Commentary: On the Song of Songs

The Second Exposition

This book surpasses all the songs that Solomon composed, and far be it, far be it that it should be understood as an erotic poem, but it is to be taken allegorically. [ . . . ] For were it not a book of high import, as being inspired, it would not have been admitted into the canon. The following is the literal explanation, and in the Third Exposition I shall explain it allegorically.

Song of Songs 1:2: A damsel outside the city in the vineyards sees a shepherd passing by and falls in love with him and longs after him in her heart, and says, O that he would kiss me with repeated kisses! Then, as if he were listening to her, she says, For your love gladdens the heart more than wine. Because of the fragrance of your ointments, for your name is as ointment which is poured forth, the fragrance of which is diffused around, the damsels love you. [ . . . ]

Song of Songs 2:3–9: She answers, As the apple tree in the garden compared with other trees, so is my beloved, for whom I long. He brings me to the house of wine and I drink abundantly with him, and were he to display his love openly like a standard, then would I say to the damsels, “Support me with flagons of wine, spread me a couch of apples, to smell and eat with the wine,” as a sick person does, before whom they put flagons of beverage and apples. Finally, let my beloved’s left arm be under my head, and I would charge the damsels not to wake me from sleep till the impulse of love draws nigh.” The meaning of “[I charge you] by the gazelles” is this: women are compared here to them, as you find in the book of Proverbs the young wife compared to the loving hind and pleasant roe (Proverbs 5:19); therefore, “I charge you by what is like you” is equivalent to “I charge you by yourselves.”

The days in the vineyards are now over and the damsel returns home. The trees are beginning to blossom, and she says, “I hear my beloved!—he runs like a gazelle—peeping from the lattice, perchance he sees me.” [ . . . ]

Song of Songs 7:9–8:3: After comparing her to a palm-tree [in the previous verse], he longs to be with her. The boughs thereof. The breasts. She says, “I am my beloved’s, and it is my duty to be fully obedient to him. Come now, my beloved, let us go forth into the fields, for we cannot caress in the city. O that thou wert as my brother, so that I could bring thee openly to my mother’s house, and she would teach me how to cause thee to drink of well-spiced wine!” Then she says again, “Now that I have his left arm under my head my desire is all fulfilled.” They are now asleep. [ . . . ]

The Third Exposition

Some say that the daughters of Jerusalem signify the nations of the world, like: And I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant (Ezekiel 16:61). Others say that the daughters of Jerusalem are the daughters of the angels, whilst Jerusalem is the heavenly home. But I think it probable that the daughters of Jerusalem mean literally daughters, the mother being the synagogue of Israel, who is represented talking with her daughters as a man talks with his own thoughts. [ . . . ]

O that he would kiss me with repeated kisses! For your love gladdens the heart more than wine (Song of Songs 1:2).

The synagogue of Israel speaks, beginning with Abraham, who observed the commandments of God, which are the kisses, as is said: And he kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws (Genesis 26:5). And he delighted more in the worship of God than in wine. [ . . . ]

As the apple tree in the garden compared with other trees, so is my beloved for whom I long. He brings me to the house of wine, and I drink abundantly with him, and were he to display his love openly like a standard, then would I say to the damsels, “Support me with flagons of wine, spread me a couch of apples, to smell and eat with the wine.” Now that I have his left arm under my head my desire is all fulfilled. (Song of Songs 2:3–6)

The synagogue of Israel says, Are You not my God? You are like an apple tree in the eyes of Egypt; O when will the appointed time come when I shall dwell in Your shade, and You will bring me to the land flowing with milk and honey and abounding with corn and wine? And his banner over me. And I shall hear Your words. Support me with flagons. “Yea, come, buy wine and milk [i.e., the Torah] without money and without price” [see Isaiah 55:1]. With apples. The miracles and wonders which You will show me, the report of which shall go throughout all the earth. His left hand. The morning and evening burnt-offerings. [ . . . ]

For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. (Song of Songs 2:11–12)

The winter is past. The term of Abraham. The rain. The days of subjection and oppression. The flowers. Moses and Aaron. The time of singing. When they sang by the sea. The voice of the turtle. When they entered the land of Israel. [ . . . ]

I am asleep, my heart waketh. It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh. . . . For my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. (Song of Songs 5:2)

I am asleep. The synagogue of Israel says, Although I have been taken captive to Babylon my heart waketh, and I have not worshiped idols. It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh. By the prophets, bidding them build the house and go forth from Babylon. For my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. With the tears of the synagogue of Israel.