Locating the Song of Songs to the Time of Hezekiah

Introduction

The previous article concluded that language alone cannot establish the date of a particular book – any linguistic evidence needs to be supported by intertextual and socio-historical evidence. Our hypothesis is that Song belongs to the Hezekiah period and this is supported by linguistics, geography, socio-historic context and intertextuality.

Geography

The most intriguing geographical mention in Song is the city of Tirzah particularly because she is transposed with Jerusalem. G. L. Archer writes,

The author mentions quite indiscriminately localities to be found in both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms: Engedi, Hermon, Carmel, Lebanon, Heshbon, and Jerusalem. These are spoken of as if they all belonged to the same political realm. Note that Tirzah is mentioned as a city of particular glory and beauty, and that too in the same breath with Jerusalem itself (6:4). If this had been written after the time when Tirzah was chosen as the earliest capital of the Northern Kingdom in rejection of the authority of the dynasty of David, it is scarcely conceivable that it would have been referred to in such favorable terms. On the other hand, it is highly significant that Samaria, the city founded by Omri sometime between 885 and 874, is never mentioned in the Song of Solomon.[1]

The mention of Tirzah (“she is pleasant or fair”) implies that Song was written sometime before 874 when Omri moved the capital to Samaria (1 Kgs 16:23, 24). However, after Omri, Tirzah remained an important provincial city and under Jeroboam II the city enjoyed renewed prosperity[2] until the time of the Assyrian conquest in 722 BCE when Tirzah, along with other Northern Kingdom cities like Shechem and Samaria, was destroyed.

The northern Israelite king Jeroboam II (ca.785-745) was a contemporary of the Judean king Uzziah (Azariah) and this takes us into the period of co-regencies from Uzziah to Hezekiah and corresponding prophets (particularly Isaiah in the south and Amos, Jonah and Hosea in the north). Jeroboam II captured Damascus and Hamath and restored to Israel the country from the entrance of Hamath to the Dead Sea. The recovered territory included all of Transjordan as far south as the river Arnon (the border of Moab) capturing important trade routes. Some think Moab itself may be included in this general description. Friendly relations with the Phoenicians, who were the greatest merchants and seafaring people of those days, brought rare things of beauty and luxury into Israel.

Apart from Engedi and Jerusalem all the localities in Song are in the north.[3] Our proposal is that because Hezekiah’s goal was to re-establish centralised worship in Jerusalem, Song idealizes pre-apostate Solomon who presided over a theocratic hegemony. The points in support of this are,

(1) Solomon was called Jedidiah (beloved of Yahweh)[4] by the prophet Nathan (2 Sam 12:25) and this resonates with the “beloved” (DôD) of Song (“David” in 4:4) which is found in the same form in Hos 3:5 and Amos 6:5 (also translated as “David”), both northern prophets being contemporary with Hezekiah’s reign.

(2) The Shulamite (“the peaceful”) mentioned in Song (cf. 6:13) is most likely a feminized form of Solomon (“peace”).[5]

Both the male and female participants in our poetic drama are based on the word for “peace” (cf. “shalom”) an appropriate sentiment in the troubled times of Assyrian aggression.

Indeed it was for my own peace that I had great bitterness; but you have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption, for you have cast all my sins behind your back. (Isa 38:17)

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. (Isa 53:5).

Peace and security were found (past tense, Song 8:10) in Jerusalem (‘Possession of Peace’) during the Assyrian onslaught. This peace then continued:

So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good!” For he said, “At least there will be peace and truth in my days.” (Isa 39:7)

Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you who love her; rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn for her…. Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream…. (Isa 62:10-12).

The ‘many waters’ and the ‘floods’ that cannot drown love (Song 8:7) is an allusion to Isaiah’s prophecy of the Assyrian invasion as overflowing waters (Isa 8:7).

