Song of Solomonchapter 3
11 verses · Solomon, by tradition · 10th century BC · Wisdom and poetry
I encountered the watchmen on their rounds of the city: “Have you seen the one I love?”
Introduction
Solomon, by tradition, Wisdom and poetry, Song of Solomon Overview.
This chapter closes one of the love songs the title gives to Solomon and begins the book's wedding. Its first hearers lived in walled towns with watchmen at night and knew what a royal procession looked like on the road. The chapter moves from a woman alone in the dark to a crowd in the daylight. Listen for the charge to the women of Jerusalem that ended the last section, heard here a second time. Then listen for the question the onlookers ask as something comes up from the wilderness. The chapter sets private longing beside public celebration and gives each its place.
Context
- Who
- Wedding guests watching a bridal procession arrive
- What
- A night search in which the woman looks for the man she loves and finds him, followed by the arrival of the king's wedding procession.
- Where
- The streets and squares of a walled city at night, and the road up from the wilderness to Jerusalem.
- When
- The reign of Solomon, about 970 to 930 BC, by the title, on the day of the king's wedding.
- Why
- To show love sought and found, and then honoured in public at a wedding with the king crowned for the day.
Historical context
"The watchmen that go about the city found me." Walled towns posted a night watch that patrolled the streets and manned the gate, calling the hours. A woman out alone at night would be stopped and questioned, which is why the detail is here.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
"I brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me." Israelite courtship ran through the women's side of the household; the mother's room is where a daughter's marriage was arranged and blessed. Naming it is not incidental, it means this is heading toward a wedding, not an escapade.
The procession is described piece by piece. Solomon's litter, a curtained chair or bed carried on poles, comes up out of the wilderness in a column of smoke from burning myrrh and frankincense. "Threescore valiant men are about it… every man hath his sword upon his thigh, because of fear in the night." Armed escort was standard for a royal party on the roads, where brigandage was a genuine risk after dark.
The materials are royal inventory: cedar wood from Lebanon, pillars of silver, a base of gold, a covering of purple, the murex dye from the Phoenician coast that cost more by weight than most metals.
"Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals." Bridegrooms in Israel wore a crown or garland on the wedding day, placed by the mother. The custom lasted for centuries; the Mishnah records that it was finally banned during the war with Rome, when celebration was thought inappropriate.
Significance
The chapter puts a woman's anxious night search beside a magnificent public procession, and the two belong together: the wanting and the wedding.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
For the guests hearing it, the crown placed by the bridegroom's mother was something they had seen at every wedding in their town. The song takes an ordinary village custom and shows it on a king.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter is heard in the synagogue once a year, when the whole Song is read at Passover on the Sabbath that falls in the festival week. The site's festival table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts records the practice and cites Tractate Soferim 14:3 for it. Probed for this lane, the same table printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for the book. No chapter of the Song is a weekly portion, and none is read as a Haftarah.
The chapter's commentary ties it to three marks of Jewish life. Rashi reads the daughters of Zion at the eleventh verse as children "distinguished" as God's own "through circumcision, phylacteries, and ritual fringes" (Rashi on Song of Songs 3:11:1). At the eighth verse he names the tradition of the text itself. The sword each man carries is "the Masorah [i.e., tradition] and the mnemonics" by which the correct version is kept (Rashi on Song of Songs 3:8:2).
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Metsudah Five Megillot, Lakewood, N.J., 2001, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Each quotation is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern, and the translator's bracketed glosses are kept as the translation prints them.
Rashi reads the chapter as the wilderness years. The bed at night where the bride seeks and does not find is Israel's distress for "the entire thirty-eight years" under reproach (Rashi on Song of Songs 3:1:1). He gives the two reasons the beloved withdrew as two verses of the Torah, one for the golden calf and one for the spies (Rashi on Song of Songs 3:1:2). The watchmen of the third verse are "Moshe and Aharon" (Rashi on Song of Songs 3:3:1). Scarcely past them, she finds her beloved, which Rashi reads as the days after their deaths, when God was with Israel under Joshua "to conquer the thirty-one kings" (Rashi on Song of Songs 3:4:2).
