Chapter 6

My lover has gone down to his garden (6:2). Ancient Israelites placed their settlements on hilltops with the gardens in the valleys below, and someone heading to a garden would naturally go downward. Thus, going down relates to the realities of Israelite life. Some have argued that “going down” invokes the image of Baal or a similar god going down into death, but this is far-fetched and unnecessary.28

You are beautiful, my darling, as Tirzah, lovely as Jerusalem (6:4). The woman is compared to these two cities, apparently the most magnificent in Israel, Jerusalem to the south and Tirzah to the north. The ruins of Tirzah are at Tell el-Farʾah (North). Evidence for settlement is found here from various periods in the Neolithic, the Early Bronze Age, the Middle Bronze Age, and Iron Age. The city there at the time of Solomon represents a high-point in the history of the site. Tirzah in this phase was an elaborately planned urban center with abundant pottery, ashlar (cut stone) construction, an offset-inset city wall, a large public place and shrine near the city gate, and a type of house construction not normally seen in Israel.29

Clay shrine from the 9th c. B.C. found at Tell el-Farʾah (Tirzah) gives a hint of the beauty of the architecture of the city.

Z. Radovan/www.BibleLandPictures.com

Tirzah may have been the administrative center for the district of Ephraim in the time of Solomon.30 The city may have been sacked during the incursion of Sheshonq (biblical Shishak; 1 Kings 14:25–26), and it was apparently Jeroboam’s capital city (1 Kings 14:12–17). Omri laid siege to the city; this resulted in the palace being burned to the ground (16:17–18). Omri moved the capital to Samaria, and Tirzah declined to insignificance. In the postexilic period it was in ruins. The Song must have been composed when Tirzah was in its glory days and a rival to Jerusalem. This makes a postexilic setting unlikely and argues for a tenth-century or at least early divided monarchy date for the Song of Songs.

Chariots (6:12). This verse is obscure, but it is possible that the chariot, as in the love literature from the ancient Near East, is a metaphor for marriage.31 When Ishtar proposes marriage to Gilgamesh, she uses the metaphor of the chariot to do so. In the Love Lyrics of Nabu and Tashmetu the man offers to provide a chariot for the woman, and her response indicates that there had been a suggestion of a sexual encounter. Nevertheless, it remains uncertain to see how this metaphor would work among the other difficult elements of this verse (e.g., chariots being plural and modified with the name Amminadab, see NIV note).

Why would you gaze on the Shulammite as on the dance of the Mahanaim? (6:13). The precise meaning of the “dance of the Mahanaim” is disputed, as illustrated by the NIV’s decision to transliterate the Hebrew “Mahanaim” rather than translate it. Dance was certainly well known in ancient Israel, but most of the examples we have refer to women (not men) dancing. Specific examples include the celebratory dancing of Miriam and the women at the Red Sea (Ex. 15:20), of Jephthah’s daughter (Judg. 11:34), and of the women who celebrated victories in David’s time (1 Sam. 18:6). Judges 21:21 tells us that women danced at an annual festival at Shiloh.

Nevertheless, we do have the example of David’s dance (2 Sam. 6:14–16), and there is a clay plaque found at Tel Dan that has a depiction of a man dancing and playing a lute-like instrument. Thus, dancing was not exclusively done by women.32 In Song 6:13, however, the man seems to be referring to an elaborate dance conducted by two companies of women (“Mahanaim” can be translated “two companies”). The point is that the chorus should not stare at the woman as if she were putting on a show.