THE NIGHTMARE SONG (SONG OF SONGS 5:2-8)

 

The Nightmare Song (Song of Songs 5:2-8)

I have a rather wide and unique range of musical tastes, one of which is the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan, who were known for, among other things, their clever patter songs. One of them is the Nightmare Song from Iolanthe in which the hero dreams he is crossing the channel with his 11-year old attorney and all of his relations when the boat becomes a four-wheeled carriage and then disappears entirely so that he and the crew are on bicycles instead. The attorney then sells shares in a scheme he has to plant the feet of tradesmen in the ground so that their fingers will start growing the products they sell. At this point, the hero awakes and sings, “Oh the night has been long – ditto ditto my song. And thank goodness they're both of them over!”

Why did I bother mentioning all of that? In order to introduce another nightmare song, this one found in the Song of Songs 5:2-8. It is actually a companion piece to another, and more pleasant, dream found in that book (3:1-5), as you can see by the literary organization of the Song below.

A. Title (1:1)

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I. The Lovers Dwell Apart (1:2-7)

II. A Make-Believe House for the Lovers (1:8-2:7)

III. He Invites Her to Come Away (2:8-17)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                                                IV. Dream: Seek and Find (3:1-5)

V. Solomon's Litter Described for the

Daughters of Jerusalem (3:6-11)

VI. The Lovers in a Garden of Delight (4:1-5:1a)

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B. Benediction on the Lovers (5:1b)

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IV'. Nightmare: Seek and Not Find (5:2-8)

V'. The Hero Described for the

                                                                     Daughters of Jerusalem (5:9-16)

VI'. The Lovers in a Garden of Delight (6:1-10)

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III'. She Invites Him to Come Away (6:11-7:13)

II'. A Make-Believe House for the Lovers (8:1-4)

I'. The Lovers Dwell Apart (8:5-14)

This is not the only nightmare in the Old Testament. For example, there is the baker's dream which Joseph interprets as predicting his death, pharaoh's dream of the cannibalistic cows and stalks of grain, and several bizarre dreams in the book of Daniel. But it is the first one appearing in the form of a poetic song.

In view of Freud's thesis that dreams represent some form of wish fulfillment, one might ask why we have nightmares at all. Of course, Freud has anticipated that question and illustrated it by what he labeled the Examination Dream. Many of you may have experienced this sort of nightmare before. In its classic form, one is on the way to school to take an important test. But when you arrive, the classrooms appear to have been jumbled about so that you go down one hall after another looking for the one in which you are supposed to be. At last you find it and sit down, only to realize that in your haste you left your house without bothering to get dressed. You try to concentrate on the test anyhow, but find that it is written in a foreign language and appears to have nothing at all to do with the subject you had studied for, etc., etc.

So why would you dream such an unpleasant dream, Freud asks? The answer is that when you wake up at last and realize that it was all nonsense, you can laugh in relief and recognize that all of your concerns, however serious they may have been, will never be as bad as you have just imagined.

With that background we can look specifically at the nightmare in question, realizing that in the Song we may not necessarily be spiritually enlightened since the purpose of this particular book is more to examine human emotions than to specifically teach theology, despite what some scholars feel.

I would like to use this short passage to demonstrate the value of a good word study book in helping the reader to rightly interpret the Bible. Thus, all of the comments below come from articles in the five-volume The Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis.

Song of Songs 5:2

Hamilton explains that except for Job 41:10; Malachi 2:12; and Song of Songs 5:2 ('I slept but my heart was awake'), all other uses of 'wr ('awake') in the OT are calls to rouse someone. One such example is found in Song of Songs 4:16.

Klingbeil says, “While the 'knock' in Judg 19:22 is a violent pounding that almost breaks down the door..., in S of Songs 5:2 it is the 'knock' of the lover at the door of his beloved.”

Hamilton: “The lover in the Song of Songs refers to his beloved as his sister (S of Songs 4:9,10,12,5:1,2). In the first five of these references the expression 'my sister' is followed apositionally by 'my bride.' In the last, 5:2, it is followed by 'my darling.'” Hamilton mentions that there is no suggestion of incest here since passages in the Apocrypha also use “sister” as a term of endearment. These references include Tobit 5:20; 7:16 and additions to Esther.

Next, the lover calls her “my dove.” Kuichi comments, “Except Hos 7:11 ('Ephraim is like a dove, easily deceived and senseless'), the dove is seen symbolizing loveliness, charm, and gracefulness. Particularly in the S of Songs the dove symbolizes the beloved (S of Songs 1:15; 4:1; 5:2,12; 6:9). Although in Hos 7:11 and 11:11 the dove represents Israel, that may not be a fixed symbol since in other occurrences, such as Jer 48:28, Moabite inhabitants are likened to 'a dove that makes its nest at the mouth of a cave.'”

