The big picture
Season, movement, and timing dominate Song Of Solomon 2. The lovers first answer each other through flowers, fruit, shade, sweetness, and an embrace, but the scene closes with a charge that love not be stirred before it desires. Then the beloved arrives with the speed of a gazelle, and spring itself seems to gather behind his invitation: winter is gone, birds are heard, figs form, and vines give their scent. Nearness is still not automatic. A hidden dove must be called into sight and sound, and tender vines require protection from small foxes. The woman then declares reciprocal belonging before addressing the swift beloved again across the mountains. The chapter is full of abundance, but it never confuses abundance with possession of the future. Love is alive, growing, vulnerable, and still capable of movement.
Central truth
The lovers answer one another with lavish praise and images of fragrance, shelter, and delight, while the closing charge places restraint beside intense affection. The beloved's arrival and springtime lead to an invitation to come away, while tender vines and mutual belonging place care alongside eager desire.
The study notes have a page of their own
The movement by movement analysis, the words to trace, the verse by verse notes and where readers differ are written for someone studying alone. They are on the Deep Personal Reflections page for this chapter. This page is the lesson.
A chapter-specific teaching brief
These anchors come from this chapter itself. They help a teacher use the Level 1 overview, the Level 2 study, and the Scripture text as one lesson.
Open with the chapter’s first image
Song of Solomon 2:1: “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.”
Slow down at the turning point
Song of Solomon 2:17: “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.”
Keep this word trail visible
beloved, love, voice, vines, countenance, daughters
What to explain, in order
Teach the passage in this order. Each step names the verses it rests on, so every point can be shown in the text before it is applied.
Song of Solomon 1:9–2:7
Song of Solomon 1:9-11
Praise in the language of the court
Start with the comparison that makes modern readers laugh, and use the laughter. Explain that Pharaoh's chariot horses were the pride of Egypt, chosen for beauty, decked in ornaments, admired by everyone who watched them pass. Then read 1:10-11, where the ornaments become hers: rows of jewels, chains of gold, borders of gold with studs of silver. Teach this first because it trains the group in how the whole Song speaks. The poem compares one quality, splendour here, and never means the listener to picture the whole object. Once the class sees that, the harder images later will not derail them.
Song of Solomon 1:12-17
Fragrance answers fragrance
Now let the woman answer. Explain spikenard as a costly perfume, myrrh as a resin often carried in a small pouch for its scent, and camphire as henna, whose blossoms grew in the vineyards of En-gedi, an oasis by the Dead Sea. She describes her beloved as a fragrance she keeps close. Then read 1:15 and 1:16 aloud with two readers, so the group hears the same words, "Behold, thou art fair", pass from one voice to the other. Close on 1:17: our house, our beams, our rafters. The love is shared, and its home is shared.
Song of Solomon 2:1-3
From lily to shade
Read 2:1 as a modest self-description. The rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys were common flowers of the coastal plain, not rare blooms. In 2:2 the beloved takes her own image and raises it: a lily among thorns, set apart from every other young woman. In 2:3 she answers with an apple tree among the trees of the wood, and then moves from comparison to experience: she sits in his shade with great delight and tastes his fruit. Teach the step from looks to shelter. Love here is not only admiration but rest and protection.
Song of Solomon 2:4-6
A banner, a feast and an embrace
Explain the banner as a standard lifted over a tribe or company, visible to all. What is lifted over her is love, so the image is public honour, not conquest. Explain banqueting house as a house of wine, a place of celebration. Then read 2:5 slowly and explain the old words: stay means sustain, flagons were raisin cakes, sick of love means faint with it. Read 2:6 plainly and briefly; it describes an embrace and needs no commentary. Spend the time on 2:4-5, where joy and weakness meet and love supports the one who is overwhelmed.