The procession from the wilderness at the sixth verse is the pillar of fire and the cloud going before the camp. The nations see it and ask who this is (Rashi on Song of Songs 3:6:1). The bed of Solomon at the seventh verse is "The Tent of Meeting and the Ark" (Rashi on Song of Songs 3:7:1). The translator notes that this follows Rashi's reading of Solomon as God, which a reader should keep in view through the whole book. The sixty mighty men around it are the sixty myriads of Israel (Rashi on Song of Songs 3:7:2). Their skill in battle is "The battle of Torah" (Rashi on Song of Songs 3:8:1). The canopy, its covering and its purple curtain are the Tent of Meeting at Shiloh, the ark cover of gold and the dividing curtain (Rashi on Song of Songs 3:9:1, 3:10:1 and 3:10:2).
The chapter ends on the crown with which his mother crowned him, and here Rashi hands on a teaching in the names of the Sages. Rabbi Shimon son of Yochai asked Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Yose what the phrase meant. The answer was a parable of a king who loved his only daughter until he called her daughter, then sister, then mother (Rashi on Song of Songs 3:11:2). Rabbi Shimon rose and kissed him on the head. The note is the plainest place in the book where Rashi's commentary carries the rabbis' own saying, and it is reported here as theirs.
The corpus carries four further notes on this chapter that it marks linked, so they are named here and never quoted or paraphrased. They stand cited and unquoted because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref, at Ibn Ezra on Song of Songs 3:1:1, 3:2:1 and 3:9:1 and Metzudat David on Song of Songs 3:2:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty locators on this chapter and the text of none. Each is cited and linked here, and none is quoted. Thirty-nine of them are Midrash and Talmud, and the rest are named at the end. On the first verse it holds Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 3:1:1, Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 3:1:2, Shemot Rabbah 2:4 and Shir HaShirim Rabbah 3:1:1. On the second verse it holds Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 3:2:1 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 3:2:2. It also holds Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 3:2:3 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 3:2:4 there. On the third verse it holds Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 3:3:1, Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 3:3:2, Midrash Tehillim 8:3 and Shir HaShirim Rabbah 3:3:1. On the fourth verse it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 15:2, Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Shirah 3:18, Midrash Aggadah, Leviticus 1:1:6 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 3:4:1.
On the fifth verse it holds Ketubot 111a:3, Ketubot 111a:4, Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 3:5:1 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 3:5:2. On the sixth verse it holds Midrash Aggadah, Exodus 27:1:3, Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 3:6:1, Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 3:6:2 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 3:6:3. On the seventh verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 80:1, Bamidbar Rabbah 11:3 and Bamidbar Rabbah 14:18. On the eighth verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Gittin 7:5, Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 3:8:1 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 3:8:2.
On the ninth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 4:20, Bava Batra 14a:13 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 3:9:1. On the tenth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 12:4 and Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Bereshit 21. On the eleventh verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 12:8, Bamidbar Rabbah 2:25 and Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Bereshit 11.
The corpus anchors Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 18:1 at Song of Songs 3:16, a verse this chapter does not have, and it is cited here as the corpus files it. The corpus also files one passage of Introductions to Amoraic Literature, a modern reference work, among the locators, anchored at Song of Songs 3:10. Its full ref stands in the sources of this row, and it is cited by ref alone. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Song of Songs 3:1:1 to 3:11:2, The Metsudah Five Megillot, Lakewood, N.J., 2001, reported CC-BY, 20 notes kept; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Song of Songs 3:1:1, 3:2:1 and 3:9:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Song of Songs 3:2:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Introductions to Amoraic Literature, a modern reference work the corpus files among its locators, cited by ref alone: Introductions to Amoraic Literature, Part II (Notes and Interpretations for Chapters of the Talmud), Baba Batra, Chapter III 79, anchored at Song of Songs 3:10; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/song-of-solomon/3.json, the 40 locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, the festival entry for the Song at Passover citing Tractate Soferim 14:3 and Mishnah Yadayim 3:5, probed for this book and printing parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
By Night on My Bed I Sought Him Whom My Soul Loveth
Song of Solomon 3:1-2
On my bed at night I sought the one I love: e" opens a night search, and the phrase the one I love recurs four times. "I sought him, but did not find him" sends her into the city, "through the streets and squares," a reckless course for a woman alone.
