Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest (2:3). Some interpreters argue that the apple was unknown in ancient Israel and so translate this as “apricot.” However, apples were known both in Mesopotamia and in the classical world,13 and there is no reason to deny that Israelites knew of the fruit.
One aspect of this simile is obvious: All other men are forest trees in the woman’s eyes, but her beloved is an apple tree, that is, a tree that gives delicious fruit in contrast to a barren, ordinary tree. There may be more to it than this, however. Apples frequently appear in classical artwork and myth in an erotic context. For example, the Greek writer Pausanias describes a statue of Aphrodite in which the goddess of love holds an apple in her hand.14 Thus, the woman may be implying the sexual attractiveness of the man with this simile.15
My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag (2:9). The same language is used in the Papyrus Chester Beatty I songs, where the Egyptian girl sings to her beloved, “O that you came to your sister swiftly, / like a bounding gazelle in the wild.”16 The image brings out her vision of the man as both powerful and graceful.
The season of singing has come (2:12). The ancient versions took the Hebrew in this verse to mean “the season of pruning has come,” unlike the NIV’s “season of singing.” The issue is the meaning of the word zāmîr, which can mean either “song” or “pruning.” Some modern interpreters say that it cannot mean “pruning” since the song has already indicated that it is spring; they argue that the pruning was done in winter.17 The term zāmîr (“pruning”) also appears in the Gezer calendar. This is a small Hebrew inscription on a piece of limestone. It dates to around 925 B.C. and appears to be a schoolboy’s writing exercise that describes the agricultural year in ancient Israel.18 This inscription, compared to Isaiah 18:5, suggests that the Israelites continued pruning into the springtime; this would invalidate the argument that there was no pruning in spring.
Catch for us the foxes (2:15). The image of the foxes is highly ambiguous and has given rise to an enormous number of speculative interpretations (that the foxes are lustful boys, that the foxes represent the cunning of young lovers, etc.). Ancient parallels may be of help to us. As this text does, Aristophanes asserts that foxes commonly get into the vineyards and eat the grapes (Knights 1075–77). Similar comments can be found in Plato (Republic 365c) and Aristotle (History of Animals 488b.1). Images on classical pottery indicate that fox hunting was not a serious sport but more of a game for young people; perhaps they made play of the necessary task of chasing foxes from the vineyards. If so, the appeal simply speaks of one of the joys of springtime for young people and is not meant to be grist for imaginative interpreters.