Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Song of Solomon 5:1

I am come into my garden, my sister, [my] spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

Ch. Son 5:1. The great question regarding this verse is how the perfect tenses in it are to be understood. Some maintain that they must be rigorously taken as perfects; others think that they should be understood in one or other of the modified perfect senses which this tense may have in Heb. Grammatically we may render either, I have come, or I come (cp. Ges. Gr. 106 i); or lastly I will come, perf. of confidence (Ges. 106 n). Those who, like Delitzsch, suppose that the marriage has taken place, take the first; Budde, who regards the song as one sung after the marriage has been celebrated, but during the week of festivities, takes the second; those who regard the marriage as still in the future cannot but take the perfs. in the third sense. In that case the words indicate that after what the bride has revealed of her love, the bridegroom feels that the marriage is as good as accomplished.

I have gathered my myrrh with my spice ] Rather, I have plucked my myrrh with my balsam.

eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved ] The chief difficulty here is whether ddhm, the word translated ‘friends,’ should not be rendered ‘caresses,’ as it has meant hitherto throughout the book, or whether it is to be taken in the sense of ‘beloved friends,’ as its parallelism to r‘m would suggest. That ddhm may have this latter meaning seems clear, for in many languages the abstract word, ‘love,’ is used in a concrete signification. On the whole this rendering beloved friends seems the best here. Siegfried seeks to establish a distinction between ddhm written defectively ( ), and the same word written fully ( ), the former being used, he says, only of caresses, the latter of friends, quoting Knig, Lehrgeb. vol. 11. 2, 262 b. He translates, “Eat ye too, O companions, and intoxicate yourselves, O friends,” and says that the clause would mean in prose, ‘do ye marry also.’ But in that case some way of emphasising the ye would have been expected. It seems preferable to understand the words of an invitation to his friends to come to the marriage feast he has spoken of as being as good as made (Ewald).

drink abundantly ] That the bridegroom should invite them to drink to satiety is in accord with what would appear to have been the custom, viz. to shew sympathy at such a feast by departing from the habitual abstemiousness of the East in regard to wine. Cp. Joh 2:10, the marriage at Cana of Galilee. That shkhar may mean merely to drink to satiety, not to drunkenness, is proved by Hag 1:6, “Ye eat, but ye have not enough, ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink”; where lsbh h is parallel to lshokhr h. Some prefer to take the last clause as an address by the daughters of Jerusalem (Ginsburg), or by the poet to the young pair (Hitzig).

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Chap. Son 4:8 Chap. Son 5:1. A true Lover’s Pleading

With Son 4:8 a new song, representing another scene, begins. In it the peasant lover of the Shulammite comes to beseech her to flee from the mountain region where she is detained, the home of wild beasts and the scene of other dangers. In Son 4:9-15 he breaks forth into a passionate lyric, expressive of his love for her, and in Son 4:16 she replies, yielding to his love and his entreaties. Ch. Son 5:1 contains his reply.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

My honeycomb – literally, my reed or my wood, i. e., the substance itself, or portions of it in which the comb is formed. The bees in Palestine form their combs not only in the hollows of trees and rocks, but also in reeds by the river-banks. The kings meaning appears to be: All pleases me in thee, there is nothing to despise or cast away.

Eat, O friends – A salutation from the king to his assembled guests, or to the chorus of young men his companions, bidding them in the gladness of his heart Son 3:11 partake of the banquet. So ends this day of outward festivity and supreme heart-joy. The first half of the Song of Songs is fitly closed. The second half of the poem commences Son 5:2 with a change of tone and reaction of feeling similar to that of Son 3:1. It terminates with the sealing Son 8:6-7 of yet deeper love.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Son 5:1

I am come into My garden, My sister, My spouse.