(3) The favourable mention of Tirzah (and the fact that Samaria is ignored) can be accounted for by the focus of Hezekiah’s ‘courtship’ and the poetic-historical resonance of Tirzah (“beautiful or fair”). Song 8 remembers the courting of Tirzah as a figure of the prospective choice of her as a northern capital rather than Samaria – it was prospective because she is not yet spoken for (Song 8:8).

Tirzah was the “little sister” (cf. Song 8:8) and companion of her “big sister” Jerusalem, Tirzah was beautiful but immature in faith (no breasts) and in danger (like the daughters of Zelophehad) of losing her inheritance “in the day when she is spoken for”. This expression refers to the fact that Hezekiah had been and was courting her as a northern capital. The danger she faced was Sennacherib’s army. The question Jerusalem asks is “What shall we do for our sister?” The answer is given in v.9 and depends on how she fares,

If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she be a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar. (Song 8:9)

Jerusalem then expresses her confidence,

I [Jerusalem] am a wall, and my breasts like towers; then I became in his eyes as one who found peace. (Song 8:10).

(4) Many from the tribe of Manasseh (‘causing to forget’) had earlier responded positively to Hezekiah’s overtures (2 Chron 30:1, 11) and Tirzah was situated in the territory of Manasseh. The city was named after one of the daughters of Zelophehad (from tribe of Manasseh) who had five daughters and therefore special arrangements were required, otherwise the inheritance and name of Zelophehad would perish because he “had no sons” (Num 27:4). This bears striking similarities to Hezekiah who nearly died without an heir, and when after his recovery he was blessed with progeny, he named his son ‘Manasseh’![6] The naming of Manasseh supports the recapture of the north after 701.

Socio-historic Context

The socio-historic context for the Song of Songs is after the visit of the Babylonian envoys, Hezekiah’s marriage, and the birth of Manasseh. The link between Song and this time-period is the verb ‘desire/delight’ (#px) [HPc] in relation to Hezekiah’s wife and Hezekiah himself.

(1) The verb form (“desire/delight” #px) is employed three times in Song of Songs (2:7; 3:5; 8:4) in the refrain – “nor awake my love, till he please (#px) [desires – NIV/NIB]”.

(2) Hephzibah (‘my delight is in her’) is the wife of Hezekiah and mother of Manasseh (2 Kgs 21:1). The name ‘Hephzibah’ is also figuratively used to describe Jerusalem (Isa 62:4). The name is formed from the verb ‘desire/delight’ (#px) [HPc] with the pronominal suffix third person feminine singular, and is used as a proper name (noun), Hb'(-ycip.x, [Hepcî-bäh].

(3) The Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 is Hezekiah. The context of the chapter retrospectively reflects his near death experience and the Assyrian invasion. Hezekiah’s death (without an heir) and the capture of Jerusalem would have effectively annulled the Davidic covenant. In this context, D. Talley observes an interesting antonymic use of HPc (desire):

However, Isa 53:10 uses the verb HPc paradoxically. The sufferings of the servant are graphically described (53:1-9). Strangely, “It was the Lord’s will (HPc, lit., his desire) to crush him” (v.10). The paradox is that it is the Lord who crushes the innocent servant, the one for whom he should have acted favourably (i.e., rescued). Even more striking is the play on words within the verse. After the Lord crushes with pleasure (HPc) this innocent one, the pleasure (HëPec) of the Lord prospers in his (the one who is crushed) hand. An act apparently unjust becomes in the end a delight for the one treated unjustly.[7]

Covenant Love

Song of Songs is read during the Passover week. In Jewish tradition Passover marks the time when God’s ‘romance’ with the Jewish people officially began; the sages chose this song to celebrate God’s love for his people.

