Song of Songs: A CommentaryThis 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. |
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... praise , which she uses to describe his body in extravagant detail to the women of Jerusalem , she conjures him up again . Elsewhere she conjures him up as a Solomonic figure , approaching from the desert in a magnificent sedan chair ...
... 8 ) , he courting her ( 2 : 8-17 ; 5 : 2-4 ) and praising her charms ( 4 : 1-15 ; 6 : 4-10 ; 7 : 1-8 [ 2-9 H O — and this encourages us to feel we know them and enables us to build a picture of them . In particular , 8 Introduction.
... praising a woman as " more beautiful than thy first love " ) . Blurring Distinctions between Anticipation and Enjoyment of Love How much of the Song of Songs is wishing for the beloved , as opposed to any- thing explicitly sexual ...
... praise of the body in Arabic poetry ) or as " Praise Songs " or " Description Songs " or Beschreibungslieder ( a form- critical category ) . I do not use these labels , since they do not really aid us in understanding the passages in ...
... praise for each other , but recently some critics have argued that ambivalence is expressed in the way both the man's and , especially , the woman's bodies are represented . The imagery has been variously described as parodic ( Brenner ...