Song of Songs 6 Study Notes

6:1 This is the second of two questions (5:9; see note at 5:2-7:9) that guide the movement of this section.

6:2-13 This section first answers the question, showing Shulamith’s awareness of Solomon’s location, then recounts his affirming praise and the account of their reconciliation.

6:2-3 Lilies are “lotus flowers” (see note at 2:1). I am my love’s continues the transformation of this refrain (see note at 2:16). Feeds among the lilies anticipates Solomon’s life-giving praise that brings reconciliation (see note at 2:16).

6:4-10 This section consists of praise designed to reconcile. Although on the wedding night one glance of Shulamith’s eyes aroused Solomon (4:9), here Solomon asked that she turn her eyes from him because they captivated (lit “aroused”) him. He did not want to express his love physically until they reunited emotionally, which the praise was designed to achieve. He avoided the most erotic of lovemaking praise. He emphasized instead that Shulamith was God’s gift for whom his love was unchanged from the wedding night. His comparison of her to the beauty of Israel (6:4,10) implies she was as wonderful a gift to him as the land was to God’s people (see note at 4:11).

Solomon’s comparison of Shulamith to Tirzah and Jerusalem (v. 4), Israel’s most prominent cities in the south and the north, appears to be in chiastic balance with the description of her as beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, since both lyrics end with the same phrase: awe-inspiring as an army with banners. An army with banners may also be translated “bannered hosts” (i.e., “of heaven,” which would be “stars,” or “of armies,” depending on the context). So Solomon compared Shulamith to the cities and military of Israel, which were like the moon, the sun, and the stars—perhaps recalling the imagery of Israel as the sun, moon, and stars in Joseph’s dream (Gn 37:9).

6:11-13 In these verses Shulamith recounted the reconciliation. If the vines were budding and the pomegranates blooming is a metaphor expressing their desire to begin a new season of life together (2:17; 7:12). No easy explanation exists for the phrase in a chariot with a nobleman, but the implication is that Shulamith had resumed a position of royal prominence. She is here identified as the Shulammite for the first time in the Song (or, as we have rendered it throughout the study notes, the word can also be rendered “Shulamith,” the feminine form of Solomon’s name). As the feminine form of Solomon, the name shows she and Solomon were “soulmates” who through their hardship and reconciliation had entered into a deeper relationship (8:10). Alternately, rather than a personal or pet name, the word might mean she was from the town of Shulam, which is otherwise unknown, or from Shunem (Jos 19:18; 1Sm 28:4; 2Kg 4:8).

The two camps is mahanaim in Hebrew. This was the name of the place where Jacob and Esau’s reconciliation took place (Gn 32-33)—an appropriate parallel for the resolution of conflict between husband and wife. Solomon was using the illustration of God’s love for Israel to illustrate his love for Shulamith. The people were gazing (as if in a vision) at an illustration of the reconciliation God always wants to achieve with his people.