Chapter 1

Let him kiss me … more delightful than wine (1:2). The comparison of the man’s kisses to wine is analogous to a stock metaphor of Egyptian love poetry, in which lovemaking is compared to pomegranate wine or to beer (an analogy used by a female singer in Papyrus Harris 500, in reference to her beloved’s caresses).6 The Egyptians knew wine, but they favored beer. By contrast, Israelites preferred wine.

Egyptian Love Poetry

The Egyptian love songs contain the closest parallels from ancient texts to the Song of Songs.A-1 The Egyptian songs were composed in the nineteenth and twentieth dynasties (ca. 1305–1150 B.C.). Texts include the following:

• Papyrus Harris 500

This is made up of three collections:

- Collection A. A fairly erotic collection in which a man and woman sing of their love for each other in a series of short songs similar to the Song of Songs.

- Collection B. A series of songs in which a girl describes how her heart has been ensnared by her beloved.

- Collection C. Another series of songs sung by a female solo, in which she sings of how her heart has belonged to her lover ever since she lay with him.

• The Cairo Love Songs

These were found written on a vase:

- A man and woman sing of their love for each other. The man has to cross a river to get to her, and he is carried across as if by magic.

- Songs sung by a boy in which he, in a very adolescent manner, pines to be near the girl of his dreams. For example, he wishes he were a laundry man so that he could touch her clothes.

• The Turin Love Song

A curious collection in which a group of trees sing about the love between a young man and woman.

• The Papyrus Chester Beatty I Songs

This papyrus has several kinds of texts, including three love-song collections:

- Group A. A man and woman sing of their love to each other. In one song, the man describes the beauty of his beloved in a manner similar to Song of Songs 6:4–7.

- Group B. A woman sings of her desire for her beloved to come to her.

- Group C. The Nakhtsobek Songs (described above) tell about a boy and a prostitute.

Dark am I (1:5). In the ancient world, fair skin was preferred to dark for economic and class reasons (not racial reasons). Since the vast majority of the people were yeoman farmers, dark skin was common whereas fair skin was exotic, and dark skin marked one as a peasant rather than a member of the aristocracy. A male singer in Papyrus Chester Beatty I declares that his love is “shining, precious, white of skin”7—more in accord with ancient standards of beauty than is the lady of Song of Songs.

The tents of the shepherds (1:8). The shepherd motif has clear parallels in ancient Near Eastern poetry; for example, in a Middle Babylonian text about the goddess Ishtar and her lover Tammuz, the goddess refers to Tammuz as a shepherd.8 Here, the woman’s assertion that she does not want to be “like a veiled woman” (1:7) has prompted a number of interpreters to suggest, on the basis of Genesis 38:14, that she does not want to look like a prostitute. However, it may be that the Hebrew should be rendered, “Why should I pick at fleas” instead of “be like a veiled woman.”9 The point of the songs seems to be that she is uncomfortable about entering the world of the shepherds and that she must be exhorted to forget her inhibitions.

Mesopotamian Love Poetry

Sacred Marriage text. These texts often include love poetry.

Istanbul Archaeological Museum; © Dr. James C. Martin

Mesopotamia has produced a fair amount of love poetry, but no collections directly analogous to the Egyptian texts or the Song of Songs.A-2 Also, the Mesopotamian songs are usually religious, singing about the love affairs of the gods, whereas the Song of Songs and the Egyptian texts are secular. Examples of Mesopotamian love poetry include:

• Songs of the goddess Inanna (Ishtar) and her lover Dumuzi (Tammuz)

There are several such songs. Two examples are:

- “The Woman’s Oath.” Dumuzi and Inanna sing of their love for each other.A-3

- “Love by the Light of the Moon.” Inanna, by trickery, persuades her mother Ningal to acquiesce to the sexual union of Inanna and Dumuzi.A-4

• Love lyrics of Nabu and Tashmetu.

A song of the love between the god Nabu and his consort, Tashmetu. It makes heavy use of the garden metaphor for the female body, as does Song of Songs.A-5

“My beloved knows my heart, My beloved is sweet as honey, She is as fragrant to the nose as wine, The fruit of my feelings.”

The Schøyen Collection MS 2866, Oslo and London

I liken you, my darling, to a mare (1:9). The comparison of the woman to a mare illustrates how a search for historical explanations can mislead. Recently, some interpreters have suggested that this line is to be elucidated by an ancient military tactic of sending an estrus mare out among the chariots of an opposing army in order that horses’ excitement would throw their battle lines into confusion.10 In fact, there is no suggestion of a battle or of excitement of that kind here. The real point seems to be simply that she is beautifully adorned in jewelry in a manner reminiscent of the extravagant trappings of the pharaoh’s horses (see 1:10). In Egyptian artwork, such as in the tomb of Tutankhamen, one can see horses with elaborate bridles and headgear.11

Chariot of Pharaoh Tutankhamun

The Yorck Project/Wikimedia Commons

Your eyes are doves (1:15). This is one of the most difficult metaphors of the book. In what sense can a person’s eyes be said to be like doves? Ancient Near Eastern artwork may help us here. The dove may have been associated with sexuality. For example, a Syrian cylinder seal from ca. 1750 B.C. shows a goddess disrobing before a god as a sign of her willingness to engage in sexual procreation, and doves hover over her head. Similar uses of the dove can be found in artwork from Assyria, Mitanni, and classical Greece.12 This may tell us that the phrase “your eyes are doves” means that her eyes are sexually attractive and provocative.

Pharaoh Akhenaten and his queen

Allan Hise, courtesy of the Agyptisches Museum, Berlin