Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Song of Solomon 4:6
Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.
6. Until the day break ] As in Son 3:7 we must translate, Until the day cool and the shadows have fled, i.e. until the evening. This verse, by its transition to action on the part of one of the chief speakers, a thing that does not occur in the bridal wasf, shews that we have not here a regular wasf. Budde and Bickell would consequently omit it.
to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense ] This is taken by Oettli to mean, ‘I will get me into a garden of spices in hilly ground.’ He supposes that Solomon, thinking he has triumphed, says he will go away to a garden where he has planted exotic plants, and will return in the evening. This seems much preferable to the interpretations which find in these words allegorical references to the person of the bride. Cheyne would read Hermon for ‘myrrh’ (Heb. mor) and Lebanon for ‘frankincense’ (Heb. lebhnh). But no one could say that he was going on one afternoon to both Lebanon and Hermon, which is the highest peak of Anti-Libanus. The emendation would be feasible only if the whole complex of mountains were included in the name Lebanon.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 6. Until the day break] Until the morning breeze. See So 2:17.
The shadows flee away] Till the sun sets.
Mountain of myrrh] Probably the same as the mountains of Bether, So 2:17. Mountains where the trees grew from which myrrh and incense were extracted.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Until the day break, and the shadows flee away: these words are uttered by the bride, Son 2:17, and here returned by the Bridegroom, as an answer to that request. And this place may be understood either,
1. Of the day of the gospel, when all legal shadows shall vanish; or,
2. Of the day of glory, or of the general resurrection, when all manner of shadows and ordinances shall cease; till which time either the spouse feeds among lilies, as was now said, Son 2:5, or the Bridegroom gets him to the mountains, &c., as it follows. For the words are by most joined with the foregoing, and by some with the following clause.
To the mountain of myrrh, and to the kill of frankincense; either,
1. To the temple at Jerusalem, which is oft and fitly expressed by the name of a mountain or hill, because it was built upon a mountain, and which may be called a mountain of myrrh and frankincense, because of the abundance of myrrh and frankincense which was there used and offered; in which place the church was to feed, and Christ would continue his presence, until the dawning of the gospel day. Or,
2. To my church upon earth, which was typified by the mountain of Moriah, and the temple upon it, and which in prophetical writings is called a mountain, as Isa 2:2,3; Mic 4:1,2, and elsewhere; and which may well be called
a mountain of myrrh and frankincense, both for the acceptable services which are there offered to God, and for the precious gifts, and graces, and comforts of the Holy Spirit, which are of a sweet-smelling savour to God and men, and which there, and there only, are poured forth. Thus Christ directs his bride, to wit, particular believers, where they may find and enjoy him, namely, in his church and ordinances.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. Historically, the hill offrankincense is Calvary, where, “through the eternal SpiritHe offered Himself”; the mountain of myrrh is His embalmment(Joh 19:39) till theresurrection “daybreak.” The third Canticle occupies theone cloudless day of His presence on earth, beginning from the night(So 2:17) and ending with thenight of His departure (So 4:6).His promise is almost exactly in the words of her prayer (So2:17), (the same Holy Ghost breathing in Jesus Christ and Hispraying people), with the difference that she then looked for Hisvisible coming. He now tells her that when He shall have gone fromsight, He still is to be met with spiritually in prayer (Psa 68:16;Mat 28:20), until the everlastingday break, when we shall see face to face (1Co 13:10;1Co 13:12).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Until the day break, and the shadows flee away,…. Until the day of grace breaks on every elect sinner, and the shadows of darkness, ignorance, and unbelief, are in a great measure fled and gone; or until the everlasting day breaks, and there will be no more night, nor any darkness of affliction, nor any more desertion, doubts, and fears; see So 2:17. They are the words of Christ, declaring whither he would go till that time came, as follows:
I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense: the allusion may be to the mountains and hills where these odoriferous plants grew. It is said of Pompey the great, that when he passed over Lebanon (later mentioned, So 4:8) and by Damascus, he went through sweet smelling groves and woods of frankincense and balsam s; and Lebanon is thought, by some t, to have its name from the frankincense that grew upon it; though rather from the whiteness of the snow continually on it. By this “mountain” and “hill” may be meant the church of Christ, gathered together in Gospel order, so called for its visibility and immovableness, Isa 2:2; and for the trees of righteousness which are planted and flourish there, the saints; and for the fragrancy of their graces; and for the sweet smelling odour of their sacrifices of prayer and praise; and because of the delight and pleasure Christ takes in his people, and they in him here; where they have mutual communion, so that it is to them both a mountain of myrrh and a hill of frankincense: particularly, here Christ delights to be, and here he resolves to dwell until his second coming.
