Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Song of Solomon 3:9
King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon.
9. In this verse we have a continuation of the spectator’s or warder’s call to those who are looking out at the royal cavalcade from the house or palace where the Shulammite is. The speaker must be conceived as uttering an aside to those about him, giving a description of the mih from his previous knowledge. Here he calls it an appiryn, which the LXX translate by phreion, which means a litter in which one is borne. This is undoubtedly the correct meaning, but the derivation of the word is uncertain. It may be, as Cheyne says, Encycl. Bibl., art. ‘Canticles,’ a mere corruption.
the wood of Lebanon ] Lit. the woods, i.e. the cedar and the cypress.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Son 3:9-10
King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon.
Solomons chariot
I. Solomon was a type of Jesus Christ.
1. In his offices he represented Jesus.
(1) He was, as you know full well, a king, and a very notable king, richer and wiser and more glorious than any of the kings of the earth. And what shall we say of Jesus, who, even when He was here in flesh and humiliation, was still a King? Now that He is exalted at the right hand of God, He seems to be yet more kingly; but He is destined to sit upon a still nobler throne, and to wield a still wider influence.
(2) But Solomon, in this passage, and, indeed, throughout this wonderful book, is seen as a bridegroom. Herein also he represents Jesus Christ. Christ, as the Head of the Church, calls us His precious and beloved bride. All He has we have. All that is Mine is thine, says Jesus, and the bonds that bind us to Him neither life, nor death, nor earth, nor hell, can ever break, or even stretch. Blessed be the name of Him who, while He is not ashamed to call us brethren, admits His people into still closer relationship, and calls them collectively, My sister, My spouse!
(3) Moreover, Solomon was distinguished as a great temple builder. Jesus Christ is the architect and builder of the Temple that shall never fade away. Solomons temple has long ago crumbled into dust, and its successors have passed away, but Jesus Christ has been engaged from all eternity erecting a Temple which abides, which will outlive the wreck of matter and the crash of worlds, which will shine in greater splendour as the everlasting ages come and go. He is at once the architect and the builder of it; He is also the foundation-stone, and the chief corner-stone of it.
2. But there are certain qualities that distinguished the king that shine resplendent in the King of kings.
(1) Solomon was the wisest of men; he was wise enough originally to ask for wisdom. Then God gave him not only wisdom, but riches and honour and power. But oh, how wise is Jesus! In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge, and He is made unto us wisdom.
(2) If Solomon was wealthy, what shall we say of the Christ of God? The treasures of Solomons house, and the abundance of his table amazed all who visited his court, but think of the abundance of the wealth and fulness of Jesus Christ. He is the possessor of all things, He is Gods own Son and Heir.
(3) How glorious Solomon was, though indeed Christ said of the lilies that Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Yet it must be admitted that Solomons court was magnificent. Oriental splendour was at its grandest in his case, but oh, how Jesus outshines him, not with the same sort of glory, but with the glory that excelleth, the glory of His grace, the beauty of His holiness, the grandeur of His goodness! If the lilies outvied and excelled Solomon in all his glory, what shall be said of Jesus, who is at once the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys, the chiefest among ten thousand and the altogether lovely?
II. The kings chariot is a type of Christs covenant, and of the Gospel of the Grace of God. It was not a chariot really, but rather a travelling couch or palanquin, in which the king himself and his spouse were seated. It was the place of rest, in which these twain reclined at ease, while they came up from the wilderness towards the great and glorious city. Now such is the covenant to us.
1. Now notice concerning this so-called chariot that Solomon himself made it. King Solomon made himself a chariot. I do not mean that the royal hands were actually engaged in its construction–we can hardly suppose that–but he gave instructions for its construction, perhaps personally superintended the making of it I do say however, of the covenant of the Lord our God, that He Himself prepared it. As Noah built the ark, so God Himself has arranged the terms of the covenant. He Himself has signed it; Jesus Himself has sealed it with His own precious blood. Christ has built this chariot for Himself to ride in. You may be sure it is well and truly built, then; I have not the slightest fear in trusting myself on board that travelling couch, for I shall share it with Jesus.
