Catholic Commentary on Song of Songs 1

"Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth - for your love is more delightful than wine." (Song of Songs 1:2)

The Song of Songs

The Song of Songs is the most unexpected book in the Bible: a collection of love poetry celebrating human erotic love with unashamed beauty and directness. Its presence in Scripture has challenged interpreters across the centuries. The Jewish tradition, following Rabbi Akiva, calls it the Holy of Holies among the sacred writings. The Christian tradition, following Origen and Bernard of Clairvaux, reads it as the allegory of the love between God and the soul, Christ and the Church. Both readings are correct: the Song is simultaneously a celebration of human conjugal love and a figure of the divine love that all human love reflects.

The bride speaks first: let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth - for your love is more delightful than wine. Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the young women love you! Take me away with you - let us hurry. She describes herself: dark am I, yet lovely, daughters of Jerusalem. She had been made to tend the vineyards but neglected her own. She asks where her beloved grazes his flock at midday.

The Catechism identifies the Song of Songs as the scriptural celebration of the goodness of human sexuality within the covenant of marriage and the figure of the spousal love between God and his people (CCC 2362).

Living the Word

Brothers and sisters, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth - the Scripture opens with erotic desire expressed without shame, because the desire is within its proper covenant context. The gift of human sexuality is not a concession to weakness but a feature of the image of God who is Love. Receive the gift within the covenant with the same gratitude with which the bride receives her beloved.

Prayer

Lord God, you created human love as a reflection of your own. Let every expression of covenant love between husband and wife be received as the gift you designed it to be. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Song
1
The Bride Confesses Her Love
(Ephesians 5:22-33; 1 Peter 3:1-7)
1 This is Solomon’s Song of Songs.* 1:1 Most translators add subheadings for speaker identifications such as The Bride, The Groom, and The Friends based on the gender and number of the Hebrew words.
The Bride
 
2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!
For your love is more delightful than wine.
3 The fragrance of your perfume is pleasing;
your name is like perfume poured out.
No wonder the maidens adore you.
 
4 Take me away with you-let us hurry!
May the king bring me to his chambers.
The Friends
 
We will rejoice and delight in you;
we will praise your love more than wine.
The Bride
 
It is only right that they adore you.
 
5 I am dark, yet lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem,
like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.
6 Do not stare because I am dark,
for the sun has gazed upon me.
My mother’s sons were angry with me;
they made me a keeper of the vineyards,
but my own vineyard I have neglected.
 
7 Tell me, O one I love,
where do you pasture your sheep?
Where do you rest them at midday?
Why should I be like a veiled woman
beside the flocks of your companions?
The Friends
 
8 If you do not know, O fairest of women,
follow the tracks of the flock,
and graze your young goats
near the tents of the shepherds.
The Bridegroom
 
9 I compare you, my darling,
to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots.
10 Your cheeks are beautiful with ornaments,
your neck with strings of jewels.
The Friends
 
11 We will make you ornaments of gold,
studded with beads of silver.
The Bride
 
12 While the king was at his table,
my perfume spread its fragrance.
13 My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh
resting between my breasts.
14 My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms
in the vineyards of En-gedi.
The Bridegroom
 
15 How beautiful you are, my darling!
Oh, how very beautiful!
Your eyes are like doves.
The Bride
 
16 How handsome you are, my beloved!
Oh, how delightful!
The soft grass is our bed.
The Bridegroom
 
17 The beams of our house are cedars;
our rafters are fragrant firs.

*1:1 1:1 Most translators add subheadings for speaker identifications such as The Bride, The Groom, and The Friends based on the gender and number of the Hebrew words.

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