Day 51 ~ dove-eyed girl loves gazelle boy

The conclusion of Ecclesiastes really didn't strike up any more significant questions, other than after all that depressing talk about living for today because you die and that's it, he concludes that you should live for God. Not one of my favorites of what we've read so far.

So, we're off to read through Song of Solomon, again attributed as written by King Solomon, or possibly for him. In our readings about Solomon we know he seemed to favor one wife referred to as the Daughter of Pharaoh. But this woman who becomes his bride (one of his 700) is a dark skinned Shulamite. One of the comments in my Bible reminds us that the young girl that slept with the old King David to "keep him warm" in his old age was a Abishag, the Shunamite maiden (1 Kings 1:1-4, 15). David's son Adonijah requested that he be given Abishag when David died. But this was improper in that Solomon, David's named successor, was entitled to her along with David's other wives and concubines (maybe Solomon inherited a starter set of wives.) Anyway, Solomon had Adonijah put to death for his request, so that particular Shunamite maiden was available.

Song of Solomon is a love story between a married couple. Read between the lines and it's kinda juicy, on the surface, it's just a little strange.

• chapter 3 - she gets up at night and goes looking for him because he is not in the bed. She asks people on the street if they have seen her love. If this is truly about Solomon, I have a guess (or about 1000 guesses) where he might be.
• chapter 4:1-2 - is he complementing her because none of her teeth are missing?
• 4:9 - it would kind of gross me out if my husband called me "sister"
• 6:8 - okay, maybe Solomon doesn't have 700 wives and 300 concubines - yet. It appears that he only has 60 queens (wives) and 80 concubines.
• 7:2 - hey, my waist looks like a heap of wheat! When will we return to the time when that is considered beautiful?!
• 7:8 - okay, that's a bad pickup line - "can I climb your palm tree and grab your branches?".
• 7:9 - you don't often hear of people complimenting someone for the roof of their mouth.

I asked my husband to write me a love poem one time. It had something about eggs and bacon in it. I like my husband's poem better than Solomon's.

Twenty-two books completed. I'm going to wait to start Isaiah until tomorrow. I'm really tired and have a headache, and I've been looking forward to Isaiah, and I'll miss too much if I read it now.