Song of Solomon 2:7
The refrain that guards love
End the exposition here, because the Song does. After the embrace comes a solemn charge, sworn by the roes and the hinds of the field, creatures that are beautiful and easily startled. Some readers hear in these Hebrew words an echo of oath formulas that name God. Explain the charge plainly: do not stir up or awaken love until its right time. Tell the group this refrain comes back in 3:5 and 8:4, marking sections of the book. The wisdom is that desire is good and powerful, and for that reason it should not be hurried or forced.
Song of Solomon 2:8–17
Song of Solomon 2:8-9
Hear him before you see him
Read 2:8-9 aloud and ask the group to close their eyes. The beloved is announced by his voice before he is seen, then glimpsed leaping over hills, then standing behind the wall, then looking in at the windows. Explain roe and young hart as gazelle and young stag, animals of speed and grace. Explain lattice as a latticed window. Teach this first because the passage is built on movement toward her. The eagerness is the point: he does not stroll, he bounds. Let the group feel the distance closing before anyone speaks of what he says.
Song of Solomon 2:10-13
An invitation with reasons
Mark the frame: "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away" in 2:10, and the same words with arise in 2:13. Between them stands spring. Explain that in Israel the winter is the season of rain, so "the rain is over and gone" means the land is opening. Explain the turtle as the turtledove; Jeremiah 8:7 names it among birds that "observe the time of their coming". Green figs and blossoming vines complete the picture. Teach that the invitation woos by pointing to a world made new, and that the Song uses God's created seasons to speak of love's season.
Song of Solomon 2:14
Come out and speak
Now the image turns: she is a dove hidden in the clefts of the rock and in the secret places of the stairs, which may mean steep terraces or cliffs. He asks to see her countenance and to hear her voice, and says both are lovely. Teach this verse on its own because it guards against a common distortion. Love in the Song wants the whole person, voice as well as face, and the woman's speech is treasured. Point out that she does answer, in 2:15-17, and that her words close the chapter.
Song of Solomon 2:15
Guard what is tender
Explain foxes as small animals that dig and gnaw in vineyards, doing most harm when the vines are in blossom. The text does not name who speaks this line; readers suggest the woman, the couple together, or friends. Its point is plain: love in its tender season needs protection from small threats. Teach the image before the application, then label any application clearly, such as neglect, unkindness or careless words. Notice the plural our vines: the care belongs to both, and that shared ownership sets up the next verse.
Song of Solomon 2:16-17
Belonging that still longs
Read 2:16 slowly: "My beloved is mine, and I am his". Tell the group to remember this line, because it returns changed in 6:3 and again in 7:10, and the changes are worth watching. Readers who hear God and Israel in the Song note how close this sounds to the covenant promise, I will be your God and you will be my people. Then read 2:17, where she still calls him to come like a gazelle until the day breaks. Bether may mean a cleft or separation; its location is unknown. Close by saying that belonging and longing are both true at once.
Where learners get stuck
The misreadings this passage tends to produce, and how to answer each from the text.
Song of Solomon 1:9–2:7
"Comparing her to a horse is an insult."
Read 1:9 inside its setting. The horses are Pharaoh's, the finest in the world, and 1:10-11 goes straight on to jewels and gold. In this poetry a comparison points to one quality, here splendour and the way she draws every eye. Ask the group what a modern equivalent might be, then return to the text. Nothing in 1:9-11 mocks her; it is the opening of a long exchange of admiration.
"The rose of Sharon is Jesus, so this verse is about him."
In the poem the words of 2:1 most naturally belong to the woman, and in 2:2 the beloved takes up her lily image. Hymns that call Christ the Rose of Sharon belong to the long Christian reading of the Song as the love of Christ and his church, and they may be sung gladly. Say clearly that this is a devotional reading the church has held, not something 2:1 itself states, and teach the plain sense first.
"'Till he please' means you wait until the man decides."
