Song of Songs

Objective: 

• The Banquet

• The Beloved’s Request

• A Troubled Night

• The Coming of Solomon

• The Bridegroom Praises the Bride

• The Shulamite’s Troubled Evening

• Praise of the Shulamite’s Beauty

• Lovers Reunited at Their Country Home

Resources:

• Fr Tadros Y Malaty Commentary
• Catena Bible Commentary
• Fr Dawoud Lamie Bible study (Arabic)

Reading:

• Chapter 1: 1-15
• Chapter 2: 1-15
• Chapter 3: 1-5
• Chapter 4: 1:15
• Chapter 7: 1-9
  

Key verse(s):

“Like a lily among thorns, So is my love among the daughters” Song of Songs 2:2

Comments:

• The Song of Solomon is a love song abounding in metaphors and oriental imagery.
• It depicts the God’s love towards His Church
• The Book is arranged like scenes in a drama with different speakers and the chorus
• In the Bible, God’s love was allegorically depicted as a relationship between a bridegroom and his bride
  • OT: Isiah – Jeremiah – Ezekiel – Hosea
  • NT: 2 Corinthians 11 – Ephesians 5 – Revelation – The Parable of Ten Virgins - The Parable of the Wedding Feast - St. John the Baptist
• This book was called "Song of Songs" to show that repeating the word "song" refers to its superiority over the other songs.
  • This resembles the saying, "King of kings or Lord of lords, or holy of holies, or Sabbath of sabbaths, or Heaven of heavens or vanity of vanities.
• The Jews understood this book symbolizes the relationship between God (the Bridegroom) and His people (the bride), until the coming of the Messiah.
• The Fathers understood this book represents the relationship between the Messiah the Savior and His Church the bride
• We notice that the bridegroom is always good, without any mistakes/sins, and a king. This is because it symbolizes our Lord.

• Characters of the Book
  The Bridegroom	Our Lord Jesus Christ who betrothed the church a holy bride for Him
  The Bride	Name: Shulamite The Universal Church, or the believer as a living member of the Church
  The Virgins	The believers who have not yet attained the spiritual depth, but have achieved some progress on the road of salvation
  The Daughters of Jerusalem	The Jewish nation, which should have preached the Messiah the Savior of the world
  The Friends of the Bridegroom	The angels who attained the perfect man
  The Young Sister	The humanity who need the Lord Jesus Christ to serve and care for her

• If the book is literal, this bride will never be a real human!

• 

• Chapter 1:
  • V.2: "Let him kiss me" The bride wants to return to God. Asking God to accept her
    • God's mouth always contains blessings and joyful words. His kisses are messages of love and hope
  • V.3: "Therefore the virgins love you" The bride is happy that her friends and everyone around her go to God. The meaning will never be realistic if literal. No bride wants her friends to love her beloved!
  •  V.4: "Run after you" The works of salvation. God's grace accepted her, but she had to do the work.
    • "Rightly do they love you" she confesses that God's love is worth the love
  • V.5: Dark because of sins. Lovely because God still loves us. He hates the sin.
  • V.6: People and the busyness of life make us forget to watch our vineyard. We get busy with people and sometimes service, activities, etc. But we don't focus on our spiritual life.
  • V.15: Shows how God looks at human souls. 
• Chapter 2:
  • V.2: The bridegroom is saying that his beloved is special among all people. This is how God look at the repentant soul as a lily among the thorns (world).
  • V.6: Shows that God will embrace the repentant soul when returns to him
  • V.15: The large foxes are noticeable and can be caught. The little foxes enter through the wall and eat the vines. They are overlooked until the foxes grow up from eating the vines. These are like little sins that we sometimes don't think it is a sin or a big deal and are never caught until they cause a bigger problem or death. 
• Chapter 3: 1-5
  • She walked out by night (middle of struggles, tribulations, and hardships) to look for God. She went to the city (world) to look for him, but he was not in the common places of the world where people always go. She found the watchmen (servants and clergy) and they instructed her where to go. Note that the watchmen went and found her. Shortly after God's servants told her where to go to find him (Church) she successfully found him. She then brings all her friends and family back with her to Christ and instructs them to not (awaken Him) with their sins or unfaithfulness. This means: "We forgot and ended the past, let's not return to them.
• Chapter 4:
  • Spouse and sister will never apply to a real physical marriage
    • Eyes: Dove-> simplicity
    • Hair: God’s people sticking to the head (God)
    • Lips: Scarlet -> Eucharist
    • Neck: The tower of David was high –> can differentiate and see the enemy from afar.
      • 1000 is a heavenly infinity number
    • Breasts: 2-> OT and NT. Twins: Equal in importance and value. The Church feeds her people from the Bible
      • Fawns have sharp vision: After the Bible, we gain discernment
      • Friday Theotokia: He held to your breasts and you fed him. Breasts= mother aka feeding/giving
    • Teeth: Servants who eat and provide for service. Teeth grow and erupt when the person grows spiritual maturity.
    • Shorn sheep wool/fleece means no sin. Servants take off sins, bad habits, etc.
    • Nose: Tower of Lebanon –> She can recognize from afar the temptations of worldly pleasures
    • Temple: pomegranate-> red from shyness and shame of sin
    • Lips: Honey -> the praises of bride.
      • Honey is a product of hard-working bees. Servants' hardworking fruits
    • Feet: Feet of peace (Eph.6). She walks in the way of God’s word, way of repentance
    • Curves=joints. The entire body of Christ is connected. The beauty of church is in her oneness.
      • Curves are strong and fast in her return to God.
      • Thighs: connect upper and lower halves -> Victorious churches and struggling churches
    • Naval: The umbilical cord is cut. Cut from the world-beginning of a new life (opposite in Ez.16)
      • Rounded = no beginning or end like all heavenly blessings. She became Heavenly
• Chapter 7:
  • The bride returns once more to her beloved. After she returns, her beloved praises her again with similar descriptions. 
  • V.1: Shows her fast approach in returning to her beloved. The soul speeds back to God.

Review/recap questions:
**Servant may add more questions

1. In this Book there was no literal mention of God so, why was it included in the Holy Bible? What does this Book represent? What other Book in the Holy Bible did not mention a word about God?
2. “I am dark, but lovely” Explain
3. What do the foxes in verse 15 refer to?
4. Why call a spouse “my sister”?

Homework:
**Servant may add more questions

1. Who made the Shulamite keeper of the vineyards?
   a) the vinedresser b) the Lord c) her mother’s sons d) her mother
2. What does the Shulamite have around her neck?
   a) a scarf b) chains of gold c) a cross d) chains of silver
3. The Shulamite describes herself as:
   a) a rose b) a lily c) both
4. My beloved is ________, and I am his. He feeds his flock among the _________