Song of Songs 2:16: Edit history

Context

Song of Songs 2:8–17 is a passage spoken by the woman. Her beloved comes over the mountains to find her and calls, "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away" (2:10–13). This is followed by the charge to catch "the little foxes, that spoil the vines" (2:15). The woman then declares, "My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies." In the next verse (2:17) she asks him to return like a roe or a young hart before the day ends. The same declaration reappears with its order reversed in 6:3 and is echoed in a similar form in 7:10.

Interpretation

• Literal reading: The verse is read as poetry celebrating love between a man and a woman, that is, an exclusive and mutual belonging. Many modern commentators and evangelical scholars accept this reading as the primary meaning.
• Traditional Jewish reading: Rabbinic tradition and the Targum (an Aramaic translation and paraphrase) have read the Song of Songs as an expression of the love between God and Israel. Some commentators note that the mutual belonging in this verse resembles the covenant formula "I will be your God, and ye shall be my people."
• Christian allegorical reading: Allegory is a method of reading in which the persons and objects of a text are understood as symbols pointing to spiritual realities. From Origen onward, the medieval mystical tradition and Puritan commentators read this verse as describing the union of Christ and the church, or of Christ and the individual believer. The image of the beloved feeding his flock is linked with the image of Christ as the Shepherd (John 10:11–15).
• Integrated reading: Many Protestant interpreters today regard marital love as the original meaning while applying the verse secondarily to the relationship between Christ and the church on the basis of Ephesians 5:31–32.

Questions of Application

A tradition of devotional literature reads the progression from 2:16 (he is mine, and I am his) through 6:3 (I am his) to 7:10 (I am his, and his desire is toward me) as depicting the growth of a self-centered love into a love centered on the other. Hudson Taylor's devotional meditation on the Song of Songs, Union and Communion, is known for this reading. Others hold that the differences in wording are poetic variations and that caution is needed before interpreting them as intended stages.

There are also translation issues to note. Some translations render the verse as the beloved pasturing his flock among the lilies, but the Hebrew text does not explicitly state the object "flock," so other translations depict the man himself grazing like a gazelle. It is also unclear exactly which flower is meant by the Hebrew word shoshannah, translated "lily." In Korean churches the verse is sometimes used in sermons at wedding services and on similar occasions as a text on the mutual belonging of husband and wife.

Related Passages

• Song of Songs 6:3
• Song of Songs 7:10
• Ephesians 5:31–32
• Leviticus 26:12
• John 10:14