The charge in 2:7 is about love itself not being awakened before its time, and many translations render the last words as until it please. The point is timing and readiness, not one partner's will ruling the other. The woman herself gives the charge, after praising a love that is mutual all through 1:12-2:6. Teach that the refrain protects both people, and that it gives nobody permission to push or to control.
"If the Bible has to warn us in 2:7, desire must be dangerous and bad."
The same passage celebrates delight without embarrassment: shade, fruit, a banquet and an embrace in 2:3-6. The charge follows the joy; it does not cancel it. Fire is good in a hearth and harmful when it spreads out of place, and the Song treats love in a similar way. Teach the group to hold both truths the text holds: desire is a gift, and a gift worth waiting for.
Song of Solomon 2:8–17
"A turtle singing in verse 12 must be a mistake."
In older English a turtle is a turtledove, the bird, as in Leviticus 1:14. Its soft call was one of the first sounds of spring, and Jeremiah 8:7 says these birds know their seasons. Read 2:12 again with that in mind and the line makes sense: "the voice of the turtle is heard in our land", along with flowers and singing birds, means the year has turned.
"The little foxes are particular sins, or the devil."
The verse names foxes, vines and tender grapes and nothing more. Preachers have long used it as an image of small sins that spoil fruitfulness, and that is a fair application when labelled as one. But 2:15 does not say which threats are meant. Teach the plain picture first: love in its tender season needs protecting. Then let any application be offered as an application, never as the verse's hidden meaning.
"'Come away' means she has to go whenever he calls."
The invitation in 2:10-13 begins with tender names and gives reasons; it woos rather than commands. And the woman is not silent: in 2:16-17 she answers in her own words, declares mutual belonging and calls him in turn. The Song presents love as freely given on both sides. Nothing in this passage gives one partner the right to demand compliance from the other.
"'My beloved is mine' means she owns him."
The sentence does not stop there: "My beloved is mine, and I am his" (2:16). Belonging runs both ways. In 6:3 she reverses the order, and in 7:10 she says only that she is his and that his desire is toward her. Mutual belonging in the Song is a gift each person gives, not a claim of property either person holds over the other.
Learning objectives
- Identify the exchange of praise between the lovers.
- Explain the purpose of the horse and jewel images.
- Trace fragrance, shade, fruit, and banquet imagery.
- Distinguish poetic comparison from literal description.
- Locate the embrace and the concluding charge.
- Separate the passage's speakers from later devotional identifications.
- Trace the beloved's approach from hills to the wall.
- Identify the repeated invitation to rise and come away.
- Name the season's sights, sounds, and scents.
- Explain the request to see a face and hear a voice.
- Distinguish literal foxes from possible figurative threats.
- Describe the mutual belonging stated in verse 16.
Teacher preparation
- Read 1:9–2:7 continuously so the chapter division does not separate the exchange of praise.
- Explain 'stay me' in 2:5 as a request for support; the woman is overwhelmed with love, not reporting hatred of it.
- Prepare cards for horses, jewels, fragrance, trees, and a banquet; do not assemble a literal portrait.
- Keep the KJV wording 'till he please' in 2:7 visible when discussing the refrain's interpretation.
- Plan an unembarrassed but restrained tone; avoid romantic role-play, body comparisons, and questions about participants' intimate lives.
- Read 2:7–17; trace restraint followed by eager approach without assuming the refrain ends the relationship.
- Explain 'turtle' in 2:12 as a turtledove, not a reptile; let the sound remain part of the spring setting.
- Chart voice, flowers, figs, scent, and movement; avoid confidently mapping Bether.
- Mark the repeated invitation in 2:10,13 and the shared 'us' and 'our' in 2:15.
- Use fictional invitations and protective actions; never require learners to name personal relationships or supposed 'foxes'.
Evidence and interpretation checks
Explicit
Point to Song of Solomon 1:15–16: praise is exchanged; 2:3–6 describes shade, fruit, a banquet, support, and an embrace. Point to Song of Solomon 2:10–14: the beloved twice invites her to come away and asks to see her countenance and hear her voice.
