Commentary Compass

For Commentary Compass, I use 2020 or later as the normal threshold for a “recent” commentary. That cutoff matters here because the modern Song of Songs bibliography is unusually dependent on older major works. Pope, Murphy, Longman, Exum, Hess, Fishbane, Davis, Provan and many other commentaries that still shape current discussion were published well before 2020.

I do not think a recent list should be padded merely to make it look substantial. Newer does not automatically mean better, and publication date is not itself an interpretive virtue. A recent work belongs here only if it adds something worth having alongside—or occasionally instead of—the established older commentaries.

Among the Song of Songs works examined in this project, only two meet the 2020-or-later criterion. They are very different in ambition and scholarly contribution, and one stands clearly above the other.

1. Adele Berlin — Song of Songs — Hermeneia (2025)

Rating: 5/5

Berlin’s 2025 Hermeneia commentary is not simply the best recent commentary on the Song; it is one of the best commentaries on the book from any period. Its importance lies in combining first-rate close reading with a genuinely substantial proposal about the Song’s literary environment.

Berlin understands the Song as a Jewish-Hellenistic work. It is Jewish in language, scriptural allusion, imagery and literary sensibility, but it also participates in a wider Greek cultural world. Her commentary therefore gives far more sustained attention to Greek erotic literature than has been customary in a field often dominated by Egyptian and Mesopotamian comparison.

This matters because the Greek material is not merely decorative background. Berlin repeatedly uses it to clarify literary forms, tropes, modes of description and otherwise puzzling features of individual poems. At the same time, she does not reduce the Song to imitation. She is attentive to the ways Jewish authors adapt wider cultural forms selectively: the Song can be intensely erotic while remaining less explicit about sexual acts and male anatomy than much Greek material, and its imagery remains saturated with the Hebrew Bible.

Berlin’s other major strength is literary detail. Wordplay, sound, metaphor, ambiguity, double entendre, speaker identification and scriptural echo receive sustained attention. She treats the Song as a collection of poems rather than forcing a continuous dramatic narrative, which often lets local poetic effects remain visible.

The main reservation is also obvious. The Hellenistic dating and the degree of Greek influence remain historically arguable, and I would not treat every proposed point of contact as equally probative. An attractive comparative model can become self-reinforcing if every parallel is interpreted as evidence for the model that first prompted the search.

Yet this does not undermine the commentary’s overall value. Many of Berlin’s strongest observations remain persuasive even if one gives the Greek hypothesis less weight than she does. The commentary therefore genuinely extends the field rather than merely updating bibliography.

Compared with the older major works, Berlin most naturally complements Exum and Murphy. Exum remains my first overall choice because of the depth of her sustained literary reading, while Murphy remains exceptionally useful for disciplined historical-critical judgment. Berlin adds a major comparative dimension neither could have incorporated in the same way.

For anyone buying a recent technical commentary on the Song, Berlin is the clear first choice.

2. Douglas Sean O’Donnell — Song of Solomon — ESV Expository Commentary (2022)

Rating: 4/5

O’Donnell’s 2022 contribution to the ESV Expository Commentary is a very different kind of recent work. It does not attempt to replace Exum, Murphy, Hess, Longman or Berlin as a major technical reference commentary. Its purpose is expository and pastoral: to help Christian readers and preachers understand the Song’s message, relate it to biblical theology, and proclaim it responsibly.

Within those aims, O’Donnell is useful. He gives priority to the Song as erotic human love poetry and explicitly resists the traditional practice of turning each sensual image into an allegorical reference to Christ, the church or some aspect of spiritual experience. He can appreciate the devotional value of older allegorical interpretation while still recognising that edification does not prove exegetical correctness.

His Christian interpretation therefore proceeds at a broader canonical level. Marriage, wisdom, the Bible’s bridegroom imagery and the relationship between Christ and the church provide legitimate theological connections without requiring a hidden code behind every verse. This makes the commentary particularly useful for preachers who want to avoid two opposite failures: embarrassment about the Song’s sexuality and over-spiritualisation of it.

The repeated warnings about awakening love also provide O’Donnell with a natural pastoral framework for discussing sexual desire, patience, marriage and faithfulness. He is generally clear and practical without turning the Song into a catalogue of sexual techniques.

My reservations concern several places where the exposition assumes more narrative and moral specificity than the poetry securely provides. Solomonic association, a defined marital setting and particular stages in the lovers’ relationship can sometimes sound more certain than the text warrants. The commentary also depends substantially on interpretive paths already established by earlier evangelical scholarship rather than offering a new explanation of the Song.

That means O’Donnell does not displace older works such as Hess, Longman, Estes or Duguid for serious exegesis, and it certainly does not compete with Berlin as a scholarly contribution. Its value is different.

For pastors and church readers seeking a recent, accessible, broadly Reformed exposition that takes the erotic sense seriously while still reading the Song as Christian Scripture, O’Donnell is a worthwhile resource.

Bottom Line

Adele Berlin’s Hermeneia commentary is easily the best recent Song of Songs commentary I have examined. It is a major scholarly contribution rather than simply a recent entry in the bibliography, and I would recommend it even if publication date were irrelevant.

That does not mean it has replaced every older standard. I still rank J. Cheryl Exum’s OTL marginally ahead overall because I find Exum’s sustained literary interpretation of desire, repetition and the Song’s resistance to closure slightly more illuminating across the book as a whole. Roland Murphy remains exceptionally dependable, Michael Fishbaneoffers a Jewish interpretive dimension Berlin does not replace, and Ellen Davis remains a much richer Christian theological companion.

O’Donnell’s 2022 ESV Expository Commentary contribution is useful for preaching and Christian exposition but should be chosen for that purpose rather than because it supersedes the older technical works.

The recent field among the commentaries reviewed here is therefore thin but not empty: Berlin alone is sufficient to make recent Song of Songs scholarship genuinely important.