Song of Solomon 3:1
"In my bed, I sought the one whom my soul loves during the nights." Whoever seeks well, let them seek in their bed, let them seek during the nights, neither on holidays nor on nights of rest. Let no time be vacant from the duty of piety; and if it does not find it at first, let it continue in seeking. ... And since we see heavenly mysteries prefigured in the Gospel on earth, let us come to that Mary, let us come also to Magdalene.
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Isaac and the Soul, 5.38, 42patristic
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Song of Solomon 3:1
“By night on my bed I sought him - It appears that the bridegroom only saw the bride by night: that on the night referred to here he did not come as usual. The bride troubled on the account, rose and sought him, inquired of the city guards, and continued to seek till at last she found him, and brought him to her apartment, Son 3:2-4.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Song of Solomon 3:1
“She failed in her endeavour. Sometimes he is found of those that seek him not ( Isa. lxv. 1 ), but here he is not found of one that sought him, either for punishment of her corruptions, her slothfulness and security (we miss of comfort because we do not seek it aright), or for the exercises of grace, her faith and patience, to try whether she will continue seeking.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
through the streets and squares: Adam Clarke supposed the bridegroom usually came to her by night. On this night he failed to come, so she rose and went looking for him. Matthew Henry read the city as the church, where Christ is most likely found in its public worship.
Song of Solomon 3:2
“We must seek in the city, in Jerusalem, which was a type of the gospel-church. The likeliest place to find Christ is in the temple ( Luke ii. 46 ), in the streets of the gospel-church, in holy ordinances, where the children of Zion pass and repass at all hours.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Song of Solomon 3:3-4
I encountered the watchmen on their rounds of the city: She asks the watchmen whether they have seen "the one I love," and just past them she finds him. She "would not let go until I had brought him to my mother’s house". Franz Delitzsch notes it as the customary place in that world where a betrothal was concluded.
Song of Solomon 3:3
“Note, We must evince the sincerity of our love to Christ by our solicitous enquiries after him. The children of the bride-chamber will mourn when the bridegroom is taken away ( Matt. ix. 15 ), especially for the sin which provoked him to withdraw; and, if we do so, we shall be in care to recover the sense of his favour and diligent and constant in the use of proper means in order thereunto.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Song of Solomon 3:3
“The watch-men - The ministers of Christ, and rulers of the church. Go about - To prevent disorders and dangers. Him - She does not name him, because she thought it needless, as supposing a person of such transcendent excellency could not be unknown to men in that capacity.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
I held him and would not let go: The search ends at her mother's house. Adam Clarke compared Isaac, who brought Rebekah into his mother's tent when he took her as his wife (Genesis 24:67). Matthew Henry read the homecoming as her wish that all her family might know him too.
Song of Solomon 3:4
“How desirous she was to make others acquainted with him: " I brought him to my mother's house, that all my relations, all who are dear to me, might have the benefit of communion with him." When Zaccheus found Christ, or rather was found of him, salvation came to his house, Luke xix. Wherever we find Christ we must take him home with us to our houses, especially to our hearts.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Song of Solomon 3:4
“Into my mother’s house - The women in the East have all separate apartments, into which no person ever attempts to enter except the husband. We find Isaac bringing Rebecca into his mother’s tent, when he made her his wife, Gen 24:67. What is here related appears to refer to the third night of the nuptials.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Song of Solomon 3:4
“But otherwise the footstool of the feet of Jesus is the soul of the believer. Happy is he in whose breast the feet of Jesus are daily placed. Would that his feet were placed in my breast too, would that his footprints might ever cling in my heart, would that I too might say with the bride: "I will hold him, and I will not let him go." The bridegroom is quickly offended, he ever loves cleanness: wherever he sees filth, he quickly withdraws.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Homilies on the Psalms 26 (Psalm 98)patristic
O daughters of Jerusalem, I adjure you: The second refrain repeats 2:7, "Do not arouse or awaken love until the time is right," and it returns at 5:8 and 8:4. Its place after the search closes that scene as the first closed the banquet of 2:4, love found and left to rest in its time.
