And righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek after him, That seek thy face, O God of Jacob." II. At the Gates The Demand "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; He is the King of glory." [The gates open, and the procession enters.] CHAPTER IX THE SONG OF SOLOMON FIVE short books included in the sacred "Writings,' or third collection, in the Hebrew Scriptures are known as the Five Rolls, or the Megilloth, one of which was read at each of five solemn celebrations by the Jews. They are the Song of Songs, read at the Passover, Ruth at Pentecost, Lamentations on the 9th day of the month Ab, the day on which Jerusalem was destroyed, Ecclesiastes, (or Koheleth,) at the feast of Booths, and Esther at the feast of Purim, (the Lots). Passover, Pentecost and the feast of Booths are of Mosaic origin. The other two are later. The interpretation of the Song of Songs, or the Song of Solomon, or the Canticles, as it is variously called, as an allegory setting forth the relation of God to his people, is the reason for the inclusion in the Scriptures of this beautiful Hebrew love-poetry. The fact that it is about Solomon, and is traditionally attributed to him as author, is likewise of importance in explaining its place in the Bible, for everything by, or concerning, David or Solomon was regarded as peculiarly sacred, as we have seen in considering the historical books. There is a Jewish tradition, the reason for which is clear from their contents, that the three canonical books attributed to Solomon, the Song of Songs, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes were written respectively, in his youth, in his mature years, and in his old age, but there is also another thought of the Jews concerning these books that represents a quite different view of them. They thought them, considered as a whole, comparable to the Temple, Proverbs representing the outer court, Ecclesiastes the holy place, and the Song of Songs the holy of holies; while Origen and Theodoret of the early Christian Church likened them to a ladder with three steps, of which the lowest was Ecclesiastes, natural and vain things, Proverbs, moral, and the Song of Songs, mystical. Psalm 45, which bears the title, "A Song of Loves," and is the only poem of its kind in the Bible, naturally comes to mind when the Song of Songs is considered, for the Psalm is composed of the words of the poet addressed to the king, and to the queen, on the occasion of a royal wedding, and is, like the Song, interpreted as having a secondary meaning, referring to the relation of God, or of Christ, to his people. So far as the primary meaning is concerned, the lines of the Song of Solomon are in general quite clear, but differences of opinion exist as to the speakers to whom the various lines are to be assigned, hence the different arrangements of the book given by editors. That a secondary interpretation is not purely fanciful is clearly evidenced by the Oriental fondness for allegory and concealed meanings, and by passages, in both the Old Testament and the New, in which the relationship of God to his people is set forth in the figure of the bride and bridegroom. For example, Isaiah says, 62:5,"as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee," and in Revelation 21:9, we read, "I will show thee the bride, the wife of the Lamb," 22:17, "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.” See also Jeremiah, ch. 3, Ezekiel 16:8-14, and Ephesians 5:2532. It is of course reasoning in a circle to say the Song of Songs is a spiritual allegory, therefore it is in the Bible; the Song of Songs is in the Bible, therefore it is a spiritual allegory. The Targum finds in it the whole history of Israel. Jews generally regard it as setting forth the relation of Jehovah to Israel. The early Christian Church, accepting the Jewish view that the Song of Songs was an allegory, believed it to refer to Christ and his Church. This is based on an interpretation of the principal characters as being only Solomon and his bride. According to a modern view, however, there is a third character of prime importance, the shepherd lover of the Shulamite bride, whom the older interpreters identified with Solomon in disguise. The recognition of the shepherd lover as a distinct person interferes seriously with the older allegorical interpretation of the poem. The modern interpretation finds an expression of the ethical or moral teaching that faithfulness to the true love of the shepherd lover is far better than yielding to the attractions of a king's wealth. Without either the allegorical or the ethical interpretation the Song of Songs, though wonderfully beautiful in its language and imagery, is purely sensuous. This passionate love-poetry must always be thought of as written by an Oriental. The descriptions of feminine beauty are such as abound in Arabic poetry, and are by no means necessarily licentious, though to English readers, owing to their different traditions and forms of expression, they seem so. An example of this, which to the English reader seems simply sensuous, is the passage 6:13-7:5, in which the women ask the Shulamite to dance, which she does. They then express their admiration of her beauty as she dances. To the Oriental there was absolutely nothing in the lines ex cept pleasure in beholding a beautiful woman, the details of whose beauty are necessary to the picture. The dancing is perhaps of the kind referred to in Judges 21:20-21, where the Benjamites lie in wait in the vineyard for the purpose of catching wives from among the daughters of Shiloh" if they "come out to dance in the dances." 66 The persons and imagery of the Song of Solomon are those of the Bible, the shepherd, the sheep, the vineyard, the mountains, the King's palace, etc. The bride, the Shulamite, as a country girl is described as "swarthy because the sun hath scorched" her. 1:5. The king, Solomon, is described in his magnificence. 3:6–11. When Bishop Lowth likened the Song of Solomon, as regards literary form, to the dramatic eclogues of Theocritus and Virgil, he called attention specifically to the fact that it is not a drama. Many writers since his time have disregarded, or have not recognized, the distinction, and have called the book a drama. As, for much concerning the study of the Bible as literature, we turn for the beginning to Bishop Lowth's Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, so for the proper classification of this unique work, the Song of Solomon, we quote his words concerning some of the early critics: "But if they make use of the term dramatic according to the common acceptation of the word, this poem must be supposed to contain a fable, or entire and perfect plot or action, of a moderate extent, in which the incidents are all connected, and proceed regularly from one another and which, after several vicissitudes, is brought to a perfect conclusion. But certainly the bare representation of a nuptial festival cannot in any respect answer to this definition. All this, however, bears no resemblance to a regular plot, |