A Commentary in Simple English on Song of Songs

The Fourth Poem Chapter 3:6 - Chapter 5:1

This poem is the middle one of the seven poems in the book. So it may well be the most important one. It is here that we read about Solomon. There is not so much about the green, beautiful country of north Palestine now. We are in the south, which is mostly dry.

Verses 6-11

This is the first part of this poem. We hear the voice of someone who watches what happens. He is at Jerusalem. There are two pictures. First, in verses 6-8, someone ‘comes up’ from the wild country or desert. In verses 9-11, we have a picture of Solomon. Now we do not see who it is that ‘comes up’ in verse 6. We do know that it is a woman. We think it is Solomon’s bride.

Although Solomon had many women in his court there is only one of them about whom we know anything. This is the daughter of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt (1 Ki 3:1; 7:8; 9:24; 2 Ch 8:11). [3.1] The Egyptians were a very proud people. Daughters of the king’s family did not marry anyone outside Egypt. So it was a very great honour for Solomon to marry this ‘princess’ from Egypt. She has with her sixty of the best soldiers in Israel. As they come through the desert land, their feet kick up a great cloud of dust. The journey from Egypt to Jerusalem has taken some days. At night the party must camp. The soldiers may have to fight off wild animals. There may be robbers on the road.

In the second poem (2:8-17) it was the young man who came to the girl. Now it is the other way round.

The bride, of course, does not walk (verse 7). There are more men to carry her. She rides in a ‘palanquin’. This is a very grand chair. The men carry it on long poles on the left and right sides. We should think of curtains all round it. This is why we do not ‘see’ the bride. The curtains keep the sun off the bride. The rich smells of ‘myrrh’ and ‘incense’ mix with the cloud of dust.

In verse 9, Solomon is ready for his bride to come. [3.2] His men have made a king’s chair or ‘throne’ for him. Only the best cedar wood from Lebanon was good enough for this. It was very grand, with gold and silver on it. It seems that he had placed the throne outside Jerusalem. Verse 11 is the marriage. The ‘daughters of Zion’ go out of Jerusalem to see it. Bathsheba was Solomon’s mother. You can find the sad story of David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11 and 12. The birth of Solomon is in 2 Samuel 12:24-25. In 1 Kings 1, Bathsheba plays a great part. She makes sure that Solomon becomes king of Israel after David dies. [3.3] So now, Bathsheba puts a crown or perhaps a ‘garland’ of flowers on Solomon’s head. This wedding is a very happy day for her and for Solomon.

Solomon’s heart was full of joy as he married this Egyptian princess. It was a great honour for him. We are not at all sure that he honoured God when he married this woman. We can look at Hebrews 1:9 to see why the heart of Christ is full of joy.

Chapter 4 verses 1-5 This is the second part of this poem. It is like verses 9-15, which are part 6 of this poem. It is the voice of Solomon that we hear now. Solomon looks at his new wife. Maybe she really was pretty. She must have been very pretty if what Solomon says about her is true! In Syria, there are still poems or songs like this in praise of brides.

So in verse 1 the bride lifts the veil or fine cloth which covers her face. Solomon sees her eyes for the first time. He says that they are like doves. Her hair is black and full of waves. He says it is like a flock of goats. The cliffs of Gilead rise more than 1,000 metres above the valley of the River Jordan. The goats jump happily as they run down the slope. In verse 2 the sheep are white. The bride has ‘come up’ from the wilderness (3:6). She can forget the dust of the long journey from Egypt now. The sheep have just ‘come up’ too. They are clean. The shepherds have washed them. Not many people had a full set of teeth in those days. So her full set of white teeth are beautiful.

In verse 3, it is not just her ‘mouth’ that is ‘lovely’. It is really ‘what she says’. Words flow from her mouth just as water flows from a spring in the desert. The water, which flows from the spring, brings life to an oasis. A ‘pomegranate’ is a fruit which grows in Palestine. It is round, and brown or red in colour. This pomegranate has been cut in half. We are not quite sure what is like the pomegranate. The bride’s cheeks seem most likely. We can be sure that this is not the ‘black’ girl we read about in 1:6.

In verse 4, Solomon moves down from his bride’s head to her neck. We do not read about ‘the Tower of David’ anywhere else in the Old Testament. It was probably part of the city wall round Jerusalem. It seems that it was well built. There were rows of great stones. They were in layers, one above the other. Now this was a time of peace. There was no war, so the soldiers did not need their shields. These hung in rows on the outside of the tower. They would shine in the sun. Now the bride wears several necklaces. They are strings that hang round her neck. On them are many small round pieces of metal. So as they shine in the sun they look like the shields. She does perhaps look a little like the Tower of David. Then in verse 5, Solomon moves down to his wife’s breasts. He says that they are like two young deer.

Verse 6 This is the third of the seven parts of this poem.

The first part of the verse is just like the first part of 2:17. It is evening. The thought is now that they will ‘go up’ to the mountains. In verse 8, they will ‘come down’. More use of soap and water would get rid of bad smells! Myrrh and incense would not be needed to cover them up!

Verse 7

This short verse is the fourth part. So it is the middle of this poem. Here Solomon speaks again in praise of his bride. This is the middle poem of the seven in the book. Solomon and his bride are now married.