And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover unto the LORD God of Israel. (2 Chron 30:1)

The Passover feast had been largely neglected until Hezekiah’s reformation and his ‘courtship’ of the northern tribes. Although the Passover had to be rescheduled to the following month it proved enormously successful (2 Chron 30:26) and the holiday was in fact extended a further seven days. It seems that Passover celebration became a regular occurrence during his reign, necessitating a yearly pilgrimage from northern Israel to Jerusalem. The final Assyrian onslaught against Jerusalem occurred during the Passover, when the city would have swelled with pilgrims (and refugees). The language of Isaiah certainly suggests Passover deliverance[8] and Song commences with ‘Passover language’ –

Draw (%vm) me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers (rd,x,): we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember (rk;z“) thy love more than wine: the upright love thee. (Song 1:4)

Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw (%vm) out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the Passover. (Exod 12:21)

And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; (a day of remembrance: !ArK’zI cf. rk;z) and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever. (Exod 12:14)

Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance (rk,zE) of thee”. (Isa 26:8)

Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, (rd,x,) and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. (Isa 26:20)

It is quite clear then that intertextual links exist between the first Passover in Exodus, the opening verses of Songs and the Book of Isaiah,[9]^,[10] the common thread being the re-inauguration of Passover to commemorate Yahweh’s deliverance of his people – a theme close to Hezekiah’s heart in the light of Assyrian aggression. Passover reminded the people of Yahweh’s covenant love and the King, as Yahweh’s representative, attempted to court the nation and bring them back into the protective embrace of a loving relationship.

Military Language

It is unusual for a love poem to contain so many military metaphors: “terrible as an army with banners (6:4, 10)…chariots (1:9; 6:12)…the tower of David builded for an armoury…a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men, valiant men, the valiant of Israel (4:4)…They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night” (3:8).[11]

Another love song, Psalm 45, which has “northern” characteristics, also employs military imagery: “Gird thy sword upon thy thigh (45:3)…. Thine arrows are sharp (45:5)”. C. Schroeder highlights the mixing of military and marital language in Psalm 45[12] and C. Meyers also recognizes the military imagery throughout the Psalm as applied to a woman and concludes,

Its use in the Song in reference to the woman constitutes an unexpected reversal of conventional imagery or of stereotypical gender association.[13]

Of course, the martial overtones are readily explained by Assyrian war mongering and the subsequent defeat of Assyria outside the walls of Jerusalem. After this great victory, King Hezekiah (as Yahweh’s agent), “sits on the throne of God” and as the divine proxy accepts the acclaim, tribute and praise due to Yahweh as he weds his bride.

If Song of Songs and Psalm 45 (Song of Loves) are linked, then Hephzibah is perhaps of Phoenician ancestry[14] (Ps 45:12, a Tyrian Princess), as the northern Kingdom inter-married with Phoenician royalty. The reference in the Psalm to “forget also thine own people” (45:10) is a play on the meaning of Manasseh, possibly indicating the foreign origins of Hezekiah’s wife.[15] If Hephzibah is indeed a northern Israelite Princess with Phoenician ancestry, then the marriage allegory evokes Yahweh bringing both Israel and the gentiles into the Davidic ‘Love Covenant’.

Intertextuality

Dargie recognizes parallels between Isaiah 5 (the parable of the vineyard) and Songs of Songs.[16] This is what we would expect if Songs belonged to the Hezekiah/Isaiah period, indeed a number of contrasts and parallels can be recognized:

Song 8	Isaiah (Hezekiah)
[1] O that thou wert as my brother…..yea, I should not be despised.	Contrast: He was despised and we esteemed him not (Isa 53:3)
[2] I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother’s house	As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. (Isa 66:13)
[3] His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.	For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. (Isa 41:13 cf.42:6)
[4] I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.	Contrast: It pleased the Lord to crush him…. the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand (Isa 53:10)
[6] Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death….	Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live…..(Isa 38:1)… I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years. And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city. (Isa 38:5-6)
[7] Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it…….	Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria…. (Isa 8:7)
[11] Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver. [12] My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.	My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill (Isa 5:1)   And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns. (Isa 7:23)
[13] Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear it.	Contrast: ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen (Isa 1:29)
[14] Make haste, my beloved….	Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard (Isa 5:1)

