Thy Strong Word — Song of Solomon 2: Catch the Little Foxes

She calls herself a common wildflower; her beloved calls her a lily among the thorns. Scripture is not embarrassed to celebrate what God gave in marriage: a banner of love over the banqueting house, apples and raisins for a woman sick with love, a young stag leaping over the hills to call his bride out into the spring. The chapter also guards what it celebrates, warning about the little foxes that spoil vineyards in bloom and charging the daughters of Jerusalem twice not to stir up love before it pleases. Every husband and wife who has heard “arise, my love, and come away” knows the ache in it. So does the Church, whose Bridegroom washed her, called her beautiful, and made her so, and who will one day come over the mountains to bring her home for good.

The Rev. David Boisclair, senior pastor of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Overland, Missouri, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to study Song of Solomon 2:1–17.

To learn more about Our Redeemer in Overland, visit ourredeemerstl.org.

The Song of Solomon is a book of love poetry, a bride and her bridegroom singing to each other across eight chapters. God’s people have sung it since Solomon’s day, and Jewish congregations still read it at Passover. The Church has heard in it the voice of Christ and His bride, and Luther quoted the Song in The Freedom of a Christian to describe what happens when Christ takes a sinner as His own. Paul was working the same ground in Ephesians five, where he set marriage beside Christ and the Church and called it a great mystery.

This series works through the whole book verse by verse, from the kiss in chapter one to the seal on the heart in chapter eight. We hear what it says about the body, about desire, and about the marriage God instituted in the garden. We also ask where Christ is in it, since the Church has long heard in these songs the voice of the Bridegroom who gave His life for His bride.

Thy Strong Word, hosted by Rev. Dr. Phil Booe, pastor of St. John Lutheran Church of Luverne, MN, reveals the light of our salvation in Christ through study of God’s Word, breaking our darkness with His redeeming light. Each weekday, two pastors fix our eyes on Jesus by considering Holy Scripture, verse by verse, in order to be strengthened in the Word and be equipped to faithfully serve in our daily vocations. Submit comments or questions to: thystrongword@kfuo.org.

Thy Strong Word is graciously underwritten by the Lutheran Heritage Foundation. Through the mission gifts of people like you, LHF translates, publishes, distributes and introduces books that are Bible-based, Christ-centered and Reformation-driven. Learn more at lhfmissions.org.

Song of Solomon 2:1-17

[1] I am a rose of Sharon,

a lily of the valleys.

[2] As a lily among brambles,

so is my love among the young women.

She

[3] As an apple tree among the trees of the forest,

so is my beloved among the young men.

With great delight I sat in his shadow,

and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

[4] He brought me to the banqueting house,

and his banner over me was love.

[5] Sustain me with raisins;

refresh me with apples,

for I am sick with love.

[6] His left hand is under my head,

and his right hand embraces me!

[7] I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

by the gazelles or the does of the field,

that you not stir up or awaken love

until it pleases.

The Bride Adores Her Beloved

[8] The voice of my beloved!

Behold, he comes,

leaping over the mountains,

bounding over the hills.

[9] My beloved is like a gazelle

or a young stag.

Behold, there he stands

behind our wall,

gazing through the windows,

looking through the lattice.

[10] My beloved speaks and says to me:

“Arise, my love, my beautiful one,

and come away,

[11] for behold, the winter is past;

the rain is over and gone.

[12] The flowers appear on the earth,

the time of singing has come,

and the voice of the turtledove

is heard in our land.

[13] The fig tree ripens its figs,

and the vines are in blossom;

they give forth fragrance.

Arise, my love, my beautiful one,

and come away.

[14] O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,

in the crannies of the cliff,

let me see your face,

let me hear your voice,

for your voice is sweet,

and your face is lovely.

[15] Catch the foxes for us,

the little foxes

that spoil the vineyards,

for our vineyards are in blossom.”

[16] My beloved is mine, and I am his;

he grazes among the lilies.

[17] Until the day breathes

and the shadows flee,

turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle

or a young stag on cleft mountains.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Rev. Dr. Phil Booe

Native North Carolinian Rev. Dr. Phil Booe serves pastor of St. John Lutheran Church of Luverne, MN, and host of Thy Strong Word on KFUO Radio. His parishioners probably think he can’t teach Bible study without a mug of coffee in his hand, and he’ll always be happy to eat a plate of sushi. When he’s not shepherding his flock or teaching on the radio, you might find him watching bad movies from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and especially binging RiffTrax and MST3K episodes. Some day he’d love to travel to the Lutheran homeland in Germany, but for now he spends time in Minnesota with his wife, son, daughter, and cat, and looks forward to Holy Week every year.