The King feasting in His garden

I. The voice of the Master Himself calls us to consider his presence: I am come. He tells us He is come. What I Could He come without our perceiving it? Is it possible? May we be like those whose eyes were holden so that they knew Him not? Is it possible for us to be like Magdalen, seeking Christ, while He is standing very near us? Yes, and we may even be like the disciples who, when they saw Him walking on the water, were afraid, and thought it was a spirit, and cried out, and had need for Him to say, It is I, be not afraid, before they knew who it was! Here is our ignorance, but here is His tenderness. Observe, first, this coming was in answer to prayer. How quickly the spouse was heard! Scarce had the words died away, Let my Beloved come, before she heard Him say, I am come! Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. Now, observe what an unspeakable blessing this is! If the voice had said, I have sent My angel, that would have been a precious boon; but it is not so spoken; the word is, I am come. If you take each word of this remarkable sentence, you will find a meaning. I am come. There is the personal presence of Christ, I am come. There is the certainty that it is so. It is no illusion, no dream, no supposition. I am truly come. This is a solemn as well as a pleasant fact. You who are members of this church, recollect that Jesus is come into the church, that He is now going his rounds among you, and marking your feelings towards Him; He knows to-day who is in fellowship with Him, and who is not; He discerneth between the precious and the vile. I am come into My garden, saith He. Note here the possession which Christ claims in the Church. If it were not His garden, He would not come into it. A church that is not Christs church shall have none of His presence, and a soul that is not Christs has no fellowship with Him. The next word denotes cultivation. I am come into My garden. The Church is a cultivated spot; it did not spring up by chance, it was arranged by Himself, it has been tended by Himself, and the fruits belong to Himself. And then there are the two choice words at the close, by which He speaks of His Church herself rather than of her work. As if He would draw the attention of His people to themselves and to Himself, rather than to their work; He says, My sister, My spouse. There is one name for the garden, but there are two names for herself. The work is His work, the garden is His garden, but see, He wants communion not so much with the work as with the worker, He speaks to the Church herself. He calls her, My sister, My spouse. Spouse has something in it of dearness that is not in the first word, for what can be dearer to the husband than the bride? But then there was a time when the spouse was not dear to the Bridegroom, there was a period perhaps when He did not know her, when there was no relationship between them twain; though they are made of one flesh by marriage, yet they were of different families; and for this cause He adds the dear name of sister, to show an ancient relationship to her, a closeness and nearness by blood, by birth, as well as by betrothal and wedlock. The two words put together make up a confection of inexpressible sweetness.

II. Our Lords satisfaction in His Church. Observe, first, that Christ is delighted with the offerings of His people. He says, I have gathered My myrrh with My spice. We may consider myrrh and spice–sweet perfumes–offered by way of incense to God, as being indicative of the offerings which His people bring to Him. What if I say that prayer is like sweet-smelling myrrh, and that the Beloved has been gathering the myrrh of holy prayer, the bitter myrrh of repenting sighs and cries, in the midst of this church, lo, these many months! No faithful prayer is lost. The groanings of His people are not forgotten, He gathers them as-men gather precious products from a garden which they have tilled with much labour and expense. And then, may not spice represent our praises? for these, as well as prayer, come up as incense before His throne. Praise is pleasant and comely, and most of all so because Jesus accepts it, and says, Whosoever offereth praise glorifieth Me. The Saviours satisfaction is found, next, in His peoples love–I have eaten My honeycomb with My honey. He takes an intense satisfaction in the sweet fruits which He Himself has caused us to produce; notwithstanding every imperfection, He accepts our love, and says, I have eaten My honeycomb with My honey. Turning again to our precious text, we observe that our Lord s satisfaction is compared to drinking as well as eating, and that drinking is of a twofold character. I have drunk My wine. Does he intend by this His joy which is fulfilled in us when our joy is full? Does He mean that, as men go to feasts to make glad their hearts with wine, so He comes to His people to see their joy, and is filled with exultation? Meaneth He not so? Surely He doth. And the milk, may not that mean the Christians common, ordinary life? As milk contains all the constituents of nourishment, may He not mean by this the general life of the Christian? Our Lord takes delight in the graces of our lives. Permit me now to call your attention to those many great little words, which are yet but one–I refer to the word My. Observe, that eight or nine times it is repeated. Here is the reason for the solace which the Bridegroom finds in His Church. If He has gotten anything out of us, He must first have put it in us: if He sees of the travail of His soul, it is because the travail came first. Note well, ye lovers of Jesus, that our Lord in this heavenly verse is fed first. I have eaten, says He, and then He turns to us and says, Eat, O friends. If any of you seek friendship with the Well-beloved, you must commence by preparing Him a feast. Be assured that after yon have so done, your barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail. The way for believers to be fed by Christ is to seek to feed Him; look to His being satisfied, and He will assuredly look to you.

III. We must now remember, that the text contains an invitation. The Beloved says, Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. In the invitation we see the character of the invited guests; they are spoken of as friends. We were once aliens, we are now brought nigh; we were once enemies, we are made servants, but we have advanced from the grade of service (though servants still) into that of friends, henceforth He calls us not servants, but friends, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but all things that He has seen of His Father He has made known unto us. He next calls His people beloved as well as friends. He multiplieth titles, but all His words do not express the full love of His heart. Beloved. Oh, to have this word addressed to us by Christ! It is music! Here, then, you have the character of those who are invited to commune with Christ; He calls His friends and His beloved. The provisions presented to them are of two kinds; they are bidden to eat and to drink. You, who are spiritual, know what the food is, and what the drink is, for you eat His flesh and drink His blood. The incarnation of the Son of God, and the death of Jesus the Saviour, these are the two sacred viands whereon faith is sustained. Note that delightful word, abundantly. Some dainties satiate, and even nauseate when we have too much of them, but no soul ever had too much of the dear love of Christ, no heart did ever complain that His sweetness cloyed. That can never be. Your eating and your drinking may be without stint. Ye cannot impoverish the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth. When ye are satiated with His love, His table shall still be loaded. Your cups may run over, but His flagons will still be brimmed. ]f you are straitened at all you are not straitened in Him, you are straitened in yourselves. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Sunday-school garden

By the garden, here, Jesus means His Church. But the Sunday-school is one of the most important parts of the Church of Christ.

