“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine; your anointing oils are fragrant; your name is oil poured out; therefore virgins love you. Draw me after you; let us run. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will exult and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine; rightly do they love you.”
Song of Solomon 1:2-4
Before we get into the images that are used in this first song, we need to address the sexual language that is used throughout the book. We must accept the fact that our author is using sexual language and sexual imagery and we also must accept that the book belongs in the Bible. However, we all understand that there are numerous ways to talk about sexual things. We can look at sexual intimacy from a medical standpoint. When we go to the doctor, they use “clinical” language in describing sex and the body. However, if a young man were to take his fiancé to dinner and compliment her zygomatic bone (cheek bone) structure, she would not feel the butterflies in her stomach. On the other side of the spectrum, there is crude language or “locker room” language. Sadly, this type of language is slowly infiltrating every aspect of our lives. There is no place for it anywhere, much less to describe a woman. It is demeaning and will get a man as far as “GET AWAY.” Then there is the language of love – romantic language. I will be the first to admit I do not have a good grasp on how to speak like this, but it is this kind of language that is employed in the Song of Songs. “Your love is better than wine” sounds better than “Your brain’s response to certain endorphin chemicals is better than fermented grape juice,” yet it does not debase the feelings into the language of a seventh grader in a locker room.
The first thing that should come out of this text is the aggressive nature of this woman. She is in love and she is going to encourage him to act. In fact, the woman speaks 53% of the time in the Song, while the man speaks only around 35% of the time. There is an obvious connection between kisses/love and wine. Both are pleasurable on the lips and both can cause one to feel intoxicated.
The woman also talks about his aroma. She makes the connection between his aroma and his reputation. Just as cologne causes one to be smelled before they are seen, so a reputation causes one to be known before they are seen. And this man’s reputation is good – all the young women love him. This shows the quality of the man – everyone loves him, not just this one woman.
The speaker then refers to the king. This should not be taken literally. Again, it is the language of love. He is HER king; he is the most important and honored man in her life. This phrase should be considered in relationship to a wedding night – the first time that he brings her into his chamber/bedroom.
Notice that the speaker now turns to the third person plural. She has spoken in the first and second person as well. Does this mean that there is more than one speaker? It does not have to. This is a common literary device called “enallage” – where a speaker or writer changes between “I”, “you”, and “us” or “we”. This has many parallels in Egyptian love poetry.
In the last few phrases we are introduced to a group of women – the “young women” or the “daughters of Zion”. The woman has interaction with them throughout the Song and they could be considered the ideal audience as the man and woman show what it means to be truly in love.
