the lover coming and knocking on the door of his beloved's house. But many commentators see an underlying meaning. The word "open" is twice used without door in Hebrew as object. "Head covered with dew," "hand by the latch," "feet" and "hand" (which can be euphemisms for genitals) -- all of these point to double meanings.
5:2 "my head is covered with dew" - pre-ejaculation fluid drips from the lover's penis.
5:3 There is a difference in intensity between the lover's ardor (v. 2) and the beloved's reluctance to inconvenience herself and respond to his overture (v. 3). She tries to put off his advances.
5:3 "feet" - often a euphemism for genitals.
5:4 "hand by the latch" - "Latch" is literally keyhole. It was the ancient custom to secure the door of a house by a cross bar or by a bolt, which at night was fastened with a little button or pin. In the upper part of the door, there was a round hole (a keyhole) through which any person from the outside might thrust his arm and remove the bar, unless the hole was sealed up. "Hand" is often a euphemism for genitals.
5:4 "my heart yearned for him" - her mood changes.
5:6 "my beloved had turned away and was gone" - too late.
6:11 "garden," "vine," "pomegranates" - all occur most frequently in sections where the man is speaking. He uses them to paint poetic pictures of the woman's erogenous zones.
6:13 "Shulamite" - a feminine form of Solomon and, therefore, part of the royal motif which threads through the song.
7:2 "navel" - incorrect translation. While the Hebrew word could take that meaning, it is generally translated today as "vagina or vulva(pelvic region)."
7:2 "round goblet" - The Hebrew for "round goblet" should be rendered "a bowl in the shape of a half moon." The allusion to the female genitals is obvious.
7:2 "heap of wheat" - In Syria, the perfect skin was considered to be that which could be compared in color to the yellowish-white of wheat after it had been threshed and winnowed.
7:2 "set about with lilies" - pubic hair that guards and graces the "banquet bowl" of the vulva.
7:8 "climb the palm trees" - To "climb the palm tree" had a special meaning. In the Ancient Near East the artificial fertilization of the female palm tree flowers by the male palm tree flowers has been practiced from the earliest times. The male and female flowers are born on separate trees in clusters among the leaves. In order to fertilize the female tree, one must climb the male tree and get some of its flowers. One then ascends the female tree and ties among its flowers, a bunch of the pollen-bearing male flowers. Thus, to climb the palm tree is to fertilize it.
7:8 "I will take hold of its branches" - The man says he will take hold of her branches, i.e. fruit stalks of the date palm - her breasts. Now he changes images from date palms to grape clusters for breasts, which seems more appropriate. Grapes swell and become increasingly round and elastic as they ripen, similar to the female breasts when sexually aroused.
7:12 "vine has budded," "grape blossoms are open," "pomegranates are in bloom" - all of these terms are capable of a literal, horticultural meaning; yet each is used in the Song as an image with erotic implications.
7:13 "mandrakes" - considered to be an aphrodisiac in the ancient world.
8:6 "seal over your heart..seal on your arm" - The seal of a king was commonly a sign of his ownership. It signified something of great value. She desires to be set as a seal on her husband's heart -- the place of his affection. To be set like a seal on his arm is to be in the place of his strength or protection.
8:10 "breasts were like towers" - The towers on the walls of the city were the first things an enemy saw. But because of the ability of the tower to provide a defense for the wall and city, the sight of those towers discouraged an attack. In a similar way, the beloved's fully developed breasts, ready for love, were inaccessible. She was impressive to look at, like the towers of the city. But any enemy of her virtue was quickly repelled.
8:8 The brothers' strategy depends on the sister's character. If she is a wall - impervious to the advances of men - they will simply encourage and praise her for her virtuous stand. Just as a battlement of silver increases the beauty of the wall and attractiveness of the city, they will increase her good character by adding to her dowry (which was worn around the neck). There is, however, another possibility. It could be that their sister will turn out to be a door - easily entered, easily seduced. Should that prove to be the case, they will take a different approach. They will barricade her with planks of cedar. In other words, they will be very strict with her and protect her from men's advances.
8:11,12 "my own vineyard is before me" - The man probably speaks this. In these verses he compares his vineyard, i.e. his wife, with Solomon's vineyard at Baal Hamon. His bride was to him a vineyard beyond price.
8:14 "mountains of spices" - She sees her body as a veritable mountain range alive with fragrances. Thus she invites her husband to make love.