s Florus de Gest. Roman. l. 3. c. 5. t Vid. Gabr. Sionita de Orient. Urb. c. 6. p. 14.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Shulamith replies to these words of praise:
6 Until the day cools and the shadows flee,
I will go forth to the mountain of myrrh
And to the hill of frankincense.
All those interpreters who suppose these to be a continuation of Solomon’s words, lose themselves in absurdities. Most of them understand the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense of Shulamith’s attractions, praised in Son 4:5, or of her beauty as a whole; but the figures would be grotesque (cf. on the other hand Son 5:13), and prosaic, wherefore it comes that the idea of betaking oneself away connects itself with (Gen 12:1; Exo 18:27), or that it yet preponderates therein (Gen 22:2; Jer 5:5), and that, for in the passage before us in reference to Son 2:10-11, the supposition holds that it will correspond with the French j m’en irai . With right Louis de Leon sees in the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense names of shady and fragrant places; but he supposes that Solomon says he wishes to go thither to enjoy a siesta, and that he invites Shulamith thither. But we read nothing of this invitation; and that a bridegroom should sleep a part of his marriage-day is yet more unnatural than that, e.g., Wilh. Budus, the French philologist, spent a part of the same at work in his study. That not Solomon but Shulamith speaks here is manifest in the beginning, “until the day,” etc., which at Son 2:17 are also Shulamith’s words. Anton (1773) rightly remarks, “Shulamith says this to set herself free.” But why does she seek to make herself free? It is answered, that she longs to be forth from Solomon’s too ardent eulogies; she says that, as soon as it is dark, she will escape to the blooming aromatic fields of her native home, where she hopes to meet with her beloved shepherd. Thus, e.g., Ginsburg (1868). But do myrrh and frankincense grow in North Palestine? Ginsburg rests on Florus’ Epitome Rerum Rom. iii. 6, where Pompey the Great is said to have passed over Lebanon and by Damascus “ per nemora illa odorata, per thuris et balsami sylvas .” But by these thuris et balsami sylvae could be meant only the gardens of Damascus; for neither myrrh nor frankincense is indigenous to North Palestine, or generally to any part of Palestine. Friedrich (1866) therefore places Shulamith’s home at Engedi, and supposes that she here once more looks from the window and dotes on the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense, “where, at the approach of twilight, she was wont to look out for her betrothed shepherd.” But Shulamith, as her name already denotes, is not from the south, but is a Galilean, and her betrothed shepherd is from Utopia! That myrrh and frankincense were planted in the gardens of Engedi is possible, although (Son 1:14) mention is made only of the Al-henna there. But here places in the neighbourhood of the royal palace must be meant; for the myrrh tree, the gum of which, prized as an aroma, is the Arab. Balsamodendron Myrrha, and the frankincense tree, the resin of which is used for incense, is, like the myrrh tree, an Arab. amyrid . The Boswellia serrata,
(Note: Lassen’s Ind. Alterthumskunde, I 334.)
