Course of true love

Griffiths again ( Song of Songs (Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible) , 60): “The placement of the adjuration formula is important. Here in 2:7 it concludes a series of endearment exchanges between the lover and the beloved (1:9-2:6). Those exchanges have a rhythm: they move from memory to yearning to anticipation to something close to fulfillment in 2:5-6; and then, suddenly, they cease. The lover stops speaking to and with the beloved and instead addresses the daughters [a debatable interpretation – PJL]. A pause is marked, and when the beloved speaks again, as she does in 2:8, the two are no longer together but once again apart, anticipating their meeting and lovemaking. The affair between the two has no smooth trajectory in the Song: it stammers and stutters, moving from intimacy to separation and back to intimacy. The adjuration formula is used here, as elsewhere, to mark these pauses.”