2. Notice the materials of its construction. This royal litter is said to have been of cedar–the wood of Lebanon. That is the finest of all the woods, the most lasting and the most fragrant. It is as if to say that the covenant which God has made with Jesus Christ on behalf of all who love Him and trust Him, is a covenant that lasts, and which, while it lasts, is full of joy and fragrance. He made pillars thereof of silver. This represented Divine holiness and infinite purity. I notice that the floor or basis was of gold. It was constructed of this imperishable and unchangeable metal, because it was intended to set forth the immutable purpose and the unchanging decree of the infallible God. Over all was a purple canopy, with equally royal curtains hanging by the sides screening from the too-hot sun. Ah, here is sovereign grace, here is atoning blood: here is the doctrine of the substitution, for we can look through these purple curtains, even towards the sun of Gods holiness, and find the exceeding brightness bearable because Jesus Christ, the Days-Man, has come between us and Him. It was paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem, or, as some think, the chariot was lined and upholstered with embroidered work, so that the daughters of Jerusalem should be glad at sight of it, and the bride herself be filled with joy.
3. What is the purpose of this covenant, and of this Gospel of His grace? A parallel purpose to that of Solomons chariot. Whereby believers are carried to heaven, says Cruden. The spouse shares the triumph to Zion as well as in it, while the daughters of Jerusalem go out to meet the cavalcade, and to share the joy. (T. Spurgeon.)
The saints palanquin
It seems no part of the mind of the Spirit that we should take this description to pieces, and try to allegorize the several parts. The intention is to represent to us the fact that the believer is carried onward to heaven in a conveyance as costly and glorious as that here described; that the materials are of the richest, choicest, most durable character; that the midst is paved or tessellated with love. The provision made, the means provided for bringing us to glory, are of a rare and splendid nature. After exhausting the things most valuable among men, making the pillars silver, the railing gold, the seat or couch purple, he adopts a feature in the description entirely new, and says the midst is curiously wrought with something more precious than silver or gold, even with love itself–showing that the saint, while thus passing through the wilderness between this world and heaven, between our state of guilt and our state of glory, is in a palanquin of the most costly make, borne up in the hands of angels, surrounded by an armed angelic guard, and reclining on a soft couch beautiful as purple, the most costly colour, with the midst of the litter formed of love–the many acts of Divine love from Father, Son and Holy Spirit, there combining underneath us like the different pieces in a beautiful mosaic, tessellated pavement. In the spirit of this passage, those who wait on the Lord are said to renew their strength; and He will give His angels charge concerning such, to bear them up in their hands, lest at any time they dash their foot against a stone (Isa 40:31; Psa 91:12). (G. Burrowes.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 9. Of the wood of Lebanon.] Of the cedar that grew on that mount. It is very likely that a nuptial bed, not a chariot, is intended by the original word appiryon. Montanus properly translates it sponsarum thalamum, a nuptial bed. It may, however, mean a palanquin.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
A chariot, in which the royal Bridegroom and bride might ride together in state, as the manner was in the nuptial solemnities of such persons. By this chariot he seems to understand the word of Christ dispensed by his ministers in the church, whereby both Christ is exalted and rides triumphantly in the world, conquering his enemies, and subduing the world to the obedience of the gospel, and all believers are carried with safety and comfort through this present evil world, into those blessed mansions of heavenly glory.
