Song of Songs 1 is the first chapter of a book called "Song of Songs" or "Song of Solomon" in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the ChristianBible. This book is one of the Five Megillot, a collection of short books, together with Book of Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther, within the Ketuvim, the third and the last part of the Hebrew Bible. Jewish tradition views Solomon as the author of this book, and this attribution influences the acceptance of this book as a canonical text, although this is now largely disputed. This chapter contains the superscription, songs of the main female characters and the opening song of the male character.
A superscription in biblical books functions like a title page of modern books, containing information about the genre, author, and sometimes also the subject matter and the date of the book.
Verse 1
The verse is a detached description of the book content, containing two phrases: "the song of songs" and "which is Solomon's".
The "song of songs" : The form of the words indicates a superlative statement as the "Best Song", but can also denote "a single poem composed of many poems".
"Song" in noun form appears only here in this book, out of 166 times in the Hebrew Bible.
"Which is Solomon's" : can have the interpretation that Solomon is the author; the book is dedicated to Solomon; or it was merely a 'part of royal holding'.
"Solomon": outside twice this first chapter, his name is only mentioned in two other passages, for a total of seven times in the whole book.
This section is the first part of the Prologue, containing the description of the first coming together and intimacy. The speaker is a woman as definitely established in verse [|5] from the adjectival formshehora. Verses 2–4 contains a 'romantic soliloquy' of a woman about her lover, with two distinctive word-patterns: "your_love more_than_wine" and "they love you". The first appearance of the first word-pattern is a part of a chiastic structure : The second chiastic structure of the same word-pattern could be found in verse [|4]. The word for the noun "love" is plural, indicating more that one romantic act, so here "lovemaking" is a better rendering than a simple word "love". One Hebrew word becomes the second word-pattern " love you" which is used 'twice as the last word of a tricolon' in verses 3 and 4. The root verb "love" is used seven times in the whole book and always translated in Greek using the same verb 'agapaō' in Septuagint .
Verse 3
"The virgins" : from the root word ‘ălmā, which is only used seven times in the whole Hebrew Bible, twice in this book, none denies the possibility of the interpretation of "virgins", some even suggest it, but the most certain meaning is "unmarried women who are, or shortly will be, sexually mature".
Verse 4
"You": masculine singular, referring to "the Beloved".
"You": feminine singular, referring to "the Shulamite".
Verse 5
The phrase "daughters of Jerusalem" is introduced as one of the three identifiable speaking voices and principal characters in this chapter, other than the woman who speaks until [|verse 1] and the man, whom the woman talks about in 1:2-4 and 7.
"Solomon": one of the seven times this name is mentioned in the whole book.
Verse 6
"My mother's sons": suggesting her "full brothers", who seem to assume responsibility on the woman, a common practice in the patriarchal societies, especially with no mention of her father in the whole book. The woman's mother is mentioned in five places, whereas the man's mother is mentioned once and one mention of Solomon's mother.
Verse 7
"Noon": in warm climates, such as in Palestine, is a time for 'rest and repose', and a convenient occasion for 'an amorous tryst'.
Male: Response with invitation and praise (1:8–11)
Hess notes the distinct structure of the verses containing the male's response in term of the syllable count for the lines in each one:
Verse 8: 11, 6, and 12
Verse 9: 7 and 6
Verse 10: 8 and 6
Verse 11: 7 and 6
It is clear that verse 8 is structurally out of sequence among these verses and different in the content as well: verse 8 provides the answer to the female's prior question, whereas verses 9–11 focus on her beauty.
Verse 8
All three finite verbs in this verse have the woman as the subject, and the second-person feminine singular form is used for "you" or "your". The structure of this verse duplicates the woman's question and plea of verse 7. MEV applies this verse to the "Friends of the woman".
In these three verses, the woman describes her lover in the first line and their relationship in the second line. The second word in each of the verses—the king, the myrrh, the henna—are the only words preceded by the definite article הַ in this section, indicating their identification with one another.
Verse 12
"His table" : with a meaning "that which surrounds or is round", likely "a divan or seat set round a room".
"Camphire" or "Henna" from Arabic: . This small shrub produces "clusters of white and yellow blossoms with a powerful fragrance" and continues to grow in En-gedi area from the ancient time until the modern era, providing an enduring illustration of this verse.
Engedi: lit. "spring of the kid"; an "oasis on the western shore of the Dead Sea".
Male: Praise of beauty (1:15)
Verse [|15]
In this verse and the following, the lovers exchange a mutual admiration in a parallel fashion:
first the man
then the woman :
The response of the man comprises seven words, two of which are repeated. The exclamation "you are beautiful" is used most frequently by the man to describe his lover.
Verses 16–17 focus on the subject of trees, with a closure in on the subject of flowers, to provide a 'picture of the bed as a spreading growth', using a theme of nature's flora.