I. Why is the Sunday-school like a garden?

1. The Sunday-school is like a garden because of what is done for it.

(1) The first thing done for a garden is to fence it. These fences are made out of the commandments He has given us in the Bible.

(2) When we have fenced our garden, the next thing to do is to weed it. But you may ask, what are the weeds that grow in Gods garden? Pride is one of these weeds. It is a tall, strong weed, with a glaring, disagreeable flower. Anger is another of these weeds; impatience is another; selfishness is another; idleness is another.

(3) The next thing to be done for it is to improve the soil. Some soil is so very poor that nothing will grow in it. When this is the case, the gardener has many ways of curing it. I will only speak of one. He will have the poor soil taken away, and some good, rich soil put in its place. And this is just what Jesus does to His people. He improves the soil of their hearts by changing it and making it new. Everything that Jesus loves will grow in the soil of the new heart.

(4) Now we are ready to sow the seed, and put in the plants we want to have growing there.

(5) Now it must be watered and cared for. Suppose no rain comes down and no dew distils upon it, will the seed sown there ever spring up and grow? And just in this way Jesus waters and cares for His garden His grace is the rain and dew that soften the soil of our hearts. His Holy Spirit is like the sun that shines on and warms them. Jesus has pipes in His garden to carry the water of tits grace wherever it is needed. The Bible that we read and have explained to us is one of these pipes. And then our blessed Saviour watches carefully over His garden all the time to keep anything from hurting the plants, or from hindering- their growth.

2. But then there is another reason why the Sunday school may be compared to a garden, because of what grows in It. In a garden we expect to find beautiful flowers and delicious fruit. And so in the Sunday-school, which is the garden of Christ, many sweet flowers and fruits are found growing. Every good feeling that we cherish in our hearts is a spiritual flower, and every good deed that we perform in our lives is a spiritual fruit, which Jesus loves to see blooming and ripening in His garden.

II. What does Jesus come into it for?

1. He comes to watch the growth of the plants.

2. He comes to enjoy the beauty of the flowers. No gardener ever took half as much delight in the flowers he is raising as Jesus takes in His. Every Christian child, and every one who is trying to become a Christian, is a flower in the Saviours garden, and nobody can tell how much pleasure Jesus takes in watching them. Oh, who would not wish to be one of the flowers of Jesus?

3. He comes to gather the flowers. You know how many dear children die while they are quite young. But what should we think if we could see them now, as they are blooming and flourishing in the Saviours garden above? (R. Newton, D. D.)

I have gathered My myrrh with My spice.

Love joying in love

1. It is evident that the Lord Jesus is made happy by us. These poetical sentences must mean that He values the graces and works of His people. He gathers their myrrh and spice because He values them; He eats and drinks the honey and the milk because they are pleasant to Him. It is a wonderful thought that the Lord Jesus Christ has joy of us. We cost Him anguish, even unto death, and now He finds a reward in us. This may seem a small thing to an unloving mind, but it may well ravish the heart which adores the Well-beloved.

2. The Lord Jesus will not and cannot be happy by Himself: He will have us share with Him. Note how the words run–I have eaten; Eat, O friends! I have drunk; Drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved! His union with His people is so close that His joy is in them, that their joy may be full. He cannot be alone in His joy. He will not be happy anywhere without us. He will not eat without our eating, and He will not drink without our drinking. Does He not say this in other words in the Revelation–If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me? The inter-communion is complete: the enjoyment is for both. To make our Lord Jesus happy we must be happy also.

3. If we have already enjoyed happy fellowship with Him, the Lord Jesus calls upon us to be still more happy. Though we may say that we have eaten, He will again say, Eat, O friends! He presses you to renew, repeat, and increase your participation with Him. It is true we have drunk out of the chalice of His love; but He again invites us, saying, Drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved! Must it not mean that, though we know the Lord Jesus, we should try to know more of Him, yea, to know all that can be known of that love which passeth knowledge? Oh for grace to appropriate a whole Christ, and all the love, the grace, the glory that is laid up in Him! Does it not also mean–have greater enjoyment of divine things? Partake of them without stint. Do not restrict yourself as though you could go too far in feeding upon the Lord Jesus. Do not be afraid of being too happy in the Lord, or of being too sure of His salvation, or too much devout emotion. Dread not the excitements which come from fellowship with Christ. Do not believe that the love of Jesus can be too powerfully felt in the soul. Permit the full sweep and current of holy joy in the Lord to carry you away: it will be safe to yield to it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

CHAPTER V

The bridegroom calls on his spouse to admit him, 1-3.

