That is one reason why the presence of the book in the Bible has proven troublesome for readers and interpreters of the Bible, which is one reason why they have tended to read the explicit terminology in metaphorical terms.

With that interpretive switch, sexual desire is redefined as desire for God, and the relationship between the lovers in the Songs as a metaphor for the relationship between God and God's elect community.

But is that metaphor sufficient to handle the imagery in the Songs?