HarperCollins Study Bible, page 249
5.2–8 Another nighttime visit and search for the beloved (cf. 3.1–4).
5.2 I slept…awake. Perhaps the entire passage relates a dream, but the words may also mean that the maiden woke up.
5.4 Into the opening, through a window.
5.5 The woman had prepared for the visit by anointing herself with perfumed unguents; cf. Prov 7.17.
5.6 The woman runs about the streets at night seeking her lover—a strange and dangerous deed.
5.7 The sentinels who guard the walls—perhaps a symbol of social conventions (cf. 8.9)—beat her and strip off her garment. Perhaps they are treating her as a prostitute (cf. the behavior of the woman in Prov 7.5–21). Although the woman is exposed, hurt, and confused, she gives no reason for the sentinels’ brutality, as if shrugging it off as a triviality in the face of her need for her lover.
5.8 Tell him this, better “Do not tell him.” The maiden begs her friends not to tell her beloved about her love-crazed, distraught behavior.
5.9–16 A praise song using imagery from the plastic arts.
5.10 To be radiant and ruddy was considered a sign of health and vigor (Ps 104.15; 1 Sam 16.12; 17.42).
5.16 His speech is most sweet, lit. “his palate is sweet drink”—the maiden alludes to her beloved’s kisses (cf. 1.2) as well as his speech.
SONG OF SOLOMON 6
1Where has your beloved gone,
O fairest among women?
Which way has your beloved turned,
that we may seek him with you?
2My beloved has gone down to his garden,
to the beds of spices,
to pasture his flock in the gardens,
and to gather lilies.
3I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine;
he pastures his flock among the lilies.
The Bride’s Matchless Beauty
4You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love,
comely as Jerusalem,
terrible as an army with banners.
5Turn away your eyes from me,
for they overwhelm me!
Your hair is like a flock of goats,
moving down the slopes of Gilead.
6Your teeth are like a flock of ewes,
that have come up from the washing;
all of them bear twins,
and not one among them is bereaved.
7Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate
behind your veil.
8There are sixty queens and eighty concubines,
and maidens without number.
9My dove, my perfect one, is the only one,
the darling of her mother,
flawless to her that bore her.
The maidens saw her and called her happy;
the queens and concubines also, and they praised her.
10“Who is this that looks forth like the dawn,
fair as the moon, bright as the sun,
terrible as an army with banners?”
11I went down to the nut orchard,
to look at the blossoms of the valley,
to see whether the vines had budded,
whether the pomegranates were in bloom.
12Before I was aware, my fancy set me
in a chariot beside my prince.a
13b Return, return, O Shulammite!
Return, return, that we may look upon you.
Why should you look upon the Shulammite,
as upon a dance before two armies?c
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a Cn: Meaning of Heb uncertain
b Ch 7.1 in Heb
c Or dance of Mahanaim
6.1–3 A transition to the next song, returning to the dialogue form of 5.9.
6.4–10 The youth offers another praise song, repeating and expanding 4.1–3.
6.4 The beloved’s beauty and majesty equal that of two grand cities, Jerusalem (capital of the Southern Kingdom) and Tirzah (for a brief time capital of the North). The maiden is not just a pretty girl, but a dignified, even “awesome,” woman (cf. 6.10).
6.8–10 There are a great many women of rank, but this maiden is unique and flawless, as even the (hypothetical) noblewomen declare in v. 10.
6.12 In this obscure verse, the woman seems to be saying that she was overwhelmed by emotion in the presence of her beloved, who is—for her—a nobleman.
6.13a This verse seems to be spoken by a group (the women of Jerusalem?), while v. 13b (where the you is plural) is the youth’s response. Shulammite, actually the Shulammite; the word is not a proper name but an epithet that probably means “the perfect one.” A dance before two armies with a minor change may be read as “a camp dancer,” i.e., a woman who dances in the camps of soldiers or shepherds.
SONG OF SOLOMON 7
Expressions of Praise
1How graceful are your feet in sandals,
O queenly maiden!
Your rounded thighs are like jewels,
the work of a master hand.
2Your navel is a rounded bowl
that never lacks mixed wine.
Your belly is a heap of wheat,
encircled with lilies.
3Your two breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle.
4Your neck is like an ivory tower.
Your eyes are pools in Heshbon,
by the gate of Bath-rabbim.
Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon,
overlooking Damascus.
5Your head crowns you like Carmel,
and your flowing locks are like purple;
a king is held captive in the tresses.a
6How fair and pleasant you are,
O loved one, delectable maiden!b
7You are statelyc as a palm tree,
and your breasts are like its clusters.
8I say I will climb the palm tree
and lay hold of its branches.
O may your breasts be like clusters of the vine,
and the scent of your breath like apples,
9and your kissesd like the best wine
that goes downe smoothly,
gliding over lips and teeth.f
10I am my beloved’s,
and his desire is for me.
