Would a king regularly be a shepherd who tends his flocks? Especially one who is the richest man in the world such as Solomon?
Shepherd?
The man in this poem whom she loves is certainly a shepherd:
-
Tell me, you whom I love, where you graze your flock and where you rest your sheep at midday. Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your friends?
And he isn’t one who just visits his flocks as a king, but one who is with them, caring for them, causing them to rest. That and she has to go look for him among the streets at one point. Wouldn’t the guards know where a king was at?
King?
And then there’s the king imagery.
Take me away with you—let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers.
While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance.
King Solomon made for himself the carriage; he made it of wood from Lebanon
come out, and look, you daughters of Zion. Look on King Solomon wearing a crown, the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, the day his heart rejoiced.
Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel. Your hair is like royal tapestry; the king is held captive by its tresses.
So is this the same person? The shepherd and king? Or is it two different people, that her lover is the shepherd but it is the king who desires her?
I don’t know. I really don’t. It seems like a king wouldn’t do the work of a shepherd, but at the same time the context seems to go both with king (1:4) and shepherd (1:7).
Some feel it’s clear, but I’m still not. And that’s Ok, because it doesn’t take away from the themes we see in this book.
