Song of Solomon 3
11 verses
The maiden seeks her beloved but cannot find him; she rises and searches the city, asking the watchmen where he dwells. Upon finding him, she brings him to her mother's house, to the chamber where she was conceived. Again, she charges others not to awaken love prematurely. The narrative then shifts to the beloved's wedding procession: Solomon comes in his sedan chair, surrounded by sixty mighty warriors and eighty concubines, adorned with cedar and purple. The beloved's beauty is magnificent, and her love is incomparable to wine or spices. This chapter explores the theme of loss and searching: the maiden's nighttime quest through the city emphasizes the vulnerability of longing and the joy of reunion. The mention of her mother's house suggests maternal blessing and the integration of love within family and community, not merely private passion. The wedding procession interlude, likely an imaginative or remembered vision, affirms that the beloved, while potentially unequaled in rank and resource, chooses the maiden and honors her above all. Literarily, the movement from individual seeking to collective celebration expands the scope of love from private to communal significance. Theologically, the maiden's persistent search and the beloved's elaborate arrival suggest the soul's active seeking of God and God's generous response; the communal context indicates that love, while intensely personal, finds its proper expression within community and tradition.
VERSES IN THIS CHAPTER
1
By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.
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2
I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.
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When we read this alongside the surrounding chapters, the narrative arc becomes clear: God is always working redemption,...
3
The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?
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4
It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.
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5
I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.
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6
Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?
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7
Behold his bed, which is Solomon’s; threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel.
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8
They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night.
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9
King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon.
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God is faithful in every circumstance.. God is faithful in every circumstance.. Today it speaks comfort; a year ago it s...
10
He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.
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11
Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.
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COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
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