Songs Of Songs

The Song of Songs is a profoundly mysterious poem. It is both deeply spiritual and dangerously sensual. It has puzzled and delighted readers and scholars for hundreds of years, being translated more than any other part of the Bible. Christopher Kelly takes a new approach, uncovering a miraculously complex structure in the Song. Understanding this structure is the key to the Song's lock, opening the door on a true love story. It is the searing narrative of one vulnerable girl's devotion and her sexual and spiritual growth into a woman. Her forbidden passion for the boy, her 'king, ' forces her to arrange a series of secret trysts that grow riskier and riskier as the poem progresses. The Song has the timeless qualities of Romeo and Juliet, with all the excitement and jeopardy such love entails. It also manages to speak to modern issues such as sex, spirituality and feminism. Enjoy the Song again for the first time.

At first reading, the Song of Songs appears to be an unabashed celebration of physical attraction, mutual love, and sexual consummation between a man and a woman. Tom Gledhill maintains that the Song of Songs is in fact just that—a literary, poetic exploration of human love that strongly affirms loyalty, beauty, and sexuality. Yet in God's story, these things are not ends in themselves. They are also transcendental longings, whispers of immortality. Like all of creation they point beyond themselves to their divine author, who in this Song is nowhere mentioned but everywhere assumed. Gledhill explores this unique biblical book that forms an interlude in the Old Testament story. He incorporates reflections on other biblical material concerning issues raised by the Song—such as human nature, mortality, and social and cultural conditioning—while staying focused on the text as an extended love poem, both beautiful and mysterious. Part of the beloved Bible Speaks Today series, The Message of the Song of Songs offers an insightful, readable exposition of the biblical text and thought-provoking discussion of how its meaning relates to contemporary life. Used by students and teachers around the world, the Bible Speaks Today commentaries are ideal for those studying or preaching the Bible and anyone who wants to delve deeper into the text. This revised edition of a classic volume features lightly updated language and current NIV Scripture quotations with a new interior design.

The Book of First Kings 4:32 says that Solomon wrote 1005 songs. A song is poetry like the Psalms that were sung to bring forth a message from God. God deemed this song important enough to keep it in His manual, the Bible. The Books of First and Second Samuel are the historical books of David, but His love and emotions for God were written in his Psalms. Likewise, the Book of Revelation is a historical book of the bride of Christ, but the Song of Solomon is the love and emotions of Christ and His bride. This book is being published at the same time as Revelation to be companion books with the same overview. God desired a people who would be adopted into His kingdom. Christ would redeem every person who would acknowledge the plan of God to become children of the Most High God. The Bible was inspired by God (2 Tim 3:16). The Book of Song of Solomon shows the love of the Lord Jesus to His bride, the Church, who is called Shulamite. Shulamite in Hebrew is the feminine noun for Solomon. Solomon in Hebrew is shalom meaning peace unto wholeness. This wholeness comes from a relationship with the Lord which is offered to everyone, male or female, Jewish or Gentile (non-Jewish). Do not think of Solomon in this book as the king, for he too is a believer in the Lord, so therefore He too can be the Shulamite. This is not a picture of Solomons love for a woman, but instead the story of how Solomon came to love the Lord and grow spiritually throughout His life. Both Books (Revelation and Song of Solomon) are actually a symbolic picture of the Ancient Jewish Wedding. The bride is the Church, and therefore, seen as female, yet we know that God is identified as being present in both male and female. Therefore, Solomon is writing as a believer growing in his walk with the Lord. Song of Solomon, like all books in the Old Testament, point to Jesus. It cant be about Solomon and his love for a woman; IT HAS TO BE ABOUT JESUS. Therefore, it shows how a believer grows in their relationship with Jesus. The Jewish wedding takes us from the first time we see Jesus in the spirit and are engaged (salvation) to the time we see Jesus face to face in marriage (our resurrection) to the time we return with Christ to rule and reign as His wife (Millennium) to the time we live in the new heaven and earth (eternity). The intention of this book is to experience in the spirit the life of the believer growing in our knowledge and relationship with Jesus Christ.

The Song of Songs, traditionally attributed to Solomon, is a collection of lyrics that celebrate in earthly terms the love of a bridegroom and a bride. Throughout the course of early Christian history, the Song of Songs was widely read as an allegory of the love of Christ both for the church and for its individual members. In reading the Song this way, Christians were following in the steps of Jewish exegetes who saw the Song as celebrating the love of God for Israel. In The Song of Songs, the inaugural volume of The Church's Bible, Richard A. Norris Jr. uses commentaries and sermons from the church's first millennium to illustrate the original Christian understanding of Solomon's beautiful poem. In recent times, the Song of Songs has been more a focus of literary than of religious interest, but Norris's work shows that for early Christians, this text was counted, with the Psalms and the Gospels, among those Scriptures that touched most deeply on the believer's relation to God. All in all, Norris's Song of Songs is a masterful work that aptly acquaints contemporary readers with the church's traditional way of discerning in this text a guide to the character of Christian belief and life. This volume -- and the entire Church's Bible series -- will be welcomed by preachers, teachers, students, and general readers alike.

This original commentary foregrounds at every turn the poetic genius of the Song of Songs, one of the most elusive texts of the Hebrew Bible. J. Cheryl Exum locates that genius in the way the Song not only tells but shows its readers that love is strong as death, thereby immortalizing love, as well as in the way the poet explores the nature of love by a mature sensitivity to how being in love is different for the woman and the man. Many long-standing conundrums in the interpretation of the book are offered persuasive solutions in Exum's verse by verse exegesis. The Old Testament Library provides fresh and authoritative treatments of important aspects of Old Testament study through commentaries and general surveys. The contributors are scholars of international standing.

The love poem of the Old Testament Fresh insight on this under preached book Latest addition to the Focus on the Bible Series

In addition to a careful analysis of text, form, and structure, Keel focuses on the metaphorical and symbolic language of this scholarly work, making full use of parallels from Egypt, Palestine, and Mesopotamia, and providing readers with the full symbolism of ancient Near Eastern art. More than 160 illustrations and photos help illuminate the interpretation.