The Bride’s Dream
1 The church’s fight and victory in temptation. 6 The church glories in Christ.
Son 3:1 All night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves; I looked for him but did not find him.
Verses 1–5 are best explained as the recounting of a dream in which the maid dreamed that she had momentarily lost her beloved. However, the separation was brief and the reunion most joyful.
Son 3:2 I will get up now and go about the city, through its streets and squares; I will search for the one my heart loves. So I looked for him but did not find him.
Son 3:3 The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. “Have you seen the one my heart loves?”
Son 3:4 Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him to my mother’s house, to the room of the one who conceived me.
The women in the East have separate apartments, into which no one but the immediate family enters. Isaac brought Rebekah into his mother’s tent when he made her his wife (see Gen. 24:67).
The maiden dreams of the marriage taking place not in the bridal chamber of Solomon’s palace but in her northern home (see on S. of Sol. 4:8).
Son 3:5 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.
Solomon Arrives for the Wedding
Son 3:6 Who is this coming up from the wilderness like a column of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and incense made from all the spices of the merchant?
A new section begins. A royal procession is described. A description of the journey of the procession depends upon the interpretation of “who is this.” If this refers to the Shulamite, the procession may be the one in which Solomon went to fetch his country maiden.
If “who is this”
the “litter of Solomon,” the bride may be the one watching the approach of the procession and giving an eyewitness description of the impressive display.
Colums of smoke. This probably refers to the custom of heading a procession with burning incense which pervades the route of the procession with fragrant odors.
This is an ancient and common custom in the East. The security of the head of the state required the unwearyingly vigilance of such a guard as this.
Son 3:7 Look! It is Solomon’s carriage, escorted by sixty warriors, the noblest of Israel,
Son 3:8 all of them wearing the sword, all experienced in battle, each with his sword at his side, prepared for the terrors of the night.
Son 3:9 King Solomon made for himself the carriage; he made it of wood from Lebanon.
Son 3:10 Its posts he made of silver, its base of gold. Its seat was upholstered with purple, its interior inlaid with love. Daughters of Jerusalem,
Posts. Presumably the bedposts or corner posts either made of solid silver or covered with silver plate. Royal chariots were richly adorned. Paved with love. The latter part of this verse reads literally, “its interior, paved love from the daughters of Jerusalem.”
A free translation would be, “the interior was decorated as a mark of love by the daughters of Jerusalem.” The paving with love may refer to verses worked on the counterpane, the hangings, or the carpet by the daughters of Jerusalem as an expression of their love for King Solomon and his bride.
Son 3:11 come out, and look, you daughters of Zion. Look on King Solomon wearing a crown, the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, the day his heart rejoiced.