Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Song of Solomon 1:16
Behold, thou [art] fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed [is] green.
16. our bed is green ] R.V. rightly, our couch. She recalls the green sward of the meadows, or possibly some leafy arbour where she had reclined with her beloved. Siegfried would understand the words of the marriage bed, sprinkled with sweet smelling substances; but that is incompatible with the following verse, and is moreover not supported by Psa 92:10, where the word translated ‘green’ here is rendered by ‘fresh,’ for in all probability it ought to be translated ‘green’ there also, since the best kind of olive oil is green. Cp. Riehm’s Hdwb. 11. p. 1123.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 16. Also our bed is green.] eres, from its use in several places of the Hebrew Bible, generally signifies a mattress; and here probably a green bank is meant, on which they sat down, being now on a walk in the country. Or it may mean a bower in a garden, or the nuptial bed.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Behold, thou art fair, my beloved. The church here again speaks, and retorts Christs words upon himself: If I am fair, it is only by thy grace and favourable acceptation; thou, and thou only, art fair indeed, thy beauty is exquisite and perfect.
Pleasant; as thou art beautiful in thyself, so thou art amiable and pleasant in thy condescension to me, and converse with me, in communicating thy blessed counsels, and graces, and comforts to me. Our bed; either,
1. Upon which we sit at meat, as the manner then was, Est 1:5,6; Eze 23:41. Or rather,
2. Upon which we lie, our nuptial bed; for the union and communion between Christ and his church is here represented under the notion of marriage. And accordingly the bed seems to denote the place or places where the church enjoyeth sweet fellowship with Christ, by his Spirit accompanying his ordinances, and imparting his merits, and graces, and comforts to her.
Is green; is pleasant, as that colour is to the eye; is prepared for us, being adorned with green garlands, or boughs and herbs, as the manner seems to have been with country brides, such as the spouse in this book is represented to be. Or, as others, both ancient and later interpreters, render it, is flourishing, i.e. fruitful. So it is a happy presage, that the church should not be barren, but bring forth many children to Christ; of which see Isa 54:1, &c. By these and the following words the church invites Christ to her bed and house, where she may freely and fully enjoy spiritual communion with him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. Reply of the Bride.She presumes to call Him beloved, because He called her so first.Thou callest me “fair”; if I am so, it is not in myself; itis all from Thee (Ps 90:17);but Thou art fair in Thyself (Ps45:2).
pleasant (Pr3:17) towards Thy friends (2Sa1:26).
bed . . . greenthecouch of green grass on which the King and His bride sit to “restat noon.” Thus her prayer in So1:7 is here granted; a green oasis in the desert, always foundnear waters in the East (Psa 23:2;Isa 41:17-19). The scene isa kiosk, or summer house. Historically, the literal resting ofthe Babe of Beth-lehem and his parents on the green grassprovided for cattle (Luk 2:7;Luk 2:12). In this verse there isan incidental allusion, in So 1:15,to the offering (Lu 2:24). Sothe “cedar and fir” ceiling refers to the temple (1Ki 5:6-10;1Ki 6:15-18); type of theheavenly temple (Re 21:22).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Behold, thou [art] fair, my beloved,…. These are the words of the church, giving back to Christ his commendation of her, and much in the same words, as more properly belonging to him than her; he calls her “my love”, she calls him “my beloved”: he says that she was “fair”; the same she says of him, with a like note of wonder, attention, and asseveration, he had prefixed to the commendation of her; suggesting, that his fairness and beauty were essential, original, and underived, but hers was all from him; and therefore he only ought to have the character: he, as man, is “fairer” than the children of men; as Mediator, is full of grace and truth, which makes him look lovely in the eyes of his people; and, as a divine Person, is the brightness of his Father’s glory. To which she adds,
yea, pleasant; looks pleasantly, with a smiling countenance on his people, being the image of the invisible God; pleasant to behold, as the sun of righteousness, and Saviour of men; pleasant in all his offices and relations; the doctrines of his Gospel are pleasant words; his ways, his ordinances, are ways of pleasantness; and especially having his presence, and communion with him in them; and which may be designed in the next clause;
also our bed [is] green; the same with “his bed which is Solomon’s”; his by gift and purchase; the church’s, by having a right through him, and an admittance to all the privileges of it: where the word is preached, ordinances administered, souls are begotten and born again, there Christ and his church have fellowship with each other; said to be “green”, in allusion to the strewing of beds with green herbs and leaves, and branches of trees h; particularly the nuptial bed, called from thence “thalamus” i: and it may denote the fruitfulness of the saints in grace and holiness, like green olive trees, in the house of God: or else numerous converts in the church, a large spiritual seed and offspring of Christ and the church, as were in the first times of the Gospel, and will be in the latter day: a green bed is an emblem of fruitfulness in the conjugal state; so the Targum and Jarchi interpret it.
