Song of Solomon 3 — Summary & Meaning

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⚙ Annotations & References ▾

Passage sections 2 ▾

The Love of the Bride and Bridegroom poetry 1:1–8:14 The Bride Seeks Her Beloved poetry 3:1–3:11

People 1 ▾

Solomon United Monarchy 7, 9, 11

Speakers 1 ▾

Solomon human 1-11

Historic voices 1 ▾

Commentary on the Song of Songs 2× 1-4, 6-7, 11

Manuscript witnesses 4 ▾

Codex Sinaiticus Aleph c. AD 330-360 Codex Vaticanus B c. AD 300-325 Aleppo Codex (Crown of Aleppo) c. AD 930 Leningrad Codex (Codex Leningradensis) AD 1008

Cross-references 50 ▾

Ps 45:3

v11

What is Song of Solomon 3 about?

Night falls, and the bride, restless on her bed, rises to seek 'him whom my soul loveth' through the city until the watchmen meet her and she finds and holds him fast, bringing him to her mother's house. Again she charges the daughters of Jerusalem not to awaken love before its season. The scene then opens onto Solomon's wedding procession coming up from the wilderness like pillars of smoke, his guarded carriage of cedar and gold ringed by threescore valiant men. Calling the daughters of Zion to behold the king crowned 'in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart,' the chapter moves the account toward the marriage itself, holding up wedded love as a public gladness, an anticipation, in the wider story of Scripture, of the King who comes for His bride.

Historical backdrop

Solomon's Israel sat astride the trade routes that carried spices north from Arabia and India, and the Song is scented with them: myrrh and frankincense, nard and saffron, cinnamon and aloes brought from far countries. It is the world of a kingdom at peace, of walled gardens and the cedars of Lebanon and the vineyards of Engedi, where such wealth of perfume could furnish the very language of love.

Matthew Henry on Song of Solomon 3

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Song of Solomon 3

The Church Fathers on Song of Solomon 3

Cited by the confessions

¹By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.

²I said, I will rise now, and go about the city; In the streets and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.

³The watchmen that go about the city found me; To whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?

⁴It was but a little that I passed from them, When I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, Until I had brought him into my mother’s house, And into the chamber of her that conceived me.

⁵I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, By the roes, or by the hinds of the field, That ye stir not up, nor awake my love, Until he please.

⁶Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness Like pillars of smoke, Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, With all powders of the merchant?

⁷Behold, it is the litter of Solomon; Threescore mighty men are about it, Of the mighty men of Israel.

⁸They all handle the sword, andare expert in war: Every man hath his sword upon his thigh, Because of fear in the night.

⁹King Solomon made himself a palanquin Of the wood of Lebanon.

¹⁰He made the pillars thereof of silver, The bottom thereof of gold, the seat of it of purple, The midst thereof being paved with love, From the daughters of Jerusalem.

¹¹Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon, With the crown wherewith his mother hath crowned him In the day of his espousals, And in the day of the gladness of his heart.

What is Song of Solomon 3 about?