Song of Songs 2

Sharon is a fertile plain in what is now northern Israel.

In the Bible and in other ancient Middle Eastern writings, the apple was a fruit often associated with lovemaking. When we see “apple” in the Song of Songs, somebody is getting a wet kiss. Not a friendly peck on the cheek or a polite “welcome.” In past centuries, Bible scholars said apples didn’t grow in that region, which they called the Ancient Near East. So, they speculated that the fruit mentioned here could have been an apricot, which does grow in the region. However, recent discoveries of hundreds of carbonized apples in Israel have made such speculations fruitless. Whatever it was, the lady liked it.

Many say the gent in love took the lady to a banquet hall. But the phrase in Hebrew, bet hayyayin, appears nowhere else in the Bible. But other phrases closely related refer to wine. For example, bet misteh hayyayin, in Esther 7:8 is “the place where they [the king and others] were drinking wine.” Banquet hall or wine room, many scholars reading between the lines of this poem agree on this: the lady and the gent were doing something other than eating or drinking wine.

Scholars debate what the lady is saying. Was she using a military term to say he planted his flag like soldiers raise a banner that distinguishes their unit from others? Other scholars say the phrase means the man’s intentions were loving, or that he gave her a loving glance. But to others, it sounds like he gave her more than that, which she seemed to enjoy.

What she’s asking of the ladies in Jerusalem isn’t all that clear. Some say she’s advising them not to rush into falling in love, but rather to wait until the time is right. Others say she’s giving them a “Do Not Disturb” sign, and telling them not to rattle the pans to wake this lover up and end her wonderful night. That could make more sense to some than the idea that the love-aggressive lady is telling others not to be so aggressive. From the sounds of this poem so far, the lady has been nothing but aggressive.

The poet might not have been comparing the lady in love to God, but the scene is reminiscent of a request Moses made to see the face of God. God said no human can see his face and survive. But he had Moses hide “in the cleft of the rock” (Exodus 33:22, New American Standard Bible) while God walked past him. Moses saw only the back of God.

The scholarly consensus about his verse is “Huh?” The verse seems like it came from another song or belongs somewhere else in this one. Maybe after the honeymoon when the bride is complaining that her husband isn’t getting his chores done.

She’s the lily of the valley, Proverbs 2:1. It’s almost as though she’s saying, “When he needs to graze his flock, if you know what I mean.” The implication, many scholars agree, is that she’s talking about lovemaking.

She calls the mountains Bether, which remain a mystery. Many scholars say they think she was talking about her breasts. And in this context of waking up in the morning in the middle of a love song, it might seem like a fair guess, some would agree.