December 24, 2015.

Daily Reading: Song of Songs 7-8.

Background: Song of Songs 4-6.

Concepts and Connections.

Chapter 7

Descriptions of love: The majority of this chapter is the husband’s address of his bride’s beauty, again describing her in intimate detail. He goes through several parts of her body and expounds on the beauty he sees in them. We can feel his desire and love for his bride as he pours out his heart in sweet poetry. She then answers him with her devotion to him, knowing that his desire is for her. She then bids him come with her into the fields and vineyards, likely a metaphor to invite him into her on the marriage bed, as her descriptions match those that he used above to describe her. She gives her love to him here, devoting and committing herself to him, exemplifying the beauty of marriage.

Chapter 8

The maturation of love: In this chapter, we see that the love of the bride and groom has grown much deeper than in the former days. Here they are married. The bride shows her deep love for the groom, even wishing that she had known him from birth, as if he were her brother. Their love is so deep that she wishes that she had known it for even longer. She had waited for him all her life, and now she was married to her love and their love grew. Some conjecture that the couple have children by this point, as the subject of children is contemplated. We see that the chorus asks about a young girl who is not of the age for marriage yet. Though she is not ready for marriage, they show that she should be in the process of preparation for her future marriage, so that the day doesn’t sneak up and she not be ready. The bride says that she was a wall just like this young girl, but now her breasts were as towers (this is another reason some conjecture that she had children by this point). She gives herself to her husband, and he delights in her. Their love continues to mature as their lives are spent together.

Tomorrow’s Reading: Malachi 1-4.

Love with a pure love.

-Walter