Chapter 4

How beautiful you are, my darling! (4:1). A song that describes in detail the beauty of man’s beloved is referred to as a waṣf, and the Song of Songs has several such pieces. Here, the man sings of the woman’s eyes, hair, face, neck, and breast before he interrupts the description of her beauty to call for her to come with him (4:8). Such poetry is found also in the Egyptian love songs. For example, in the Papyrus Chester Beatty I texts, a young man sings of his beloved:

Lovely the look of her eyes,

Sweet the speech of her lips,

he has not a word too much.

Upright neck, shining breast,

Hair true lapis lazuli.20

In contrast to the Song of Songs, however, the Egyptian texts use language that is fairly straightforward. The metaphors of the Song of Songs (a neck like the tower of David or breasts like two fawns) are both provocative and enigmatic.

Descend from the crest of Amana, from the top of Senir, the summit of Hermon, from the lions’ dens (4:8). In a surprising move, the man describes the woman almost as a goddess. The mountains mentioned here are in Lebanon, north of Israel (Hermon and Senir are actually the same mountain), and they were the highest mountains in the region. The Epic of Gilgamesh speaks of the mountains of Lebanon as the throne of the goddess Ishtar, and a cylinder seal from Akkad (ca. 2200 B.C.) shows Ishtar standing with her foot on a lion.21 Still, it is not correct to assume that the man is actually singing to a goddess or that this text is a fragment of a hymn. A modern man might call the woman of his dreams an angel and not mean it literally. The words suggest that to the man, the woman in all her beauty is both powerful and aloof.

Mt. Hermon

Bible Scene Multimedia/Maurice Thompson

You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride (4:12). Both the use of the term “sister” as a term of endearment and the description of the woman as a garden have parallels in the Egyptian texts. Papyrus Harris 500 has the following lines sung by the woman:

I am your sister, your best one;

I belong to you like this plot of ground

That I planted with flowers

And sweet smelling herbs.22

In these contexts, “sister” is simply an affectionate term analogous to “sweetheart” in English; it is not literal and should not be linked to sibling marriage either in the pharaoh’s household or among the gods (in the Egyptian love poetry, it is clear that the lovers are not related; see also Song 8:1). The biblical account is distinctive for describing the woman as a garden that is “locked up” (4:12). This suggests that they have not yet consummated their marriage and she is still a virgin. A marriage is implied in that several times the man calls the woman his “bride” (4:9, 10, 11, 12).

Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! (4:16). In 4:16–5:1, we have the sexual union of the man and woman described metaphorically as his coming into the garden and eating the fruit. As a metaphor for the arousal of the passions of love, the wind is invoked to stir up the fragrances of the garden. This invocation, however, is strictly poetic imagery—the young man does not actually call on the wind or any other gods. It stands in contrast to the Egyptian literature where Hathor, the goddess of love (analogous to the Greek Aphrodite) is repeatedly called on by young lovers.23 Significantly, the Bible does not combine religion (or magic) with sexuality.

Hathor

Gerard Ducher, courtesy of the Museum of Luxor