Charles Ellicott Commentary Song Of Solomon 5:9

"What is thy beloved more than [another] beloved, O thou fairest among women? What is thy beloved more than [another] beloved, That thou dost so adjure us?" — Song Of Solomon 5:9 (ASV)

What is thy beloved?—This question, introducing the description of the bridegroom’s person, raises the conjecture almost to certainty that the poem was actually sung, or presented as an epithalamium, by alternate choirs (or single voices) of maidens and young men, as in the Carmen Nuptiale of Catullus, vying, one in praise of the bridegroom, the other of the bride. Ordinary love poems contain descriptions of the charms of the beautiful woman to whom they are addressed, but not of the poet himself.