Of the wood of Lebanon, i.e. of cedars, for which Lebanon was famous; which wood, being incorruptible, doth fitly signify the word of the gospel, which endureth forever, 1Pe 1:25, and is called the everlasting gospel, Rev 14:6, in opposition to the legal institutions, which were to continue only until the time of reformation, as we read Heb 9:10.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. chariotmore elaboratelymade than the “bed” or travelling litter (So3:7), from a Hebrew root, “to elaborate”[EWALD]. So the temple of”cedar of Lebanon,” as compared with the temporarytabernacle of shittim wood (2Sa 7:2;2Sa 7:6; 2Sa 7:7;1Ki 5:14; 1Ki 6:15-18),Jesus Christ’s body is the antitype, “made” by the Fatherfor Him (1Co 1:30; Heb 10:5),the wood answering to His human nature, the gold, His divine; the twobeing but one Christ.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon. The word translated chariot is only used in this place; some render it a bride chamber u; others a nuptial bed w, such as is carried from place to place; it is used in the Misnah x for the nuptial, bed, or open chariot, in which the bride was carried from her father’s house to her husband’s. The Septuagint render it by , a word near in sound to that in the Hebrew text, and was the “lectica” of the ancients, somewhat like our “sedan”; some of which were adorned with gold and precious stones, and had silver feet y, or pillars, as follows: it seems upon the whole to be the nuptial chariot in which, according to Pausanias z, three only were carried, the bride, who sat in the middle, then the bridegroom, and then the friend of the bridegroom: something of this kind is the “palki” or “palanquin” of the Indians, in which the bride and bridegroom are carried on the day of marriage on four men’s shoulders a: and by this “chariot” may be meant either the human nature of Christ, in which he descended and ascended to heaven; or his church, in which he shows himself to his people in his ordinances, where he rides in triumph, conquering and to conquer, by his Spirit and grace, in his word; or the covenant of grace, in which Christ shows the freeness and sovereignty of his love in being the Mediator, surety, and messenger of it; and in which his people are bore up and supported under and carried through many trials and exercises in this life, and are brought triumphantly to heaven; or rather the Gospel, and the ministration of it, in which Christ shows himself as in a chariot, in the glory of his person, offices, grace, and love; in this he is carried up and down in the world, Ac 9:15; and by it is conveyed to the souls of men; and in it he triumphs over his enemies, and causes his ministers to triumph also: and he is the subject, sum, and substance of it, and the alone author of it; for he is the Solomon here spoken of that made it; it is not a device of men’s, but a revelation of his, and therefore called “the Gospel of Christ”; and which he gives to men to preach, a commission to preach it, and qualifications for it: and this he does “for himself”, to set forth the glories of his person and office, to display the riches of his grace, and to show himself to be the only way of salvation to host sinners: and this chariot being said to be “of the wood of Lebanon”, cedar, which is both incorruptible and of a good smell; may denote the uncorruptness of the Gospel, as dispensed by faithful ministers, and the continuance and duration of it, notwithstanding the efforts of men and devils to the contrary; and the acceptableness of it to the saints, to whom is the savour of life unto life; and it being a nuptial chariot that seems designed, it agrees with the Gospel, in the ministry of which souls are brought to Christ, and espoused as a chaste virgin to him, 2Co 11:2.
u “thalamum sponsarum”, Montanus. w So Schmidt, Marckius, David de Pomis, Kimchi in Sopher Shorash. rad. & Ben Melech in loc. x Sotah, c. 9. s. 14. & Jarchi in ibid. y Vid. Alstorph. de Lecticis Veter. c. 3. z Vid. Suidam in voce . a Agreement of Customs between the East Indians and Jews, artic. 17. p. 68.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Another voice now describes the splendour of the bed of state which Solomon prepared in honour of Shulamith:
9 A bed of state hath King Solomon made for himself
Of the wood of Lebanon.
10 Its pillars hath he made of silver,
Its support of gold, its cushion of purple;
Its interior is adorned from love
By the daughters of Jerusalem.
