Song of Solomon3chapter 3

"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.

"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.