King Size Bed + 60 Bodyguards
Song of Songs 3:7
Chapter 3 begins with longing - on her bed, at night, she yearns for her lover, walking out to seek him out and in some insomniac fantasy imagining what it’s like to be in his bed. And it’s not just any bed - the image depicted here has kept many readers up though late nights coming up with imaginative interpretations.
These verses actually also made it into the bedtime S’hma prayer that in Jewish traditions one recites when going to bed. I vividly remember being old enough to read it from a laminated sheet that was placed on the wall above my bed and being very confused - and aroused - by these cryptic descriptions. I guess nobody bothered to tell me it was allegorical - but of what, exactly?
Before taking a closer look at the lover’s king size bed - here’s one more helpful quotes from Prof. Ilana Pardes about the overall rhythm of this song:
“The bulk of this ancient love poem revolves around a dialogue between two young lovers: the Shulamite, as the beloved is called, and her nameless lover. There is something utterly refreshing in the frank celebration of love that is found in the passionate exchanges of the two. Nowhere else in the Bible are bodily parts—mouth, lips, tongue, hair, nose, eyes, breasts, thighs—set on a pedestal; nowhere else are the sensual pleasures of love relished with such joy; nowhere else is sexual desire spelled out with utmost verve. And yet sexuality is never blatant in the Song. Instead we find a nuanced combination of audacity, innocence, and decorum, made possible by a spectacular metaphoric web which allows the two lovers to be direct and indirect at once.
Both lovers are masters of metaphor. If in much of the love poetry of antiquity (and beyond) male lovers are set on stage as the agents of courting, here we find a strikingly egalitarian amorous dialogue between two virtuoso speakers, who woo each other while juggling a plethora of metaphors and similes from different realms. They liken each other to wine, perfumes, roses, trees, gazelles, doves, the moon, the sun, a crimson thread, gold, precious stones, locks, walls, and towers. No figure of speech seems to suffice in depicting love.”
Which brings us to his bed:
הִנֵּה מִטָּתוֹ שֶׁלִּשְׁלֹמֹה שִׁשִּׁים גִּבֹּרִים סָבִיב לָהּ מִגִּבֹּרֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ כֻּלָּם אֲחֻזֵי חֶרֶב מְלֻמְּדֵי מִלְחָמָה אִישׁ חַרְבּוֹ עַל־יְרֵכוֹ מִפַּחַד בַּלֵּילוֹת׃ אַפִּרְיוֹן עָשָׂה לוֹ הַמֶּלֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹה מֵעֲצֵי הַלְּבָנוֹן׃
עַמּוּדָיו עָשָׂה כֶסֶף רְפִידָתוֹ זָהָב מֶרְכָּבוֹ אַרְגָּמָן תּוֹכוֹ רָצוּף אַהֲבָה מִבְּנוֹת יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם׃
“There is Solomon’s bed,
Encircled by sixty warriors
Of the warriors of Israel,
All of them trained in warfare,
Skilled in battle,
Each with sword on thigh
Because of terror by night.
King Solomon made him a palanquin
Of wood from Lebanon.
He made its posts of silver,
Its back of gold,
Its seat of purple wool.
Within, it was decked with love
By the maidens of Jerusalem.”
Song of Songs 3:7-10
It’s unclear who inserted these verses into the Jewish bedtime prayers - presumably to give sleepers the sense of safety and protection - with a royal guard imagined circling one’s bed. I recall recoiling from this image with terror - that’s a lot of weapons around a little kid trying to sleep. Later on in life I actually reframed it as an arousing image, with handsome bodyguards all around me.
What is the original purpose of this lavish bed in this poem and how have pious and learned readers try to make sense of it?
King Solomon’s presence in the Song of Songs is thought of, allegorically, as a stand in for God - whose name is Peace. Thus, the royal king size bed is not about a mortal but a metaphor for something else.
For the medieval Spanish-Jewish age Ibn Ezra, God’s bed is
“The Land of Israel on which God rests His Presence, and the 60 warriors stand in for the 60 myriads (600,000) of Israelite soldiers who entered the Land of Israel under Joshua and conquered it.”
The word ‘palanquin’ that appears here is unique - showing up here for the only time in the Bible. Other interpreters imagined it to be not the land - but the temple, or the tabernacle - these sacred sites where the divine would be found - a pilgrimage site for god-seeking lovers of the divine.
Another weird and wonderful interpretation comes from the classical Aramaic Translation, identifying the bed not as a place - but as a blessing, with 60 words, one for each warrior - built in. This text interpreted the biblical priestly blessing found in the Book of Ba’Midbar and used till today in many ritual contexts - as the kings’ well guarded bed. It does indeed contain 6o letters:
“When Solomon, King of Israel, built God’s Temple in Jerusalem, God said: How pleasant is this Temple… and how pleasing are the priests when they spread out their arms, stand upon their platform and bless the people of Israel with the 60 letters that were handed to them by their Master, Moses. That blessing serves them as a tall and stout rampart and through it all the warriors of Israel grow strong and victorious.”
The nocturnal scenes of longing, bedtime fears and visions of fearlessness blend together as a sequence of dreams. She walks through the streets of Jerusalem at night, vulnerable and full of visions, while he’s in bed, surrounded by guards. Is this about the soul and body, people and God, how our feminine and masculine energies interact? Did they finally unite inside the palanquin or - do they and we wait for the union to occur?
The mystery continues into the next chapter, in between real and ideal, embodied eros - and what it may mean. Sweet dreams.
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