Books of the Bible

The Book of Song of Solomon

Old Testament · Wisdom and Poetry · Genre: Poetry · Author: Traditionally Solomon · Chapters: 8

The Song of Solomon is a beautiful poem celebrating love between a bride and her beloved. Tender and unashamed, it honors the goodness of faithful, devoted love as a gift of God, and has long been read as well as a picture of the love between God and his people.

Start reading: Song of Solomon chapter 1

A key verse

He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.Song of Solomon 2:4 (KJV)

The setting and background of Song of Solomon

The Song of Solomon, also called the Song of Songs, is a book of poetry unlike any other in the Bible, a lyrical celebration of love between a bride and her beloved. It is traditionally attributed to Solomon, whose name appears in its opening line. Its title, the Song of Songs, is a Hebrew way of saying the greatest of songs, marking it as a masterpiece of sacred poetry.

The book is a series of poems or an unfolding dialogue between two lovers, with other voices woven in, moving through longing, courtship, delight, separation, and reunion. It honors the goodness of married love and desire without shame, and its climactic lines exalt love as strong as death, a flame that many waters cannot quench. Its refrain of mutual belonging captures a love that gives itself wholly.

The Song was written to celebrate one of God's good gifts, the faithful love between husband and wife, affirming the goodness of the body and of marriage. Throughout history readers in both the synagogue and the church have also heard in it an echo of God's covenant love for his people. In the sweep of Scripture, where God likens his bond with his people to a marriage, the Song points to the love of Christ for his church, his bride.

The story and structure of Song of Solomon

The Song is unlike anything else in the Bible, a lyric poem, or a series of poems, exchanged between two lovers, a bride and her beloved, with the voices of others woven in. It moves through longing, courtship, delight, separation, and reunion, celebrating love with a frankness and beauty that has moved readers for millennia.

It honors human love and marriage as good and beautiful, part of God's own design, and speaks of the delight of the lovers in one another without either crudeness or shame. In a world quick to cheapen or to despise the body, the Song affirms that the love between husband and wife is a good gift to be treasured.

The love it celebrates is not fleeting infatuation but devotion, exclusive and faithful. Its most famous lines declare love to be as strong as death, a flame that many waters cannot quench, and its refrain of belonging, I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine, captures a love that gives itself wholly and holds nothing back.

The Song also guards the goodness of love by counseling patience, urging that love not be awakened before its time. It presents desire as something precious and powerful, to be honored within faithful commitment rather than squandered, and so it teaches wisdom about one of the deepest and most vulnerable parts of human life.

Throughout the history of both the synagogue and the church, readers have heard in the Song an echo of a greater love, the covenant love between God and his people, and between Christ and his church. The literal celebration of human love and this deeper reading enrich rather than cancel one another, for human love itself is a sign pointing beyond itself to the love of God.

The great themes of Song of Solomon

Key passages in Song of Solomon

Song of Solomon in the sweep of Scripture

The Song of Solomon takes its place among the wisdom and poetry books as Scripture's celebration of one of life's greatest gifts, the love between husband and wife. It balances the rest of the Bible's teaching by affirming the goodness of the body and of married love as part of God's good creation. And in the larger story of Scripture, where God so often describes his bond with his people as a marriage, the Song's celebration of human love becomes a window onto the covenant love of God, and finally onto the love of Christ for his church.

Where Christ is in Song of Solomon

The faithful, self-giving love the Song celebrates points beyond itself to the love of Christ for his church, the Bridegroom who gave himself for his beloved. Scripture likens God's covenant with his people to a marriage, and the New Testament calls the church the bride of Christ, so that the Song's picture of devoted, unquenchable love finds its deepest meaning in the love that led Jesus to the cross for those he calls his own.

How to read Song of Solomon well

Read the Song as a celebration of the goodness of love, receiving its affirmation of marriage and the body as a gift rather than a source of shame. Let it teach wisdom about desire and patience, honoring love within faithful commitment. And let its picture of love as strong as death lift your heart to the greater love from which all true love flows, the love of Christ for his people, that no waters can ever quench.

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