The bride’s description of her lover is a description of a statue: He has a head of gold (v. 11), hands of gold adorned with beryl (v. 14), an abdomen of ivory with sapphires (v. 14), and legs of alabaster set in pedestals of gold (v. 15). This conjures up the temple and the tabernacle, especially the references to “gold, pure gold.”

But it also throws some light on the vision of Daniel 2, and supports James Jordan’s claim that the empires depicted in that dream with a statue are supposed to provide a protective house within which Israel will live until the stone cut without hands strikes the statue and turns it to dust. In the Song, the lover is Solomon, the statuesque lover-king, but when the Davidic dynasty is interrupted, the emperors of Babylon, Persia, and so on take up Solomon’s task as the “anointed” of the Lord (the title Isaiah gives to Cyrus, of course).

The emperors were supposed to love and protect Yahweh’s bride, which they did not do. On the other hand, Israel was supposed to delight in her imperial lover as she delighted in Solomon.

via Peter J. Leithart » Blog Archive » Imperial lover.