Sometime after the wedding the Shulammite failed to respond encouragingly to Solomon's demonstration of affection. This led him to withdraw from her. Shortly after that, she realized that a gap had opened up between them. They were no longer as intimate as they had been.
5:2 Again the woman dreamed (cf. 3:1-4). In her dream her husband came to her having been out of doors in the evening. His mind appears to have been on making love in view of what follows.
5:3-4 However she had lost interest. She gave a weak excuse: she had already gotten ready for bed (and may have had a headache). When he tried to open her door but found it locked, he gave up and went away.75It was not long before she knew she had erred in discouraging him.
5:5-7 She went to the door and found that he had been ready to make love (v. 5; cf. Prov. 7:17; Song of Sol. 4:6, 5:13). She opened it but discovered he had gone. The fact that in her dream the watchmen beat her may indicate that she subconsciously felt that someone should punish her for refusing him.
"If the redid["shawl"] was a loose cloak that was removed by the watchmen, they may be pictured here as gazing on the wall', i.e.the girl in her state of semi-nakedness."76
5:8 She told her friends to tell her husband if they saw him that she wanted his love again (cf. 2:5-6).
"Lovesick' here seems to describe frustration from sexual abstinence rather than exhaustion from sexual activity (cf. on 2:5).77
This pericope contains the most extensive physical description of any character in the Old Testament, namely, Solomon. Of course, it is poetic and so not a completely literal description.
5:9 We might hear this attitude expressed in these words today: "What is so great about him? Surely you could find someone who would treat you better than he does!"
5:10-16 Nevertheless the Shulammite still loved Solomon very much, as is clear from her description of him here. The comparisons illustrate his value and attractiveness to her more than giving us a picture of his actual physical appearance. For example, his hand (v. 11) was not the color of gold, but his dealings with her symbolized by his hand had been of the highest quality. Some features in her description may be purely physical such as his black hair (v. 11). These verses show that a woman has the right to enjoy her husband's body (cf. 1 Cor. 7:4).
"A normal person finds the erotic ultimately meaningful only if there is trust and commitment, delight in the other's person as well as in the body."78
6:1 The Shulammite convinced the daughters of Jerusalem that her love for her husband was deep and genuine. They agreed to search for Solomon with her.
6:2-3 Having expressed her love for her husband, the Shulammite now knew where to find him. Solomon loved his gardens (Eccles. 2:5). Perhaps the catharsis of verbalizing his praise had healed her emotional estrangement, and in her dream the knowledge of his whereabouts popped into her mind.
6:4-10 Solomon's first words to his beloved were praises. Verse 4c probably means Solomon felt weak-kneed as a result of gazing on his wife's beauty, as he would have felt facing a mighty opposing army. Her eyes too unnerved him (v. 5a). By using some of the same flattering comparisons he had employed on their wedding night (vv. 5-7), he assured her that his love for her had not diminished since then. The other women (vv. 8-9) were, perhaps, the women who frequented his court. Some commentators have taken them to be the members of Solomon's harem.79
"If . . . the relationship of Solomon and Shulamith was monogamous at the outset, then the queen's concubines and virgins without number' must refer to those attached to the court of the king but not a part of his personal harem."80
Solomon used these women for comparison to show how highly not only he but many other people regarded his beloved. Her beauty had grown and was still increasing in his eyes (v. 10).
6:11-13 Verses 11-12 are probably the Shulammite's words. She had gone down to Solomon's garden (v. 2) but to see if his love for her was still in bloom more than to examine the natural foliage (v. 11). Immediately because of his affirmation of his love (vv. 4-10) she felt elevated in her spirit, as though she was chief over all the 1,400 chariots in Solomon's great army (1 Kings 10:26). Evidently in her dream she rode out of the garden in a chariot accompanied by Solomon. As she did, the people they passed called out to her to come back so they might look on her beauty longer (v. 13a). However, Solomon answered them, "Why should you gaze at the Shulammite as you do at the dance at Mahanaim?"Perhaps he was referring to a celebration held at that transjordanian town that drew a specially large crowd of onlookers. However, we have no record that such an event took place there.
This ends the Shulammite's second dream (5:2-6:13; cf. 3:1-4).
