Song of Solomon

Song of Solomon is the twenty-second book of the Bible and the last of the wisdom books. It is also called the Song of Songs, a Hebrew expression meaning the greatest of all songs. The book is a collection of love poetry, traditionally attributed to Solomon, exchanged between a young woman and her beloved.

The poetry is unlike anything else in the Bible. There is no narrative frame, no explicit theology, no mention of God or the Law. The book is simply love poetry: passionate, sensual, sometimes explicit in its imagery of physical attraction. The two lovers describe each other's bodies in elaborate metaphors drawn from nature: gardens, fruit, flocks of sheep, mountains, rivers, spices.

The poems shift speakers frequently. Sometimes the woman speaks, sometimes the man, sometimes a chorus described as "the daughters of Jerusalem." The setting moves between vineyards, royal chambers, city streets at night, and rural landscapes. The lovers seek each other, find each other, lose each other temporarily, and find each other again.

Jewish and Christian traditions have read the book in many ways: as straightforward love poetry, as an allegory of God's love for Israel, or as an allegory of Christ's love for the church. The book itself does not specify which reading is intended.