Book of Song of Solomon Quiz: Love, Longing, and Devotion

1. What is the opening line of the Song of Solomon, and what does the title mean?

1. 'Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you' — the woman addresses the community who will witness the love story
2. 'How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful!' — the male lover's voice opens the book with praise of the beloved
3. 'I am a rose of Sharon, and a lily of the valleys' — this opening line announces the female voice who speaks throughout
4. 'Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for your love is better than wine' — this line opens the book with an expression of desire. 'Song of Songs' (shir hashirim) is a Hebrew superlative meaning the greatest, most beautiful of songs

2. What does the woman say about herself to the daughters of Jerusalem at the beginning?

1. 'I am dark and lovely, daughters of Jerusalem, dark like the tents of Kedar, like the tent curtains of Solomon. Do not stare at me because I am dark — the sun has looked at me. My mother's sons were angry with me and made me take care of the vineyards'
2. 'I am fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and awesome as an army with banners — when I arise my lover cannot resist me'
3. 'I am the most beautiful of women — seek your beloveds where the young stags feed, for I have found mine'
4. 'I am weak with love and must be sustained with raisin cakes until my strength returns'

3. What is the famous 'apple tree' passage in Song of Solomon 2, and what does the beloved say?

1. 'An apple a day sustains the wanderer; so my beloved's provision never ceases along my journey through the wilderness'
2. 'I sought him everywhere but could not find him — I am like a fallen apple, bruised by the fall, awaiting the hand that will lift me'
3. 'Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my beloved among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste. Let him lead me to the banquet hall, and let his banner over me be love'
4. 'The apple tree blossoms in spring and my love has come — his scent is the smell of the apple grove after rain'

4. What is the spring poem in Song of Solomon 2:10-13, and what does the lover say?

1. 'Come away with me to the mountains, where the leopards prowl and the lions feed — we will be fearless in love's company'
2. 'My beloved spoke, and said to me: Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land'
3. 'Rise up, beloved, and meet me at the well — for I have been searching for you since dawn and the searching itself is my joy'
4. 'The summer is long and the harvest waits, but I will not go to the fields until you come to me, for the harvest of your love is better than grain'

5. What is the refrain the woman repeats multiple times in the Song, and what does it express?

1. 'Draw me after you; let us run' — the constant desire for deeper intimacy expressed in repeated verse
2. 'I am my beloved's and he is mine' — the mutual claim of love expressed as a covenant formula
3. 'I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and hinds of the field, do not stir up or awaken love until it please' — a warning about premature romantic pursuit
4. Both of the above appear as repeated refrains in the Song

6. What does the 'seeking' poem in Song of Solomon 3:1-4 describe?

1. A dream sequence in which Solomon appears in his glory and invites the woman to his palace
2. A vision of the last judgment — the bride seeks the bridegroom at the end of time
3. The woman searching for her beloved through the city at night — she cannot find him in her bed, goes out seeking, is found by the watchmen, passes them, and finally finds him whom 'my soul loves'
4. The woman warning her daughters against young men who disappear in the night, using her own experience as a cautionary tale

7. What famous declaration about love appears in Song of Solomon 8:6-7?

1. 'Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends'
2. 'Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud'
3. 'Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength'
4. 'Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away'

8. What is the 'garden' imagery in the Song of Solomon, and what does it suggest?

1. The beloved is compared to a 'locked garden, a locked spring, a sealed fountain' (4:12). The garden is used as an image of exclusivity and intimacy — she belongs only to him, and their relationship is the garden where they meet and delight
2. The garden is Jerusalem — the Song's garden imagery describes the restoration of Israel's land after exile, with the lovers as symbols of God and his people
3. The garden is the Garden of Eden — the Song deliberately evokes the pre-fall state of Adam and Eve as a picture of restored human love
4. The garden is the wilderness — human love is compared to a wasteland that only the lover's presence can transform into abundance

9. What are the two main approaches to interpreting the Song of Solomon?

1. The feminist approach (it centers the woman's voice and celebrates female desire) versus the patriarchal approach (it is about Solomon's ownership of women)
2. The historical approach (it describes the actual love life of Solomon) versus the mythological approach (it is borrowed from Canaanite fertility religion)
3. The literal/natural approach (it celebrates human sexual love as a gift from God, worthy of poetic celebration in Scripture) versus the allegorical approach (it describes the love between God and Israel, or Christ and the church). Most modern scholars hold the literal reading primary without excluding the allegorical
4. The wisdom approach (it teaches principles about marriage) versus the liturgical approach (it was used in the temple worship of YHWH)

10. What does the presence of the Song of Solomon in the biblical canon say theologically?

1. It shows that the biblical canon includes all types of literature accidentally — the Song got in because of Solomon's fame, not because it has theological content
2. Its inclusion affirms that human sexuality, romantic love, and physical desire are God-given goods to be celebrated — not shameful realities to be suppressed. The canon presents a high view of the body and erotic love as part of creation's goodness
3. The Song proves that the canon includes secular literature alongside sacred — it was included as an example of the kind of human poetry that was popular in ancient Israel
4. The Song's inclusion shows that love poetry was considered a spiritual discipline in ancient Israel — it was used for meditation on divine attributes expressed through natural imagery

11. What does the woman say about herself when she is unable to open the door quickly enough when her beloved knocks?

1. 'I could not open the door for he had sealed it — the beloved comes when he wills and no human effort can hasten or prevent him'
2. 'I had taken off my robe — must I put it on again? I had washed my feet — must I soil them again?' She delayed, and when she finally opened, he had gone. She went searching and was beaten by the city watchmen
3. 'I was asleep but my heart was awake — a dreaming love waits, but a living love acts.' She rose immediately to greet him
4. She says she was ashamed — she was unprepared and unworthy to receive him

