TEXT [Commentary]

  XVII.   Seventeenth Love Poem: The Dancing Shulammite (6:13–7:9)

Young Women of Jerusalem

13 [*]Return, return to us, O maid of Shulam.

Come back, come back, that we may see you again.

Young Man

Why do you stare at this young woman of Shulam,

as she moves so gracefully between two lines of dancers?[*]

CHAPTER 7

1 [*]How beautiful are your sandaled feet,

O queenly maiden.

Your rounded thighs are like jewels,

the work of a skilled craftsman.

2 Your navel is perfectly formed

like a goblet filled with mixed wine.

Between your thighs lies a mound of wheat

bordered with lilies.

3 Your breasts are like two fawns,

twin fawns of a gazelle.

4 Your neck is as beautiful as an ivory tower.

Your eyes are like the sparkling pools in Heshbon

by the gate of Bath-rabbim.

Your nose is as fine as the tower of Lebanon

overlooking Damascus.

5 Your head is as majestic as Mount Carmel,

and the sheen of your hair radiates royalty.

The king is held captive by its tresses.

6 Oh, how beautiful you are!

How pleasing, my love, how full of delights!

7 You are slender like a palm tree,

and your breasts are like its clusters of fruit.

8 I said, “I will climb the palm tree

and take hold of its fruit.”

May your breasts be like grape clusters,

and the fragrance of your breath like apples.

9 May your kisses be as exciting as the best wine—

Young Woman

Yes, wine that goes down smoothly for my lover,

flowing gently over lips and teeth.[*]

NOTES

6:13 [7:1] Return, return. As mentioned below, the question that is raised by this rendition is “From where?” It is possible for the root shub [TH7725, ZH8740] to have the meaning “turn around,” and perhaps they are simply asking her to twirl around just to get a full look at her beauty or to twirl around in the dance that may be alluded to at the end of the verse.

Shulam. That the word is an epithet is seen from the fact that it has the definite article connected to it. Some, like Pope (1978:598-599) and Albright (1931–1932), mistakenly connected this name with that of a Mesopotamian deity. A better hypothesis associates the name with a town named Shunem, since in Semitic languages there is often attested an interchange between the letter “n” and the letter “l.” Those who see a connection with Shunem also point out that Abishag, David’s young wife in his old age (1 Kgs 1:1-4; 2:17), came from this city. However, the best hypothesis for the significance of the name Shulam is in its similarity to Solomon and the connection of both names with the Heb. word shalom [TH7965, ZH8934], meaning “peace” or “wholeness.”

as she moves so gracefully between two lines of dancers? The NLT mg indicates how uncertain the translation of this colon is. The second marginal alternative (“as you would at the dance of Mahanaim”), though accepted by the NIV, is not likely because it treats the final word as a place name rather than as a noun. Much more likely than either of the others is the first marginal alternative (“as you would at the movements of two armies”), a rendering which would compare the mesmerizing effect of the Shulammite’s movements, perhaps dance movements, with that of two armies engaged in battle.

7:2 [3] Between your thighs. Lit., the reference is to the woman’s belly; but the metaphor, plus the location in the wasf description, is such that I think this is a reference to the woman’s vulva. Thus, the NLT mirrors the indirect reference to this most sensitive of locations of a woman’s body.

7:4-5 [5-6] beautiful . . . sparkling . . . fine . . . majestic. These adjectives are not found explicitly in the Heb., but the metaphors suggest the connection, so the NLT supplies them.

7:4 [5] Heshbon . . . Bath-rabbim . . . Lebanon . . . Damascus. These four geographical locations all appear to be outside the land of Israel proper (in the case of Bath-rabbim this is an assumption, since we cannot locate it with certainty, though Brenner [1992] associates it with the Ammonite city Rabbah, which was near Heshbon). Heshbon is a location on the east side of the Dead Sea, while Lebanon and Damascus are north of Israel. We know that Lebanon and Damascus were locations of exceptional physical beauty, and we conjecture that Heshbon and Bath-rabbim were as well.

7:5 [6] the sheen of your hair radiates royalty. The Heb. has “the hair of your head is like purple.” The NLT communicates the sense of the passage, though, because purple was considered the color of royalty.

7:7 [8] slender. This word does not occur in the Heb. but is implied by the metaphor of the palm tree.

7:9 [10] May your kisses be as exciting as the best wine. Again, the NLT makes explicit what is implicit in the metaphor, which states, “may your palette be like fine wine.”

COMMENTARY [Text]

The seventeenth poem begins with a request on the part of the young women of Jerusalem that the maid of Shulam return to them. One question that this request evokes in the reader’s mind is, “Return from where?” It is possible that this poem is a continuation of the previous poem and that they are asking her to return from the chariot of her lover who has carried her off. But why would they want her to return from the bliss of that relationship? Nowhere else have they shown themselves to be obstacles to her union with the man. If this is a start of a new poem, then the question “from where” is irrelevant, and the Hebrew may actually be rendered “turn around, turn around” and be a request for her to twirl around in dance. The request is simply a statement of good feeling. Everyone loves her, and they all want to be with her (see Munro 1995:31 for the highly speculative view that the chorus here is male).

