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Song of Songs 1:3-5
New Catholic Bible
Song of Songs 1:3-5
New Catholic Bible
3 fragrant is the scent of your anointing oils.[a]
Your name is a perfume poured out,
and that is why the maidens love you.
4 Take me with you, and let us make haste;
bring me into your chamber, O king.
Companions:
We will exult and rejoice in you;[b]
we will praise your love more than wine;
how right it is to love you.
First Poem
Tell Me, You Whom My Heart Loves
Let Me Not Be Found Wandering . . .[c]
Bride:
5 I am dark[d] but lovely,
O daughters of Jerusalem,
like the tents of Kedar,
like the curtains of Salma.
Footnotes
- Song of Songs 1:3 Fragrant . . . your anointing oils: an image of the charms that attract the heart. Maidens: perhaps members of the royal court (see Song 6:8-9). They may also stand for the nations (see Isa 23:12; 37:22; 47:1; Jer 14:17).
- Song of Songs 1:5 We will exult and rejoice in you: joy is one of the greatest blessings of the Messianic prophecies of salvation (see Pss 14:7; 16:9; 21:1; Isa 9:2; 66:10; Joel 2:21, 23; Zep 3:17).
- Song of Songs 1:5 A bride separated from her bridegroom shows signs of the trial. Her entourage may no doubt give her grief concerning some weaknesses, but she rediscovers her self-esteem and decides to set out in search of her lover. Her companions form the chorus that will continuously intervene in the unfolding of these poems that are more or less arranged in the form of a drama. Hearing the calls of the bride, they jest with her and suggest that she follow the other shepherds!
Thus, far from the land from which it has been exiled as a result of too many infidelities, Israel seeks God; but how can the temptation for its people to turn toward foreign gods be rooted out? No matter what defeats may be incurred, the community of believers must unceasingly rediscover its hope on its pilgrimage to the Lord. - Song of Songs 1:5 Dark: burnt by the sun from laboring in the vineyard of her brothers. Daughters of Jerusalem: the chorus (Companions) with whom the bride and the bridegroom interact (see Song 5:9; 6:1). Kedar: name of a Bedouin tribe descended from Ishmael (Gen 25:13) that lived in the Desert of Arabia and was famous for its flocks (see Isa 60:7; Ezek 27:21).
