Arguably one of the most intense and mysterious of human activities is sex.

We don’t talk as openly about it as we do money, sports, or children, but the truth remains that sex is a huge part of the human life. After all, every person you see is its product.

Song of Solomon is a love poem, unique because of its graphic sexual content. But this book answers a question our world needs to hear: How does God view sex? With metaphors piled high, this book answers this question with drippy affection and intense passion.

Two main characters carry this poem which almost reads like a play, the Shulammite maiden and her beloved, Solomon. Each takes turns showering floods of verbal affection upon the other, interrupted by the infrequent comments of “the daughters of Jerusalem” (Son 1:5; Son 2:7; Son 3:5; Son 5:8; Son 5:16; Son 8:4), Solomon’s friends (Son 3:6-11), and the Shulammite’s brothers (Son 8:8-9).

Were any one New Testament verse to condense this eulogy of romance into one line it would be Hebrews 13:4, “Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.”

Commentators from the past allegorized this poem, calling it a picture of Christ and His church. In fact, one commentary entitles Song of Solomon 2:8-17, “John the Baptist’s Ministry.” Others less liberal with their imagination say that Song of Solomon is about a genuine relationship between married lovers, but also serves as a type (a foreshadow) of Christ and the church.

I reject both and take the book at its face value, concluding that this book is about exactly what it says it’s about: the delights of real romance, sex, and friendship in marriage, modeled for us through a genuine couple who falls in love and gets married.

However, we must remember that this book is still a part of God’s one complete revelation, the sixty-six books of the entire Bible, which find their culmination in the incarnate Son of God. And it is through Him alone that a married couple (male and female) can live out the beauty of this kind of love.

2:8 "Listen! My beloved! Behold, he is coming, climbing on the mountains, leaping on the hills!"

First she listens. Then she sees. Her female senses are at full alert for her man. Now she sees him, climbing on the mountains, leaping on the hills! He is strong. He is focused. And he is coming to get her. His strength implies that he is young. Most certainly he is not a ninety year old man leaping from hill to hill.

2:9 "My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, he is standing behind our wall, he is looking through the windows, he is peering through the lattice."

Again she calls him “My beloved.” This word used more than thirty times in this book can be translated as friend, brother, or oddly enough, uncle (Lev 20:20; 2 Kin 24:17). The Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) translates it as “adelphos” which means “close friend.” But the context of this passage gives it the connotation of friendship, romance, and sexual desire. Proverbs 7:18 uses it to refer to making love. It is to say, “My closest and most intimate companion.” Trying to capture the meaning in a more modern way the NIV translates it as “lover.”

The Shulammite likens him to a gazelle, a small antelope from Africa and Asia, or a young stag which is a male deer. A stag is strong, intense, and will fight for his doe. The symbolism here is quite graphic. Not to cheapen sexual intimacy in any way, stags come looking for a doe during mating season, and they’re not just interested in rubbing noses.

He peers through the latticed window and gazes, not as a Peeping Tom, but a man intense about his bride-to-be. He looks and then he speaks...

2:10 "My beloved responded and said to me, 'Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along.'

The woman is still at home, living under the headship of her mother and father. But like the spring her lover will soon describe, she is ripe for marriage and sexual intimacy. He woos and invites his darling, his beautiful one, to come with him. This passage flickers back-flashes of Genesis 2:24: “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”

You see the natural order of the man pursuing his woman, the male coming after the female. This is not a traditional stereotype but a natural reflection of the distinct differences between the male and females sexes. He loves to look and she relishes being looked upon. He pursues and she loves being chased.

He asks her to join him. But where will they go?

2:11-13a 'For behold, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers have already appeared in the land; the time has arrived for pruning the vines, and the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land. The fig tree has ripened its figs, and the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance.'

It’s springtime. With dripping color, the man invites his darling to join him on this beautiful day. After a heavy rainfall as the sun comes out there is always a fresh scent. You feel the sense of ripeness as he describes grapevines ready to be pruned and fresh figs ready to be picked. The voice of the turtledove fills the air with romantic song. The Bible is the oldest book scholars know of that uses a turtledove as a symbol of love. And the metaphor fits perfectly for turtledoves marry for life! The hit 1957 song "That'll Be the Day" by Buddy Holly refers to affection as "turtle doving." Even Shakespeare picked up on this metaphor and wrote a poem called “The Phoenix and the Turtle.” And in the over-sung Christmas tune, “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” turtledoves feature as the gift “my true love gives to me” on the 2nd day. The budding flowers decorate the hillside with charming hues. The vines in blossom fill the air with a romantic aroma.

