For some time scholars have been debating whether the Song of Songs has connections to the wisdom genre and how this changes our understanding of it.  Those who have suggested such connections have been criticized for not demonstrating that they are extensive enough to be meaningful and for being vague as to what precisely the book’s wisdom message might be.  This presentation will demonstrate that the influence of the wisdom genre on the Song is pervasive, running throughout the book, and offer an entirely new understanding of the book’s wisdom message.  Connections between the Song of Songs and wisdom are often seen in the ‘do not awaken’ refrains, the climactic statement in 8:6-7 and numerous parallels with the biblical wisdom books, particularly Proverbs. Yet, the wisdom books’ use of language or motifs from the Song does not make the Song itself wisdom.  I will not argue that the Song’s wisdom features are the result of specific parallels with the biblical wisdom books, but rather, that they derive from typical forms and conventions found in the antecedent ancient Near Eastern ‘didactic’ or advice literature genre, what we call ‘wisdom,’ which predates the biblical wisdom books by at least a thousand years.  The Song of Songs incorporates forms and conventions used in the ancient Near Eastern advice literature genre throughout the book, so that the it shares points of contact with both the love song and advice literature genres of the ancient Near East.  The purpose of this exploration into the Song’s use of these features is not to label the Song as ‘wisdom’ proper, or have it categorized as such, but rather, to understand what the presence of these conventions and features means for the interpretation of the Song itself. The Song of Songs is clearly a love song, yet it also does something quite different than other ancient Near Eastern love song texts, by combining the love song genre with elements of the ancient Near Eastern advice literature genre to produce a wisdom literature about romantic love.  These connections to wisdom in the Song are extensive enough to change the way that we understand the book. The Song is not just a celebration of love or entertainment, but is providing wisdom concerning romantic love.