SUMMARY
The woman announces that she belongs to the beloved and that his desire is for her.
ANALYSIS
Hidden in this sentence is the radicality of the relationship claimed in the Song. The word here for “desire” is the same one found in the announcement of the consequence of sin in Genesis 3:16: “I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” In Genesis, the woman’s “desire” for the man was part of an order of sin under which the man ruled over the woman. Here in the Song, all that is turned around; now, it is the man whose “desire” is for the woman, and now there is no hierarchy, merely the mutual pleasure of giving and receiving–giving and receiving love, giving and receiving selves. The love that the Song praises and celebrates is a love that reaches back behind the fallThe Fall refers specifically to the disobedience of Adam and Eve when they listened to Satan rather than adhering to God's command not to eat the fruit from the tree. When people act contrary to God's will, they are said to fall from from grace... More into sin and that looks forward to and anticipates the love that might yet be in a humanity re-created as God intends it.