A second question that this request raises concerns the manner of address directed toward the woman. The woman is called the “maid of Shulam” for the first and only time in the Song. Throughout the rest of the book, she is simply unnamed, referred to by various terms of endearment (such as “treasure,” “bride,” and “perfect one”). It is this verse that provides what little justification there is for the widespread habit of referring to the woman of the Song as Shulammite. (For some detail concerning alternative understandings of the title, see the note on 6:13.). However, in the final analysis, we can fathom where the name comes from when we remember the only named male in the Song. Solomon, in Hebrew, is pronounced “Shlomo.” Both Solomon and Shulammite are names derived from the Hebrew root shalom, meaning “wholeness” or “peace.” It is no accident that these names contain the meaning of the word that expresses the consequence of the union between the man and the woman. In their intimacy, they achieve a wholeness that brings great peace or contentment.

The second part of 6:13 asks a question, but the text does not betray its speaker. The NLT assigns the question to the young man, but this, to be honest, seems odd. Why would the man ask such a question? He knows why people would want to stare at this maid of Shulam. She is captivating—overpowering! The question more likely comes from the woman. The fact that she speaks of herself in the third person presents no problem. We are to imagine the question asked with a tone of quiet humility. This explanation at least makes good sense of the first part of the question: “Why do you stare at this young woman of Shulam?” However, the real difficulty comes with the last colon. I disagree with the NLT rendering here and think that the better translation is in the footnote: “Why do you stare at this young woman of Shulam as you would at the movements of two armies?” (6:13b, NLT mg). The idea is that she notices their mesmerized looks, and she wonders what the reason for such intense interest is. Their attention is riveted as if they were watching the clash of two rival armies on a battlefield below them. We have already seen the Song liken the woman’s attention-grabbing beauty to things associated with the military (see commentary on 6:4). If we understand the question as that of the woman, then when the young man starts speaking, as he does without doubt, at the beginning of chapter 7, we can see his description of her as an answer to her question.

Chapter 7 begins with a form that we are now very familiar with in the Song, the wasf or descriptive poem (see note on 4:1-7). This poem is different, however, in that it starts the description not with her head but with her feet. This suggests to some (including the translators of the NLT) that the woman is dancing as she is being described. Whatever the reason, the man finds his attention focused first on the woman’s sandaled feet, and then moves up to her rounded thighs. When he compliments her thighs as the work of a skilled craftsman, there may be a metaphor at work, at least in this verse, comparing her to a perfectly sculpted statue.

The next verse is particularly sensuous as it works up from her thighs to her “navel.” Following Pope, I think “navel” here should be understood as “vagina” (for an extended discussion of the argument, see Longman 2001:194-195). One point is that this “navel” is a well-lubricated place, suggested by the simile that it is like a goblet filled with wine. Although in the second part of the verse, some versions weakly suggest that the mound of wheat is the woman’s belly, the image actually points to the most intimate place on a woman’s body (see note on 7:2). The NLT appropriately and delicately suggests this by its rendering “between your thighs.” The meaning of this second line reinforces the idea communicated in the first. These poems are preludes to lovemaking.

The man continues his upward trend and next describes her breasts. The description here is a shortened form of that which is found in 4:5, and the commentary there should be consulted for the full sense of the image. However, we are reminded briefly that the mention of fawns of a gazelle evoke a pastoral scene that is conducive to love. The fuller description in 4:5 indicates that we should find the connection between the fawns and the woman’s breasts in the animal’s rounded rears with their nipple-like tails.

From the woman’s breasts, the man’s description ascends to her face by means of her neck. The architectural image here is that of a tower, again a military figure (see 6:4, 10), suggesting dignity and power. This tower is constructed from ivory, a precious and smooth material. Arriving at the woman’s face, he first comments on her eyes. Like the man’s eyes in 5:12, their moistness is highlighted by reference to water, in this case the pools of Heshbon near the gate of Bath-rabbim. The reference seems proverbial, but we have no similar references elsewhere. Heshbon, located on the east side of the Dead Sea, was a beautiful area, but we cannot be more specific.

Today, the image of the nose as a tower that overlooks Damascus might cause people to snicker, but such a reaction would not be sensitive to its original intentions. This is a compliment and surely signifies majesty and dignity. Lebanon, as throughout, may invite the thought of fragrant smells, since Lebanon is famed for its cedars. Damascus is mentioned as the leading city of this area, just to the north of the Promised Land.

To complete his description of the woman’s physical beauty, the man finally praises her head and hair. He likens her head to Mount Carmel. This refers to the magnificent range that juts out into the Mediterranean, located in northern Israel, just south of modern Haifa. Her hair literally is described as purple, but the NLT rightly captures the sense, since purple is a color reserved for royalty. It is not that she has literally dyed her hair purple but, according to the man, her hair marks her as a queen, and he, totally captivated by her, has become her king. This king, however, is powerless before her, as he has become obsessed with her beauty.

He finishes the wasf in the same way that we have seen earlier, with a general assertion of her beauty (7:6), but then he continues in a new direction. The other wasf may have implied action, but in this poem, he describes how he will now act on his love for her. He first evokes another image to describe her: the palm tree and its fruits. The palm tree is slender; its fruit, therefore, stands out all the more. The fruit clusters are appropriately likened to her breasts, and his intention to make love to her is described as his climbing up her palm-like body and fondling her fruit-like breasts. Her breath smells pleasant and refreshing like apples. Elsewhere in the Song, the apple tree is also used in connection with the lovers’ intimacy (8:5). Her kisses taste like wine. His intimate union with her excites all of his senses.