Lastly, she is called “perfect.” “The adj. tam occurs rarely outside the book of Job, conveying different meanings: blameless, innocent, sincere, quiet, peaceful, pious, pure, healthy, etc...In S of Songs 5:2 and 6:9 it is used as a term of endearment, namely, flawless/perfect one.”

“The meaning of qewussot as hair (only in S of Songs 5:2,11) is 'probable,' according to R.O. Murphy. The beloved hears her lover say (in a dream). 'My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night (v. 2). The woman speaks of her lover in the most glorious manner, 'His head is purest gold; his hair (qewussot) is wavy and black as a raven (v. 11).'” (Alden)

Song of Songs 5:3

The beloved next complains that she has just taken off her garment and bathed her feet. “As in Nehemiah 4:23, the verb pst ['put off'] in Song 5:3 means to take off your clothes at night before going to bed.” (Seavers)

Alden discusses the Hebrew word kuttonet (from which we probably get the English word 'cotton') by way of the Arabic cognate. “The word describes Tamar's garment in 2 Sam 13:18,19 and the robe that the Shulammite was loath to don again (S of Songs 5:30). Other references are in Job 30:18 and Isa 22:21. This garment is apparently a more specific item of clothing than those described by the root lbs. It is often a fine garment, a dressing robe, or something worn for show.”

As to “bathed,” Martens says, “Washings were sometimes of a cosmetic nature (S of Songs 5:12) and were preparatory to love-making (S of Songs 4:2; 5:3; cf. Ruth 3:3).”

Song of Songs 5:4

“hor appears 8x. It can indicate a small hole, as in 2 Kgs 12:9, where Jehoiada the priest puts a hole in the lid of a box used for contributions toward the temple repairs; Ezek 8:7, where the prophet in vision sees a hole through the temple wall; S of Songs 5:4 where (in what is perhaps a metaphor for sexual activity) the lover places his hand through a small hole in the beloved's door; and Zech 14:12, where hor is used for the eye socket.” (Tuell)

“The Writings offer much the same use of hmh as the prophets. The term is used of emotions, so S of Songs (5:4) described the woman's emotion of sexual excitement for her lover as her bowels (NIV feelings) are stirred for him.” (Domeris)

Song of Songs 5:5

As she rises to open the door, she says her hands dripped with myrrh. “The use of mor ['myrrh'] for the pure pleasure of its perfuming qualities is seen in the S of Songs. It is used to attract the lover, and is a part of several love scenes, some perhaps erotic (Prov 7:7; S of Songs 1:13; 3:6; 4:6,14; 5:5,13).” (G.H. Hall)

Naude adds, “If the female enticements, the purpose of which were were to awaken the sexual appetite of man, were displayed by bad women, they were evil in themselves. If, on the other hand, the same attractions and charms were exhibited by one's own wife or bride, they were good and praiseworthy from a moral point of view. The evil daughters of Zion who behaved like harlots...were condemned by Isaiah (Isa 3:16-17). Yet the same wicked enticements became blessed charms when observed in the beloved bride during the wedding celebrations (S of Songs 1:10; 4:4; 7:1)...they served to enhance the legitimate love between bride and groom (S of Songs 4:13-5:1; 5:5-6).”

Hess states that there are four usages for the verb ntp ('drip'). One of these “is distinctive to poetic literature, where the imagery of lips or hands dripping with 'honey' (nopet) or 'myrrh' (mor) expresses the joys and the deceptiveness of love. S of Songs 5:5,13 gives such a positive expression.”

Song of Songs 5:6-7

At this point in the story, the girl opens the door but finds that her lover, for some unknown reason, has left. She roams the streets looking for him, but the night watchmen find her, take away her cloak, and beat her. These are apparently the very same “watchmen” (from the Hebrew root shamar, to observe) who in 3:3 gave her no help in finding her lover in another dream sequence.

“The root [psa'] refers to both open wounds and to bruises...The vb. appears 3x, twice of the results of a physical blow (1 Kgs 20:37; S of Songs 5:7)...” (Harrison and Patterson)

As to her clothing, Alden says, “The vb. rdd means to beat out, so perhaps this veil is a large one that covers more than the face, hence 'cloak' in some modern translations. The two places where it occurs are Isa 3:23, the prophet's list of women's clothing, and in S of Songs 5:7, the article of clothing that the guards so rudely took from the searching maiden.”

Song of Songs 5:8

The nightmare ends with the girl asking the “daughters of Jerusalem” to tell her lover that she is faint with love. Els remarks, “The fact that in the majority of instances 'hb in S of Songs has a female as subject, expressing female love for a male is highly exceptional for the ANE [Ancient Near East] world in which the woman was generally in the background. That this is a unique feature of the book S of Songs is better appreciated when it is realized that in the rest of the OT there is only one other case of a woman's love for a man expressed by 'hb, that of Michal for David (1 Sam 18:20,28).”

Conclusion

Longman states that “the book exudes a robust sexuality, including some graphic double entendre usually glossed over in translation (5:2-8).” I will leave it to your imagination to discover them.