The sound of the word, the connection and the description, led the Greek translators (the lxx, Venet., and perhaps also others) to render , by , litter palanquin (Vulg. ferculum ). The appiryon here described has a silver pedestal and a purple cushion – as we read in Athenaeus v. 13 (II p. 317, ed. Schweigh.) that the philosopher and tyrant Athenion showed himself “on a silver-legged , with purple coverlet;” and the same author, v. 5 (II p. 253), also says, that on the occasion of a festal procession by Antiochus Epiphanes, behind 200 women who sprinkled ointments from golden urns came 80 women, sitting in pomp on golden-legged, and 500 on silver-legged, – this is the proper name for the costly women’s-litter (Suidas: ), which, according to the number of bearers (Mart. VI 77: six Cappadocians and, ix. 2, eight Syrians), was called ( hexaphorum , Mart. II 81) or ( octophorum , Cicero’s Verr. v. 10). The Mishna, Sota ix. 14, uses appiryon in the sense of : “in the last war (that of Hadrian) it was decreed that a bride should not pass through the town in an appiryon on account of the danger, but our Rabbis sanctioned it later for modesty’s sake;” as here, “to be carried in an appiryon,” so in Greek, ( ) . In the Midrash also, Bamidbar rabba c. 12, and elsewhere, appiryon of this passage before us is taken in all sorts of allegorical significations in most of which the identity of the word with is supposed, which is also there written (after Aruch), cf. Isa 49:22, Targ., and is once interchanged with , papilio ( parillon), pleasure-tent. But a Greek word in the Song is in itself so improbable, that Ewald describes this derivation of the word as a frivolous jest; so much the more improbable, as as the name of a litter ( lectica) occurs first in such authors (of the ) as Plutarch, Polybuis, Herodian, and the like, and therefore, with greater right, it may be supposed that it is originally a Semitic word, which the Greek language adopted at the time when the Oriental and Graeco-Roman customs began to be amalgamated. Hence, if mitta Son 3:7, means a portable bed, – is evident from this, that it appears as the means of transport with an escort, – then appiryon cannot also mean a litter; the description, moreover, does not accord with a litter. We do not read of rings and carrying-poles, but, on the contrary, of pillars (as those of a tent-bed) instead, and, as might be expected, of feet. Schlottm., however, takes mitta and appiryon as different names for a portable bed; but the words, “an appiryon has King Solomon made,” etc., certainly indicate that he who thus speaks has not the appiryon before him, and also that this was something different from the mitta . While Schlottm. is inclined to take appiryon, in the sense of a litter, as a word borrowed from the Greek (but in the time of the first king?), Gesen. in his Thes. seeks to derive it, thus understood, from , cito ferri, currere ; but this signification of the verb is imaginary.
We expect here, in accordance with the progress of the scene, the name of the bridal couch; and on the supposition that appiryon, Sota 12 a, as in the Mishna, means the litter (Aruch) of the bride, Arab. maziffat , and not torus nuptialis (Buxt.), then there is a possibility that appiryon is a more dignified word for ‘eres , Son 1:17, yet sufficient thereby to show that is the usual Talm. name of the marriage-bed ( e.g., Mezia 23 b, where it stand, per meton., for concubitus ), which is wittily explained by ( Kethuboth 10 b, and elsewhere). The Targ. has for it the form ( vid., Levy). It thus designates a bed with a canopy (a tent-bed), Deu 32:50, Jerus; so that the ideas of the bed of state and the palanquin (cf. , canopy, and , bridal-bed, Succa 11 a) touch one another. In general, ( , as is also the case with appiryon, must have been originally a common designation of certain household furniture with a common characteristic; for the Syr. aprautha , plur. parjevatha (Wiseman’s Horae, p. 255), or also parha (Castell.), signifies a cradle. It is then to be inquired, whether this word is referable to a root-word which gives a common characteristic with manifold applications. But the Heb. , from the R. pr, signifies to split,
(Note: Vid., Friedr. Delitzsch’s Indogerman.-semit. Studien, p. 72.)
