translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: SNG

label: NET study note

text: There is no little debate about the identity of the speaker(s) and the audience addressed in 5:1 b. There are five options: (1) He is addressing his bride. (2) The bride is addressing him. (3) The wedding guests are addressing him and his bride. (4) He and his bride are addressing the wedding guests. (5) The poet is addressing him and his bride. When dealing with this issue, the following factors should be considered: (1) the form of both the exhortations and the addressees are plural. This makes it unlikely that he is addressing his bride or that his bride is addressing him. (2) The exhortation has an implicitly sexual connotation because the motif of “eating” and “drinking” refers to sexual consummation in 5:1 a. This makes it unlikely that he or his bride are addressing the wedding guests – an orgy is quite out of the question! (3) The poet could be in view because as the writer who created the Song, only he could have been with them – in a poetic sense – in the bridal chamber as a “guest” on their wedding night. (4) The wedding guests could be in view through the figurative use of apostrophe (addressing an audience that is not in the physical presence of the speaker). While the couple was alone in their wedding chambers, the wedding guests wished them all the joys and marital bliss of the honeymoon. This is supported by several factors: (a) Wedding feasts in the ancient Near East frequently lasted several days and after the couple had consummated their marriage, they would appear again to celebrate a feast with their wedding guests. (b) The structure of the Song is composed of paired-dialogues which either begin or conclude with the words of the friends or daughters of Jerusalem ( 1:2-4, 5-11; 3:6-11; 5:9-16; 6:1-3, 4-13; 7:1-10 ) or which conclude with an exhortation addressed to them ( 2:1-7; 3:1-5; 8:1-4 ). In this case, the poetic unit of 4:1-5:1 would conclude with an exhortation by the friends in 5:1 b.


text: The physical love between the couple is compared to eating and drinking at a wedding feast. This is an appropriate figure of comparison because it would have been issued during the feast which followed the wedding and the consummation. The term “drink” refers to intoxication, that is, it compares becoming drunk on wine with enjoying the physical love of one’s spouse (e.g., Prov 5:19-20 ).


text: The noun קוֹל ( qol , literally, “sound, noise, voice”) is used as an exclamation: “Listen!” or “Hark!” (e.g., Gen 4:10 ; Isa 13:4; 40:3; 52:8 ; Jer 3:21; 4:15; 10:22; 31:51; 50:28; 51:54 ; Mic 6:9 ; Zeph 1:14; 2:14 ; Song 2:8; 5:2 ) ( HALOT 1085 s.v. קוֹל 8b; BDB 877 s.v. קוֹל 1.f; Joüon 2:614 §162.e; GKC 467 §146. b ). The term often refers to a loud or unexpected sound that arrests the attention of a character in a narrative. The speaker/writer uses it as a rhetorical device to dramatically portray his/her own startled reaction to an unexpected sound that called his/her attention. The Beloved is startled from her sleep by the unexpected sound of him loudly knocking at her bedroom door late at night.


text: The phrase קוֹל דּוֹדִי ( qol dodi , “Listen! My lover …!”) that introduces this scene in 5:2-8 is the exact same phrase used in 2:8 to introduce the courtship section 2:8-11 . In 2:8-11 , the Beloved was excited about his unexpected arrival; however, in 5:2-8 she is apathetic about his unexpected approach. One should not miss the dramatic contrast between the Beloved’s eagerness to see her lover in 2:8-11 and her apathy about his approach on this evening in 5:2-8 . The repetition of קוֹל דּוֹדִי (“Listen! My lover …!”) in 2:8 and 5:2 is designed to draw out the parallels and contrasts between 2:8-11 and 5:2-8 .


text: The participle דוֹפֵק ( dofeq ) connotes present progressive or iterative action. The verb דָּפַק ( dafaq , “to knock, pound, beat”) occurs only three times in biblical Hebrew, twice in reference to knocking at a door ( Judg 19:22 ; Song 5:2 ) and once of beating cattle in order to drive them along ( Gen 33:13 ). The Qal stem depicts the normal action of knocking at a door, while the Hitpael denotes a more intensive pounding, e.g., Qal: “to knock at the door” ( Song 5:2 ) and Hitpael: “to beat violently against the door” ( Judg 19:22 ) ( HALOT 229 s.v. דפק ; BDB 200 s.v. דָּפַק ). The same connotations are seen in Mishnaic Hebrew, e.g., the verbs דָּפַק and דְּפַק ( dÿfaq ), “to knock at the door” (Jastrow 317 s.v. דָּפַק ), and the nouns דּוֹפֵק “door frame (= what someone knocks on), movable tomb stone,” and דּוֹפְקָנִין ( dofÿqanin , “knockers”; Jastrow 287 s.v. דּוֹפְקָנִין ). The collocation of the verb פתח “to open” a door ( HALOT 986-87 s.v. פתח ; BDB 835 s.v. פָּתַח ) clearly suggests that he is at the Beloved’s bedroom door.