Song of Solomon 3:5
“Some make this to be Christ's charge to the daughters of Jerusalem not to disturb or disquiet his church, nor trouble the minds of the disciples; for Christ is very tender of the peace of his church, and all the members of it, even the little ones; and those that trouble them shall bear their judgment, Gal. v. 10 . The Love of the Church to Christ.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Song of Solomon 3:5
“So So 2:7; but there it was for the non-interruption of her own fellowship with Jesus Christ that she was anxious; here it is for the not grieving of the Holy Ghost, on the part of the daughters of Jerusalem.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Solomon's Palanquin Comes Up Out of the Wilderness
Who is this coming up from the wilderness: s like a column of smoke" opens the wedding procession, the smoke rising from incense before the party. The wilderness is the open country a procession crossed toward Jerusalem, and "myrrh and frankincense" were goods of the merchant caravans out of Arabia.
Song of Solomon 3:6
“Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness - Going to Egypt was called descending or going down, coming from it was termed coming up. The bride, having risen, goes after her spouse to the country, and the clouds of incense arising from her palanquin seemed like pillars of smoke; and the appearance was altogether so splendid as to attract the admiration of her own women, who converse about her splendor, excellence, etc., and then take occasion to describe Solomon’s nuptial bed and chariot. Some think that it is the bridegroom who is spoken of here.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Song of Solomon 3:6
“What a monument of mercy is this! The graces and comforts with which she is perfumed are called the powders of the merchant, for they are far-fetched and dear-bought, by our Lord Jesus, that blessed merchant, who took a long voyage, and was at vast expense, no less than that of his own blood, to purchase them for us.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Song of Solomon 3:6
“Seeing therefore the daughters of Jerusalem cleaving to Christ and still ascending with Him (for He deigns frequently to meet with them who seek Him, and to descend to raise them), they say: Who is this that ascendeth from the desert? For this desert place of the earth appears rough and uncultivated, covered with the thistles and thorns of our sins.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Isaac and the Soul 5.45patristic
Song of Solomon 3:6
“Image from Israel and the tabernacle (answering to "bed," So 3:7) marching through the desert with the pillar of smoke by day and fire by night (Ex 14:20), and the pillars of smoke ascending from the altars of incense and of atonement; so Jesus Christ's righteousness, atonement, and ever-living intercession.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Song of Solomon 3:7-8
Behold, it is Solomon’s carriage: e" names the litter carried in the procession, "escorted by sixty of the mightiest men of Israel," a picked guard. "Each has his sword at his side prepared for the terror of the night" describes a real armed escort, since a wedding party needed protection.
Song of Solomon 3:7
“Threescore valiant men - These were the guards about the pavilion of the bridegroom, who were placed there because of fear in the night. The security and state of the prince required such a guard as this, and the passage is to be literally understood.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Song of Solomon 3:7
“In So 3:6 the wilderness character of the Church is portrayed; in So 3:7, 8, its militant aspect. In So 3:9, 10, Jesus Christ is seen dwelling in believers, who are His "chariot" and "body." In So 3:11, the consummation in glory. bed--palanquin.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
prepared for the terror of the night: John Wesley read the night as the whole of this present life, dark with ignorance and error. The life to come he compared to day. On that reading the guard is needed only for the present season.
Song of Solomon 3:8
“Every man - Is prepared and ready to fight, to prevent those dangers which are frequent in the night season. The night may denote the whole time of this life, which may well be called night in respect of that ignorance and error wherewith it is attended, (as the future life is compared to day) this life being the only time wherein such a guard is necessary.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Song of Solomon 3:9-10
King Solomon has made his carriage: Solomon builds his carriage from "the timber of Lebanon," the cedar of the temple. He made "its posts of silver, its base of gold, its seat of purple fabric." The list ends on the one thing no craftsman supplies: "Its interior is inlaid with love by the daughters of Jerusalem".
Song of Solomon 3:9
“King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon. The word translated chariot is only used in this place; some render it a bride chamber (u); others a nuptial bed (w), such as is carried from place to place; it is used in the Misnah (x) for the nuptial, bed, or open chariot, in which the bride was carried from her father's house to her husband's.”
