Era 6 · The First KingsSong of Songs
Song of Songs 3: The Night Search and the Royal Procession
Seeking him whom my soul loves, the watchmen, and Solomon's litter on his wedding day
"By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not" (3:1). Four times in four verses she says "him whom my soul loveth." "I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him… but I found him not" (v. 2).
"The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth? It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me" (vv. 3–4). The refrain follows: "stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please" (v. 5).
"Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?" (v. 6). "Behold his bed, which is Solomon's; threescore valiant men are about it… They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night" (vv. 7–8).
"King Solomon made himself a chariot (appiryon) of the wood of Lebanon. He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem" (vv. 9–10). "Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart" (v. 11).
Read 3:1–11 without labels: the bed at night, the city streets, the watchmen, finding him, the mother's house, the refrain; then the smoke from the wilderness, the litter, the sixty warriors, the cedar and gold, the crowned king.
The Hebrew has no speaker names. Readers work out who is speaking from the grammar, which marks gender in "you" and "my" forms and in many verbs.
| Lines | Proposed voice | Clue in the Hebrew |
|---|---|---|
| 3:1–5 | The woman | First-person feminine verbs ("I sought," "I found"); "him whom my soul loves" (masculine). |
| 3:6 | Unclear: a chorus, the woman, or the daughters | "Who is this (feminine: zot) coming up?" The feminine may refer to the litter or to a woman in it. |
| 3:7–10 | Unclear: the same voice or a narrator | Description in the third person. |
| 3:11 | The woman, or a chorus | Addresses the "daughters of Zion" (feminine plural imperative). |
These labels are the site's editorial suggestion, following the grammar where it is clear. Where the grammar is not clear, the label says so. No ancient Hebrew manuscript carries them.
| Verses | What it says | What to notice |
|---|---|---|
| 3:1–2 | On her bed at night she seeks him; rises and searches the streets and squares | Dreamlike; "by night" can mean "night after night." |
| 3:3 | The watchmen find her; she asks them | City watchmen patrolled walls and streets (Isaiah 62:6; Psalm 127:1). Here they do no harm; compare 5:7. |
| 3:4 | She finds him, holds him, brings him to her mother's house | The "mother's house" appears again in 8:2 (and Ruth 1:8; Genesis 24:28): a woman's sphere. |
| 3:5 | Refrain: do not awaken love until it pleases | Second occurrence. |
| 3:6 | Who is this coming up from the wilderness like columns of smoke, myrrh and frankincense? | "Coming up from the wilderness" recurs in 8:5. |
| 3:7–8 | Solomon's couch; sixty warriors with swords against terrors of the night | Royal security; sixty is twice David's thirty (2 Samuel 23). |
| 3:9–10 | The appiryon of Lebanon wood: silver posts, gold back, purple seat, inlaid with love | Appiryon is rare and debated: litter, palanquin, or pavilion. |
| 3:11 | Daughters of Zion: see King Solomon in the crown his mother gave on his wedding day | The only mention of a wedding day in the book. |
Royal litters and processions
Ancient kings and nobles traveled in carried chairs and canopied litters: Egyptian reliefs show pharaohs and queens borne on carrying chairs; Assyrian reliefs show royal chariots and parasols; Persian and later Hellenistic courts used ornate litters. Perfume and incense smoke marked royal and religious processions. The Song's litter of cedar, silver, gold and purple is an image of royal splendor drawn from this world; no surviving object is connected with it.
The mother's house
Strikingly, the Song speaks of the woman's "mother's house" (3:4; 8:2) rather than her father's house, the usual term for a family household (beit av). The phrase also appears when Rebekah runs to "her mother's house" (Genesis 24:28) and when Naomi tells her daughters-in-law to return "each to her mother's house" (Ruth 1:8). These contexts concern marriage and women's perspectives. In the Song it is where the woman brings her beloved: a place of family, safety and intimacy that she chooses.
Read as poetry, 3:1–5 is a dream or night-fantasy of loss and recovery, told with the urgency of repetition ("him whom my soul loveth" four times). 3:6–11 is a public spectacle: a wedding procession of Solomon. Whether the woman is the bride in the litter, whether she watches it, or whether the procession is a fantasy of grandeur set against her own simpler love, the poem does not say.
Wedding processions with music, perfume and the bridegroom crowned are attested in later Jewish custom (the Mishnah mentions bridegrooms' crowns, Sotah 9:14, abolished after a war). Royal weddings like the one in Psalm 45 include perfumed robes and attendants. The appiryon may derive from Greek phoreion (litter), which would point to a Hellenistic-period word, or from Persian or Sanskrit roots; the etymology is unresolved.
The Targum reads the night search as Israel in the wilderness, and the litter of 3:7–10 as Solomon's temple, with the sixty warriors as the priests or the sixty letters of the priestly blessing. Rabbinic midrash connects the "day of his espousals" with the giving of the Torah at Sinai and "the day of the gladness of his heart" with the dedication of the temple (Mishnah Ta'anit 4:8).
Christian interpreters read the night search as the soul seeking Christ (Bernard's sermons on 3:1 were among his last), and the litter as the church or as the cross carrying Christ; the crown "wherewith his mother crowned him" was linked by some medieval writers with the crown of thorns. These are typological readings developed from the patristic period onward.
3:10: "paved with love"
The Hebrew tokho ratsuf ahavah mi-benot yerushalayim reads literally "its interior inlaid (with) love from the daughters of Jerusalem." Love as inlay material is odd; some scholars emend ahavah to hovnim (ebony) or read it as "leather" from a homonym. The library's Greek has "the interior paved with stones (lithostroton), love from the daughters of Jerusalem" (Giguet: "pavé de pierres précieuses, amour des filles de Jérusalem"); the Vulgate "the middle he spread with charity, for the daughters of Jerusalem." The KJV follows the Hebrew. The passage page sets out the readings; none is certain.
Is the procession Solomon's own wedding?
Verse 11 names "the day of his espousals," so most readers see Solomon's wedding. Some read the whole chapter as a dramatic contrast: the woman's shepherd-lover against Solomon's harem (the "three-character" or "shepherd hypothesis," popular in the 19th century). Others think the lovers imagine themselves as king and bride. 1 Kings records Solomon's marriage to Pharaoh's daughter (3:1) and his many wives (11:3); the Song names no bride.
What the evidence shows
- The Song names Solomon's wedding day (3:11) but no bride.
- Appiryon (3:9) is a Greek loanword (phoreion). One proposal among Greek, Persian and Indian derivations.
- The meaning of 3:10 "paved with love" is uncertain. Greek, Latin and modern readings differ.
- The Targum reads Solomon's litter as the temple. C check.Source: Targum of the Song of Songs (Aramaic; date debated, often placed in the 7th–8th centuries)
Continue the journey
Journey of a PassageSong of Songs 3:1–5: The night search: "him whom my soul loveth"On her bed at night she seeks the one her soul loves, rises, searches the city, questions the watchmen, finds him and brings him to her mother's house.More from this lesson
Why this matters to the rest of Scripture
- Perfumed robes, a royal bride brought with her companions.
- 1 Kings 3:1; 11:1–3Solomon's marriages.
- Genesis 24:28; Ruth 1:8"Her mother's house."
- Watchmen on Jerusalem's walls.
- "As a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments": bridegroom's headdress.