to tear asunder, to break forth, to bring fruit, to be fruitful, and nothing further. Paaraa has nowhere the signification to run, as already remarked; only in the Palest.-Aram. is found in this meaning ( vid., Buxt.). The Arab. farr does not signify to run, but to flee; properly (like our “ ausreissen ” = be tear out, to break out), to break open by flight the rank in which one stands (as otherwise turned by horse-dealers: to open wide the horse’s mouth). But, moreover, we do not thus reach the common characteristic which we are in search of; for if we may say of the litter that it runs, yet we cannot say that of a bed or a cradle, etc. The Arab. farfar , species vehiculi muliebris , also does not help us; for the verb farfar , to vacillate, to shake, is its appropriate root-word.
(Note: The Turkish Kamus says of farfar : “it is the name of a vehicle ( merkeb ), like the camel-litter ( haudej ), destined merely for women.” This also derives its name from rocking to and fro. So farfar , for farfara is to the present day the usual word for agiter, scouer les ailes ; farfarah , for lgret ; furfur , for butterfly (cf. Ital. farfalla ); generally, the ideas of that which is light and of no value – e.g., a babbler-connect themselves with the root far in several derivatives.)
With better results shall we compare the Arab. fary , which, in Kal and Hiph., signifies to break open, to cut out ( couper, tailler une toffe), and also, figuratively, to bring forth something strange, something not yet existing ( yafry alfaryya , according to the Arab. Lex. = yaty bal’ajab fy ‘amalh , he accomplishes something wonderful); the primary meaning in Conj. viii. is evidently: yftarra kidban , to cut out lies, to meditate and to express that which is calumnious (a similar metaphor to khar’a , findere , viii. fingere , to cut out something in the imagination; French, inventer , imaginer ). With this fary , however, we do not immediately reach , ; for fary , as well as fara ( farw ), are used only of cutting to pieces, cutting out, sewing together of leather and other materials (cf. Arab. farwat , fur; farra , furrier), but not of cutting and preparing wood.
But why should not the Semitic language have used , , also, in the sense of the verb , which signifies
(Note: Vid., Friedr. Delitzsch’s Indogerm.-sem. Stud. p. 50. We are now taught by the Assyr. that as goes back to , so (Assyr. nibru ) to = , to bring forth.)
to cut and hew, in the sense of forming (cf. Pih. , sculpere, Eze 21:24), as in the Arab. bara and bary , according to Lane, mean, “be formed or fashioned by cutting (a writing-reed, stick, bow), shaped out, or pared,” – in other words: Why should , used in the Arab. of the cutting of leather, not be used, in the Heb. and Aram., of the preparing of wood, and thus of the fashioning of a bed or carriage? As signifies a machine, and that the work of an engineer, so signifies timber-work, carpenter-work, and, lengthened especially by Aleph prosthet., a product of the carpenter’s art, a bed of state. The Aleph prosth. would indeed favour the supposition that appiryon is a foreign word; for the Semitic language frequently forms words after this manner, – e.g., , a magician; , a stater.
(Note: Vid., Merx’s Gramm. Syr. p. 115.)
But apart from such words as , oddly sounding in accord with as appiryon with , and are examples of genuine Heb. words with such a prosthesis, i.e., an Aleph, as in and the like. , palace, Dan 11:45, is, for its closer amalgamation by means of Dag., at least an analogous example; for thus it stands related to the Syr. opadna , as, e.g., (Syr.), oparsons , net, Ewald, 163 c, to the Jewish-Aram. , or ; cf. also , “finally,” in relation to the Pehlv. (Spiegel’s Literatur der Parsen, p. 356).
(Note: , quoted by Gesen. in his Thes., Sanhedrin 109 b, is not applicable here, it is contracted from (on the bed).)
