An Introduction to the Song of Songs

Abstract

Scholars and faithful readers of the biblical text struggle to understand and appropriate the words of the Old Testament book called Song of Songs. The book is rich in imagery, abounding in difficult interpretational conundrums, and downright edgy in its content. This article explores the ancient Near Eastern background of the book and examines its literary features in an effort to understand its rhetorical message, that is, the ideas it conveys, to its ancient Israelite audience and to its audience of twenty-first-century readers.