09.21.2017 – Old Testament: Song 2.6–7

To read the Bible in a year, read Song of Solomon 1–3 on September 21, In the year of our Lord 2017

By Don Ruhl

What is it about an embrace between a husband and a wife? The woman typically loves the embrace of her husband. See what the Shulamite said of Solomon’s embrace,

His left hand is under my head,
And his right hand embraces me.
I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
By the gazelles or by the does of the field,
Do not stir up nor awaken love
Until it pleases.
(Song 2.6–7) 

In verse 6, she pictured his embrace of her. She felt secure in his arms. While in this embrace, she charged the daughters of Jerusalem by the gazelles or by the does of the field that they would not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases.

Normally when we give a charge, we declare it by some authority. [For example, See 1 Thessalonians 5.27.] What then did she mean by charging the daughters of Jerusalem not to do something and that she made this charge by the gazelles or by the does of the field?

Gazelles and does are not aggressive. They are timid creatures. Thus, she pleaded with the daughters of Jerusalem that they be quiet and gentle like gazelles and does.

It could also be that the love of Solomon and the Shulamite was like a gazelle, and had to be treated gently.

Questions:

• Why do we like embracing or hugging?
• What did she not want them to do?
• What did she mean?