page_title: Song of Songs 4
section_title: Male: First descriptive poem and call to come along (4:1-8)
hierarchical_section_title: Song of Songs 4 / Structure / Male: First descriptive poem and call to come along (4:1-8)
caption_attribution_description: Satellite image of Lebanon in March 2002.
context_page_description: Song of Songs 4 is the fourth chapter of the Song of Songs in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book is one of the Five Megillot, a collection of short books, together with Book of Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther, within the Ketuvim, the third and the last part of the Hebrew Bible. Jewish tradition views Solomon as the author of this book, and this attribution influences the acceptance of this book as a canonical text, although this is at present largely disputed. This chapter contains the man's descriptive poem of the woman's body and the invitation to be together which is accepted by the woman.
context_section_description: The beginning (verse 1a) and the end (verse 8a) of this part contain repeated lines that 'frame an address of endearment': "my darling/[my] bride." Verses 1-7 contain the man's waṣf or descriptive poem of his female lover from head to breast, using imagery of flora and fauna, with a few of 'fortifications and military weapons'. Verses 2 and 5 begin and end this imagery with comparisons with animals, such as sheep and fawns, whereas verses 6-8 focus on the desire of the male speaker to visit "the mountain of myrrh" and to be joined there by his partner, expressing his desire in terms of a sensual pursuit with his lover's body as a mountain on which he finds perfumes.
  Verse 7 concludes with a summary statement of the woman's perfection and invitation to his bride to 'come away from the impregnable heights and to join him'.
  This waṣf and the later ones (5:10-16; 6:4-10; 7:1-9) theologically demonstrate the heart of the Song that values the body as not evil but good even worthy of praise, and respects the body with an appreciative focus (rather than lurid). Hess notes that this reflects 'the fundamental value of God's creation as good and the human body as a key part of that creation, whether at the beginning (Genesis 1:26-28) or redeemed in the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:42, 44)'. While verse 7a is in parallel with verse 1a  forming an inclusio as well as a sense of closure to this part of the poem, verse 7b follows the positive assertion of the woman's beauty with a more negative assertion that "she has no blemish or defect" (mûm; referring to physical imperfection; cf. the use in the sacrificial ritual, Leviticus 22:20-21, 25: Deuteronomy 17:1), which is similar to the reference to Absalom (2 Samuel 14:25) or Daniel and his three
  friends in the court of Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 1:4).
caption: Satellite image of Lebanon. The snow-covered areas nearer the coast are the Mount Lebanon range and the snow-covered areas further inland are the Anti-Lebanon mountain range.
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