Table of contents
| Song 1:6 Do not stare at me because I am dark, because the sun has gazed on me. My mother’s sons were angry with me; they made me keeper of the vineyards; my own vineyard I have not kept! | Work can be used for control and can humiliate, but it also makes a person stronger. |
| Song 1:8 If you do not know, O fairest among women, follow the tracks of the flock and pasture your kids by the shepherds’ tents. | A person of worth will normally be found to be at his work. |
| Song 2:12 The time of singing [pruning] has come… | Work was meant by God to be a time of celebration. |
| Song 2:15 Catch us the foxes, the little foxes, that ruin the vineyards... | For those whose hearts are light, even work can be a game. |
| Song 6:2 My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to pasture his flock in the gardens, and to gather lilies. | The use of agricultural imagery to describe marriage shows that the worlds of work and of family are integrated in a healthy marriage. |
| Song 8:7 If one offered for love all the wealth of one’s house, it would be utterly scorned. | Love, and the labor that one puts into one’s family, provide the joy that wealth and leisure cannot. |
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