12. What nature imagery does the lover use to describe the beloved in chapter 4?

1. 'Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from the hills of Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of sheep just shorn... Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon; your mouth is lovely. Your temples behind your veil are like the halves of a pomegranate'
2. The beloved is described as a cedar tree — tall, straight, fragrant, and sheltering like the trees of Lebanon
3. The beloved is described as a sunrise — her face is the dawn, her eyes are morning stars, her hair the rays of light at first light
4. The beloved is described as the moon — pale and luminous, distant yet ever-present, her phases following a beauty pattern that governs the night

13. What does 'the little foxes that ruin the vineyards' mean in Song of Solomon 2:15?

1. 'Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom' — a call to protect the relationship from the small destructive habits and faults that spoil flourishing love before it can bear fruit
2. The foxes are enemies of Israel — the verse is a prayer for God to defeat the nations that threaten the relationship between God and his people
3. The foxes represent the daughters of Jerusalem who are envious of the couple's love — warning them not to interfere
4. The verse is a literal agricultural instruction — it belongs to the rustic section of the Song where practical vineyard management is described alongside the love poetry

14. What is the significance of the Song being attributed to Solomon?

1. Solomon is never mentioned in the Song — the attribution is a scribal error from confusing different wisdom books in the canonical process
2. Solomon's authorship is incidental — the Song was included in the canon despite having no connection to wisdom literature
3. Solomon's authorship proves the Song is about his specific marriage to Pharaoh's daughter — the Egyptian imagery (Kedar, Tirzah) connects it to the Egyptian alliance
4. Solomon's name links the Song to wisdom and to the greatest lover in Israel's tradition (1,000 wives and concubines). Yet some read the Song as a contrast — the beloved belongs exclusively to one man, not many. Solomon may be a character in the poem (the 'king') rather than its primary subject

15. What does the woman tell the daughters of Jerusalem when they ask what is so special about her beloved (5:9-16)?

1. She describes his character only, not his appearance — wisdom, kindness, and generosity are the qualities she praises
2. She gives a detailed description of his appearance: 'radiant and ruddy, outstanding among ten thousand... his head is purest gold; his hair is wavy and black as a raven; his eyes are like doves... his lips are like lilies... his arms are rods of gold... his legs are pillars of marble... he is altogether lovely'
3. She refuses to describe him to them — her love is private and she will not share it even in description with others
4. She tells them simply that no words can describe him — beauty is beyond description and they must see him to understand

16. What does the Song of Solomon 8:6 mean when it says 'love is as strong as death'?

1. Death and love are synonymous — to love is to become willing to die for the beloved
2. Death here refers to separation — the distance between lovers is 'as strong as death,' meaning their yearning across distance is death-like in its pain
3. Love's intensity and its claim are comparable to death's: as death cannot be escaped, bribed, or reasoned with — it takes who it takes — so genuine love cannot be extinguished by circumstances, opposition, or time. 'Its jealousy is as unyielding as the grave'
4. The comparison is pessimistic — love ultimately ends in death, and the Song acknowledges that all human loves are temporary

17. How does the Song of Solomon relate to the rest of the Old Testament theologically?

1. The Song contradicts the prophetic tradition — the prophets used marriage as an analogy for God's judgment on Israel, while the Song celebrates marriage with no theological content
2. The Song echoes Genesis 2's creation of man and woman ('bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh') — it presents human love as the recovery of what was lost in Genesis 3. The exclusivity ('I am his, he is mine'), the garden setting, and the uninhibited delight in the body all echo Eden before shame entered
3. The Song is entirely isolated — it has no connections to any other OT book and must be read purely on its own terms
4. The Song relates only to Proverbs 31 — both texts celebrate faithful womanhood, and together they form the OT's positive teaching on marriage

18. What is the role of the 'daughters of Jerusalem' in the Song?

1. The daughters of Jerusalem are enemies who try to separate the lovers — they represent social opposition to the relationship
2. The daughters of Jerusalem are the women of Solomon's harem — the Song is addressed to them as an instruction in what true love looks like compared to the superficiality of court romance
3. The daughters of Jerusalem function as a chorus or confidants — the woman addresses them, shares her longing with them, they ask questions that prompt her to describe her beloved, and she charges them three times not to awaken love prematurely
4. The daughters of Jerusalem represent the nations — the Song teaches that true love draws all peoples to celebrate Israel's God

19. What is the 'seal' imagery in Song of Solomon 8:6, and what does it signify?

1. 'Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm' — an ancient seal was worn on the chest or arm as a mark of identity and closest possession. The request is to be that intimate and indelible part of the beloved's identity
2. The seal is a metaphor for memory — the woman asks to be impressed permanently on the beloved's memory like a seal impression on wax, which cannot be undone
3. The seal is a royal seal — the beloved asks Solomon to stamp her with his royal authority so that no other king can claim her
4. The seal represents marriage — in ancient Israel, a marriage contract was sealed with a clay impression, and the woman is asking for formal legal commitment

20. What does the Song of Solomon teach about the nature of love through its structure and movement?

1. The Song teaches that love is a sequential process with seven stages — the book maps the stages of courtship, betrothal, marriage, and married life in order
2. The Song teaches that love is not linear but cyclical — patterns of seeking, finding, losing, and seeking again recur throughout. This captures love's reality: intimacy is not achieved once but pursued continuously. The repeated refrain 'I am his and he is mine' is the constant; the journey around it is the ongoing life of love
3. The Song teaches that love is primarily emotional — it is almost entirely about feeling, and the book has no interest in the practical or ethical dimensions of committed relationship
4. The Song teaches that love is seasonal — it maps perfectly onto the agricultural year of Palestine, and its theology of love is primarily about timing and attunement to natural rhythms