She hesitates; but arising finds him gone, seeks him, and

is treated unworthily by the city watch, 4-7.

Inquires of the daughters of Jerusalem, who question her

concerning her beloved, 8, 9.

This gives her occasion to enter into a fine description of

his person and accomplishments, 10-16.

NOTES ON CHAP. V

Verse 1. I am come into my garden] bathi, I came, or have come; this should be translated in the past tense, as the other preterite verbs in this clause. I think the latter clause of the preceding verse should come in here: “Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits. I have come into my garden, my sister, callah, or spouse; I have gathered my myrrh,” c. I have taken thee for my spouse, and am perfectly satisfied that thou art pure and immaculate.

Eat, O friends-drink abundantly] These are generally supposed to be the words of the bridegroom, after he returned from the nuptial chamber, and exhibited those signs of his wife’s purity which the customs of those times required. This being a cause of universal joy, the entertainment is served up and he invites his companions, and the friends of both parties, to eat and drink abundantly, as there was such a universal cause of rejoicing. Others think that these are the words of the bride to her spouse: but the original will not bear this meaning; the verbs are all plural.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

I am come into my garden: this is the Bridegrooms answer to her request, delivered in the next foregoing words.

I have eaten my honey-comb with my honey; I have drunk my wine, with my milk; I have eaten of my pleasant fruits, as thou didst desire. I have taken notice of, and delight in, the service and obedience of my people.

Friends; the friends of the Bridegroom; whereby he understands either,

1. The holy angels and glorified saints, who in a sublime and spiritual sense may be said to eat and drink in heaven, the happiness whereof is frequently represented under the name and notion of a feast. Or rather,

2. Believers or members of the church militant upon earth, who by the argument of Christs gracious presence with them, and acceptation of their works signified in the last words, are here invited and encouraged with great freedom and cheerfulness to eat and drink their spiritual food, to feed upon Gods holy word and sacraments, to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God, who here gives them a hearty welcome to this feast.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

1. Answer to her prayer (Isa 65:24;Rev 3:20).

am comealready (So4:16); “come” (Ge28:16).

sister . . . spouseAsAdam’s was created of his flesh, out of his opened side, there beingnone on earth on a level with him, so the bride out of the piercedSaviour (Eph 5:30-32).

have gathered . . . myrrhHiscourse was already complete; the myrrh, c. (Mat 2:11Mat 26:7-12; Joh 19:39),emblems of the indwelling of the anointing Holy Ghost, were alreadygathered.

spiceliterally,”balsam.”

have eatenanswering toher “eat” (So 4:16).

honeycombdistinguishedhere from liquid “honey” dropping from trees. The lastsupper, here set forth, is one of espousal, a pledge of thefuture marriage (Son 8:14;Rev 19:9). Feasts often tookplace in gardens. In the absence of sugar, then unknown, honey wasmore widely used than with us. His eating honey with milk indicatesHis true, yet spotless, human nature from infancy (Isa7:15); and after His resurrection (Lu24:42).

my wine (Joh18:11) a cup of wrath to Him, of mercy to us, whereby God’sWord and promises become to us “milk” (Psa 19:10;1Pe 2:2). “My” answersto “His” (So 4:16).The myrrh (emblem, by its bitterness, of repentance), honey,milk (incipient faith), wine (strong faith), inreference to believers, imply that He accepts all their graces,however various in degree.

eatHe desires to makeus partakers in His joy (Isa 55:1;Isa 55:2; Joh 6:53-57;1Jn 1:3).

drink abundantlyso asto be filled (Eph 5:18; as Hag1:6).

friends (Joh15:15).

CANTICLEIV. (So 5:2-8:4) FROMTHE AGONY OFGETHSEMANE TO THECONVERSION OF SAMARIA.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

I am come into my garden, my sister, [my] spouse,…. This verse should rather have concluded the preceding chapter, being Christ’s answer to the church’s request, which was speedily and exactly granted as she desired; which shows it was according to the will of Christ, and of which he informs her; for sometimes he is present, when it is not known he is: of the titles used, see So 4:8; and of Christ’s coming into his garden, So 4:16. What he did, when come into it, follows:

