There I will give you my love

Chapter 7

verses 11-12

Come, my lover, let us go to the countryside, let us spend the night in the villages.
(29) The Hebrew xxx can be translated either “hamlets, village” or “henna shrubs” 94:13), but given the connotation of “filed” just noted, “villages” does not make much sense in this context.  Going there would not achieve the goal of being alone.  As shown in 1:14, henna bushes were planted in the vineyards.  Whether one translates the accompanying verb “lodge” or, as in 1:13 “lie” makes little difference.  The three lines in vv 11bvc (122bc) and 12a (13a) should be understood as strictly parallel statements, not as a sequence of events presented in chronological order – as though they first went into the field, then rested (or lodged) among the henna shrubs and finally decided to go early to the vineyards…. The lovers of 7:11-12 wanted to go into the fields to be together undisturbed.

Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vines have budded, if their blossoms have opened, and if the pomegranates are in bloom –

there I will give you my love.
(24) p. 59. Love is the dod , and it is in the plural number referring to sexual loves.  She is seeking to be able to make sexual love in the outdoors several times—something possible in the country but not in a city like Jerusalem.  This is something they were unable to do during courtship and still could not do in the city, but they would be free to do it now in the country.