The beloved responds that her beloved has gone down into his garden to the beds of spices to pasture his flock and to gather lilies, establishing the beloved's knowledge of where he is and the garden imagery that has characterized their union throughout. The beloved's confident declaration of where the beloved is suggests that despite separation and pain, she maintains intimate knowledge of his whereabouts and his habitual movements. The reference to the beloved's pastoral activities—pasturing, gathering—establishes that his engagement with the beloved's garden is itself a kind of peaceful, generative work. This verse theologically suggests that the beloved maintains intimate knowledge of her lover even during separation, and that his engagement with her garden-self is understood as productive and life-giving work.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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