Longing, praise, and waiting for the right time

1:1 Solomon’s Most Excellent Love Song. The Desire for Love The Beloved to Her Lover: 1:2 Oh, how I wish you would kiss me passionately! For your lovemaking is more delightful than wine. 1:3 The fragrance of your colognes is delightful; your name is like the finest perfume. No wonder the young women adore you! 1:4 Draw me after you; let us hurry! May the king bring me into his bedroom chambers! The Maidens to the Lover: We will rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine. The Beloved to Her Lover: How rightly the young women adore you! The Beloved to the Maidens: 1:5 I am dark but lovely, O maidens of Jerusalem, dark like the tents of Qedar, lovely like the tent curtains of Salmah. 1:6 Do not stare at me because I am dark, for the sun has burned my skin. My brothers were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards. Alas, my own vineyard I could not keep! The Beloved to Her Lover: 1:7 Tell me, O you whom my heart loves, where do you pasture your sheep? Where do you rest your sheep during the midday heat? Tell me lest I wander around beside the flocks of your companions! The Lover to His Beloved: 1:8 If you do not know, O most beautiful of women, simply follow the tracks of my flock, and pasture your little lambs beside the tents of the shepherds. The Lover to His Beloved: 1:9 O my beloved, you are like a mare among Pharaoh’s stallions. 1:10 Your cheeks are beautiful with ornaments; your neck is lovely with strings of jewels. 1:11 We will make for you gold ornaments studded with silver. The Beloved about Her Lover: 1:12 While the king was at his banqueting table, my nard gave forth its fragrance. 1:13 My beloved is like a fragrant pouch of myrrh spending the night between my breasts. 1:14 My beloved is like a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of En-Gedi. The Lover to His Beloved: 1:15 Oh, how beautiful you are, my beloved! Oh, how beautiful you are! Your eyes are like doves! The Beloved to Her Lover: 1:16 Oh, how handsome you are, my lover! Oh, how delightful you are! The lush foliage is our canopied bed; 1:17 the cedars are the beams of our bedroom chamber; the pines are the rafters of our bedroom. The Lily among the Thorns and the Apple Tree in the Forest The Beloved to Her Lover: 2:1 I am a meadow flower from Sharon, a lily from the valleys. The Lover to His Beloved: 2:2 Like a lily among the thorns, so is my darling among the maidens. The Beloved about Her Lover: 2:3 Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste. The Beloved about Her Lover: 2:4 He brought me into the banquet hall, and he looked at me lovingly. 2:5 Sustain me with raisin cakes, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love. The Double Refrain: Embracing and Adjuration 2:6 His left hand caresses my head, and his right hand stimulates me. The Beloved to the Maidens: 2:7 I adjure you, O maidens of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and by the young does of the open fields: Do not awaken or arouse love until it pleases! The Beloved about Her Lover:

Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible®, copyright ©1996, 2019 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved.

This opening unit of Song of Songs celebrates deep desire, mutual admiration, and delight between a man and a woman. It also gives a clear warning: love should not be awakened before the right time. The poem honors love as good, but it must be governed by patience and restraint.

Song of Songs 1:1-2:7 begins the book with a love poem. The speakers move back and forth in dialogue. The woman longs for the man’s kiss and says his love is better than wine. The man and the woman then praise each other with rich poetic images. Her dark skin is explained as the result of outdoor work and sun exposure, not shame. Their search, praise, and delight show that love is personal, mutual, and joyful.

The poem uses strong images from daily life, such as perfume, wine, sheep, jewelry, flowers, fruit, and shade. These images are poetic, not literal descriptions. They celebrate beauty, attraction, and exclusiveness. The woman is described as unique among the maidens, and the man is described as a source of shade and sweetness.

The unit ends with an important refrain: do not awaken love until it pleases. This does not reject love. It warns against forcing love or rushing it ahead of the proper time. The passage teaches that desire is good, but it must be guided by wisdom, timing, and self-control.

• Love and desire are treated as good gifts, not as shameful things.
• The lovers praise one another with mutual delight and honor.
• The woman’s dark skin is linked to sun exposure and labor, not to moral failure.
• The poem uses poetry and symbol, not plain prose description.
• Love should not be awakened before its proper time.

• Warning: Do not awaken love until it pleases.
• Command: The woman tells the maidens of Jerusalem not to arouse love too soon.
• Promise/assurance: The lovers’ mutual praise shows that affection and delight belong within proper bounds.
• Warning: Do not read the poem as a crude or forced text; it is careful, poetic, and restrained.

This passage stands in the wisdom and creation setting. It celebrates human love as part of God’s good order. Later Scripture will use marriage and covenant love as important pictures for God’s relationship with his people, but this passage first speaks about real human love.

Believers should receive faithful love with gratitude, not shame. They should speak with honor and tenderness toward the one they love. They should also practice patience. Love is not to be rushed, manipulated, or forced. The right time matters.

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