Chapter Five: Trade Sexual Compliments

[1] R. B. Laurin, “The Song of Songs and Its Modern Usage,” Christianity Today XI, no. 22, August 3, 1962, 10.

[2] Craig Glickman, A Song for Lovers: Including a New Paraphrase and a New Translation of the Song of Solomon (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1976), 40.

[3] Franz Delitzsch, “Song of Songs,” Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, n.d.), 42.

[4] Otto Zockler, “The Song of Songs,” in Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical, ed. John Peter Lange, trans. Philip Schaff (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1960), 6:62.

[5] Stewart Pernowne, Roman Mythology (London: Hamlyn, 1965), 78.

[6] Samuel Noah Kramer, The Sacred Marriage Rite: Aspects of Faith, Myth, and Ritual in Ancient Sumer (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1969), 96, 105.

[7] Joseph C. Dillow, Solomon on Sex (Nashville: Nelson, 1977), p. 31; Carey Ellen Walsh, Exquisite Desire: Religion, the Erotic, and the Song of Songs (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2000), 128–129.

[8] G. W. Bromiley, ed., The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002), 1:384.

[9] Literally “the love of mercy.”

[10] See Genesis 29:20.

[11] See 1 Kings 10:9; Isaiah 63:9; Hosea 11:4; Zephaniah 3:17.

[12] J. Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Hebrew Old Testament, electronic ed. (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), s.v. “ahabah.” See Deuteronomy 31:8.

[13] See Proverbs 5:19.

[14] See Proverbs 10:12.

[15] See Genesis 25:28.

[16] See Genesis 22:2.

[17] See Ruth 4:15.

[18] G. Kittel, G. W. Bromiley, and G. Friedrich, eds., Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1976), 1:21.

[19] Later, Solomon says that ahabah is a fire that cannot be quenched, no matter how much water you pour on it (see Song 8:7).

[20] Tom Gledhill, The Message of the Song of Songs (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1994), 126.

[21] D. N. Freedman, ed., The Anchor Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1996), 3:295.

[22] L. Koehler, W. Baumgartner, M. Richardson, and J. J. Stamm, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, electronic ed. (New York: Brill, 1999), s.v. “chabaq.”

[23] Swanson, s.v. “chabaq.”

[24] Delitzsch, 45. See Proverbs 5:20; Song of Solomon 8:3.

[25] Toben and Joanne Heim, Happily Ever After: A Real-Life Look at Your First Year of Marriage (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2004), 127.

[26] W. Arndt, F. W. Gingrich, F. W. Danker, and W. A. Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature: A translation and adaptation of the fourth revised and augmented edition of Walter Bauer’s Griechisch-deutsches Worterbuch zu den Schrift en des Neuen Testaments und der ubrigen urchristlichen Literatur (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 913.

[27] Adapted from Linda Dillow and Lorraine Pintus, Intimate Issues: 21 Questions Christian Women Ask About Sex (Colorado Springs, CO: WaterBrook, 1999), 203–204.