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The Self Doubt of the Bride (Song of Solomon 2)

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CHAPTER 2 May 5 
Beloved
I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.
Lover
2As a lily among thorns, so is my darling among the daughters.

Beloved
3As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, his fruit was sweet to my taste. 4He brought me to the banquet hall. His banner over me is love. 5Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples; for I am faint with love. 6His left hand is under my head. His right hand embraces me.  7I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, or by the hinds of the field, that you not stir up, nor stimulate love, until it so desires. 8The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping on the mountains, skipping on the hills. 9My beloved is like a roe or a young hart. Behold, he stands behind our wall!  He looks in at the windows. He glances through the lattice. 10My beloved spoke and said to me, Rise up, my love, my beautiful one, and come away. 11for, behold, the winter is past. The rain is over and gone. 12The flowers appear on the earth. The time of the singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. 13The fig tree ripens her green figs. The vines are in blossom. They give forth their fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.

Lover
14My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places of the mountainside; let me see your face. Let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.  15Catch foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards; for our vineyards are in blossom.

Beloved
16My beloved is mine, and I am his. He browses among the lilies. 17Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a roe or a young hart on the mountains of Bether.


Commentary


2:1 The girl says she is merely a common "rose of Sharon", but Solomon responds that in his eyes, she is like a lily among thorns, referring to the Jerusalem girls. Ironically enough, Num. 33:55 had warned that the Gentiles within the land promised to Abraham would be "thorns" to Israel if they married them. And yet Solomon sees the Israelite women as "thorns" and the Gentile as a lily amongst them. He likewise compares her to them in 6:8,9.
2:10-13 Solomon describes her in Jewish terms,  likening her  to many well-known places in Israel: the Heshbon  fishpools,  the tower of Lebanon etc. (see too 4:1,4). He wanted to  see  her  as  an  Israelite  girl,  and  so that was how she appeared  to  him. Such is the self-deception we are capable of when we seek to justify ourselves. Solomon takes her on a tour of Israel (4:8), enthusing about the sights, speaking of them as the things of  "our  land”. See on 4:16.
2:13,14 It was because of the impossible tension between the Egyptian girl and the Jerusalem maidens that there's the constant theme of needing to hold meetings in secrecy, often in the countryside or mountains around Jerusalem, and to "go away" in order to be together. They appear to have slept together in the open air, beneath the trees (1:16,17; 7:11). 2:17 and 4:6 suggest they spent a night together in the hills, and then before dawn Solomon got back to Jerusalem. Illicit relationships are powerfully attractive at the time, but doomed to ultimate failure.