Thy Strong Word — Song of Solomon 5:1-16: Hair, Black as a Raven

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He knocks after midnight with his head wet with dew and asks her to open the door. She is already in bed and does not want to get up. By the time she does, hands dripping with myrrh, he is gone. She goes out looking for him, and the watchmen who are supposed to guard the city beat her instead and take her veil. When the daughters of Jerusalem ask what makes this man worth all that, she answers by describing her groom from head to foot: gold, ivory, alabaster, hair black as a raven, lips dripping with myrrh, altogether desirable. She says, “This is my beloved, and this is my friend.”

The Rev. Shawn Ethridge, pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Fulda, Minnesota, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to study Song of Solomon 5:1–16.

To learn more about St. Paul’s in Fulda, visit stpaulsfulda.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 5:1-16

He

[1] I came to my garden, my sister, my bride,

I gathered my myrrh with my spice,

I ate my honeycomb with my honey,

I drank my wine with my milk.

Others

Eat, friends, drink,

and be drunk with love!

The Bride Searches for Her Beloved

She

[2] I slept, but my heart was awake.

A sound! My beloved is knocking.

“Open to me, my sister, my love,

my dove, my perfect one,

for my head is wet with dew,

my locks with the drops of the night.”

[3] I had put off my garment;

how could I put it on?

I had bathed my feet;

how could I soil them?

[4] My beloved put his hand to the latch,

and my heart was thrilled within me.

[5] I arose to open to my beloved,

and my hands dripped with myrrh,

my fingers with liquid myrrh,

on the handles of the bolt.

[6] I opened to my beloved,

but my beloved had turned and gone.

My soul failed me when he spoke.

I sought him, but found him not;

I called him, but he gave no answer.

[7] The watchmen found me

as they went about in the city;

they beat me, they bruised me,

they took away my veil,

those watchmen of the walls.

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

if you find my beloved,

that you tell him

I am sick with love.

Others

[9] What is your beloved more than another beloved,

O most beautiful among women?

What is your beloved more than another beloved,

that you thus adjure us?

The Bride Praises Her Beloved

She

[10] My beloved is radiant and ruddy,

distinguished among ten thousand.

[11] His head is the finest gold;

his locks are wavy,

black as a raven.

[12] His eyes are like doves

beside streams of water,

bathed in milk,

sitting beside a full pool.

[13] His cheeks are like beds of spices,

mounds of sweet-smelling herbs.

His lips are lilies,

dripping liquid myrrh.

[14] His arms are rods of gold,

set with jewels.

His body is polished ivory,

bedecked with sapphires.

[15] His legs are alabaster columns,

set on bases of gold.

His appearance is like Lebanon,

choice as the cedars.

[16] His mouth is most sweet,

and he is altogether desirable.

This is my beloved and this is my friend,

O daughters of Jerusalem.

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.