h Vid. Alstorph. de Lectis Veterum, c. 1. p. 2. s. 9, 10. “Viridante toro consederat herbae”, Virgil. Aeneid. 5. v. 388. “In medo torus est de mollibus ulvis impositus lecto”, Ovid. Metamorph. 8. v. 685. i Alstorph. ibid. c. 13. p. 73, 74.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
16 Behold, thou art comely, my beloved; yea charming;
Yea, our couch is luxuriously green.
17 The beams of our house are cedars,
Our wainscot of cypresses.
If Son 1:16 were not the echo of her heart to Solomon, but if she therewith meant some other one, then the poet should at least not have used , but . Hitzig remarks, that up to “my beloved” the words appear as those of mutual politeness – that therefore (charming) is added at once to distinguish her beloved from the king, who is to her insufferable. But if a man and a woman are together, and he says and she says , that is as certainly an interchange of address as that one and one are two and not three. He praises her beauty; but in her eyes it is rather he who is beautiful, yea charming: she rejoices beforehand in that which is assigned to her. Where else would her conjugal happiness find its home but among her own rural scenes? The city with its noisy display does not please her; and she knows, indeed, that her beloved is a king, but she thinks of him as a shepherd. Therefore she praises the fresh green of their future homestead; cedar tops will form the roof of the house in which they dwell, and cypresses its wainscot. The bed, and particularly the bridal-bower ( D. M. Z. xxii. 153), – but not merely the bed in which one sleeps, but also the cushion for rest, the divan (Amo 6:4), – has the name , from , to cover over; cf. the “network of goats’ hair” (1Sa 19:13) and the of Holofernes (Judith 10:21; 13:9), (whence our kanapee = canopy), a bed covered over for protection against the , the gnats. , whence here the fem. adj. accented on the ult., is not a word of colour, but signifies to be extensible, and to extend far and wide, as lentus in lenti salices ; we have no word such as this which combines in itself the ideas of softness and juicy freshness, of bending and elasticity, of looseness, and thus of overhanging ramification (as in the case of the weeping willow). The beams are called , from , to meet, to lay crosswise, to hold together (cf. congingere and contignare). (after another reading, , from , with Kametz immutable, or a virtual Dag.) is North Palest. = = .tse ( Ker ), for in place of , troughs (Exo 2:16), the Samarit. has (cf. sahar and sahhar, circumire, zahar and zahhar, whence the Syr. name of scarlet); here the word, if it is not defect. plur. (Heiligst.), is used as collect. sing. of the hollows or panels of a wainscoted ceiling, like , whence the lxx (Symm. ), and like lacunae, whence lacunaria, for which Jerome has here laquearia , which equally denotes the wainscot ceiling. Abulwald glosses the word rightly by , gutters (from , to run); only this and of the Gr. Venet. is not an architectural expression, like , which is still found in the Talm. ( vid., Buxtorf’s Lex.). To suppose a transposition from , from , to turn, to carve (Ew., Heiligst., Hitz.), is accordingly not necessary. As the in belongs to the North Palest. (Galilean) form of speech,
(Note: Pliny, H. N. xxiv. 102, ed. Jan., notes brathy as the name of the savin-tree Juniperus sabina. Wetstein is inclined to derive the name of Beirut from , as the name of the sweet pine, the tree peculiar to the Syrian landscape, and which, growing on the sandy hills, prevents the town from being filled with flying sand. The cypress is now called (Arab.) sanawbar ; regarding its old names, and their signification in the figurative language of love, vid., under Isa 41:19.)
so also for in this word: an exchange of the gutturals was characteristic of the Galilean idiom ( vid., Talm. citations by Frankel, Einl. in d. jerus. Talm. 1870, 7 b). Well knowing that a mere hut was not suitable for the king, Shulamith’s fancy converts one of the magnificent nature-temples of the North Palest. forest-solitudes into a house where, once together, they will live each for the other. Because it is a large house, although not large by art, she styles it by the poet. plur. baattenu . The mystical interpretation here finds in Isa 60:13 a favourable support.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(16) Our bed is green.The heroine replies in similar terms of admiration, and recalls the happy woodland places in which they were wont to meet.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
“Behold, you are fair, my beloved, yes, handsome (‘pleasant), Also our couch is green. The beams of our house are cedars, And our rafters are firs. I am a crocus of Sharon, A lily of the valleys.”
