The young couple’s love is now contrasted with Solomon’s approach to love and marriage.
Solomon owns a vineyard. Throughout the Song a vineyard has been used to refer to the sexual intimacy and delight that a woman offers. Solomon’s vineyard is in Baal-hamon.
This not only means husband of a multitude
(see 1 Kings 11:3, which speaks of Solomon’s harem), but the use of Baal
also reminds the reader of the story in 1 Kings 11:1–43, where Solomon’s many wives lead him astray into idolatry. There is therefore a contrast between the many possessions of the king who is led astray into idolatry and the truly mutual love of one man and one woman described in Song of Solomon 8:5–7, where their love invokes a form of the name of Israel’s God, Yahweh (flame of the Lord,
Song of Solomon 8:6).1 A similar contrast was made in Song of Solomon 6:8–9.
11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he let out the vineyard to keepers; each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.