Discovery BoxThe Song of Songs 4:16--5:1
ContextThe Beloved to Her Lover:
4:16 Awake, O north wind; come, O south wind!
Blow on my garden so that its fragrant spices may send out their sweet smell. 1
May my beloved come into his garden
and eat its delightful fruit!
The Lover to His Beloved:
5:1 I have entered my garden, O my sister, my bride;
I have gathered my myrrh with my balsam spice.
I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey;
I have drunk my wine and my milk!
The Poet to the Couple: 2
Eat, friends, and drink! 3
Drink freely, O lovers!
Luke 5:29
Context5:29 Then 4 Levi gave a great banquet 5 in his house for Jesus, 6 and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others sitting 7 at the table with them.
Luke 14:12
Context14:12 He 8 said also to the man 9 who had invited him, “When you host a dinner or a banquet, 10 don’t invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors so you can be invited by them in return and get repaid.
Revelation 3:20
Context3:20 Listen! 11 I am standing at the door and knocking! If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into his home 12 and share a meal with him, and he with me.
[5:1] 2 sn There is no little debate about the identity of the speaker(s) and the audience addressed in 5:1b. There are five options: (1) He is addressing his bride. (2) The bride is addressing him. (3) The wedding guests are addressing him and his bride. (4) He and his bride are addressing the wedding guests. (5) The poet is addressing him and his bride. When dealing with this issue, the following factors should be considered: (1) the form of both the exhortations and the addressees are plural. This makes it unlikely that he is addressing his bride or that his bride is addressing him. (2) The exhortation has an implicitly sexual connotation because the motif of “eating” and “drinking” refers to sexual consummation in 5:1a. This makes it unlikely that he or his bride are addressing the wedding guests – an orgy is quite out of the question! (3) The poet could be in view because as the writer who created the Song, only he could have been with them – in a poetic sense – in the bridal chamber as a “guest” on their wedding night. (4) The wedding guests could be in view through the figurative use of apostrophe (addressing an audience that is not in the physical presence of the speaker). While the couple was alone in their wedding chambers, the wedding guests wished them all the joys and marital bliss of the honeymoon. This is supported by several factors: (a) Wedding feasts in the ancient Near East frequently lasted several days and after the couple had consummated their marriage, they would appear again to celebrate a feast with their wedding guests. (b) The structure of the Song is composed of paired-dialogues which either begin or conclude with the words of the friends or daughters of Jerusalem (1:2-4, 5-11; 3:6-11; 5:9-16; 6:1-3, 4-13; 7:1-10) or which conclude with an exhortation addressed to them (2:1-7; 3:1-5; 8:1-4). In this case, the poetic unit of 4:1-5:1 would conclude with an exhortation by the friends in 5:1b.
[5:1] 3 sn The physical love between the couple is compared to eating and drinking at a wedding feast. This is an appropriate figure of comparison because it would have been issued during the feast which followed the wedding and the consummation. The term “drink” refers to intoxication, that is, it compares becoming drunk on wine with enjoying the physical love of one’s spouse (e.g., Prov 5:19-20).
[5:29] 4 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
[5:29] 5 sn A great banquet refers to an elaborate meal. Many of the events in Luke take place in the context of meal fellowship: 7:36-50; 9:12-17; 10:38-42; 11:37-54; 14:1-24; 22:7-38; 24:29-32, 41-43.
[5:29] 6 tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[5:29] 7 tn Grk “reclining.” This term reflects the normal practice in 1st century Jewish culture of eating a meal in a semi-reclining position. Since it is foreign to most modern readers, the translation “sitting” has been substituted.
[14:12] 8 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
[14:12] 9 sn That is, the leader of the Pharisees (v. 1).
[14:12] 10 tn The meaning of the two terms for meals here, ἄριστον (ariston) and δεῖπνον (deipnon), essentially overlap (L&N 23.22). Translators usually try to find two terms for a meal to use as equivalents (e.g., lunch and dinner, dinner and supper, etc.). In this translation “dinner” and “banquet” have been used, since the expected presence of rich neighbors later in the verse suggests a rather more elaborate occasion than an ordinary meal.