The young country maiden replies with similar compliments, and then speaks of her hopes to lie with her beloved on the green grass and herbs beneath the boughs of the great cedars and firs. That will be their house. This is her view of courting, for she is not yet acclimatized to her new role. After all she is but a crocus of Sharon, on the coastal plain in the north, and a lily of the valleys, enjoying a Northern beauty. She was not to know, when she described herself in this way, that one day a greater than Solomon would declare, ‘Consider the lilies of the field, they toil not neither do they spin, and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these’ (Mat 6:28-29). Yet she is certainly aware of their beauty. She is not denigrating herself, but pointing out that she is of the valleys and the hills. So she is content with simple things, and with country life. She is not concerned with grandeur and fine palaces, only with being with her beloved and enjoying him in beautiful country surroundings. She does not yet quite appreciate whom her beloved is.
‘Also our couch is green.’ Greenness was seen as resulting from the activity of the sun and as indicating fullness of blessing (Job 8:16). It was an indication of restoration after the barren summer, resulting from the effects of rain and sun, when God had blessed the earth. Note also the reference to cedars as a roof over their head. In Son 8:9 it will be boards of cedar wood that possibly enclose her little sister in order to prevent her from straying, but here the protection for her is from the heat of the sun.
The prophets regularly looked back to the time in the wilderness as being a time when Israel were purer and sought their God more truly (Jer 2:2-3; Jer 2:13). Thus the song reminds God’s people that He can be found in the simple things of the countryside, as Jesus would later. The great cities were regularly looked on as the sources of evil and idolatry. And it is noteworthy that when Jesus came He avoided the great cities, and tended more to minister in the country towns and the open spaces. He too felt that men and women were nearer to God there than in the cities. It is a reminder to us that we need regularly to get away from the demands of life into a quiet place where we can meet with Him. And it is interesting that when He sat down the people to eat the bread of His new covenant that too was on ‘the green grass’ (Mar 6:39). Perhaps Mark had in mind these words from the Song of Solomon.
Like the young maiden we too find it difficult to become acclimatized to the fact that our Beloved is a King, and more. That is why we worry so much. And we seek to bring Him down to our level. And very graciously, as Solomon did with this maiden, He comes to us where we are and meets us on our own ground, spending time with us in our own surroundings, and assuring us of His love, waiting for a full recognition of all that He is to dawn on us.
The BELOVED again speaks.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Shulamite’s Response – Her lover has told the Shulamite woman how beautiful she is in Son 1:15. She responses to her lover’s comments with the same words by telling him how beautiful he is to her. While he has focused upon her eyes, she focuses upon the possibility of marriage and a home. The reference to the bed and the house in Son 1:16-17 may suggest her desire to become his future wife. She then compares herself to the common flowers of her region, while some interpret this comparison to refer to her beauty rather than her simplicity among women (Son 2:1).
Son 1:16 Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green.
Son 1:16
Psa 23:2, “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.”
Son 1:17 The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir.
Son 1:17
Literal Interpretation – The house is a place of shelter and protection. The reference to the cedar beams and fir rafters in Son 1:17 suggests that the covering of this shelter is a provision of the wealth of the king. When we read about Solomon’s house in 1Ki 7:1-12, we find that his own house was magnificent, made of cedar and costly stones. Thus, the house referred to in Son 1:17 would have been beautiful, large, and magnificent.
Figurative Interpretation – In a figurative interpretation, this covering of the roof of the house represents the covering that a person sits under when joined to a local church.
Son 2:1 I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.
Son 2:1
Comments – The rose is one of the most noble, beautiful and fragrant of all flowers, much as it is today. The plains of Sharon, with its rich soil, would have grown the finest horticulture of the land.
Son 2:1 “and the lily of the valleys” Word Study on “lily” Strong says the Hebrew word “lily” “ shuwshan ” ( ) (H7799) means, “a lily (from its whiteness), as a flower or [archaic] an ornament.” The Enhanced Strong says this word is used 15 times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as “lily 13, Shoshannim 2.” However, its compound uses in Psalms 60 (Shushan-eduth) and Psalms 80 (Shoshannim-Eduth) can be included. It is found 8 times in Songs (Son 2:1-2; Son 2:16; Son 4:5; Son 5:13; Son 6:2-3; Son 7:2). Lilies were used to adorn Solomon’s Temple ( 1Ki 7:19 ; 1Ki 7:22; 1Ki 7:26, 2Ch 4:5). This word or its derivatives are used in the title of four psalms as “Shoshannim” (Psalms 45, 60, 69, 80). Psalms 45 is a song of love, where a wedding processional is described. In Songs the Beloved is describes as “a lily of the valley,” and “a lily among thorns” (Son 2:1-2). The Lover feeds among the lilies in the garden (Son 2:16; Son 4:5; Son 6:3), and gathers lilies (Son 5:13). Hosea describes the children of Israel as a lily, saying, “I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.” (Hos 14:5) Watchman Nee suggests that the lilies mentioned in Songs is symbolic of those who are upright before God. [109]
[109] Watchman Nee, Song of Songs (Fort Washington, Pennsylvania: CLC Publications, c1965, 2001), 53.
