Dr Hollisa Alewine – Footsteps of Messiah Part 49 - (Twins of the Gazelle) for week of January 1, 2023

The Song of Songs is more than a love song between Israel and the Holy One; it is prophecy. We’ve worked our way through three chapters in the Footsteps of Messiah series to see if any of these Good News footsteps on the mountains fit our generation. As it turns out, the prophecies are a huge encouragement to those who find the Light of the Torah as part of their walk with the Beloved Yeshua. Loving the commandments as Yeshua urged is part of responding to those footsteps of return.

 

In Chapter Two, we saw the Beloved compared to a gazelle, a fast-moving animal. He returns at the cool of the day when the shadow flee; that is, they disappear quickly.

 

• “Until the cool of the day, when the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle…” (So 2:17)

 

Now we have arrived at Chapter Four of the Song of Songs, which contains some repetition from previous chapters. This allows the reader…if he or she has parsed the previous three chapters…to read more intelligently, to see more fine print of prophecy. This is a good opportunity to introduce a study tool for all Scripture study; it is handy to have in your toolbox!

 

The pattern is one of twins and pairs, or zugot. In the late Second Temple period, there were famous zugot, or pairs of rabbis, who complemented (and sometimes antagonized!) the work of another. Ezra and Nehemiah complemented the work of the other. Joshua and Caleb. You get the idea. 

 

Why is this important?

 

It won’t change the meaning of the verses you read, but it can enhance the significance of the verses when you are able to spot a pattern in context. For instance, let’s take a passage from Chapter Four. Try to spot twins, pairs, or equivalent expressions (one term or phrase similar to another) in the repetition:

 

How beautiful you are, my darling, how beautiful you are!

Your eyes are like doves behind your veil; your hair is like a flock of goats that have descended from Mount Gilead.

Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn sheep which have come up from their watering place, all of which bear twins,

    and not one among them has lost her young.

Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is beautiful.

Your temples are like a slice of a pomegranate behind your veil.

Your neck is like the tower of David, built with layers of stones on which are hung a thousand shields, all the round shields of the warriors.

Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle that graze among the lilies.

 

Repetition can signify importance or additional fulfillments of a particular prophecy. The Shir (Song) sometimes mentions “twins.”  The idea is that pairs or twins represent how “one opens the other.” Just as the firstborn "opens the womb" for the subsequent children, so the first prepares the way for the next. This may apply to people or commandments.

 

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