Reflections on Song of Solomon 6

 Song of Solomon 06 (Contemporary English Version)

1. Most beautiful of women, tell us where he has gone. Let us help you find him.
   
2. My darling has gone down to his garden of spices, where he will feed his sheep and gather lilies.
   
3. I am his, and he is mine, as he feeds his sheep among the lilies.
   
4. My dearest, the cities of Tirzah and Jerusalem are not as lovely as you. Your charms are more powerful than all of the stars in the heavens.
   
5. Turn away your eyes-- they make me melt. Your hair tosses about as gracefully as goats coming down from Gilead.
   
6. Your teeth are whiter than sheep freshly washed; they match perfectly, not one is missing.
   
7. Behind your veil are hidden beautiful rosy cheeks.
   
8. What if I could have sixty queens, eighty wives, and thousands of others!
   
9. You would be my only choice, my flawless dove, the favorite child of your mother. The young women, the queens, and all the others tell how excited you are as they sing your praises:
   
10. "You are as majestic as the morning sky-- glorious as the moon-- blinding as the sun! Your charms are more powerful than all the stars above."
    
11. I went down to see if blossoms were on the walnut trees, grapevines, and fruit trees.
    
12. But in my imagination I was suddenly riding on a glorious chariot.
    
13. Dance! Dance! Beautiful woman from Shulam, let us see you dance! Why do you want to see this woman from Shulam dancing with the others?

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Previously, the beloved, who is now the wife, recalled a dream in which she had gone to bed and then her husband, or lover, came to the door and wanted in. But she was indifferent about getting up to let him in, so he went away. By then, however, she wanted him and went out in the city to look for him. She saw some "young women of Jerusalem" and asked them to tell her husband, if they saw him, that she was lovesick for him. They asked what was so special about him and she described him to them in glowing terms.

In the opening verses of chapter 6, the women, who were possibly intrigued by her description of him, offered to join her in finding her husband. She seems, now, to know where he was, or maybe had just a vague idea. She lets the women know, however, that "I am my love's and my love is mine," conveying that he is not available to them.

With verse 4 the husband had been found and makes it clear that she is still beautiful to him, using various comparisons to describe her features. Though there are numerous women in the royal court, he said, her beauty is praised by them all.

The wife, in verse 11, tells of going to the walnut grove in her search for her husband. She says she went there "to see the blossoms of the valley, to see if the vines were budding and the pomegranates blooming." We might understand this to say she went to find him to see if their love was still in bloom. Verses 12 and 13 are obscure but one understanding of them is that the wife was so carried away with her husband's declaration of her beauty that she imagined herself in a royal entourage riding in one of the chariots as people called her back so they could look on her beauty.

Solomon's Song is difficult to follow at times in its use of imagery and vague descriptions. I am struck by the thought that he intended it to be vague, encouraging readers to use their imagination to fill in the details.