Comments – It is in the valleys where the soils were most fertile, as in the plains of Sharon. There the horticulture would have grown at its best. John Gill refers to Pliny, who tells us that the lily of the valley was next to the rose in “nobleness.” [110]
[110] Pliny the Elder says, “The lily holds the next highest rank after the rose, and has a certain affinity with it in respect of its unguent and the oil extracted from it, which is known to us as ‘lirinon.’ Blended, too, with roses, the lily produces a remarkably fine effect; for it begins to make its appearance, in fact, just as the rose is in the very middle of its season.” Natural History 21.11. See Pliny, The Natural History of Pliny, vol. 4, trans. John Bostock and H. T. Riley, in Bohn’s Classical Library (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1856), 314-415; John Gill, Song of Solomon, in John Gill’s Expositor, in e-Sword, v. 7.7.7 [CD-ROM] (Franklin, Tennessee: e-Sword, 2000-2005), comments on Song of Solomon 2:1.
Son 2:1 Comments – The “plains of Sharon” mentioned in Son 2:1 a would be parallel to “the valleys” mentioned in Son 2:1 b. This means that the first and second parts of Son 2:1 are intended to state a similar metaphor.
Literal Interpretation Scholars approach Son 2:1 with two interpretations. If the Shulamite is speaking, then Son 2:11 is:
1. A Comment on Her Beauty – If Son 2:1 is referring to two of the most beautiful flowers of the field then we could interpret this verse to be a statement from the Shulamite about her beauty.
2. A Comment on Her Simplicity – However, many scholars interpret the “rose of Sharon” to refer to a common wild flower, such as the crocus, which grows abundantly on the plains of Sharon, and they understand the lily of the valleys to refer to a common lily that is sprinkled among the upland valleys of this region. Thus, the Shulamite would be commenting on her simple appearance and state, rather than her beauty, followed by the king taking this analogy of the lily and elevating her appearance by saying she was like a “lily among thorns” (Son 2:2).
Figurative Interpretation – Francis J. Roberts understands the statement in Son 2:1 to be a reference to Christ as the “Rose of Sharon.”
“Thou mayest by praise open to Me the gates of the temple by thy soul. The King shall enter and bring His glory. The Rose of Sharon shall bloom in thy heart and His fragrance shall be shed abroad.” [111]
[111] Frances J. Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 42.
Kenneth Copeland shared the testimony of how he has smelled the anointing on several occasions. He described it as the smell of roses. One day when this smell filled the pulpit area, the Lord spoke to him and said that the “Rose of Sharon” had just passed by. [112]
[112] Kenneth Copeland, “Sermon,” Southwest Believers Convention, Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Fort Worth, Texas, 8 August 2008.
Jesus referred to the glory of the lilies of the field, and compares them to Solomon’s glory.
Mat 6:28-29, “And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”
However, if the Shulamite is speaking in Son 2:1, then figuratively speaking, Mike Bickle understands this as a description of a believer’s new identity in Christ, as a resurrected saint. [113]
[113] Mike Bickle, Session 7 – The Bride’s Identity in the Beauty of God (Song of Solomon 1:12-2:7 ), in Song of Songs (Kansas City, Missouri: International House of Prayer, 1998), 13.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Son 1:16. Yea, pleasant: also, &c. The author of the New Translation puts a full stop at beloved; and renders the next clause thus; and how pleasant, how green, is our flowery bed! remarking, that the generality of versions seem not to have attended to the beautiful force of the original, where the particle ap is repeated. Literally, the whole passage, according to the proposed amendment, would be, Behold, thou art fair, my beloved. Yea, pleasant, yea, green, or flowery, is our bed. Or, it may be rendered, Behold, thou art fair, my beloved; yea, pleasant. Yea, our bed, or couch, is strewed with flowers; for the word rendered green, is translated flowery by the best critics.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Son 1:16 Behold, thou [art] fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed [is] green.