indigenous to the East Indies, furnishes the best frankincense; the Israelites bought it from Sheba (Isa 60:6; Jer 6:20). The myrrh tree as well as the frankincense tree were thus exotics in Palestine, as they are in our own country; but Solomon, who had intercourse with Arabia and India by his own mercantile fleet, procured them for his own garden (Ecc 2:5). The modest Shulamith shuns the loving words of praise; for she requests that she may be permitted to betake herself to the lonely places planted with myrrh and frankincense near the king’s palace, where she thinks to tarry in a frame of mind befitting this day till the approaching darkness calls her back to the king. It is the importance of the day which suggests to her this , a day in which she enters into the covenant of her God with Solomon (Pro 2:17). Without wishing to allegorize, we may yet not omit to observe, that the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense put us in mind of the temple, where incense, composed of myrrh, frankincense, and other spices, ascended up before God every morning and evening (Exo 30:34.). is perhaps a not unintentional accord to (2Ch 3:1), the mountain where God appeared; at all events, “mountain of myrrh” and “hill of frankincense” are appropriate names for places of devout meditation, where one holds fellowship with God.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(6) Until the day break.See Note, Son. 2:17. Until the day breathe = when evening is come. Commentators have tried to identify the mountain of myrrh and hill of frankincense, but these only carry on the thought of Son. 4:5 under another figure. We have come to another break in the poem, the end of another day, and, as before, though the metaphor is changed, the curtain falls on the complete union of the bridegroom with his bride.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. In the play of feeling here traced, this verse is of great importance. Amid the splendours of the palace of which, as will soon plainly appear, (and must have been already suggested,) she can, if she choose, become an inmate, the voice of her Beloved still controls her feelings. Not the compliments which he pays, but the tones of his voice, the music of a faithful heart, and the beaming of a love-lighted face, prevail. The palace fades from her thought. Better to be queen of one true heart in the poor simplicities of country life, than to share with many rivals the marble court of the king. This verse is the crisis of the Song. There has been a test and trial in her spirit, but the difficult point is now passed. All blandishments will hereafter be vain. Until, etc. See Son 2:17. The Enamoured decides to leave the palace at the cool and shelter of evening, and go back to the country, which takes now a sudden charm in her thought.
Mountain of myrrh An old traveller speaks of Syrian hills so overgrown with spicy shrubs and bushes that the very air was fragrant as he passed.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Preparation After The Wedding For The Final Love-Making.
The BRIDEGROOM anticipates the pleasure ahead.
“Until the day be cool, And the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, And to the hill of frankincense. You are all fair, my love, And there is no spot in you.”
Finally Solomon has an eye on his prize. Now that they are married he cannot wait for the evening when he can complete the day by honorably enjoying his bride, and gazing on her perfection. We may see the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense as descriptive of a bed fit for a king, with its piles of perfumed cushions, revealing that in his mind now is the time when they will consummate their marriage. Or they may signify his expectation of pleasure from the bride herself, compare Son 3:6, the two prominences possibly having in mind her two breasts. Either idea would certainly tie in with his final compliment, that his bride is the picture of perfection. There is no blemish in her.
Israel at their feasts no doubt saw this as a reminder of His making of the covenant with them, and the renewal of that covenant, and later, when they had failed Him, as pointing to their future when God would at last claim them for His bride, but where they failed was in not being ready when He came.