We think we have thus proved that is a Heb. word, which, coming from the verb , to cut right, to make, frame, signifies
(Note: This derivation explains how it comes that appiryon can mean, in the Karaite Heb., a bird-cage or aviary, vid., Gottlober’s , p. 208. We have left out of view the phrase , which, in common use, means: we present to him homage (of approbation or thanks). It occurs first, as uttered by the Sassanidean king, Shabur I, Mezia 119 a, extr.; and already Rapoport, in his Erech Milln, 1852, p. 183, has recognised this word appiryon as Pers. It is the Old Pers. afrina or afrivana (from fri , to love), which signifies blessing or benediction ( vid., Justi’s Handb. d. Zendsprache, p. 51). Rashi is right in glossing it by (the testimony of our favour).)
a bed, and that, as Ewald also renders, a bed of state.
(from , R. , to lift from beneath, sublevare, then sternere) is the head of the head of the bed; lxx ; Jerome, reclinatorium , which, according to Isidore, is the Lat. vulgar name for the fulchra, the reclining (of the head and foot) of the bedstead. Schlottmann here involuntarily bears testimony that appiryon may at least be understood of a bed of state as well as of a litter of state; for he remarks: “The four sides of the bed were generally adorned with carved work, ivory, metal, or also, as in the case of most of the Oriental divans, with drapery.” “ Nec mihi tunc ,” says Porpertius, ii. 10, 11, “ fulcro lectus sternatur eburno .” Here the fulcrum is not of ivory, but of gold.
(from , to lie upon anything; Arab. II componere ; Aethiop. adipisci ) is that which one takes possession of, sitting or lying upon it, the cushion, e.g., of a saddle (Lev 15:9); here, the divan ( vid., Lane, Mod. Egypt, I 10) arranged on an elevated frame, serving both as a seat and as a couch. Red purple is called , probably from = , as material of variegated colour. By the interior of the bed, is probably meant a covering which lay above this cushion. , to arrange together, to combine (whence , pavement; Arab. rusafat , a paved way), is here meant like , , , whence . And is not equivalent to (after the construction 1Ki 22:10; Eze 9:2), inlaid with love, but is the adv. accus of the manner; “love” (cf. hhesed , Psa 141:5) denotes the motive: laid out or made up as a bed from love on the part of the daughters of Jerusalem, i.e., the ladies of the palace – these from love to the king have procured a costly tapestry or tapestries, which they have spread over the purple cuchion. Thus rightly Vaihinger in his Comm., and Merx, Archiv. Bd. II 111-114. Schlottmann finds this interpretation of “stiff and hard;” but although in the pass. is not used like the Greek , yet it can be used like (Ewald, sec. 295 b); and if there be no actual example of this, yet we point to Ps 45 in illustration of the custom of presenting gifts to a newly-married pair. He himself understands personally, as do also Ewald, Heiligst., Bttcher; “the voice of the people,” says Ewald, “knows that the finest ornament with which the invisible interior of the couch is adorned, is a love from among the daughters of Jerusalem, – i.e., some one of the court ladies who was raised, from the king’s peculiar love to her, to the rank of a queen-consort. The speaker thus ingeniously names this newest favourite ‘a love,’ and at the same time designates her as the only thing with which this elegant structure, all adorned on the outside is adorned within.” Relatively better Bttcher: with a love (beloved one), prae filiis Hierus . But even though , like amor and amores, might be used of the beloved one herself, yet does not harmonize with this, seeing we cannot speak of being paved or tapestried with persons. Schlottm. in vain refers for the personal signification of to Son 2:7, where it means love and nothing else, and seeks to bring it into accord with ; for he remarks, “as the stone in mosaic work fills the place destined for it, so the bride the interior of the litter, which is intended for just one person filling it.” But is this not more comical, without intending to be so, than Juvenal’s (i. 1. 32 s.):
Causidici nova cum veniat lectica Mathonis
Plena ipso
But Schlottm. agrees with us in this, that the marriage which is here being prepared for was the consummation of the happiness of Solomon and Shulamith, not of another woman, and not the consummation of Solomon’s assault on the fidelity of Shulamith, who hates him to whom she now must belong, loving only one, the shepherd for whom she is said to sigh ( Son 1:4), that he would come and take her away. “This triumphal procession,” says Rocke,
(Note: Das Hohelied, Erstlingsdrama, u.s.w. The Song, a Primitive Drama from the East; or, Family Sins and Love’s Devotion. A Moral Mirror for the Betrothed and Married, 1851.)