I have gathered my myrrh with my spice: to make an ointment of, and anoint his guests with, after invited, as was usual in those times and countries, Lu 7:38; “oil of myrrh” is mentioned, Es 2:12; These may designs, either the sufferings of Christ; which, though like myrrh, bitter to him, are like spice, of a sweet smelling savour, to God and to the saints; the fruits of which, in the salvation of his people, are delightful to himself, and which he is now reaping with pleasure: or the graces of his Spirit in exercise in them, in which Christ delights; see So 4:13; and testifies by his presence; and having got in his harvest, or vintage, as the word q used signifies, he makes a feast for himself and friends, as was the custom of former times, and now is;

I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey: bread with honey, as the Septuagint version, dipped in honey, or honey put upon it; see

Eze 16:13; or the sugar cane with the sugar, as Jarchi, approved by Gussetius r: the meaning may be, he plucked up a sugar cane and ate the sugar out of it, which is called by Arrianus, , as Cocceius observes; or rather a piece of an honeycomb, full of honey, just taken out of the hive, had in great esteem with the Jews; see

Lu 24:42; the word for “honeycomb” properly signifies wood honey, of which there was plenty in Judea, 1Sa 14:25; though this was in a garden, where they might have their hives, as we have. By which may be meant the Gospel and its doctrines, sweeter than the honey and the honeycomb; and, being faith fully dispensed, is pleasing to Christ;

I have drunk my wine with my milk; a mixture of wine and milk was used by the ancients s; and which, Clemens Alexandria says t, is a very profitable and healthful mixture: by which also may be intended the doctrines of the Gospel, comparable to wine and milk; to the one, for its reviving and cheering quality; to the other, for its nourishing and strengthening nature; see Isa 55:1; and

[See comments on So 4:11], and

[See comments on So 7:9]. Here is feast, a variety of sweet, savoury, wholesome food and drink; and all Christ’s own, “my” myrrh, “my” spice, c. as both doctrines and graces be: with which Christ feasts himself, and invites his friends to eat and drink with him:

eat, O friends drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved; the individuals, of which the church consists, are the “friends” who are reconciled to God by the death of Christ, and to himself by his Spirit and grace; and whom he treats as such, by visiting them, and disclosing the secrets of his heart to them, Joh 15:14; and “beloved”, beloved of God, and by Christ and by the saints there is a mutual friendship and love between Christ and his people: and these he invites to eat of the provisions of his house, of all the fruits of his garden, to which they are welcome; and of his love and grace, and all the blessings of it, which exceed the choicest wine; and of which they may drink freely, and without danger; “yea, be inebriated with loves” u, as the words may be rendered; see Eph 5:18. With the eastern people, it was usual to bid their guests welcome, and solicit them to feed on the provisions before them; as it is with the Chinese now, the master of the house takes care to go about, and encourage them to eat and drink w.

q , Sept. “messui”, V. L. r Comment. Ebr. p. 179, 337. s “Et nivei lactis pocula mista mero”, Tibullus, l. 3. Eleg. 5. v. 34. t Paedagog. l. 1. c. 6. p. 107. u “et inebriamini amoribus”, Mercerus, Schmidt, Cocceius, so Ainsworth. w Semedo’s History of China, par. c. 1. 13.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

She gives herself to him, and he has accepted her, and now celebrates the delight of possession and enjoyment.

1 I am come into my garden, my sister-bride;

Have plucked my myrrh with my balsam;

Have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;

Have drunk my wine with my milk –

Eat, drink, and be drunken, ye friends!

If the exclamation of Solomon, 1 a, is immediately connected with the words of Shulamith, Son 4:16, then we must suppose that, influenced by these words, in which the ardour of love and humility express themselves, he thus in triumph exclaims, after he has embraced her in his arms as his own inalienable possession. But the exclamation denotes more than this. It supposes a union of love, such as is the conclusion of marriage following the betrothal, the God-ordained aim of sexual love within the limits fixed by morality. The poetic expression points to the eht ot , used of the entrance of a man into the woman’s chamber, to which the expression (Arab.) dakhal biha (he went in with her), used of the introduction into the bride’s chamber, is compared. The road by which Solomon reached this full and entire possession was not short, and especially for his longing it was a lengthened one. He now triumphs in the final enjoyment which his ardent desire had found. A pleasant enjoyment which is reached in the way and within the limits of the divine order, and which therefore leaves no bitter fruits of self-reproach, is pleasant even in the retrospect. His words, beginning with “I am come into my garden,” breathe this pleasure in the retrospect. Ginsburg and others render incorrectly, “I am coming,” which would require the words to have been ( ). The series of perfects beginning with cannot be meant otherwise than retrospectively. The “garden” is Shulamith herself, Son 4:12, in the fulness of her personal and spiritual attractions, Son 4:16; cf. , Son 1:6. He may call her “my sister-bride;” the garden is then his by virtue of divine and human right, he has obtained possession of this garden, he has broken its costly rare flowers.

