Song of Solomon 1

This chapter opens the Song of Solomon. Because no chapter precedes it, it begins with a superscription and then moves directly into the woman's declaration of love.

Outline

• Verse 1: The superscription identifies the book as "The song of songs, which is Solomon's."
• Verses 2–4: The woman longs for her beloved's kisses and sings that his love is better than wine. She says that the king has brought her into his chambers, and the "virgins" rejoice with her.
• Verses 5–6: The woman tells the daughters of Jerusalem that she is black but comely. Her mother's sons made her a keeper of the vineyards, so the sun darkened her skin, yet she did not keep her own vineyard.
• Verses 7–8: The woman asks her beloved where he feeds his flock and where he makes it rest at noon. She is told to follow the footsteps of the flock and go beside the shepherds' tents.
• Verses 9–11: The beloved compares the woman to a steed harnessed to Pharaoh's chariots, praises the ornaments on her cheeks and neck, and promises to make her borders of gold with studs of silver.
• Verses 12–14: The woman compares her beloved to spikenard, a bundle of myrrh, and a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.
• Verses 15–17: The two praise each other as "fair" and sing of a green bed and a house with beams of cedar.

Key Verses

• Song of Solomon 1:2: "for thy love is better than wine." This is the first expression of the joy of love, the theme that runs through the entire book.
• Song of Solomon 1:5: "I am black, but comely." In this passage the woman introduces herself; it has been discussed frequently throughout the history of interpretation.
• Song of Solomon 1:15: "thou hast doves' eyes." This is a characteristic expression of the songs of mutual praise.

Characters and Places

• The woman: The speaker with the most lines in this chapter.
• The beloved: The woman calls him "the king" and also portrays him as a shepherd tending a flock.
• The daughters of Jerusalem: A group that listens to the woman and interjects like a chorus.
• Solomon: His name appears in the superscription and in verse 5.
• Pharaoh: The title of the king of Egypt, used in the comparison in verse 9.
• Kedar: A nomadic tribe of the Arabian desert, whose black tents serve as a comparison.
• Engedi: An oasis on the western shore of the Dead Sea.

Interpretive Considerations

• The text contains no speaker designations. Speakers are identified by the gendered endings of Hebrew words, so translations divide the speeches somewhat differently.
• "Solomon's" can be read as indicating authorship, or as describing a song dedicated to Solomon or about Solomon. The book has traditionally been regarded as Solomon's work, but scholars hold differing views.
• Interpreters are divided between those who regard the king and the shepherd as the same person and those who hold that the woman loves a shepherd rather than the king.
• Jewish tradition has read the book allegorically (figuratively) as depicting the relationship between God and Israel. In Christianity, a long-standing interpretation reads it as depicting the relationship between Christ and the church, or between Christ and the believer's soul; the sermons on the Song of Songs by Bernard of Clairvaux are well known. This interpretation is often read alongside Ephesians 5:31–32, which compares marriage to the relationship between Christ and the church.
• In recent times, a literal reading of the book as poetry celebrating love between a man and a woman and the beauty of marriage has also gained wide acceptance. Both readings appear side by side in preaching across many denominations.