Scripture-supported
Read Song of Solomon 2:7 with 3:5 and 8:4: the repeated charge places protection or restraint alongside the poem's strong desire. Read Song of Solomon 2:16 with 6:3: reciprocal belonging is expressed in both directions, rather than only as one person's claim upon another.
Strong inference
Infer from Song of Solomon 1:13–2:4 that the sensory images convey treasured closeness and delight rather than supplying a literal portrait. Infer from Song of Solomon 2:11–15 that seasonal flourishing heightens both opportunity and vulnerability; tender grapes are precisely what the foxes threaten.
Possible or traditional reading
Present identifying the rose of Sharon in Song of Solomon 2:1 directly with Christ as a devotional reading; the passage itself does not name Christ. Present the little foxes in Song of Solomon 2:15 as possibly representing threats to affection; no specific sins, relatives, or spiritual beings are identified.
Limit
State that Song of Solomon 1:9–2:7 gives no botanical certainty about every flower and no timetable for every relationship or permission for unwanted touch. State that Song of Solomon 2:11–17 does not promise that every difficult season ends on a predictable schedule or identify the exact location of Bether.
Discussion with answer guidance
1. What does comparing the woman to Pharaoh's horses accomplish in this exchange?
What a good answer contains
It says she is the most striking sight imaginable: "I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots" (1:9). Egypt's chariot horses were the finest and most richly harnessed in the ancient world, and 1:10-11 continues the picture with jewels, chains of gold and studs of silver. A good answer hears royal admiration in an older idiom. A weak answer hears an insult or a description of her shape, which misses how comparison works in this poetry.
Show teacher guidance
Read 1:9–11 as lavish praise alongside jewels and precious metals; resist treating an unfamiliar compliment as an insult or veterinary description.
2. How does the woman's answer make the admiration reciprocal?
What a good answer contains
She answers praise with praise. Her spikenard sends out its fragrance while the king sits at his table (1:12), and she says, "A bundle of myrrh is my wellbeloved unto me" (1:13), a fragrance carried close. Then the lines mirror each other: "Behold, thou art fair, my love" (1:15) and "Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant" (1:16). A strong answer notices the echo and the shared "our" of 1:16-17. A weak answer has the man speaking and the woman only listening.
Show teacher guidance
Use 1:12–16: she describes the beloved through fragrance and declares him fair and pleasant; praise is not flowing in only one direction.
3. What changes when the imagery moves from a lily to an apple tree's shade?
What a good answer contains
The images move from distinction to shelter. She calls herself "the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys" (2:1), a wildflower of the plain. He lifts the image: "As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters" (2:2). She answers with a tree, and then rest: "I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste" (2:3). A good answer sees beauty become safety and delight. A weak answer forces all three verses into one voice.
Show teacher guidance
Trace 2:1–3 from distinguished beauty to shade, delight, and sweetness; avoid forcing all the lines into one speaker's mouth.
4. What does the banner over the banquet declare?
What a good answer contains
It declares love publicly: "He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love" (2:4). A banner was raised over a company so everyone could see whose it was. Here what is raised over her is love itself, not a claim of ownership. Banqueting house is literally a house of wine, a place of feasting and joy. A good answer hears honour and open commitment. A weak answer makes her a captured prize under a conqueror's flag.
Show teacher guidance
Answer from 2:4: love; distinguish the image from a claim that the woman has become a military possession.
5. Why place support and an embrace after the banquet?
What a good answer contains
Because joy this great overwhelms her: "Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love" (2:5). Stay means hold me up; the flagons are usually understood as cakes of raisins, food for the faint. Sick of love means faint with love, not tired of it. Then 2:6 gives the embrace that steadies her. A good answer sees care meeting weakness. A weak answer treats lovesickness as an illness to diagnose or as a feeling every believer must produce.
