(א) משל:
שיר השירים, שיר זה נחלק לחמשה שירים, ור"ל שיר שכלולים בו שירי שלמה, ספר בשיר הזה כי המלך שלמה אהב רעיה אחת היפה בנשים ויסגרה בבית מלכותו וישם בנות ירושלים שומרים סביבה, אבל היא היתה אהובת ריע לרועה צאן במדבר, וברחה חמשה פעמים מהיכל המלך אל המדבר אל דודה, בארבעה פעמים הראשונים הושבה אל חצר המלך, ובפעם החמישי לא יכלו לעצור בעדה, יצאה ולא שבה עוד, ובכל שיר ושיר יספר איך יצאה אל המדבר ונתחברה עם דודה:
...A. Parable. The Song of Songs - this poem is divided into five poems, and it means to say that the song contains in it the songs of Solomon. It is told in this song that Solomon the King love a shepherdess who was the loveliest of women and closed her up in his kingdom's house and set the daughters of Jerusalem as guards surrounding her. But she was the beloved companion of a herder of sheep in the wilderness, and fled five times from the king's palace to the wilderness to her darling. The first four times, she was returned to the king's courtyard, but the fifth time they could not stand in her way, she went out and returned no longer. And in each and every song he tells how she went out to the wilderness and connected to her darling.
(ד) ושיר השירים קדש קדשים. בברייתא אמר ר' אלעזר בן עזריה למה הדבר דומה למלך שנטל סאה חטים ונתנה לנחתום א"ל הוצא לי כך וכך סולת כך וכך סובין כך וכך מורסן וסלת לי מתוכה גלוסקא אחת מנופה ומעולה כך כל הכתובים קדש ושיר השירים קדש קדשים שכולו יראת שמים וקבול עול מלכותו...
...In a beraita R. El'azar ben 'Azariah said: What does the matter resemble? A king who took a se'ah of wheat and gave it to the baker. He said to him: Produce for me from out of it, this much fine flour, this much bran flour, this much plain bran, and make me one fine white loaf, winnowed and risen. Thus all the scriptures are holy and the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies, for it is all the fear of heaven and the acceptance of the yoke of His kingdom....
(ה) ... כָּל כִּתְבֵי הַקֹּדֶשׁ מְטַמְּאִין אֶת הַיָּדַיִם... אָמַר רַבִּי עֲקִיבָא, חַס וְשָׁלוֹם, לֹא נֶחֱלַק אָדָם מִיִּשְׂרָאֵל עַל שִׁיר הַשִּׁירִים שֶׁלֹּא תְטַמֵּא אֶת הַיָּדַיִם, שֶׁאֵין כָּל הָעוֹלָם כֻּלּוֹ כְדַאי כַּיּוֹם שֶׁנִּתַּן בּוֹ שִׁיר הַשִּׁירִים לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, שֶׁכָּל הַכְּתוּבִים קֹדֶשׁ, וְשִׁיר הַשִּׁירִים קֹדֶשׁ קָדָשִׁים. וְאִם נֶחְלְקוּ, לֹא נֶחְלְקוּ אֶלָּא עַל קֹהֶלֶת...
(5) ...All sacred scriptures render the hands impure... Rabbi Akiva said, "Have mercy and hold your peace! No person in Israel ever disputed that The Song of Songs renders the hands impure, for the whole world in its entirety would not have been worthwhile but for that day on which The Song of Songs was given to Israel; for all the Scriptures are holy, but The Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies! And if they did dispute, there was only a dispute regarding Ecclesiastes..."
Rashi, Introduction to Shir ha-Shirim
And I say that Solomon saw, with the holy spirit, that in the future Israel would be exiled into exile after exile, destruction after destruction, and would complain in this exile about their earlier glory and remember their earlier cherishing when they were chosen to Him from all the nations, saying: "I will go and return to my first husband for it was better for me then than now." And they will remember His kindnesses and the oath that they swore and the good things of which He spoke to give them at the end of days. And he set up this book with the holy spirit in the language of a woman closed up in living widowhood, longing for her husband, yearning for her darling, alluding to him about the love of her youth, and acknowledging her wrong. Even so her darling suffers in her suffering and alludes to the kindnesses of her youth and the loveliness of her beauty and the talent of her deeds, through which he became connected to her with a strong love. This, to let her know that it was not from his own heart that he deprived her and did not send her away completely for she is still his wife and he is her husband, and in the future he will return to her.
Dramatic Personae
Shepherdess/Shunamite woman
Her brothers
Her mother
Daughters of Jerusalem/ladies of the court
Shepherd
King
Watchmen of the city
People of Shunam
Odes
1:1-2:7
2:8-3:5
3:6-5:1
5:2-6:3
6:4-8:7
Epilogue 8:8-14