11Come, my beloved,
let us go forth into the fields,
and lodge in the villages;
12let us go out early to the vineyards,
and see whether the vines have budded,
whether the grape blossoms have opened
and the pomegranates are in bloom.
There I will give you my love.
13The mandrakes give forth fragrance,
and over our doors are all choice fruits,
new as well as old,
which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.
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a Or dance of Mahanaim
b Meaning of Heb uncertain
c Syr: Heb in delights
d Heb This your stature is
e Heb palate
f Heb down for my lover
7.1–7 A praise song with metaphors evoking intangible qualities: plenitude, preciousness, nobility, and grandeur.
7.2 That never…wine, praise of the bowl, not the belly.
7.4 Ivory tower, i.e., decorated with ivory, an image suggestive of a long and graceful neck adorned with an ivory necklace. Heshbon, eighty kilometers east of Jerusalem, retains ruins of a large reservoir dating from the eighth century BCE. Bath-rabbim, presumably the name of a gate or location in Heshbon, means “daughter of noblemen” and alludes to the beloved. The tower of Lebanon suggests loftiness and pride and plays on the Hebrew lebonah, “frankincense.”
7.5 The Carmel is a verdant mountain range in northwestern Israel. Its name plays on karmil, a red-purple cloth. Purple cloth was a sign of royalty. A “king”—the youth himself—is trapped by the maiden’s long, curled tresses.
7.8–14 An admiration dialogue in which the lovers speak to each other and praise each other’s beauty as a whole (cf. 1.9–17; 2.1–3).
7.8 Breath, lit. “nose,” an allusion to the custom of nose kissing.
7.9 That goes down smoothly. The Hebrew reads, “that flows smoothly to my lover.” The NRSV ’s emendation obscures the fact that the maiden speaks here. She breaks into her lover’s sentence and completes it with an offer of her kisses, showing that she reciprocates his desire. Gliding over lips and teeth. Emendation produces “flowing smoothly to my beloved, dripping on scarlet lips.”
7.11 Villages (Hebrew kefarim), a pun, meaning both villages and henna bushes.
7.12 My love. The Hebrew here is dodim, which means “lovemaking” (1.2).
7.13 Mandrakes (Hebrew duda’im, suggestive of dodim, “love-making”) were considered an aphrodisiac (Gen 30.14–24). New as well as old, i.e., fruits of all sorts.
SONG OF SOLOMON 8
1O that you were like a brother to me,
who nursed at my mother’s breast!
If I met you outside, I would kiss you,
and no one would despise me.
2I would lead you and bring you
into the house of my mother,
and into the chamber of the one who bore me.a
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
the juice of my pomegranates.
3O that his left hand were under my head,
and that his right hand embraced me!
4I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
do not stir up or awaken love
until it is ready!
Homecoming
5Who is that coming up from the wilderness,
leaning upon her beloved?
Under the apple tree I awakened you.
There your mother was in labor with you;
there she who bore you was in labor.
6Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm;
for love is strong as death,
passion fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
a raging flame.
7Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it.
If one offered for love
all the wealth of one’s house,
it would be utterly scorned.
8We have a little sister,
and she has no breasts.
What shall we do for our sister,
on the day when she is spoken for?
9If she is a wall,
we will build upon her a battlement of silver;
but if she is a door,
we will enclose her with boards of cedar.
10I was a wall,
and my breasts were like towers;
then I was in his eyes
as one who bringsb peace.
11Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;
he entrusted the vineyard to keepers;
each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.
12My vineyard, my very own, is for myself;
you, O Solomon, may have the thousand,
and the keepers of the fruit two hundred!
13O you who dwell in the gardens,
my companions are listening for your voice;
let me hear it.
14Make haste, my beloved,
and be like a gazelle
or a young stag
upon the mountains of spices!
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a Gk Syr: Heb my mother; she ( or you) will teach me
b Or finds
8.1–7 Expressions of love.
8.1 The woman wishes she could demonstrate her love publicly as she could to a brother.
8.2 My pomegranates, her breasts.
8.5a As in 3.6 an exclamation of unknown meaning, not a real question.
8.5b I awakened you, perhaps after spending the night in the countryside (7.11). Was in labor, or “conceived.” The setting of coitus was thought to affect the offspring (Gen 30.31–43). Note that the youth is as sweet as apples (2.3).
8.6–7 The maiden declares the fierce power of love and the eternality of its bond. A seal was used to stamp documents and functioned like a signature; it would always be kept on one’s person. Flashes, flaming arrows. Raging flame is a better translation for shalhevetyah than the traditional “flame of the Lord [Yah].” The name of God does not appear in this book.
8.8–10 Reconciliation with the brothers (cf. 1.6). They promise to lavish wedding ornaments upon their sister when she is mature. They doubt that she is ready, but she insists that she is (v. 10). I was a wall, Hebrew, “I am a wall.” She is a wall (probably implying chastity) with towers—mature breasts.