We may see in this a picture of Christ’s present satisfaction with His bride whom He has made to be His own, without blemish and without spot (Eph 5:27). And as a reminder that having wed us He desires to be with us constantly and to enjoy our reciprocated love.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Son 4:6. Mountain of Myrrh, &c. Myrrh and frankincense were among the most valuable perfumes of the East: the bridegroom therefore concludes his encomium on the bride’s person, by comparing her to an entire heap of those precious essences, and observing that she is completely fair and excellent. In this day’s eclogue, the church, says our English Bible, glorieth in Christ, and Christ setteth forth the graces of the church. The beauty, the glory, the happiness of Solomon, are but figures of that heavenly bridegroom, and that heavenly host, who secure the church in her enjoyments, and take care of her continual safety, Son 4:7-8. Nor can any representations, however elegant, sufficiently express the love of God, and the riches of his grace, in the great and precious promises, far dearer to all believers than thousands of gold and silver; which the gospel calls us not only to behold, but to enjoy, Son 4:10 and in the view of which, faithful hearts cannot fail to admire and extol the surpassing glory of that great king, who shall appear clothed with glory, honour, and joy, on that happy day, when he shall publicly own the church of his faithful followers, and give her the highest testimony of his love; (See Rev 19:6-9.) even that mystical body of Christ, whose virgin modesty, chap. Son 4:1 whose pure and amiable discourse, including the candour, excellence, and instruction, of her ministers and teachers; and, in one word, whose admirable perfection of beauty has already so engaged his heart. See Son 4:7 and Eph 5:27.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.
The Church once before had expressed herself in regard to the dispersion of the shades of night, by the break of day, see Son 2:17 ; and here she adds, that she will wait this much desired event, by retiring to meditation and prayer. By the mountain of myrrh, perhaps in allusion to him to whom was offered myrrh mingled with gall, may be supposed the mount of Calvary; and by the hill of frankincense may perhaps be implied the fragrancy of that incense, which Jesus as the great High Priest of his people offered up in that one offering of himself, in the bloody vesture. Some have supposed however, that these are the words of Christ in continuance of what went before, as if Jesus, while waiting for the great day in which he will gather all things to himself, gets him away to watch over all the concerns of his Church and people.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Son 4:6 Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.
Ver. 6. Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, ] i.e., Till that last and great day of the Lord dawn, that “day of refreshing,” Act 3:19 that day of consolation, as the Syriac hath it, Joh 11:24 when “everlasting joy shall be upon the heads of all believers; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” a Till that blessed time, Christ, in answer to his spouse’s request, Son 2:17 promiseth to get him “to the mountains of myrrh”; that is, not to heaven, as some sense it, but to his Church militant, frequently called God’s holy mountain, and here “mountains of myrrh, and hills of incense,” as in allusion to Mount Moriah, whereon the temple was builded, so especially in reference to the prayers and good works of the saints, those evangelical sacrifices wherewith God is well pleased. Some there are that, comparing this with Son 2:17 , make these to be the Church’s words; that as there she requested speedy help of Christ in the time of her sorrow, so here in like temptation she fleeth for refuge to the “mount of myrrh, and hill of frankincense,” to the holy ordinances where she hopeth for comfort.
a Benuchama. Isa 35:10
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Until = When. The Shulamite speaks in Son 4:6, referring to Son 2:17, answering that that very evening she will quit Jerusalem and go to their delightful country.
break = cools. Compare Son 2:17.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
day: Son 2:17, Mal 4:2, Luk 1:78, 2Pe 1:19, 1Jo 2:8, Rev 22:16
break: Heb. breathe
the mountain: Exo 20:24, Exo 30:8, Exo 30:23-26, Exo 37:29, Deu 12:5, Deu 12:6, Psa 66:15, Isa 2:2, Mal 1:11, Luk 1:9, Luk 1:10, Rev 5:8
Reciprocal: Psa 45:8 – All Son 1:13 – bundle Son 4:14 – trees Joh 19:39 – a
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Son 4:6. Until the day break, &c. These words are uttered by the bride, (chap. 2:17,) and here returned by the bridegroom as an answer to that request. And this place may be understood of the day of glory, when all shadows and ordinances shall cease; I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, &c. To my church upon earth, which was typified by the mountain of Moriah and the temple upon it. This, in prophetic writings, is called a mountain, and may well be called a mountain of myrrh and frankincense, both for the acceptable services which were there offered to God, and for the precious gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, which are of a sweet-smelling savour to God and men. Thus Christ directs believers where they may find him, namely, in his church and ordinances.