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The Night She Went Searching.

Q: Why Does Purple Keep Appearing in the Bible?

Purple dye came from crushing thousands of sea snails — absurdly expensive. In the Bible, purple signifies royalty, wealth, and divine majesty. When soldiers put it on Jesus mockingly, the irony is staggering.

Song of Solomon 3 — When love sends you searching the streets at midnight

4 min read

Key Takeaways

The interior no one else sees was 'crafted with love' — raising the question: what does your love look like when nobody's watching?

Don't awaken love before it's ready — a countercultural pause inside one of the poem's most passionate scenes, in a world that treats every feeling as a call to act.
Sixty elite soldiers escort Solomon's carriage not toward conquest but toward a wedding — all that military power deployed to protect something tender.

📢 Chapter 3 — The Night She Went Searching 🌙

She can't find her beloved — and what she does next reveals the kind of this poem describes. Then the scene shifts to a royal wedding procession building toward the day of the gladness of his heart.

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Why Does Purple Keep Appearing in the Bible?

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Searching the Streets at Midnight 🌃

She's in bed at night, reaching for the man she , and he's not there:

"On my bed at night, I reached for the one my soul loves — but he wasn't there. I searched for him and couldn't find him.

So I got up. I went out into the city — through the streets, through the squares — searching everywhere for the one my soul loves. I searched, but I couldn't find him.

The night watchmen found me on their rounds. I asked them, 'Have you seen the one my soul loves?'

And barely after I passed them — there he was. I found him. I held onto him and would not let go until I had brought him home, to my mother's house, to the room where I was born."

Four times she says "the one my ." This isn't casual interest — it's longing that sends you into dark streets at midnight. She holds on, brings him home, refuses to let go.

A Word About Timing ⏳

She turned to the daughters of with a charge they'd heard before:

"Promise me, daughters of Jerusalem — by the gazelles, by the wild deer — don't stir up or awaken love until the time is right."

This refrain appears three times in the Song. Right after its most passionate scene, she says: don't rush this. has a timing to it, and forcing it before it's ready doesn't make it stronger. This ancient is countercultural — the deepest love isn't the one that moved fastest.

Coming Up From the Wilderness 🏜️

The scene shifts. Something approaches from the :

"What is that coming up from the wilderness, rising like columns of smoke — perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, fragrant with every spice a merchant could offer?

Look — it's Solomon's royal carriage. Sixty of Israel's finest warriors surround it, all of them armed, all of them trained for battle, each with a sword at his side, ready for any danger the night might bring."

Exotic perfume thick enough to taste. Sixty elite soldiers in formation — but heading to a wedding, not a war. The aren't drawn for conquest. They're there to protect something precious.

The Day of His Gladness 👑

The centerpiece — the carriage itself:

"King Solomon built himself a carriage from the finest wood of Lebanon. Its posts were silver. Its back was gold. Its seat was draped in purple. And its interior was crafted with love by the daughters of Jerusalem.

Come out, daughters of Zion — come and see. Look at King Solomon wearing the crown his mother placed on his head on his wedding day, on the day of the gladness of his heart."

Cedar from , silver, gold, royal purple. But the detail that stops you is the interior — "inlaid with ." The part no one else sees.

The chapter ends with a mother crowning her son on his wedding day. All that grandeur existed to frame this moment. Not power. Not wealth. .