Chapter 5 begins with a dreamlike quality. The lover knocks on the girl’s door after she is asleep. When she rises to admit him he is gone. As she seeks him through the dark streets the night watch find and beat her, thought to be a characteristic theme of the fertility cult. Several songs are unified in their context to address the beauty of the girl. The girl invites her lover to taste the full delights of love in the spring filled countryside. She wishes that she could always have her lover next to her, like a brother, so that she could freely express her affection. The girl speaks throughout and affirms that nothing is stronger or to be more highly valued than love. About the feminine voice in the Song of Songs Rev. Michael Piazza in Liberating Word says, “what is most refreshing is that this is one of the earliest and certainly the most revered record of women being overtly sexual……..here we have a biblical witness that the sexuality of woman, and by implication all marginalized people, is a sacred gift from God. Here, at the center of the Bible, we find a book celebrating human sexuality and sensuality.”
Chapter 5 begins with a dreamlike quality. The lover knocks on the girl’s door after she is asleep. When she rises to admit him he is gone. As she seeks him through the dark streets the night watch find and beat her, thought to be a characteristic theme of the fertility cult. Several songs are unified in their context to address the beauty of the girl. The girl invites her lover to taste the full delights of love in the spring filled countryside. She wishes that she could always have her lover next to her, like a brother, so that she could freely express her affection. The girl speaks throughout and affirms that nothing is stronger or to be more highly valued than love. About the feminine voice in the Song of Songs Rev. Michael Piazza in Liberating Word says, “what is most refreshing is that this is one of the earliest and certainly the most revered record of women being overtly sexual……..here we have a biblical witness that the sexuality of woman, and by implication all marginalized people, is a sacred gift from God. Here, at the center of the Bible, we find a book celebrating human sexuality and sensuality.”
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