Show teacher guidance
Use 2:5–6 to describe overwhelming affection and care; do not convert poetic lovesickness into a diagnosis or required emotional performance.
6. What does the charge to Jerusalem's daughters add after such delight?
What a good answer contains
It adds restraint at the very height of delight: "I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please" (2:7). The charge returns in 3:5 and 8:4, so it is a deliberate refrain. Most readers hear: do not stir love before its right time. A good answer holds delight and patience together. A weak answer turns the verse into a dating timetable or ignores it.
Show teacher guidance
Locate 2:7's restraint and retain its KJV wording; explain proposed readings without replacing the verse with a modern dating schedule.
7. How is the beloved first announced before the invitation is quoted?
What a good answer contains
First by sound, then by sight, coming nearer each time: "The voice of my beloved" and "behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills" (2:8). Then he is "like a roe or a young hart", then "behind our wall", then looking "at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice" (2:9). A good answer traces the movement from far hills to the lattice. A weak answer jumps straight to the invitation and misses the eagerness the approach conveys.
Show teacher guidance
Follow 2:8–9: voice, bounding movement, and appearance behind the wall; notice how the approach becomes increasingly close.
8. What makes the repeated invitation more than a bare command to move?
What a good answer contains
It is spoken with affection and given reasons. He calls her "my love, my fair one" before he asks anything (2:10), and then explains: "For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone" (2:11). The invitation is repeated word for word in 2:13, framing the signs of spring. A strong answer hears an invitation that woos and explains. A weak answer reduces it to an order she must obey, which the gentle address and the reasons do not support.
Show teacher guidance
Use the affectionate address and seasonal reasons in 2:10–13; distinguish loving invitation from entitlement to compliance.
9. Which signs of spring can be seen, heard, and smelled?
What a good answer contains
Seen: "The flowers appear on the earth" and the fig tree putting forth green figs. Heard: "the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land" (2:12). Smelled: "the vines with the tender grape give a good smell" (2:13). The turtle is the turtledove, a bird whose return marked spring. A good answer gathers all three senses. A weak answer misses the turtledove or lets spring become mere decoration.
Show teacher guidance
Name flowers and figs, birds and the turtledove, and fragrant vines in 2:12–13; do not let the turtle become a singing reptile.
10. Why ask for both the woman's face and her voice in verse 14?
What a good answer contains
Because he wants all of her presence, not only a sight of her: "let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely" (2:14). She is pictured as a dove hidden "in the clefts of the rock", and he asks her to come out and speak. A good answer notices that her voice is praised as warmly as her face. A weak answer reduces her to something looked at.
Show teacher guidance
Notice that both countenance and speech are praised; reject summaries that reduce the woman to something merely looked at.
11. What makes the foxes dangerous even though they are little?
What a good answer contains
They spoil the vines just when the vines are most vulnerable: "Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes" (2:15). Small animals do great damage to blossoms that will not come again that year. Notice our vines; the care is shared. A good answer explains the image first and then offers any application as an application, such as small neglected things harming love. A weak answer decodes the foxes as named sins or people.
Show teacher guidance
Point to vulnerable vines and tender grapes in 2:15; label any analogy about a relationship as an application, not a supplied decoding key.
12. How do belonging and the final request coexist in verses 16–17?
What a good answer contains
She states mutual belonging, "My beloved is mine, and I am his" (2:16), and in the next breath still calls him: "turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether" (2:17). Assurance and longing live side by side. A good answer sees that belonging does not end desire. A weak answer makes 2:16 the end of the poem's movement, or claims to know where Bether lies.
Show teacher guidance
Read her mutual declaration and her continuing address to the beloved; assurance does not silence desire or remove all movement from the poem.
Responsible application
Heart and habits
Ask learners to compare a fictional compliment that notices a person with one that merely ranks appearances against other people.
Relationships and community
Have a group describe how friends can respect a couple's privacy and pace rather than pressuring them to perform affection publicly.