“was for her a mourning procession, the royal litter a bier; her heart died within her with longing for her beloved shepherd.” Touching, if it were only true! Nowhere do we see her up to this point resisting; much rather she is happy in her love. The shepherd-hypothesis cannot comprehend this marriage procession without introducing incongruous and imaginary things; it is a poem of the time of Gellert. Solomon the seducer, and Shulamith the heroine of virtue, are figures as from Gellert’s Swedish Countess; they are moral commonplaces personified, but not real human beings. In the litter sits Shulamith, and the appiryon waits for her. Solomon rejoices that now the reciprocal love-bond is to find its conclusion; and what Shulamith, who is brought from a lowly to so lofty a station, experiences, we shall hear her describe in the sequel.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(9) A chariot.Marg., bed; Heb., appiryn. A word of very doubtful etymology. Its derivation has been sought in Hebrew, Persian, Greek, and Sanskrit. The LXX. render ; Vulg., ferculum; and it seems natural, with Gesenius, to trace the three words to the root common in parah, , fero, fahren, bear, and possibly the sign of such a common origin in the Sanskrit pargana = a saddle (Hitzig). At all events, appiryn must be a palanquin, or litter, both from the context, which describes the approach of a royal cortge, and from the description given of it, where the word translated covering suggests the notion of a movable litter, rather than of a State bed.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. Still another bystander calls attention to the great beauty and costliness of this palanquin.
Chariot Its frame was of the choice cedar or cypress of Lebanon strong, light, and admitting a polish. This framework usually includes a latticed door on each side.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘King Solomon made himself a palanquin Of the wood of Lebanon. He made its pillars of silver, The bottom of it of gold, The seat of it of purple, The midst of it being paved with love, From the daughters of Jerusalem.’
Accompanying his bride is the bridegroom-king in his splendor. He is borne in a new palanquin made of the wood of Lebanon, with its pillars of silver and its bottom of gold. Its seat is purple, paved with love from the daughters of Jerusalem. That the pillars are of silver demonstrates that it was early on in Solomon’s reign, for later ‘silver counted for nothing in the days of Solomon’ (1Ki 10:21). But silver is also the emblem of purity, and gold and purple of majesty and royalty. Yet the most important feature of all is that it is paved with love.
In this we see the majesty of our Lord as He accompanies us on our way, revealed in both glory and love, bearing us onwards towards the heavenly Jerusalem. The idea of Jesus as the bridegroom in this way was implied by John the Baptist (Joh 3:29) and confirmed by Jesus (Mar 2:19-20; Mat 22:1-14). The idea is firmly based on Old Testament ideas (Isa 54:5; Isa 62:5).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon. (10) He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.
I would not strain the figures we meet with in this Song, beyond what they may fairly be supposed to bear; but, both the bed and the chariot of Solomon may be supposed to have reference to Christ’s church and people. He rests in his love; and his chariot of salvation, in which he goeth forth for the salvation of his people, is all of the choicest materials. Its being paved with love, gives us full authority to consider the whole an highly finished representation of the infinite preciousness of all that is here meant to be conveyed. Some have thought by the wood of Lebanon; an allusion is made to the cross of Christ, to show the everlasting durableness of the sacrifice Christ offered upon it. The chariot is supposed to mean the covenant of grace, and the blessed gospel in which the Lord Jesus is brought home to the hearts of his people. But whatever be the precise meaning of the whole, evidently it is of Christ’s making, and this plainly proves that all the work of redemption, from beginning to end, is the Lord’s. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the Author and Finisher of Faith.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Son 3:9 King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon.