(in the Mishna dialect the word used of plucking figs) signifies to pluck; the Aethiop. trans. ararku karbe , I have plucked myrrh; for the Aethiop. has arara instead of simply . is here deflected. While , with its plur. besamim , denotes fragrance in general, and only balsam specially, basam = (Arab.) basham is the proper name of the balsam-tree (the Mecca balsam), amyris opobalsamum, which, according to Forskal, is indigenous in the central mountain region of Jemen (S. Arabia); it is also called (Arab.) balsaman ; the word found its way in this enlarged form into the West, and then returned in the forms , , (Syr. afrusomo ), into the East. Balsam and other spices were brought in abundance to King Solomon as a present by the Queen of Sheba, 1Ki 10:10; the celebrated balsam plantations of Jericho ( vid., Winer’s Real-W.), which continued to be productive till the Roman period, might owe their origin to the friendly relations which Solomon sustained to the south Arab. princess. Instead of the Indian aloe, Son 4:14, the Jamanic balsam is here connected with myrrh as a figure of Shulamith’s excellences. The plucking, eating, and drinking are only interchangeable figurative descriptions of the enjoyment of love.

“Honey and milk,” says Solomon, Son 4:11, “is under thy tongue.” is like , 1Sa 14:27, the comb ( favus) or cells containing the honey, – a designation which has perhaps been borrowed from porous lava.

(Note: Vid., Wetstein in the Zeitsch. fr allgem. Erdkunde, 1859, p. 123.)

With honey and milk “under the tongue” wine is connected, to which, and that of the noblest kind, Son 7:10, Shulamith’s palate is compared. Wine and milk together are , which Chloe presents to Daphnis (Longus, i. 23). Solomon and his Song here hover on the pinnacle of full enjoyment; but if one understands his figurative language as it interprets itself, it here also expresses that delight of satisfaction which the author of Psa 19:6 transfers to the countenance of the rising sun, in words of a chaste purity which sexual love never abandons, in so far as it is connected with esteem for a beloved wife, and with the preservation of mutual personal dignity. For this very reason the words of Solomon, 1 a, cannot be thought of as spoken to the guests. Between Son 4:16 and Son 5:1 the bridal night intervenes. The words used in 1a are Solomon’s morning salutation to her who has now wholly become his own. The call addressed to the guests at the feast is given forth on the second day of the marriage, which, according to ancient custom, Gen 29:28; Jdg 14:12, was wont to be celebrated for seven days, Tob. 11:18. The dramatical character of the Song leads to this result, that the pauses are passed over, the scenes are quickly changed, and the times appear to be continuous.

The plur. Hengst. thinks always designates “love” ( Liebe ); thus, after Pro 7:18, also here: Eat, friends, drink and intoxicate yourselves in love. But the summons, inebriamini amoribus , has a meaning if regarded as directed by the guests to the married pair, but not as directed to the guests. And while we may say , yet not , for shakar has always only the accus. of a spirituous liquor after it. Therefore none of the old translators (except only the Venet.: ) understood dodim , notwithstanding that elsewhere in the Song it means love, in another than a personal sense; and are here the plur. of the elsewhere parallels and , e.g., Son 5:16, according to which also (cf. on the contrary, Son 4:16) they are accentuated. Those who are assembled are, as sympathizing friends, to participate in the pleasures of the feast. The Song of Songs has here reached its climax. A Paul would not hesitate, after Eph 5:31., to extend the mystical interpretation even to this. Of the antitype of the marriage pair it is said: “For the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready” (Rev 19:7); and of the antitype of the marriage guests: “Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rev 19:9).

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

The Love of Christ to the Church.