2 more voices on this verse
Song of Solomon 3:9
“Of the wood of Lebanon - Of the cedar that grew on that mount. It is very likely that a nuptial bed, not a chariot, is intended by the original word אפיון appiryon. Montanus properly translates it sponsarum thalamum, a nuptial bed. It may, however, mean a palanquin.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Song of Solomon 3:9
“By this chariot he seems to understand the word of Christ dispensed by his ministers, whereby Christ rides triumphantly in the world, and believers are carried into heavenly glory. Of Lebanon - Of cedars, which wood being incorruptible, doth fitly signify the word of the gospel, which endureth forever, 1 Pet. i, 25.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
its base of gold: Adam Clarke pictured posts cased in plates of wrought silver and a base of cloth worked with gold thread. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the base as a backrest. They followed Maurer, the Vulgate and the Septuagint, which took it as the part for reclining on.
Song of Solomon 3:10
“THIS portion of the Song describes the royal bridegroom as traveling up from the wilderness in an eastern palanquin, attended by his bodyguard and by those who bear torches and burn perfumes. We have a description of the sumptuous chariot-bed in which this great monarch traveled, describing it as being made of cedar, with pillars of silver, a bottom of gold, curtains of purple, and within it a patterned floor, with pavement, not of precious stones, but of priceless love. Metaphor is suddenly dropped in this last item and the result is a complicated, but very expressive form of speech.”
2 more voices on this verse
Song of Solomon 3:10
“The pillars - of silver - The bedposts were made of silver, or cased with wrought silver plates, like the king’s chairs brought from Hanover, now, in one of the staterooms in Windsor Castle. The bottom thereof of gold - This may refer to cords made of gold thread, or to the mattress, which was made of cloth ornamented with gold. The covering - of purple - Most probably the canopy.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Song of Solomon 3:10
“Pillars with silver sockets supported the veil that enclosed the holy of holies; emblem of Jesus Christ's strength (1Ki 7:21), Margin, "silver," emblem of His purity (Ps 12:6); so the saints hereafter (Re 3:12). bottom--rather, "the back for resting or reclining on" (Vulgate and Septuagint) [MAURER].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Come out, O daughters of Zion: n, and gaze at King Solomon" closes with "the crown his mother bestowed on the day of his wedding." The day is named twice, as his wedding and as "the day of his heart’s rejoicing," the gladness the whole procession has built toward.
Song of Solomon 3:11
“Therefore, when the bride reaches the rest of the bridegroom, they sing a wedding song, saying to the daughters of Jerusalem: Go forth and see King Solomon, in the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding. They sing the wedding hymn and invite the other powers of heaven, or souls, to see the love that Christ has for the daughters of Jerusalem.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Isaac and the Soul, 5.46patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Song of Solomon 3:11
“Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion - This is the exhortation of the companions of the bride to the females of the city to examine the superb appearance of the bridegroom, and especially the nuptial crown, which appears to have been made by Bathsheba, who it is supposed might have lived till the time of Solomon’s marriage with the daughter of Pharaoh. It is conjectured that the prophet refers to a nuptial crown, Isa 61:10. But a crown, both on the bride and bridegroom, was common among most people on such occasions.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Song of Solomon 3:11
“The church forged from the Gentiles says this: "Go forth and see." But what it calls the day of his wedding is the day of his passion, when he married the church by his blood.”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · Fragments in the Commentary on the Song of Songs 3:11patristic
How this psalm is built
The form: A dream or night scene that closes a song at verse 5, then a wedding procession song from verse 6, as Delitzsch classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The charge to the daughters of Jerusalem | Verse 5 repeats the charge of 2:7 word for word, and it closes a section here as it did there. It returns a third time at 8:4.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, on Song of Solomon 8:4. | Song of Solomon 2:7, Song of Solomon 3:5, Song of Solomon 8:4 |
| Who is this coming up from the wilderness | Verse 6 asks a question the book asks again at 8:5, and a similar question stands at 6:10. Each time the onlookers see someone approaching and ask who it is before the answer is given.the Berean text, counted, the store's Berean Standard Bible, Song of Solomon 3:6, 6:10 and 8:5. | Song of Solomon 3:6, Song of Solomon 6:10, Song of Solomon 8:5 |
How this chapter is built
2 more paragraphs on the patterns
The chapter falls in two parts at verse 6. Verses 1 to 5 are the woman's search, told in the first person, and they end with the charge first heard at 2:7. Verses 6 to 11 are told by onlookers as a procession arrives, opening with a question the book asks again at 8:5. The first half is private and at night, and the second is public and by day.
Sources: Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, on 8:4; Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, 1875.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, 1875 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.