The watchmen had the responsibility of guarding the city and keeping it safe. We will meet them again in Song of Solomon 5:7 where they will have a much more active role in the young woman’s poem after their marriage. As we mentioned, that poem after her marriage corresponds with her poem here before their marriage.
In this poem before their marriage, the watchmen serve simply as a sounding board for the young woman’s search for her beloved.1
3 The watchmen found me as they went about in the city. “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”