      1 I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

      These words are Christ’s answer to the church’s prayer in the close of the foregoing chapter, Let my beloved come into his garden; here he has come, and lets her know it. See how ready God is to hear prayer, how ready Christ is to accept the invitations that his people give him, though we are backward to hear his calls and accept his invitations. He is free in condescending to us, while we are shy of ascending to him. Observe how the return answered the request, and outdid it. 1. She called him her beloved (and really he was so), and invited him because she loved him; in return to this, he called her his sister and spouse, as several times before, ch. iv. Those that make Christ their best beloved shall be owned by him in the nearest and dearest relations. 2. She called the garden his, and the pleasant fruits of it his, and he acknowledges them to be so: It is my garden, it is my spice. When God was displeased with Israel he turned them off to Moses (They are thy people, Exod. xxxii. 7); and he called the appointed feasts of the Lord their appointed feasts (Isa. i. 14); but now that they are in his favour he owns them for his garden. “Though of small account, yet it is mine.” Those that are in sincerity give up themselves and all they have and can do to Jesus Christ, he will do them the honour to stamp them, and what they have and do for him, with his own mark, and say, It is mine. 3. She invited him to come into his garden, and he says, I have come. Isa. lviii. 9, Thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. When Solomon prayed that God would come and take possession of the house he had built for him, he did come; his glory filled the house (2 Chron. vii. 2), and (v. 16) he let him know that he had chosen and sanctified this house, that his name might be there for ever. Those that throw open the door of their souls to Jesus Christ shall find him ready to come in to them; and in every place where he records his name he will meet his people, and bless them, Exod. xx. 24. 4. She desired him to eat his pleasant fruits, to accept of the sacrifices offered in his temple, which were as the fruits of his garden, and he does so, but finds they are not gathered and ready for eating, therefore he does himself gather them. As the fruits are his, so is the preparation of them; he finds his heart unready for his entertainment, but does himself draw out into exercise those gracious habits which he had planted there. What little good there is in us would be shed and lost if he did not gather it, and preserve it to himself. 5. She only desired him to eat the fruits of the garden, but he brought along with him something more, honey, and wine, and milk, which yield substantial nourishment, and which were the products of Canaan, Immanuel’s land. Christ delights himself greatly in that which he has both conferred upon his people and wrought in them. Or we may suppose this to have been prepared by the spouse herself, as Esther prepared for the king her husband a banquet of wine; it is but plain fare, and what is natural, honey and milk, but, being kindly designed, it is kindly accepted; imperfections are overlooked; the honey-comb is eaten with the honey, and the weakness of the flesh passed by and pardoned, because the spirit is willing. When Christ appeared to his disciples after his resurrection he did eat with them a piece of a honey-comb (Luk 24:42; Luk 24:43), in which this scripture was fulfilled. He did not drink the wine only, which is liquor for men, for great men, but the milk too, which is liquor for children, little children, for he was to be the holy child Jesus, that had need of milk. 6. She only invited him to come himself, but he, bringing his own entertainment along with him, brings his friends too, and invites them to share in the provisions. The more the merrier, we say; and here, where there was so great a plenty, there was not the worse fare. When our Lord Jesus fed 5000 at once they did all eat and were filled. Christ invites all his friends to the wine and milk which he himself drinks of (Isa. lv. 1), to the feast of fat things and wines on the lees, Isa. xxv. 6. The great work of man’s redemption, and the riches of the covenant of grace, are a feast to the Lord Jesus and they ought to be so to us. The invitation is very free, and hearty, and loving: Eat, O friends! If Christ comes to sup with us, it is we that sup with him, Rev. iii. 20. Eat, O friends! Those only that are Christ’s friends are welcome to his table; his enemies, that will not have him to reign over them, have no part nor lot in the matter. Drink, yea, drink abundantly. Christ, in his gospel, has made plentiful provision for poor souls. He fills the hungry with good things; there is enough for all, there is enough for each; we are not straitened in him or in his grace, let us not therefore be straitened in our own bosoms. Open the mouth widely, and Christ will fill it. Be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit, Eph. v. 18. Those that entertain Christ must bid his friends welcome with him; Jesus and his disciples were called together to the marriage (John ii. 2), and Christ will have all his friends to rejoice with him in the day of his espousals to his church, and, in token of that, to feast with him. In spiritual and heavenly joys there is no danger of exceeding; there we may drink abundantly, drink of the river of God’s pleasures (Ps. xxxvi. 8), and be abundantly satisfied, Ps. lxv. 4.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

SONG OF SOLOMON CHAPTER 5

RESPONSE OF THE SHEPHERD HUSBAND

Verse 1 of Chapter 5 affirms that the beloved shepherd has indeed entered the garden and partook of its delights, thereby consummating the marriage. The time sequence is not indicated. (NOTE: Wine used in that day was diluted with 2 to 3 parts water and differed considerably from the wine of the present day.)

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

THE CHURCH IN CHRISTS EYES

Song of Solomon 3-8.

THE reader of this volume will recall that in the introduction, taken bodily from Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, we quoted Origen and James as having said that the Jews forbade the reading of this volume by any man until he was thirty years old.

But recently I had in my pulpit a blessed minister of the Gospel, a man of deeply spiritual mind, who is in his sixty-fifth year, and when I asked him what he thought of the Song of Solomon, he answered instantly, Up to the present I have never dared to attempt its interpretation.

As is said in the introduction, It certainly needs a degree of spiritual maturity to enter aright into the holy mystery of love which it allegorically sets forth. To such as have attained this maturity, to whatever age they may have reached, the Song of Solomon is one of the most edifying of the Sacred Writings.

Since the commencement of this series, the Book has constantly grown upon us, until we regret our decision to contribute so few chapters to the same. However, the plan laid out for the forty volumes that make up this work is such that we cannot rearrange at this date. We proceed however, with the consciousness that scores of its suggestive texts are either passed over in entire silence, or touched but superficially, in this brief treatment.