8.11–12 The youth asserts that not even Solomon’s rich vineyard could compare to his vineyard, which is the maiden herself. And whereas Solomon gave his vineyards to keepers, the youth will tend his alone. Baal-hamon. The location is unknown; the name means “possessor of wealth” and alludes to Solomon.
ISAIAH
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THE BOOK OF ISAIAH is a composite work, the product of several different prophets who ministered at different periods in the history of Israel. Scholars normally distinguish between three main sections in the book: chs. 1–39, referred to as First Isaiah and attributed in general to the eighth-century BCE Judean prophet whose name the book bears; chs. 40–55, referred to as Second Isaiah, or Deutero-Isaiah, and attributed to an unknown prophet who lived in Babylon during the Babylonian exile of the sixth century; and chs. 56–66, referred to as Third Isaiah, or Trito-Isaiah, and attributed to a prophet or prophets who lived in Judah after the return from Babylonian exile in 539 BCE.
First Isaiah
ACCORDING TO THE SUPERSCRIPTION (1.1), Isaiah son of Amoz prophesied in Jerusalem during the reign of the four Judean kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. If the vision in 6.1 was Isaiah’s inaugural vision, he began prophesying in the year of Uzziah’s death (ca. 738 BCE), and although the end of his ministry is less certain, it extended at least until 701 and perhaps as late as 688. Isaiah’s datable oracles cluster in three main periods: the period of the Syro-Ephraimite war (735–732 BCE), when Syria and Israel attacked Judah (7.1–2); the period of anti-Assyrian agitation in the west against Sargon II (ca. 720–710); and the period of Hezekiah’s revolt against Sennacherib (ca. 705–701, possibly again in 689–88). There is evidence that during his long ministry Isaiah adapted and reused early oracles in new historical settings; some oracles originally directed against Syria and Israel at the time of the Syro-Ephraimite war were later given an anti-Assyrian slant.
Though the editorial process cannot be fully recovered, the genuine Isaian oracles seem to have been preserved in several subcollections. Chs. 1–5 primarily contain oracles against God’s own people. The core of chs. 6–11 appears to be a collection from the time of the Syro-Ephraimite war. Chs. 13–23 contain oracles against the nations; chs. 28–33 have oracles on the revolt against Sennacherib.
Not all the material in chs. 1–39 can be attributed to Isaiah of Jerusalem, however. In addition to individual oracles whose authenticity is questioned by one scholar or another, three major blocks of material in chs. 1–39 are clearly not the work of Isaiah of Jerusalem. Chs. 36–39 are largely prose narrative taken from 2 Kings 18.13–20.19 and secondarily inserted into the book of Isaiah. Chs. 34–35 are much closer in style and content to Second or Third Isaiah and should probably be dated to the exilic or postexilic period. Chs. 24–27, often referred to as the Isaiah Apocalypse, contain protoapocalyptic oracles that stand in marked contrast to those of Isaiah of Jerusalem. Although Isaiah’s oracles are rooted in particular historical contexts and his threats and promises do not dissolve the reality of those contexts, the oracles in chs. 24–27 are very difficult to root in any historical context and are marked by a heavy dependence on mythological motifs. Scholars normally date these chapters to the early sixth century BCE or later.
Isaiah of Jerusalem was rooted in the Zion tradition, which celebrated God as the great king of heaven and earth, Jerusalem (Zion) as the city God chose to be his royal dwelling, and the kings of the Davidic line as God’s anointed vice-regents on earth. The influence of all three aspects of this tradition is evident in the prophet’s message. Isaiah’s inaugural vision (6.1–4) portrays God as the exalted king, from whose terrifying holiness even the most august angels must hide their eyes. That vision colors the prophet’s attitude toward anything that humans might lift up as a rival for the fear and allegiance that rightly belong only to the divine suzerain (see 2.12–22; 8.13). Isaiah assumed that God had founded Zion/Jerusalem (14.32), lived in it (8.18), and hence would ultimately save it. Nevertheless, since the holy God would not live in a moral slum, a morally defiled Jerusalem must be purified by judgment before the city could be saved (1.21–28; 29.1–8). Isaiah’s adherence to the Davidic royal tradition is clear from his assurance to Ahaz (7.3–17) and his several portrayals of the ideal king (9.1–7; 11.1–10; 32.1–2).
Second Isaiah
CHAPTERS 40–55 PRESUPPOSE an Israelite audience living in Babylon toward the end of the Babylonian exile (597–539 BCE). The prophet announces to his listeners that the end of their exile in Babylon is imminent. Babylon, not Assyria, is Israel’s main enemy, and the burden of the prophet’s message is the promise of deliverance, not the threat of judgment. Moreover, the prophet twice mentions the Persian ruler Cyrus (44.28; 45.1) as a figure who has come to the attention of his audience. Such notice certainly presupposes Cyrus’s dethroning of his Median overlord Astyages (550) and perhaps Cyrus’s defeat of the Lydian king Croesus (547/6) as well. Thus this anonymous prophet’s work can probably be dated between 545 and 539 BCE.
