Translation
THE PEACEFUL WOMAN TO THE PEACEFUL MAN
Catch
Go to footnote numberthe foxes
Go to footnote numberfor us,
those little foxes
that destroy the vineyards, for our vineyards are in bloom.
Go to footnote numberParaphrase
THE COMPLETE WOMAN TO THE COMPLETE MAN
For the sake of our relationship, stop the opportunistic troublemakers, even those troublemakers that seem insignificant, for they are a real threat to our prosperity and happiness, our happiness which seems so imminent.
Footnotes
1: “Catch”
The imperative used here is plural, though we would expect a singular form since the Shulammite appears to be speaking to Solomon. Some have suggested she is speaking to a group of people, but Solomon is the more natural recipient. Some, such as the editors of the NET Bible, point out that Hebrew sometimes uses a plural imperative where we would expect a singular in order to create even more emphasis and intensity than that of a simple imperative.
2
Foxes were opportunistic pests that caused trouble.
3
Anything that is in bloom is ready to burst forth with beauty and later bounty. In this case, “in bloom” seems to point to the imminent bounty of the coming harvest.
The Little Foxes that Destroy the Vineyard
Here it’s as if she says to him, “Honey, there is one more thing you can do to calm my insecurities, that is to protect our marriage from those threats which many men miss because they think them too small to be concerned about.”
There are many things that can pull a marriage apart. The earlier we can identify them and turn things around the greater chance we have of keeping our relationship healthy. So be on the lookout for small problems, deal with them early, don’t wait until things are really bad before seeking help or doing something about it. Men, this word is for us because we are more likely than our wife to say “It’s not that bad yet, let’s wait and see what happens.” The wife wants to be talking about issues in the relationship all the time; the husband wants to wait until things are really bad before talking about it. If she constantly brings things up that she wants to be different about their marriage, he gets the idea that she will never be satisfied and begins to tune her out. We men want to fix things, but in our marriages, we usually wait till the problems are big before we kick into “fix it” gear. Maybe that is because we figure that once the problems are big it will be easier to identify their causes. Yet the Shulammite is asking Solomon to care about, and focus on the small things, because they do cause great damage in a relationship. It is the husband’s job to watch for various types of dangers and protect against them before they become big problems. That is precisely what the Shulammite is asking Solomon to do, even though it may be contrary to his male tendencies.