‘In green pastures’ [bi-ne’ot deshshe]: Psalm 23 and song of songs 5 in the poetry of agi mishol

Agi Mishol is one of the most loved and most read of the recent generation of Israeli poets. In the last few years, researchers in the field of Hebrew literature have shown an increasing interest in her work. In this article, I seek to show that Psalm 23 and Song of Songs Chapter Five have a very special place in Mishol’s poetry. The starting point of my investigation is her poem ‘In Green Pastures’. In this poem, both of the aforementioned biblical passages are reflected together. A holistic interpretation of ‘In Green Pastures’ is combined with the uncovering of the relationship of the poem to other poems by Mishol. This combination makes it possible for us to track other allusions to Psalm 23 and Song of Songs 5 in her books and to analyze the importance of those two biblical chapters in her work. My article shows that analysis of Mishol’s poems that are related to Psalm 23 and Song of Songs 5 sheds light upon major and highly important trends in Mishol’s literary corpus that have not been previously illuminated in research upon her work.