Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Myron,

>If the Shulamite's vineyard is figurative for her life (body?) why should
>not Solomon's vineyard be figurative for his life/body?

HH: The text is:

Song 8:11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he let out the vineyard
unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand
pieces of silver.
Song 8:12 My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must
have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.

HH: In my view, it is natural to make a comparison with something that is
clearly understood. I see a comparison between the woman's figurative
vineyard and Solomon's vineyard. It is helpful when one of the two items
compared is grounded in ordinary reality. To take all the details about
Solomon's vineyards, tenants, and payments as symbolic seems unnatural to
me. The imagery would be overly complex and somewhat unpoetic. Furthermore,
there are actual facts in Song of Solomon that provide a grounding for the
poetry. This vineyard of Solomon's seems like one of the mundane facts.
Solomon's lover presents an extended metaphor built on the realities of
vineyards.

>Andrew Hill in the _Evangelical Commentary on the Bible_ (p. 465) writes:

>    "The term vineyard has consistently been a metaphor for the person of
>the maiden (including her sexual charms).

HH: I agree.

>The strongest support for the
>three-character interpretation of the Song is found here.

HH: I do not believe in the three character interpretation of the Song. I
read a commentary or two from that perspective with all the sympathy
possible and came away unconvinced.

>The maiden's 'vineyard,' her love and sexual delicacies,
>belonged to her and were hers to
>give.  Solomon had let out his vineyard
> (his own person and his own sexual
>energies) to "tenants" (ie. the women of the royal harem)."

HH: Chapter 8:6-7 is really the climax of the Song. Chapter 8 is highly
charged. Solomon's other wives were mentioned earlier but do not play a
prominent role in the Song. Chapter 8 would be a strange place to introduce
them as significant. And if not significant, why mention them here? The
whole feeling of the book's close is one of intimacy between Solomon and
his beloved. The beloved mentions her brothers out of gratitude for how
their actions contributed to her attaining this relationship with Solomon.

                                Yours,
                                Harold Holmyard