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Song of Songs 3

The poem moves from a woman’s anxious search and reunion to the guarded splendor of Solomon’s wedding celebration.

A woman describes searching at night for the man she loves, leaving her bed to look through the city and asking its watchmen for help. When she finds him, she holds him and brings him to her mother’s house. She then addresses the daughters of Jerusalem about love’s timing. The scene shifts to Solomon’s guarded carriage and wedding celebration. The poem does not explain whether the nighttime search is a dream or how the two scenes fit together.

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2I will get up now, and go about the city; in the streets and in the squares I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I didn’t find him.
3The watchmen who go about the city found me; “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
4I had scarcely passed from them, when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house, into the room of her who conceived me.
5I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, or by the hinds of the field, that you not stir up nor awaken love, until it so desires.
6Who is this who comes up from the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all spices of the merchant?
7Behold, it is Solomon’s carriage! Sixty mighty men are around it, of the mighty men of Israel.
8They all handle the sword, and are expert in war. Every man has his sword on his thigh, because of fear in the night.
9King Solomon made himself a carriage of the wood of Lebanon.
10He made its pillars of silver, its bottom of gold, its seat of purple, the middle of it being paved with love, from the daughters of Jerusalem.
11Go out, you daughters of Zion, and see King Solomon, with the crown with which his mother has crowned him, in the day of his weddings, in the day of the gladness of his heart.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Song of Songs 3:1The opening search establishes the woman’s longing and the absence that drives her into the city.
Song of Songs 3:4Finding her beloved turns the search into reunion, with her mother’s house becoming their destination.
Song of Songs 3:6The question about an approaching procession marks the shift from private longing to royal spectacle.
Where this chapter reaches

Psalm shares the language of longing and seeking, though the woman here seeks her human beloved and many psalms direct such longing toward God. Isaiah and Revelation also use wedding imagery, connecting marriage and celebration with their portrayals of God’s relationship with his people.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What do you notice about the woman’s longing before and after she finds her beloved?

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How does the call to respect love’s timing shape your reading of the search and wedding scenes?

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Questions people ask about Song of Songs 3

Is Song of Songs 3 a dream?

The search begins with the woman on her bed at night, which makes a dream a plausible reading. Yet she then describes getting up, searching the city, and finding her beloved without calling the scene a dream. The poem leaves the distinction between dream and waking experience open.

What does Song of Songs 3:5 mean?

The woman asks the daughters of Jerusalem to let love awaken at its own time. The appeal to roes and hinds belongs to the poem’s animal imagery, though the reason for invoking them is uncertain. The verse places a restraint on haste after the intensity of searching and reunion.

What is Solomon’s carriage in Song of Songs 3?

It is a royal conveyance described with costly materials and surrounded by sixty armed men. Its guards provide protection against danger at night. The closing verse places the display in a wedding setting, with Solomon wearing a crown given by his mother. The passage does not name the bride.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).