Song of Solomon 3 · a question people ask
"Who is this who comes up from the wilderness" (3:6). Who is coming up?
The verse asks, and doesn't answer in its own words. The next verse goes on, "Behold, it is Solomon’s carriage!" (3:7), and the verses tell what is seen: "pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense" (3:6), sixty mighty men around the carriage (3:7), a carriage "of the wood of Lebanon" (3:9), and King Solomon with a crown (3:11). They don't say who, if anyone, is in the carriage. In Hebrew this, comes up and perfumed in 3:6 are feminine forms, and mittah, the word for carriage in 3:7, is a feminine noun. The verses don't say more, and these notes don't either. The same question comes again near the Song's end, with other words after it: "Who is this who comes up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved?" (8:5).
The verses
“Who is this who comes up from the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all spices of the merchant? Behold, it is Solomon’s carriage! Sixty mighty men are around it, of the mighty men of Israel.”
“King Solomon made himself a carriage of the wood of Lebanon.”
“Go out, you daughters of Zion, and see King Solomon, with the crown with which his mother has crowned him, in the day of his weddings, in the day of the gladness of his heart.”
“Who is this who comes up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? Beloved Under the apple tree I awakened you. There your mother conceived you. There she was in labor and bore you.”