Adeney opens his commentary on the Song of Solomon by calling it "a puzzle to the commentator," immediately foregrounding the interpretive challenges posed by its abrupt transitions and "kaleidoscopic changes." Rather than imposing a single reading, he surveys competing theories—whether the book is a continuous poem, a drama, or a string of independent lyrics—and weighs their merits against the evidence of the text itself. This methodological caution sets the tone for the entire volume.

The Problem of Structure

Adeney devotes his first chapter to the Song of Solomon's literary form, noting that its "startling kaleidoscopic changes" seem to break it into "incongruous fragments." He rejects the easy solution of treating it as a mere anthology, calling that "to cut the knot in a rather disappointing fashion." Instead, he argues for a unity that accommodates abrupt shifts, pointing to the poem's "freedom of sudden transition from the symbol to the subject symbolised." This attention to structural choices—how the poet moves between images without connective tissue—reveals Adeney's interest in the author's craft.

Metaphor as Narrative Engine

In the Lamentations section, Adeney tracks a sequence of metaphors that build a portrait of divine enmity. The sufferer is first "girdled" with "gall and travail," then imprisoned in a dungeon "as dark as the abodes of the dead." The imagery shifts again: God becomes a hunter who "shoots the sons of His quiver" into the victim's vitals. Adeney observes that each metaphor intensifies the horror—from walled grief to predatory pursuit—and notes the deliberate progression from static suffering to active persecution. He highlights the poet's choice of "hewn stones" to block the traveller's path, a detail that implies not accident but design.

The Mocked Prophet as Type

Midway through his analysis of Lamentations 3, Adeney pauses to compare the afflicted man to Jeremiah, who "was mocked by his unthinking contemporaries" for preaching an "apparently absurd policy." He extends the parallel to "a greater than Jeremiah" who was jeered at as a "Utopian dreamer." This move from textual exegesis to typological interpretation is characteristic of Adeney's method: he reads the poet's depiction of derision—"the theme of their mocking songs"—as a pattern that recurs in biblical history. The commentary thus uses the poet's language to bridge the ancient text and later tradition.

The Feast of Bitterness

Adeney draws attention to a striking image in Lamentations: the sufferer is "fed, crammed, sated" with bitterness, forced to drink wormwood, and given gravel for food. He notes the paradox of abundance turned to torment—the guest at a feast who is "made drunk" but with poison. This inversion of hospitality, Adeney argues, is a deliberate rhetorical choice that underscores the completeness of divine judgment. The poet does not merely describe deprivation; he twists a symbol of comfort into one of affliction. Adeney's close reading here exemplifies his sensitivity to the author's manipulation of expected associations.

Adeney's commentary rewards readers who attend to the poet's craft: the abrupt transitions, the layered metaphors, the inversion of familiar images. He treats both books as literary artifacts shaped by deliberate authorial decisions, not merely as theological documents. For those approaching Song of Solomon and Lamentations, this volume offers a model of patient, evidence-based interpretation that respects the strangeness of the text.