2:13b 'Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along!'

Notice how verses 10-13 are capped with the same invitation. All this talk of spring and budding flowers and juicy grapes is not an invitation to go on a nature walk or to visit the nature center. It’s a metaphor for romance and marriage climaxing in sweet lovemaking. There’s a reason they call it the birds and the bees. The link between springtime and romance is universal.¹

2:14 'O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the secret place of the steep pathway, let me see your form, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your form is lovely.'

He affectionately calls her “dove” here and elsewhere (Son 1:15; Son 4:1; Son 5:2; Son 6:9). A dove is pretty and gentle, fitting the metaphor. He talks of escaping with her into the blooming woodlands where he will take her to the clefts of the rock, a little cave or opening in a large boulder. It is the hidden and secret place of privacy, a steep pathway where few are likely to go, so he can listen to her soothing voice and gaze at her body! But why a place of privacy? To gaze at her “form” she cannot be wrapped in a muumuu or swaddled in blankets. He desires to look upon his bride in all her glorious nakedness.

Now she responds to his invitation. But before she accepts the invite, she gives a wise warning...

2:15 "Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that are ruining the vineyards, while our vineyards are in blossom."

As a vineyard worker herself (Son 1:6), this woman understood the danger a fox brings to a vineyard of grapes. History confirms that foxes destroy vineyards by eating the grapes. Fitting to the symbolic nature of poetry, the vineyards represent their intimate relationship and the little foxes represent anything that threatens to unravel that relationship. Just as foxes would destroy vineyards (remember Aesop’s “The Fox and the Grapes”?) stress, financial chaos, pornography, out-of-control children, workaholism, or overcommitment in ministry can destroy the sex life of a married couple. What do you do with little foxes? You trap them and get rid of them. Too many married couples try to keep up their vineyard and keep the foxes happy at the same time. But foxes are crafty and relentless. They won’t leave you alone until you deal with them. She begs her lover to get rid of these pests, lest their love be spoiled.

2:16-17 "My beloved is mine, and I am his; he pastures his flock among the lilies. Until the cool of the day when the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of Bether."

So fitting to a woman’s desire for protection and security, she says that he is hers and she is his. A strong sense of belonging nurtures an impenetrable bond between husband and wife, protecting them from unfaithfulness. It foreshadows Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 7:4, “The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.” Like two turtledoves, they are committed to each other for life. This statement is thematic to the entire book (Son 6:3; Son 7:10).

This statement gives evidence that this woman was Solomon’s first wife, and for a while, his only wife, before he added 699 more. Their love is exclusively reserved for each other alone, just as God designed it from the beginning.

It is a sad fact that the man who wrote this book on love became a mockery of it. He forgot that precious day when his wife said, “My beloved is mine, and I am his,” and instead loved many women (1 Kin 11:1), which eventually turned his heart away from God.

“...he pastures his flock among the lilies.” The NASB's translation of “pastures” is not helpful, especially when it adds the words “his flock.” The word “pastures” here literally means “to graze” or “to feed.” So the man is not to be pictured as the one shepherding but the one grazing.

The NIV translates “pastures” as “browses,” the NKJV “feeds,” Young’s Literal Translation “delighting,” and the ESV “grazes.” The text best reads, “He feeds among the lilies.” Like a hungry sheep feasting upon grass, she imagines her love feeding upon her charming delights.

This phrase in verse 17, “Until the cool of the day” is literally “until the day breathes,” in the Hebrew. Because breath is often associated with life, this refers to the approach of the morning, not the beginning of evening. Shadows flee when the sun rises. Birds sing. People go to work. She says in effect, “My lover, feast upon me through the night until the morning breaks and the sun chases the shadows away!”

“Turn, my beloved," she says. But she does not mean turn away from her but turn to her. But what are the “mountains of Bether”? The word “Bether” means “a splitting.” A fissure. Search long and wide and you will find no mountain called “Bether” in ancient Israel. That’s because the geography she speaks of us is not the geography of land but of her body. She invites him to be like a young buck, enjoying the valley between her two breasts. He later refers to her breasts as a mountain and a hill in Song of Solomon 4:5-6.

Endnotes

1. D. Garrett, D. Song of Songs and Lamentations in Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 23b (Dallas: Word, 2004), 159).