Ver. 16. Behold thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant. ] Behold thou art fair, my love, &c., said he to her a It were fitter a fair deal for me to say so to thee, saith she here to him, since all my beauty is but borrowed of thee; it is but a spark of thy flame, a drop of thine ocean. If I shine at all, it is with thy beams only; if I be any whit comely, it is with the comeliness that thou hast put upon me. Christ as a man (how much more as God blessed for ever?) was “fairer” by far “than all the children of men,” Psa 45:2 because free from sin, and “full of grace and truth,” as in Eze 28:7 there is mentioned “beauty of wisdom.” And the heathen philosopher b could say, that if moral wisdom (how much more spiritual?) could be seen with mortal eyes, it would draw all men’s hearts unto itself. But besides his inward beauty, which was inconceivable, inasmuch as in him, as in a temple, the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily, that is, personally, in the body of Christ, there was a most fair form and a divine face. He had a good complexion, and such a comely countenance as did express a divinity in him. If St Stephen’s face, when he stood before the council, shone like an angel’s face, Act 6:15 and if his eye could pierce the heavens, Act 7:55 how much more may we think Christ did? True it is, that by reason of his sufferings in the flesh, “his visage was marred more than any man’s, and his form more than the sons of men.” Isa 52:14 And “he had no form nor comeliness” – viz., in the eyes of his perverse countrymen, who when they saw him they could discern no such beauty wherefore they should so desire him; “He was despised and rejected of men,” For what reason? “He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,” which had so drank up his spirits, and furrowed his fair face, that at little past thirty years of age he was reckoned to be towards fifty; he seemed to the Jews to be much older than he was indeed, as some are of the opinion. See Joh 8:57 .
Yea, pleasant.
“ Clitorio quicunque sitim de lento levarit,
Vina fugit, gaudetque meris abstemius undis. ”
– Ovid. Met.
Yea, our bed is green.
a Inter Romanos dicebatur, Tu Caius ego Caia. Between Romans it was said, You are Gaius since I am Gaia. So here the spouse, I am Japha, because thou art Japhe. Joppa, a fair haven town, had its name from this root; like as “the fair heavens,” Act 27:8 and the beautiful “gate.” Act 3:2
b Plato.
c , Sept., The spring or flower of beauty.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Son 1:16-17
16How handsome you are, my beloved,
And so pleasant!
Indeed, our couch is luxuriant!
17The beams of our houses are cedars,
Our rafters, cypresses.
Son 1:16-17 This refers to either (1) the grandeur of the royal travelling pavilion or (2) the secret meeting place in the woods of the two hometown lovers.
couch This is a different term (BDB 793) from table or couch in Son 1:12 (BDB 687).
Son 1:17 The UBS’ Helps for Translators, Fauna and Flora of the Bible, says, there is great confusion in all versions, ancient and modern, over the identity of evergreens in the Bible (p. 116).
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
This is a study guide commentary which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.
These discussion questions are provided to help you think through the major issues of this section of the book. They are meant to be thought provoking, not definitive.
1. Why are there so many interpretations of this book of the Bible?
2. How many persons or groups are referred to in these music/poetic passages?
3. Give possible theories of Son 1:6 and why this verse is so important.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
my beloved. Here it is Masculine. The Shulamite speaks again.
bed = couch.
green = verdant.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
thou art: Son 2:3, Son 5:10-16, Psa 45:2, Zec 9:17, Phi 3:8, Phi 3:9, Rev 5:11-13
also: Son 3:7, Psa 110:3
Reciprocal: Pro 7:16 – decked Son 5:16 – most Son 7:6 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Son 1:16-17. Behold, thou art fair The church here again speaks, and retorts Christs words; thou, and thou only, art fair indeed; yea, pleasant As thou art beautiful in thyself, so thou art amiable and pleasant in thy condescension to me. Also, our bed This seems to denote the place where the church enjoys sweet fellowship with Christ, by his Spirit accompanying his ordinances; is green Is pleasant, as that colour to the eye. The beams of our house are cedar Not only strong, but also fragrant and delightful; and our rafters of fir Or, rather, as the ancients and others render , of cypress; which also was strong and fragrant, and therefore suits well with cedar.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1:16 Behold, thou [art] fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our {u} bed [is] green.
(u) That is, the heart of the faithful, in which Christ dwells by his Spirit.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The girl probably spoke both of these verses. "Pleasant" refers to Solomon’s charming personality. The references to "couch," "beams," "houses," and "rafters" probably allude to a place in the countryside where the lovers liked to meet and talk, perhaps a country house. [Note: Glickman, p. 39.] "Luxuriant" implies a grassy area, and the other terms seem to indicate that trees overarched it.