Verses

Theme

Song 1:6   Do not stare at me because I am dark, because the sun has gazed on me. My mother’s sons were angry with me; they made me keeper of the vineyards; my own vineyard I have not kept!

Work can be used for control and can humiliate, but it also makes a person stronger.

Song 1:8   If you do not know, O fairest among women, follow the tracks of the flock and pasture your kids by the shepherds’ tents.

A person of worth will normally be found to be at his work.

Song 2:12   The time of singing [pruning] has come…

Work was meant by God to be a time of celebration.

Song 2:15   Catch us the foxes, the little foxes, that ruin the vineyards...

For those whose hearts are light, even work can be a game.

Song 6:2   My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to pasture his flock in the gardens, and to gather lilies.

The use of agricultural imagery to describe marriage shows that the worlds of work and of family are integrated in a healthy marriage.

Song 8:7   If one offered for love all the wealth of one’s house, it would be utterly scorned.

Love, and the labor that one puts into one’s family, provide the joy that wealth and leisure cannot.