Ver. 9. King Solomon made himself a chariot. ] Hic locus lubricus est et difficilis. This is a hard text, saith one. It had been easier, perhaps, if commentators had not made it so hard. The word rendered chariot, is by others rendered a bridechamber, a bed, a throne, a palace. The Hebrew word is found in this place only; a it hath the name of fairness and fruitfulness. Rabbi Solomon saith it is thalamus honorificus, a bedchamber of honour, whereby we are to understand again the Church, as we did by “bed” in the former verse. She is oft compared to a house, here to a bridechamber, and Solomon’s bridechamber, which must needs be supposed very trim, and set forth to the best. It is further set forth here by the causes: efficient, Solomon himself; material, cedar, silver, gold, &c.; formal, paved with love; final, for himself first, and then for the daughters of Jerusalem. First, Solomon himself made it, though a king. Stupenda sane dignatio, a wonderful condescension. The Church is Christ’s own “workmanship,” his “artificial facture,” or creature (as the Greek word signifieth, Eph 2:10 , ), that masterpiece of his architecture, wherein he hath showed singular skill, by erecting that glorious fabric of the new man, that “new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 2Pe 3:13 For “he planteth the heavens and layeth the foundations of the earth, that he may say to Zion, Thou art my people,” that he may “rejoice in the habitable part of God’s earth,” Pro 8:31 that he may say, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” 1Co 6:16 Christ wrought the centurion’s faith, as God; he wondered at it, as man. God wrought, and man marvelled; he did both to teach us where to bestow our wonder. Paul prays for his Ephesians, that their eyes might be enlightened to see the power that wrought in them. Eph 1:18
Of the wood of Lebanon.
a A .
b Lib. iii. cap. 2, De Eccles. Militante.
c Cameron, De Eccles., p. 167.
d De Notis Eccles., lib. iv. cap. 13.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
King Solomon made, &c. The remark of a third inhabitant of Jerusalem. See the Structure (above).
a chariot = a palanquin.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
a chariot: or, a bed, Appiryon, rendered by Montanus, sponsarum ithalamum, “a nuptial bed;” but probably it denotes a kind of palanquin, perhaps synonymous with the Arabic farfar, a species of vehicle for women. Son 3:7, 2Sa 23:5, Rev 14:6
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Son 3:9-10. King Solomon made a chariot In which the royal bridegroom and bride might ride together in state. By this chariot he seems to understand the word of Christ dispensed by his ministers, wherein Christ rides triumphantly in the world, conquering his enemies and subduing the world to the obedience of the gospel. Of the wood of Lebanon Of cedars, which wood being incorruptible, doth fitly signify the word of the gospel, which endureth for ever, 1Pe 1:25. He made the pillars thereof There is no necessity that either this or the following particulars should be distinctly applied to several things in the gospel; this in the general may suffice, that as all the particulars are added to show the perfection and beauty of the chariot, so they imply that Christs word is every way amiable and perfect. The bottom thereof of gold The under and lower part. Whereby he may seem to intend the foundation of the word and promises, which is either Gods covenant, or Christs mediation, in whom all the promises are yea and amen. The covering of it The uppermost part of it. The midst The inward parts: being paved Covered and adorned; with love The love of Christ to the sons of men. For the daughters of Jerusalem For their delight and comfort, who all bear a part in this marriage.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Solomon provided his bride with the best he could afford. This self-sacrificing attitude shows his genuine love for her. Solomon’s crown was a special one his mother Bathsheba gave him for this occasion. It evidently represented his joy as well as his royalty. This may have been a crowning that preceded Solomon’s coronation as king, since the high priest crowned him then (cf. 1Ki 1:32-48; 2Ki 11:11-20). [Note: Kinlaw, p. 1227.]
"Crowns, usually wreaths of flowers rather than royal crowns, were frequently worn by the nuptial couple in wedding festivities." [Note: Patterson, p. 65.]