Wisdom & Poetry · Old Testament
Song of Solomon
c. 960 BC
- Section
- Wisdom & Poetry · Old Testament
- Events span
- c. 960 BC
- Written
- c. 960 BC critical view: c. 5th–3rd century BC
- Author
- Solomon critical view: Anonymous; a later anthology of love poems
The Song of Solomon is a lyrical celebration of love between a bride and her beloved — poetry of longing, delight, and devotion. It has long been read also as a picture of the love between God and his people, or Christ and the church.
Key themes
- Married love and desire
- Longing and devotion
- The beauty of covenant love
- Love as strong as death
- God's design for intimacy
The song's movement
- The bride longs for her beloved and delights in his love
- "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine" — the lovers express mutual devotion
- The bride dreams of seeking and finding her beloved in the night
- The beloved praises the bride's beauty as they come together in marriage
- The lovers seek, lose, and joyfully find one another again
- Love is declared "strong as death"; many waters cannot quench it
“Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.”