Verse 1
"Whither is thy beloved gone,
O thou fairest among women?
Whither hath thy beloved turned him,
That we may seek him with thee?
My beloved is gone down to his garden,
To the beds of spices,
To feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.
I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine:
He feedeth his flock among the lilies."
What we have here is: (1) a question and (2) the answer. The question is from "the daughters of Jerusalem," whether understood as God's people generally, or as the members of Solomon's harem. The question:
Where is your lover that we also may seek him?
The lover described by the maiden was so glorious that the "daughters of Jerusalem" desired also to find him. This clearly denies any possibility that "the beloved" in this passage was Solomon. Nobody had to hunt him. The whole world knew exactly where he was.
Now, what is the answer to their question?
He has gone to his garden to gather lilies and to pasture his flock.
Can any stretch of imagination behold Solomon in this reply? Ridiculous! Solomon a gardener? Who could believe it? Or Solomon a shepherd pasturing his flock? A million times NO. The maiden's lover is clearly a shepherd, the Shepherd.
The rest of the Song of Solomon carries the following message:
King Solomon Fails in His Pursuit of the Shulamite[1]
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