Song Of Songs Quotes

“Your partner may have injuries that you can't repair. Your partner may be trapped in a dark room without windows. Your life narrative might bring him more relief than an opiate. Some people make better windows than windows. Your kind words and enlightened perspective is a window of wonders to someone living in pain.”
― Michael Ben Zehabe, Song of Songs: The Book for Daughters

“This is going to hurt, but you will have to watch other couples be happier, richer and louder than you. Wait. No obstacle can withstand patience. Wait. You may not think so now, but there will come a time when you will be tempted to run away. Would that be right? Would that be fair? As every matriarch discovers, entire seasons will pass without reward. As your mate's peculiarities add up, what do you do? Wait!”
― Michael Ben Zehabe, Song of Songs: The Book for Daughters

“The Shulamite lives by a different set of values. One of the most horrible frauds perpetrated on western couples is 'trust your feelings' or 'follow your heart.' Solomon's family must never be left to whims. A wise Shulamite does not make life decisions based on feelings, alone. She takes God's point-of-view: 'He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool; But whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.' --Pr 28:26
For young couples, a hard lesson to learn is: Their hearts will lie to them.
pg 3”
― Michael Ben Zehabe, Song of Songs: The Book for Daughters

“A wife who obsesses on "fixing" her husband only succeeds in demeaning him.”
― Michael Ben Zehabe, Song of Songs: The Book for Daughters

“Like the chosen Shulamite, there will be times when you too will be faced with crude assaults on your virtue, or with solicitations that will be naked attempts to cheapen your marriage. Being polite is one thing, but there comes a time. Even the peace-loving Jesus took a rope to those who disregarded the boundaries of his Father's house. Your house has boundaries too. Do what you must.
pg 67”
― Michael Ben Zehabe, Song of Songs: The Book for Daughters

“You may have started as my daughter, but it was always understood that one day you would be a wife, mother, and contributor to this Messiah's kingdom. I will never ask anything from you again, but an entire world will.
pg 1”
― Michael Ben Zehabe, Song of Songs: The Book for Daughters

“When we justify a flaw we are actually inventing a new one. When a woman neglects developing her own character, she not only chisels away her own reputation, but the reputation of everyone in her household.”
― Michael Ben Zehabe, Song of Songs: The Book for Daughters

“Today's marriages become toxic, with resentments, after only a few years. It's one thing to say, 'I forgive,' but most lack the enterprise to do the necessary work that follows. It was the day after that proved who had the wisdom of God and who didn't.”
― Michael Ben Zehabe, Song of Songs: The Book for Daughters

“Like Sarah, treat your husband like what he might become. When all the facts said Sarah would have no vineyard, she became a matriarch to nations. Sarah learned to behave as though she would become a mother to nations--and she did.”
― Michael Ben Zehabe, Song of Songs: The Book for Daughters

“What changes when a woman marries? What does a woman lose and what does she gain? For Abishag, marrying king David gave her instant status. As a wife, impugning Abishag's character meant a swift death. As a wife, she inspired fear.
What changes when a woman is widowed? For Abishag, it meant foreign women came to Jerusalem to marry Solomon--and she was relegated to that of a spectator. In Abishag's widowhood, none feared her.”
― Michael Ben Zehabe, Song of Songs: The Book for Daughters

“Would you marry you? Be the right person before seeking the right person. Solomon's bride is carefully chosen for the good of his family, for the good of his kingdom.
pg 9”
― Michael Ben Zehabe, Song of Songs: The Book for Daughters

“Our unclaimed Shunemite, however, can only look on. No kiss for her. Being the most beautiful woman in Israel isn't enough for Solomon. Solomon is seeking partners to help him grow a very special nation. Abishag is relegated to wishing Solomon's new wives well, but in the mean time, her life as an outsider is bitter. 'Take me away,' she will later lament.”
― Michael Ben Zehabe, Song of Songs: The Book for Daughters

“Beware young brides: The cruelest behaviors on earth are done in the name of, what some call, 'love.' Therefore, the Shulamite does a much better job at defining love than pop-culture.
pg 4”
― Michael Ben Zehabe, Song of Songs: The Book for Daughters