Praise without possession
Invite a fictional exchange in which both people can speak appreciation and express boundaries without one voice overwhelming the other.
Care for tender growth
Invite an explicitly labeled analogy connecting neglected small problems with the vulnerable vines; forbid naming real people as foxes.
Session plans
Two timings of the same lesson. The shorter keeps the reading, the central discussion and one response; the longer gives the confusions and the application their own time.
Song of Solomon 1:9–2:7
45 minutes
A strange compliment
Read 1:9-11. Ask question one and handle confusion one quickly, so the group learns how comparison works in the Song.
Two voices, one echo
Read 1:12-17 with two readers taking 1:15 and 1:16. Ask question two and point out our house in 1:17.
Lily, thorns and shade
Read 2:1-3. Ask question three, then take confusion two about the rose of Sharon with a clear, kind answer.
Banner, feast and the charge
Read 2:4-7. Ask questions four, five and six, and work through confusion three on till he please.
Response and handout
Take the application on praise without possession, read the key verse together, give out the sheet and pray.
90 minutes
Compliments then and now
Ask the group for compliments that would sound odd in another century. Then read 1:9 and let them hear one from three thousand years ago.
Horses and gold
Read 1:9-11. Ask question one and take confusion one. Explain why Egyptian chariot horses were admired.
Fragrance answers fragrance
Read 1:12-17. Explain spikenard, myrrh, camphire and En-gedi. Ask question two with two readers for 1:15-16.
From lily to shade
Read 2:1-3. Ask question three, then confusion two. Let the group sing or read a familiar hymn line only after the plain sense is clear.
Banner and support
Read 2:4-6. Ask questions four and five. Read Proverbs 5:18-19 as another place where Scripture blesses delight in marriage.
The refrain
Read 2:7, then 3:5 and 8:4. Ask question six and take confusions three and four together.
Application
In small groups, work one application. The friends and privacy application suits mixed groups best.
Handout and prayer
Read the key verse together, point to the take-home line, and thank God for love that is both joyful and patient.
Song of Solomon 2:8–17
45 minutes
The voice and the approach
Read 2:8-9 with eyes closed. Ask question one and trace hills, wall, windows and lattice on the board.
Spring as a reason
Read 2:10-13. Ask questions two and three, fill a three-column chart for sight, sound and smell, and clear up confusion one.
Face and voice
Read 2:14. Ask question four and take confusion three, showing that the woman answers in her own words.
Foxes and belonging
Read 2:15-17. Ask questions five and six, and handle confusion two by separating the image from labelled applications.
Response and handout
Use the application on care for tender growth, read the key verse together and close in prayer.
90 minutes
Signs of a season
Ask the group what tells them spring has come where they live. List the answers to compare with 2:11-13.
He comes leaping
Read 2:8-9 aloud. Ask question one and explain roe, hart and lattice.
Rise up and come away
Read 2:10-13. Ask questions two and three, read Jeremiah 8:7, and take confusion one. Compare the group's list of spring signs.
The hidden dove
Read 2:14. Ask question four and discuss why her voice matters as much as her face.
Little foxes
Read 2:15. Ask question five and work through confusion two, writing image and application in separate columns.
Mine and his
Read 2:16-17, then 6:3 and 7:10. Ask question six and take confusions three and four together.
Application
Work the applications in pairs. Forbid naming real people as foxes, and share one labelled application each.
Handout and prayer
Read the key verse together, point to the take-home line, and pray for love that is protected in its tender seasons.
Adapting the lesson
Song of Solomon 1:9–2:7
Children
Bring a flower and a picture of a big shady tree. Read 2:2-3 and talk about how a lily stands out among thorns, and how shade feels on a hot day. Explain that this is a song about a husband and wife who love each other, and that God made such love good. Many children know the chorus about his banner; say that the words come from 2:4.