Verse 8 This is the fifth part of the poem.

In verse 6 the bride said that she would go up. Now Solomon asks her to come down. She is to come down from the mountain tops of the north of Palestine. The Lebanon mountains are on the west, nearest to the coast. Then there is the Bekaa valley, which runs from north to south. This is about 25km wide. Then on the east there is the Anti Lebanon. Senir and Hermon are the highest points. Amana is the mountain where the Abana River starts. (See 2 Ki 5:12.) Solomon asks his bride to come down into the Valley of the Cedars. Notice that the poet calls her ‘bride’ only in verses 9-12 and in 5:1. She is to come away from the mountains. Up there are wild animals, lions and leopards. Perhaps the thought is of the speed of these animals.

Verses 9-15

These verses are rather like verses 1-5. Once again it is Solomon who speaks. He praises his bride.

So in verse 9, he says that one look from her was enough to wake up his desire for her .It only needs one of the many links of her necklace to do this. He also calls her ‘his sister’. We shall find this again in verses 10 and 12 and 5:10. This does not mean that they have the same father or mother. It is quite wrong for brother and sister to marry. He means here that he feels more than desire and love for her. He feels ‘at home’ with her. It means too, that she now belongs to the people of Israel.

The end of verse 10 speaks about the smell of the oils which she uses every day. They smell better than the spices, which come from lands far away. In verse 11, Solomon does not just speak about her kisses. He means again that what she says is sweet to him.

What Christians say matters. James gives us a number of good ways to speak. (See James 5:10-18.) See also Colossians 4:6 and Ephesians 4:29. Good thoughts in our minds become good words.

The cedars of Lebanon have a very beautiful smell. The smell of her nightgown or ‘negligee’ is like that.

In verse 12, Solomon says that his bride is like a locked garden. At the end of verse 16 he goes into the garden. In that hot dry country, a spring of water was of great value. Rich men liked to build a wall all round a spring. They would form a garden and a pool of water. They would use the water to make the plants in their garden grow. They wanted to keep out other people who might spoil the water or the garden.

As we think about these things, we remember that the Church is the Bride of Christ. He fetches us not from Egypt, but from the world. The Church is to join Him in glory, not in any earthly city. We have to leave behind the ways of the world. We have to learn the ways of the Kingdom of God. See Psalm 45:10. Be only for Christ. Then you will taste His secret love.

The ‘fountain’ is the ‘eye’ of the earth. It is the place where the earth ‘weeps’.

When we read on to the end of the chapter, we find that this garden is open. It is no longer locked. Verse 13 means that there is a ditch or ‘channel’. Some of the water from the spring flows out through this. It waters an ‘Eden’ or paradise. This is the king’s garden or ‘park’. Plants grow there which would have to come from countries a long way off. ‘Nard’ came from north India. (Verse 14) ‘Calamus’ may be sugar cane, from central Asia. Cinnamon came from China. Incense and myrrh came from the south of Arabia. Aloes came from India. So Solomon says his bride is like this. Most of these plants did not grow in Israel. It is all brought together in her.

The church is God’s garden. His people are the plants. He gathers them together. He waters them so that that they will grow well. He builds a wall round them so as to keep them safe. The plants in the garden would one day produce a rich harvest of spices. So God’s grace will produce a rich harvest from us for His glory.

This part of the poem, which began with verse 9, ends with verse 15. Solomon says that his bride is like a fountain or spring of water. This comes up out of the ground in the garden. She is like a deep pool of water. She is like the streams that ran down the Lebanon mountains. They came from snow which melted, so that they were cool and clean. They were fresh.

Verse 16 and Chapter 5 verse 1

Now we come to the last two verses of this poem. In verse 16, the bride speaks. Then in Chapter 5:1 Solomon answers. Your Bible may show that someone else speaks in the last part of this verse. It may be the poet, but more likely it is the ‘chorus’ of friends. This is the ‘chorus’ which ends this poem.

So in verse 16, the bride calls on the wind to blow on her garden. In Palestine, the south wind would be hot and dry. It would come from the deserts. The north wind would come from the mountains. It would be cool and less dry. She wants the wind to spread the sweet smells from her garden.

The wind is often a picture of the Holy Spirit. We want the Spirit of God to move through the Church. He will not always work in the same way. There is a ‘north wind’ and a ‘south wind’. When the people of God are truly holy, they have a ‘sweet smell’. We want the world around us to know about that. See Psalm 133. Where there is a sweet smell, it will spread. No one can stop it. Yet this sweet smell is not really meant for the world. It is meant for Christ.

First, the bride says: ‘Blow on my garden’. Then she asks her lover to come into ‘his’ garden. She gives it all to him. It seems that he brings honey, wine and milk with him into the garden. Then he gathers myrrh and spice.

Christ does not only come to His church to take from us what we can give to Him. He brings a blessing with Him. We can very well use the last part of this verse at the Lord’s Table. See John 15:15. He calls us ‘friends’. We honour God when we take from Him the joy and hope that He promises to us. It is right to praise God. Yet it is not right when some people say that nothing pleases God more than our worship. Look at Psalm 51:17 and Isaiah 66:2. When we are humble and we desire to be holy, we please God most.