Old Testament · The Five Scrolls · World English Bible
Song of Songs
"Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm; for love is strong as death."
— Song of Songs 8:6 
The Reading LensEvery verse pulled to the top of a book is chosen by three questions: Where is God’s heart here? Who is He protecting? Who is being saved by the action? It marks the place where those answers come into clearest focus — a “look at this, in this book.”
About the Book
The Hebrew title is Shir haShirim — “the song of songs,” a Hebrew superlative in the same shape as “king of kings.” It means the greatest of songs. English Bibles often print it as Song of Solomon, after the opening line.
One of the Five Scrolls, read at Passover. It is love poetry — a woman and a man speaking to and about each other, with the “daughters of Jerusalem” answering as a third voice. This translation prints the speakers as Beloved, Lover and Friends; those labels are editorial, not in the Hebrew.
Two things set it apart in the canon. God is never named in it — Esther is the only other book that can be said of. And the woman speaks considerably more than the man, which is not what the surrounding literature of the period would lead you to expect.
8 Chapters
“The Song of Songs, Which Is Solomon’s”
The title line, then straight into speech with no narrator to introduce anyone. The woman speaks first and speaks most. Mutual praise, with the daughters of Jerusalem answering.
The Spring Invitation
“I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.” He calls her out to the open country because the winter is over and the rain is gone — the most quoted passage in the book after chapter 8.
The Night Search, and the Procession
She looks for him through the city at night and does not find him, then does. The scene shifts without warning to Solomon’s wedding procession. The only chapter with no speaker labels in this translation.
Praise, Head to Foot
An extended description of the woman worked downward feature by feature — a set form in ancient Near Eastern love poetry. Closes in the imagery of a locked garden and a sealed spring.
The Second Search — and the Watchmen
She hesitates at the door; he is gone when she opens it. This time the search ends badly — the city watchmen strike her. The friends ask what makes him different from anyone else, and she answers at length.
Found
Reunion and renewed praise. “My dove, my perfect one, is the only one.” The friends press again about where he has gone so they can look with her.
Praise, Foot to Head
The second full description, running the opposite direction from chapter 4. Her reply closes it: “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me.”
Set Me as a Seal
The summit of the book, and the lines read at weddings and funerals alike — love as strong as death, many waters unable to quench it, and the note that if a man gave everything he owned for love he would be utterly scorned. Then a closing exchange, and an ending that stops rather than resolves.