Sister-Wife

Song of Songs employs the sister-wife motif that is found in the patriarchal narratives. The sister-wife narratives in Genesis typify the outworking of covenant love at different stages of the nation’s history. Although allusions to all three sister-wife (A, B, C) narratives[17] are interwoven throughout the Song of Songs, the allusions to (C) are particularly relevant, for Isaac, similar to Hezekiah, functions as a Messianic type. Isaac’s open display of affection towards his wife is a metaphor for ‘covenant love in action’ and is paradigmatic for Yahweh’s love for Israel expressed through his Messiah.

Song	Sister-wife (Genesis 26)
[8:1] O that thou wert as my brother that sucked the breasts of my mother!	She is my sister (26:7)
[3:4] I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.	Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. (24:67)
[4:1] Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair;	Because she (Rebekah) was fair to look upon (26:7)
[2:9] He looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice	Contrast: Abimelech …looked out at a window, and saw…(26:8)
[4:9] Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse	…. and he (Isaac) said, She is my sister (26:7)… Isaac was sporting (fondling) with Rebekah his wife (26:8)
[4:12] A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.	All Abraham’s wells blocked but unsealed by Isaac (26:15-18)

Song of Songs echoes account (A) with reference to Solomon’s vineyard (8:11) at Baal-hamon (Husband of a multitude; cf. Abraham; father of a multitude). The thousand pieces of silver (8:12) is equivalent to the restitution paid to Abraham (Gen 20:6). Moreover, Abraham and the nation that he fathered came out of Egypt with “great substance (vWkr>)” (Gen 15:14; cf.12:16).

And Hezekiah had exceeding much riches and honour…. for God had given him substance (vWkr>) very much. (2 Chron 32:27-29).

However, Hezekiah was warned that his substance would be acquired by Babylon (Isa 39:1-8) – but covenant love could not be drowned by worldly aggression (Assyria) and neither could it be valued in worldly substance because although both would vanish love would remain:

Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance (!Ah) of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned. (Song 8:7)

Conclusion

Song of Songs and Psalm 45 were made to be performed, probably at the wedding of Hezekiah and northern idiosyncrasies in these and other books from the period can be explained by the influx of northern refugees, by cultural exchange, and by Hezekiah’s reformation. This period saw a flowering of literary art with a large portion of the Bible either written or edited/arranged by “Hezekiah’s men” (cf. Prov 25:1) and it is highly likely that the small scribal class was highly in demand and northern scribes open to recruitment.

Under the reading offered here, Song of Songs is placed in the context of Hezekiah’s reign. The Shepherd is Hezekiah and the Shulamite is the faithful element in the northern kingdom. Hezekiah’s wooing campaign is the reformation early in his reign and the ‘betrothal’ is the great Passover that he organised. The Shepherd’s disappearance coincides with Hezekiah’s illness and the Assyrian invasion, which causes the maiden’s dreams and nightmares. The story concludes with ‘Solomon’ (Hezekiah) coming to claim his bride – no longer depicted as a shepherd but as a victorious and splendid King.

It was Hezekiah’s desire to reinvigorate worship and centralise the cult in Jerusalem and the ‘beloved’ is described in high priestly terms (cf. 5:10-16), the “mountains of spices” (8:14) referring to the sacred perfumed priestly anointing oil (cf. Psalm 133) that would bring unity to the “mountains of division” (2:17). The northern kingdom had “put of my coat” (priestly garment) and many had ceased worshiping Yahweh…“how shall I put it on?” (5:3). But Yahweh had sent them a Messiah in the form of the Suffering Servant and this servant would not die childless (without an heir):

Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations… (Ps 45:16-17)

No longer would they need to look backwards to the ‘fathers’ (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) to see the outworking of ‘covenant love’, for Yahweh would not annul the Davidic covenant but would provide Hezekiah (and the nation) with offspring:

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. (Isa 53:10)