What is the significance of copulating in the same place one was born (in Song of Songs)?

Question

I can think of few times in the Song of Songs where the sexual union is strongly connected with the place of birth 8:5 (NIV):

Under the apple tree I roused you;     there your mother conceived you,     there she who was in labor gave you birth.

We also find expressions like "bring thee into my mother's house" (8:2; 3:4), and "in the chamber of her that conceived me" (3:4); from all this it becomes evident that there is some symbolic significance to a sexual union in the same place one was born. My questions are:

1. What was its symbolic significance?
2. Can we infer from this imagery that it was the widespread custom in Ancient Israel to conceive in the same bed one was born? Does the poetic language used in the song reflect a reality in biblical times, and is it to be taken literal, or is it used in a figurative manner?

Note: I'm not looking for Jewish or Christian allegorical explanations of the above texts to explain its meaning and significance, I'm looking for the plain meaning of the texts and for their historical interpretation in ancient Israel, and how they would've understood this symbolism (whether it was taken literally or figuratively).

Answer 1

The strongest Biblical parallel is found here:

And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. - Gen. 24:67

This is a little bit different that the Song of Songs, but the premise in the same.

Symbolically, the apple tree is something familiar and something comforting (i.e. "comfort me with apples, for I am sick with love" (Cant. 2:5)). The Bride has been feeling out of place in Jerusalem where she is in competition for the King's affection. However, when he takes her into the country, and she takes him back to the place she was born, all the attention is focused on what makes her comfortable.

In a way, her position is similar to that of Rebekah - brought from her home and family to be with her husband. While Isaac can't take Rebekah back to her own homeland, he can still himself be comforted by bringing her to his own mother's tent. Perhaps in doing so, he also makes her part of his family symbolically, much as the Bride does for the King in the Song of Songs.

As for the ancient marriage customs, I understand that it was more common for the Bride to be taken to the Groom's family compound, as in Genesis 24. However, the reversal of the roles in Song of Songs- the Bride taking the Groom into her native space- is not without Biblical foundation:

"...and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?" - Is. 58:7b

The importance of family ties in the Ancient Middle East (and current) can not be overemphasized, yet it is this foundation that forms the social cocoon around any ancient Near East marriage. In fact, the word for marriage 'khotain' literally means 'marriage alliance', where two families are joined by marriage. To have a marriage outside of the familial network was rare. By making these ties an important backdrop to the marriage, the familial aspects of the 'khotain' or marriage alliance are reenforced, and are therefore portrayed in a positive, even romantic light in the Scriptures.

Answer 2

I find in this verse an echo of the theme in Ezekiel ch16 vv4-6.

In Ezekiel, the Lord is addressing Jerusalem. He is saying that he "found" her when she was born, a neglected child. At a later stage he decided to marry her, and took great care of her to make her ready for the marriage. This leads up to the rest of the chapter in which he complains about her spiritual "adultery", and explains her downfall as her punishment for infidelity, before concluding ("and yet...) with the promise in vv60-62 that the covenant will be restored.

I understand the Song's "Under the apple tree I awakened you.There your mother was in travail with you (RSV)" in the same sense as Ezekiel's opening theme. He found her when she was born. The apple tree refers back to the nostalgic scene of ch2, in which she compares him with an apple tree and says that she used to sit with delight under his protective shadow (v3). If "awakened" is to be understood in a sexual sense, then it has the same meaning as the marriage theme in Ezekiel ch16.

This is in keeping with my own book's interpretation of the Song, that it is a more benign version of Ezekiel ch16, written in the same circumstances, viz. the emotional impact of the Babylonian catastrophe (depicted in symbolism in the "I can't find my husband" theme of ch5). I call it "more benign" because the theme of "blame" can be found (even the prophets, the watchmen, are not helping her this time) but is being pushed aside by the theme of encouragement and the promise of restoration being found in this final chapter. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unseen-Husband-Survey-Song-Solomon/dp/1597556742

So my answer to the second opening question is that there is no reason to look for any contemporary custom to explain the verse, because the allegorical approach offers a more consistent interpretation. And that is also my answer to the first question.

Answer 3

I see no copulation in 3:4 plus they aren't married til Solomon's song of songs 3:10. she takes him back to the room where she was conceived and there is no sex between them. She takes him back to her mother and father's room where her mother and father made love and she was conceived. An intimate location. Maybe insinuating that she wanted to make love when married and have kids. Probably told him. "Look here is where I was conceived." Feelings of love, happiness and new life. This is Where life began for her. Where she was loved by her mom. A room where happiness was. Therefore, I see it as her bringing him back to a place where she could have those feelings with him. Share happinesses. Share the feeling of a new life together. Share the feeling of being loved. Imagine bringing your lover to the place you where born. Why would you do that? If it was to share these feelings then being in the actual room would help. She was lovesick in 3:1 and then by 3:5 she is feeling loved again with him close and in the room where she was born.