translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: SNG

label: NET study note

text: Three 1st person common singular cohortatives appear in verse 2 : אָקוּמָה (’ aqumah , “I will arise”), אֲסוֹבְבָה (’ asovÿvah , “I will go about”), and אֲבַקְשָׁה (’ avaqshah , “I will seek”). These cohortatives have been taken in two basic senses: (1) resolve: “I will arise…I will go about…I will seek” (KJV, NIV) or (2) necessity: “I must arise…I must go about…I must seek” (NASB, NJPS). There is no ethical or moral obligation/necessity, but the context emphasizes her intense determination (e.g., 3:4 b). Therefore, they should be classified as cohortatives of resolve, expressing the speaker’s determination to pursue a course of action. The three-fold repetition of the cohortative form emphasizes the intensity of her determination. tn The emphatic particle of exhortation נא appears in the expression אָקוּמָה נָּא (’ aqumah nah , “I will arise…”). This particle is used with 1st person common singular cohortatives to emphasize self-deliberation and a determined resolve to act (BDB 609 s.v. נָא b.3.a) (e.g., Gen 18:21 ; Exod 3:3 ; 2 Sam 14:15 ; Isa 5:1 ; Job 32:21 ).


text: There is a consonantal wordplay in 3:2 between the roots בּקשׁ and בּשׁק , that is, between אֲבַקְשָׁה (’ avaqshah , “I will seek [him]”) and בַּשְּׁוָקִים ( bashshÿvaqim , “streets”). The wordplay emphasizes that she searched in every nook and cranny.


text: The statement בִּקַּשְׁתִּיו וְלֹא מְצָאתִיו ( biqqashtiv vÿlo ’ mÿtsa ’ tiv , “I sought him but I did not find him”) appears twice in 3:1-2 . In both cases it concludes a set of cola. The repetition depicts her mounting disappointment in her failure to locate her beloved. It stands in strong contrast with 3:4 .


text: There is debate about the reason why the woman brought her beloved to her mother’s house. Campbell notes that the mother’s house is sometimes referred to as the place where marital plans were made ( Gen 24:28 ; Ruth 1:8 ). Some suggest, then, that the woman here was unusually bold and took the lead in proposing marriage plans with her beloved. This approach emphasizes that the marriage plans in 3:4 are followed by the royal wedding procession ( 3:6-11 ) and the wedding night ( 4:1-5:1 ). On the other hand, others suggest that the parallelism of “house of my mother” and “chamber of she who conceived me” focuses on the bedroom of her mother’s house. Fields suggests that her desire was to make love to her beloved in the very bedroom chambers where she herself was conceived, to complete the cycle of life/love. If this is the idea, it would provide a striking parallel to a similar picture in 8:5 in which the woman exults that they had made love in the very location where her beloved had been conceived: “Under the apple tree I aroused you; it was there your mother conceived you, there she who bore you conceived you.”


text: It is not certain whether the speaker here is the Beloved or not.