Solomon
Song of Solomon 7:11BSB·traditional attribution

Come, my beloved, let us go to the countryside; let us spend the night among the wildflowers.

Keil & Delitzsch Lutheran

The shepherd theory collapses under its own weight: Solomon speaks to Shulamith, she answers not to him but soliloquizes to an invisible shepherd wandering in moonlight, a phantom lover more shadowy than credible. How much sounder to read her as genuinely thinking of Solomon himself under shepherd imagery, since she calls him shepherd and remains a shepherdess in heart even as queen.

AI summary