Song of Solomon 5:2

THE MAIDEN'S SECOND TRAGIC DREAM

"I was asleep, but my heart waked:

It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying,

Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled;

For my head is filled with dew,

My locks with the drops of the night.

I have put off my garment; how shall I put it on?

I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?

My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door,

And my heart was moved for him.

I rose up to open for my beloved;

And my hands dropped with myrrh,

And my fingers with liquid myrrh,

Upon the handles of the bolt.

I opened to my beloved;

But my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone.

My soul had failed me when he spake:

I sought him, but I could not find him;

I called him, but he gave me no answer.

The watchmen that go about the city found me.

They smote me, they wounded me;

The keepers of the walls took away my mantle from me.

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, If ye find my beloved,

Tell ye him, that I am sick from love."

Waddey thought that the lover in this dream was Solomon.[8] However, the fact of his being wet with dew contradicts this idea. The words fit the Shepherd lover far better. He would indeed have slept out doors; but who can imagine Solomon's sleeping out, even in a dream?

Not many of the scholars whom we have consulted have risked any guess as to the exact meaning of this dream. That it is a dream is generally accepted; and Robinson with several others agreed that the time indicated is subsequent to the marriage.[9] Bunn pointed out that the situation indicated in the dream, "Is tragic."[10]

THE SPIRITUAL MEANING OF THE ALLEGORY

The Church is indeed married to Christ; but the Bridegroom has been taken away (Matthew 9:15); this is beautifully symbolized here by the absence of the Shepherd. The mistreatment of the maiden stands for the persecutions, hatred, and bitterness of the world against the Bride of Christ (His Church). Her being wounded speaks of the martyrdoms of the faithful. The maiden's crying after her beloved speaks of the fidelity of the Church to the Christ in his absence. We hardly need to be reminded that, "We must with many tribulations enter into the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22)."

The function of this dream in the narrative is thus clear enough. It speaks of the absence of the bridegroom, and the certainty of his identity with the Shepherd. Did not Christ say, "I am the Good Shepherd." Any alleged absence of Solomon here is an absurdity. It is the Good Shepherd who is in heaven where He is absent from the Church, his earthly bride.

Cook mentioned the Jewish understanding of the dream as a symbol of, "Israel's condition in the Babylonian captivity, when the glories and privileges of Solomon's Temple were no more."[11] Some Christian interpreters saw the bride's sleep as the lethargy and indolence of the Church following the Great Persecutions."[12] Pope also mentioned a scholar (Gordis) who took the whole passage from Song of Solomon 5:2-6:3 as a dream song.[13] That would classify the whole passage as a dream and also ease some of the difficulties of interpretation. "Any absurdity can happen in a dream"! Nevertheless, we go along with Cook on this. He said of verse 8, "The bride wakes up here."[14]

The following somewhat lengthy paragraph reaching through Song of Solomon 6:3 is interpreted by Jewish writers as, "An allegory of Israel in captivity praising God, `by the waters of Babylon.' Christian interpreters apply it directly to the Incarnate Son of God."[15]