1By night on my bed,
I sought him whom my soul loves.
I sought him, but I didn’t find him.
2I will get up now, and go about the city;
in the streets and in the squares I will seek him whom my soul loves.
I sought him, but I didn’t find him.
3The watchmen who go about the city found me;
“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
4I had scarcely passed from them,
when I found him whom my soul loves.
I held him, and would not let him go,
until I had brought him into my mother’s house,
into the room of her who conceived me.
5I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem,
by the roes, or by the hinds of the field,
that you not stir up nor awaken love,
until it so desires.
In our passage we find the maidan lying in bed missing the one her soul and inmost being desires. She misses him so much so that she gets out of bed to roam the city, potentially in her pajamas! The woman searches the city far and wide, looking for the one her soul loves. She is stopped by the watchmen, but they hadn’t seen her love and so she moves on searching out every street and square until she finally finds him. She grabs a hold of her lover and brings him to her mother’s bed, the place where she had been conceived, which is really an odd place to take someone you love, but as you can guess is super suggestive. And just as you think things are about to surpass a PG movie there is an interruption. “Promise me, O woman of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and wild deer, not to awaken love until the time is right.”
This refrain is repeated a few times throughout the Song and it always seems to happen right as things seem to get spicy and the couple is about to consummate their marriage. In this time period, all sex was marital sex. Every act of sex was consummating a marriage. This was most likely due to the fact that there was no birth control and so every act of sex carried decent odds in creating life, but it was because of these odds and this view of marriage that sex was not taken lightly. The sustained and interrupted moment of the Song also seems to reflect the tendency of many other ancient love lyricists in Mesopotamia to focus more of their attention on the anticipation of the consummation rather than the consummation itself.
In a book that celebrates and glorifies the beauty of sexuality, this call “not to awaken love until the time is right” has always surprised me. Rather than urging us to rush love and act solely on emotion, this passage calls us to think carefully about our search for love. This passage, and book, celebrate the joys of companionshiop and passion of sex, but here calls people to wait until finding the “one whom my soul loves.” For it is in anticipation and waiting that our longing and expectation is built. It is in our waiting that this action is given meaning.