“Abraham had eight sons--not one. All eight sons bring something to the table. Abraham loved all of his sons. He was a good father who made sure all his sons were literate, of good character and shared a common ideology with their father, Abraham. Abraham did good. Where did we go wrong?”
― Michael Ben Zehabe, Song of Songs: The Book for Daughters

“To erroneously assert that the unclaimed Shunemite does not treasure the opportunity misses the entire point of this superlative song. She wants to leave with Solomon. This earthly Shunemite would be willing to die to be with Solomon--but until she develops skills of value to his kingdom--she will remain unclaimed.”
― Michael Ben Zehabe, Song of Songs: The Book for Daughters

“In Song of Songs we are introduced to a new problem for Abishag: Solomon was choosing wives for political advantages, while she was wasting away in Zion--without children.
pg xxiv”
― Michael Ben Zehabe, Song of Songs: The Book for Daughters

“It sickens me to admit this, but the divorce rate is the same for religious couples as it is for non-religious couples. Is it preposterous for us to think that we can love someone for a lifetime? Marriage is held together with such flimsy things--lace, promises and tolerance. We humans are so unskilled at sustaining intimacy. We begin with such high hopes, yet lose our way so quickly.
pg i”
― Michael Ben Zehabe, Song of Songs: The Book for Daughters

“There is so much information in one Hebrew word that translators are hard pressed to decide how much information should be cut. Since the first official translation (the Septuagint), Jewish translators advocated translating Hebrew (for outsiders) at the 'story' level.
pg viii”
― Michael Ben Zehabe, Song of Songs: The Book for Daughters

“In marriage, those who persevere are rewarded with the most precious thing this earth has to offer: Marital love--a partnership that conquers the years. It takes time, but those who persevere are rewarded with, falling in love with their spouse.
pg v”
― Michael Ben Zehabe, Song of Songs: The Book for Daughters

“Marriage is nothing to underestimate. Success in marriage is about getting back up, again and again. Ultimately, the Shulamite had to write her own role in Solomon's drama. She made Solomon's problems her problems. For her, that was worth every bruise.
pg ii”
― Michael Ben Zehabe, Song of Songs: The Book for Daughters

“I sung that I knew you before
The time I saw your face
The green eternity in your eyes
Made time feel misplaced
Your dress was the color of wine
And I was drunk off the taste
I sang my heart into the night
I knew you felt the same way”
― Eric Overby, February Rain: Lyrics of a Lonely Traveler

“Song and the lyric poem came first. Prose was invented centuries later. In Israel, Greece, and China came the primal, model lyrics for two and a half millennia. Read the biblical Song of Songs in Hebrew, Sappho in Greek, and Wang Wei in Chinese and be deeply civilized. You will know the passions, tragedy, spirit, politic, philosophy, and beauty that have commanded our solitary rooms and public spaces. I emphasize solitary, because the lyric, unlike theater and sport, is an intimate dialogue between maker and reader. From the Jews we have their two bibles of wisdom poetry, from the Chinese we have thousands of ancient nightingales whose song is calm ecstasy, and from the Greeks we have major and minor names and wondrous poems. However, because of bigotry, most of Greek poetry, especially Sappho, was by religious decree destroyed from the Fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance. So apart from one complete ode, we read Sappho in fragments. Yet there survive fragrant hills for lovers and dark and luminous mountains for metaphysicians. Most of ancient Greek lyric poetry is contained in this volume. Do not despair about loss. You are lucky if you can spend your life reading and rereading the individual poets. They shine. If technology or return to legal digs in Egypt and Syria are to reveal a library of buried papyri of Greek lyrics equivalent to the Dead Sea Scrolls or the Gnostic Nag Hammadi Library, we should be able to keep singing and dancing for ten moons straight. For now, we have the song, human comedy, political outrage, and personal cry for centuries of good reading.”
― Pierre Grange

“In the midst of all the blurring misinformation, confusion, conflict, and polluted thoughts, all I could hear were the tinnitus sounds of the seven trumpets humming in divine orchestration and the murmurations of starlings. It was the song of silence, the song of songs.”
― Rajinder Jhol, Shine