Youth
Use the old compliments in 1:9-11 to open a conversation about how people speak about each other, especially online. Then show how the Song's praise honours a person rather than ranking bodies. Give the most time to 2:7 and its repetition: desire is good, and it is wise not to rush it. Keep the discussion general and never ask about anyone's relationships.
Adults
Spend time on how ancient imagery works, using the horses, spices and plants, and on the refrain of 2:7 as a structural marker through the book. Present the reading that hears Christ and the church in 2:1-4 alongside the marriage reading, and let the group see where each starts. For married adults, 1:15-16 is a picture of mutual honour worth naming.
One to one
Read 1:9-2:7 aloud together and ask which image is the hardest to picture and which is the most beautiful. Let the conversation stay with the text. If the person is waiting, single or longing for marriage, 2:7 can be heard as wisdom rather than as a rebuke. Do not press for personal details, and let the person lead any application.
Song of Solomon 2:8–17
Children
Bring pictures of flowers, birds, figs and grapes, and let the children find each one in 2:11-13. Talk about how God made the seasons change. Then read 2:15 and ask how little foxes could spoil a vineyard. Ask what small things can spoil a friendship, like unkind words. Say simply that this is a song of love between a husband and wife.
Youth
Contrast an invitation that gives reasons and room to answer with pressure that does not. Use 2:10-14 and notice that the woman's voice is asked for and answered in 2:16-17. Then use 2:15 to talk about small things that damage friendships and trust, such as gossip or broken promises. Keep the application general, and never let anyone be named as a fox.
Adults
Note that the synagogue reads the Song at Passover, in spring, and that 2:11-13 is one reason it suits the season. Christian readers have heard Christ calling his church out of winter, and others read a husband's tender invitation. Present these readings side by side. For married adults, the little foxes give a natural opening to talk about the small, neglected things that spoil love.
One to one
Read 2:8-17 together and ask which line the person would most like to hear spoken to them. If they are in a hard season, let 2:11 be heard as a picture of winter ending, without promising them a date. If they mention a relationship, use 2:15 gently and ask what tender thing in their life needs guarding.
Song and video learning lab
A song or video may interpret, compress, or dramatize the text. Its value becomes clearer when its choices are compared with Scripture.
- Before the media: the exact passage and its central movement.
- During the media: the words, people, events, and emotions the artist emphasizes.
- After the media: what it clarifies, what it leaves out, and what belongs back in the biblical text.
Handout
One page for learners to take home. The print button prints this section alone.
Song of Solomon 1:9–2:7
The passage in brief
In this part of the Song of Solomon the two lovers praise each other. He compares her to the splendid horses of Pharaoh and to a lily among thorns. She speaks of him as fragrance, as an apple tree giving shade, and as one who brings her to a feast where his banner over her is love. Then she charges the young women of Jerusalem not to stir up love until its right time.
A verse to keep
He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.
Song of Solomon 2:4 · King James Version
Questions to take home
How do the two lovers answer each other in 1:15-16?
What do you think it means that the banner over her was love?
Why might the Song warn against stirring up love before its time in 2:7?
This week
Give one person this week a specific, honouring word of praise that notices who they are, not only how they look.
Song of Solomon 2:8–17
The passage in brief
The woman hears the voice of the one she loves and sees him coming swiftly over the hills to her window. He invites her to rise and come away, because winter is past, the flowers have appeared, the birds are singing and the vines are in blossom. He asks to see her face and hear her voice. She asks for the little foxes that spoil the vines to be caught, and says, my beloved is mine, and I am his.
A verse to keep
My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.
Song of Solomon 2:16 · King James Version
Questions to take home
What signs of spring does the beloved give in 2:11-13?
Why do you think he asks to hear her voice as well as see her face in 2:14?
What small things might spoil something good and tender, as the foxes spoil the vines in 2:15?
This week
Name one small, neglected thing that is harming a good relationship in your life, and deal with it this week.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
