Song of Songs 1 (abbreviated as Song 1) is the first chapter of the "Song of Songs" or "Song of Solomon", a book of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament of the Christian Bible.[1] This book is one of the Five Megillot, a group of short books, together with Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther, within the Ketuvim, the third and the final section of the Hebrew Bible. Jewish tradition views Solomon as the author of this book (although this is now largely disputed), and this attribution influences the acceptance of this book as a canonical text. Song of Songs 1 contains the book's superscription, songs of the main female characters, and the opening song of the male character.
The original text is written in Hebrew language. The chapter is divided into 17 verses (16 in the Latin Vulgate translation).
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text, including the Aleppo Codex (10th century CE), and Codex Leningradensis (CE 1008). Some fragments containing verses of Song 1 were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, assigned as 6Q6 (6QCant); 50 CE; extant verses 1–7).[2] [3] [4]
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B;
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The Modern English Version (MEV) divides this chapter as follows:
The New Catholic Bible and Jerusalem Bible treat verses 2-4 as a "prologue".[5] Richard Hess, on the other hand, treats verses 1:1-2:7 as a "prologue".
A superscription in a biblical book functions like the title page of a modern book, containing information about the genre, author, and sometimes also the subject matter and the date of the book (in prophecy books for examples, ; ; in wisdom books: 1:1 KJV;).
The song of songs, which is Solomon's.[6] This verse is a detached description of the book's content, containing two phrases: "the song of songs" and "which is Solomon's".
This section is the first part of the Prologue, as described by Hess, containing the description of the lovers' first coming together and intimacy (1:2–2:7). The speaker is a woman as definitely established in verse 5 from the adjectival form shehora ("black").
Verses 2–4 contains a 'romantic soliloquy' of a woman about her lover, with two distinctive word-patterns: "your_love (or 'lovemaking') more_than_wine" (verses 2, 4; Hebrew: Hebrew: דדיך מיין, mî-[8]) and "they love you" (verses 3, 4; Hebrew: Hebrew: אהבוך, [8]).
The first appearance of the first word-pattern is a part of a chiastic structure (verses 2b–3a):
A. good
B. your lovemaking
C. wine
C'. scent
B'. ointments
A'. goodThe second chiastic structure of the same word-pattern could be found in verse 4(c–d). The word for the noun "love" () is plural, indicating more that one romantic act, so here "lovemaking" is a better rendering than a simple word "love".
One Hebrew word (ahebuka) becomes the second word-pattern "[they] love you" which is used 'twice as the last word of a tricolon' in verses 3 and 4. The root verb "love" () is used seven times in the whole book (verses 1:3, 4, 7; 3:1, 2, 3, 4) and always translated in Greek using the same verb 'agapaō' in Septuagint (LXX) (also only seven times in these seven verses of the book).
[The Shulamite]
Because of the fragrance of your good ointments,
Your name is ointment poured forth;
Therefore the virgins love you.[9]
According to the New King James Version (NKJV)[The Shulamite]
Draw me away![The Daughters of Jerusalem]
We will run after you.[The Shulamite]
The king has brought me into his chambers.[The Daughters of Jerusalem]
We will be glad and rejoice in you.
We will remember your love more than wine.[The Shulamite]
Rightly do they love you.[11]
I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.[14]
The phrase "daughters of Jerusalem" ("friends of the woman" in MEV heading; "girls of Jerusalem" in Living Bible) is introduced as one of the three identifiable speaking voices and principal characters in this chapter, other than the woman, who speaks until verse 7, and the man, whom the woman talks about in 1:2-4 and 7 (he starts to speak in 1:9-11).
Do not gaze at me, because I am dark,
because the sun has looked upon me.
My mother's sons were angry with me;
they made me the keeper of the vineyards,
but my own vineyard I have not kept.[15]
Tell me, you whom my soul loves,
where you pasture your flock,
where you make it lie down at noon;
for why should I be like one who wanders
beside the flocks of your companions?[16]
Hess notes the distinct structure of the verses containing the male's response in term of the syllable count for the lines in each one:
It is clear that verse 8 is structurally out of sequence among these verses and different in the content as well: verse 8 provides the answer to the female's prior question, whereas verses 9–11 focus on her beauty.
[He]
If you do not know,
O most beautiful among women,
follow in the tracks of the flock,
and pasture your young goats
beside the shepherds' tents.[17] All three finite verbs in this verse ("know", "follow" and "pasture") have the woman as the subject, and the second-person feminine singular form is used for "you" or "your". The structure of this verse duplicates the woman's question and plea of verse 7. MEV applies this verse to the "Friends of the woman".[18]
[The Man]
I compare you, my love, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots.[19] The man calls his lover, "my love" (or "my [female] friend"; Hebrew: Hebrew: רעיתי, [20]) a specific term of endearment for women that is used 9 times in the book (Song 1:9, 15; 2:2,2:10 KJV, 13; KJV,4:7 KJV; 5:2; 6:4).[21] The masculine form of the same root word to call the man ("my [male] friend"; Hebrew: Hebrew: רעי, [22]) is used in a parallel construction with "my beloved" (Hebrew: Hebrew: דודי, [22]) in .
In these three verses, the woman describes her lover in the first line and their relationship in the second line. The second word in each of the verses—the king, the myrrh, the henna—are the only words preceded by the definite article Hebrew: הַ (ha) in this section, indicating their identification with one another.
While the king is at his table,
My spikenard sends forth its fragrance.[23]
My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.[29]
lit. "spring of the kid"; an "oasis on the western shore of the Dead Sea".
Behold, you are fair, my love!
Behold, you are fair!
You have dove's eyes.[32] In this verse and the following, the lovers exchange a mutual admiration in a parallel fashion:
a. Ah!
b. you are beautiful
c. my love
a'. Ah!
b'. you are beautiful
c'. my love
The response of the man comprises seven words, two of which are repeated (Hebrew: Hebrew: הנך יפה , "behold_you_[are] fair"[33]). The exclamation "you are beautiful" is used most frequently by the man to describe his lover (1:8,15; KJV, 13; KJV,4:7 KJV,4:10 KJV; KJV,7:6 KJV [Masoretic: 7:2,7]).
Verses 16–17 focus on the subject of trees, with a closure in verse 2:1 on the subject of flowers, to provide a 'picture of the bed as a spreading growth', using a theme of nature's flora.
. Athalya Brenner . 21. The Song of Solomon . The Oxford Bible Commentary . John. Barton . John Barton (theologian) . John. Muddiman . John Muddiman . Oxford University Press . first (paperback) . 2007 . 429–433 . 978-0199277186 . February 6, 2019.
. Michael D. Coogan . The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books: New Revised Standard Version, Issue 48 . Coogan . Michael David . Marc Zvi . Brettler . Carol Ann . Newsom . Pheme . Perkins . Augmented 3rd . Oxford University Press . 2007 . 9780195288810 .
. Henry Hampton Halley. Halley's Bible Handbook: an abbreviated Bible commentary . 24th (revised). Zondervan Publishing House . 1965 . registration. 0-310-25720-4.
. Ernst Würthwein . The Text of the Old Testament . Wm. B. Eerdmans . Grand Rapids, MI . 1995 . Erroll F.. Rhodes . 0-8028-0788-7 . January 26, 2019.
. A Guide to the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature. Joseph Fitzmyer . William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 2008 . 107 . 9780802862419 . Grand Rapids, MI . February 15, 2019.
New Catholic Bible; Jerusalem Bible (1966), The Song of Songs, Title and Prologue, verses 1:1-4