text: The three-fold repetition of the verb פָּתַח ( patakh , “to open”) ( Song 5:2, 5, 6 ) indicates that it is a key word ( Leitwort ) in this section. While it is clear that the verb describes her action of opening the door of her bedroom chamber in 5:2 , some suggest that in 5:5-6 it is used figuratively (hypocatastasis: implied comparison) of the Beloved “opening” her female genitalia for sexual intercourse (but see study notes below). tn Heb “Open to me!” Alternately, “Let me in!” The imperatival form of פִּתְחִי ( pitkhi , “ to open”) connotes a polite, but earnest request. The verb פָּתַח ( patakh ) refers to the action of opening various objects, e.g., sack ( Gen 42:27 ), skin bottle ( Judg 4:19 ), hamper ( Exod 2:6 ), pit ( Exod 21:33 ), mouth of a cave ( Josh 10:22 ), grave ( Ezek 37:12, 13 ), city gates ( Neh 13:19 ; Isa 45:1 ), gate of a land ( Nah 3:13 ), window ( 2 Kgs 13:17 ). When used with the accusative דֶּלֶת ( delet , “door”), it refers to opening a door (e.g., Judg 3:25; 19:27 ; 1 Sam 3:15 ; 2 Kgs 9:3, 10 ; 2 Chr 29:3 ; Job 31:32 ) ( HALOT 986-87 s.v. פתח ; BDB 835 s.v. פָּתַח ). Although the object דֶּלֶת (“door”) is here omitted, a bedroom door is clearly in mind in 5:2 , as indicated by the collocated verb דָּפַק ( dafaq , “to knock on a door”) in the preceding line. Translators have often rendered this line woodenly: “Open to me!” (KJV, NASB, NIV); however, NJPS nuances it well: “Let me in!”


text: The Beloved’s praise of his appearance follows the typical literary structure of the ancient Near Eastern wasfs song: (1) introductory summary praise ( 5:10 ), (2) detailed descriptive praise from head to foot ( 5:11-16 a), and (3) concluding summary praise ( 5:16 b). There are several striking features about this song that are unique from the typical wasfs . (1) The ordinary setting of the ancient Near Eastern wasfs songs was the wedding night. (2) They were ordinarily sung only by a man in praise of his bride. (3) Normally, the wasfs song will conclude with the feet after the legs; however, the Beloved concludes by praising his mouth after his legs.


text: The term צַח ( tsakh , “dazzling”) is ordinarily used to describe the shining surface of jewelry or of smoothed rocks ( Ezek 24:7-8; 26:4, 14 ; Neh 4:7 ). Likewise, אָדֹם (’ adom , “ruddy”) can describe the redness of rubies ( Lam 4:7 ). Throughout 5:11-15 she compares his appearance to valuable jewels, gems, and precious metals.


text: In the genitive construct phrase עֲרוּגַת הַבֹּשֶׂם (’ arugat havvosem , literally, “beds of balsam”) the term בֹּשֶׂם ( bosem ) is a genitive of composition, identifying what these gardens were composed of. The term עֲרוּגַת (“garden-beds”) refers to a private garden terrace or garden bed, a rare luxury in Palestine and very expensive to own ( Ezek 17:7, 10 ) (BDB 788 s.v. עֲרוּגָה ). The term בֹּשֶׂם ( bosem , “balsam”) refers to balsam trees which yielded sweet-smelling oils from which perfumes were produced. The balsam trees should be identified either as Astragalus tragacantha which grew everywhere in Palestine and exude resin from its thorns, or as Commiphora opobalsamum which was not native to Israel but to South Arabia from whence it had to be imported at great cost ( 2 Chr 9:1 ) ( Fauna and Flora of the Bible , 177-78). She is comparing the beautiful scent of his cologned cheeks to fragrant beds of spice.