Song of Songs
Pages
400
Publisher
Jewish Publication Society of America
Published
3/1/2015
ISBN-13
9780827607415
Song of Songs is a wondrous collection of love lyrics nestled in the heart of the Hebrew Bible—songs of passion and praise between a young maiden and her beloved. It is religious lyric par excellence. But what is its true meaning? Is it an expression of human love and passion, pure and simple? A celebration of the covenant between God and Israel? Or something else?
The latest volume in the Jewish Publication Society’s highly acclaimed Bible Commentary series, Song of Songs provides a line-by-line commentary of the original Hebrew Bible text, complete with vocalization and cantillation marks, alongside the JPS English translation. Unique to this volume are four layers of commentary: the traditional PaRDeS: peshat (literal meaning), derash (midrashic and religious-traditional sense), remez (allegorical level), and sod (mystical and spiritual intimations). Michael Fishbane skillfully draws from them all to reveal the extraordinary range of interpretations and ideas perceived in this extraordinary biblical book. A comprehensive introduction, extensive endnotes, a full bibliography (traditional and modern), and additional explanatory materials are included to enhance the reader’s appreciation of the work.
This original, comprehensive commentary on the Song of Songs interprets historical, critical, and traditional sources drawn from the ancient Near East, the entire spectrum of Jewish sources and commentaries, and modern critical studies.
The latest volume in the Jewish Publication Society’s highly acclaimed Bible Commentary series, Song of Songs provides a line-by-line commentary of the original Hebrew Bible text, complete with vocalization and cantillation marks, alongside the JPS English translation. Unique to this volume are four layers of commentary: the traditional PaRDeS: peshat (literal meaning), derash (midrashic and religious-traditional sense), remez (allegorical level), and sod (mystical and spiritual intimations). Michael Fishbane skillfully draws from them all to reveal the extraordinary range of interpretations and ideas perceived in this extraordinary biblical book. A comprehensive introduction, extensive endnotes, a full bibliography (traditional and modern), and additional explanatory materials are included to enhance the reader’s appreciation of the work.
This original, comprehensive commentary on the Song of Songs interprets historical, critical, and traditional sources drawn from the ancient Near East, the entire spectrum of Jewish sources and commentaries, and modern critical studies.
Collections
This book appears in the following featured collections.
- Top Old Testament Commentaries by Engaging Scripture (Nijay Gupta's Substack)
- Commentaries by Jewish Scholars by Best Commentaries
Reviews
DavidH
August 9, 2026
August 9, 2026
Fishbane offers one of the most distinctive commentaries ever written on the Song, and it is indispensable for understanding the extraordinary interpretive life of the book within Judaism. Rather than confining reception history to an introductory survey, he comments through the four traditional Jewish levels of interpretation—peshat, derash, remez and sod—allowing plain-sense exegesis, rabbinic interpretation, symbolic reading and mystical tradition to remain in conversation throughout. This gives the commentary an unusual depth and makes centuries of Jewish interpretation exegetically accessible without simply reproducing older readings. Fishbane is not always the first volume I would consult for a difficult grammatical or structural question—Exum, Berlin or Murphy are generally stronger there—but no other commentary in this group provides anything quite comparable to his integration of Hebrew exegesis and Jewish interpretive tradition. For readers wanting to understand not simply what the Song originally meant but what it has meant as Jewish Scripture, Fishbane is essential.