Taking up, therefore, this extensive Scripture lesson of five chapters, we prefer to discuss them

under the following suggestions: Christ Beholds Great Beauty in His Bride, Her Indifference is Truly Heart-Breaking, But Her Neglect is Soon Forgotten and Forgiven.

CHRIST BEHOLDS GREAT BEAUTY IN HIS BRIDE

Behold, thou art fair, My love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead.

Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them.

Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks.

Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men.

Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies.

Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.

Thou art all fair, My love; there is no spot in thee.

The figures employed are rural and oriental. It will be remembered that in the New Testament Christ turned to nature again and again for illustrations. His parables involve the sower and the seed, the tares, the mustard seed, the laborers in the vineyard, the wicked husbandmen, the seed growing secretly, the lost sheep, the unprofitable servants, and so forth.

Here also the open country makes matchless contributions. The doves eyes, the silken black hair of the goats, the flock of freshly sheared and washed white sheep, the thread of scarlet , the pomegranate, the two young roesall of these are figures of the beauty found in the features of His Brideher eyes like the doves eyes; her hair like the goats hair; her white teeth like the washed and even shorn sheep; her lips like the thread of scarlet, her temples like the pomegranate, and so forth.

It is a suggestive thing (and yet one that finds easy explanation, since Christ was God, and hence all wisdom was with Him) that He employed figures, the meaning of which time does not destroy nor world-changes deleteriously affect.

Figures from city life are not so lasting as those of country life. In cities, changes are too rapid and radical. But not so with the open spaces of natures face. To this hour there is not a parable of the New Testament that is not clearly, and even easily, understood; and to this good hour also the figures here found are of ready comprehension. The doves eyes are soft, kindly and beautiful; the black hair of the oriental goat is silken indeed; the even shorn and freshly washed flock of sheep are to this day the figures of white and splendid teeth; the thread of scarlet a hint of healthy and beautiful lips; and the pomegranate a picture of temples shining through the locks.

It is a habit of true love to see in nature likenesses of physical and mental graces; and, though the language of these six verses may seem to some exorbitant, they are to the eyes of affection, suggestive but inadequate.

His affection is such as sees no faults.

Thou art all fair, My love; there is no spot in thee (Son 4:7).

Possibly among the New Testament chapters few are so uniformly popular as 1 Corinthians 13.

It is a dissertation on love. In that discussion Paul says love thinketh no evil. In fact, loves eye is blind to defects in its subject. There may be short-comings, but it does not dwell upon them.

It is glorious to believe that Christ beholds only the beauty of the Church; that to Him she is all fair; that He overlooks her defects, and sees her as she shall eventually be, the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. There can be little doubt that the seven Churches of Asia were rather poor specimens of spiritual life, faulty and defective in the last degree, and yet, how much of beauty He beheld in them! At Ephesus He commended the works, and labor and patience; of the people of Smyrna He dwelt upon their works, and tribulation, and poverty; and of Pergamos, their works in an evil station and their exemplary discipline; at Thyatira He thought of their works, and charity, and faith, and patience; at Sardis He sought out the few who had not defiled their garments and promised them that they should walk with Him in white; at Philadelphia He rejoiced that they had kept the Word of His patience and promised to keep them against the hour of temptation; and even at Laodicea, where so little was commendatory, He counselled them to buy of Him gold tried in the fire, that they might be rich; and white raiment that they might be clothed. There were defects in each of these Churches, glaring and terrible. He only called attention to them to correct them, and gave the major portion of each Letter to commendation. Love thinketh no evil.

The fellowship of love is the Lords desire.

Come with Me from Lebanon, My spouse, with Me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions dens, from the mountains of the leopards.

Thou hast ravished My heart, My sister. My spouse; thou hast ravished My heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.

How fair is thy love, My sister, My spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!

Thy lips, O My spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.

A garden inclosed is My sister, My spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,

Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:

A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon (Son 4:8-15).

It might almost seem a strange thing for Christ to crave fellowship. In His Deity one would imagine He would find a sufficiency; such infinite fullness, such perfect conscience, such conscious power, such wisdom that one would suppose He had no need of anything outside of His perfect Self. But the Scriptures do not so present Him.

The greatest and best of men love their fellows. They crave fellowship and seek companionship.

He chose twelve that He might be in a college fraternity, and out of the Twelve He selected three as His intimates. There was never a crisis in His life that He did not long to have the three share the same with Him. Possibly of all the pathetic things recorded of Jesus, the Master, none more pathetic than His appeal to these three that they watch with Him in the hour of His great agony, and His pathetic disappointment at finding them sleeping when the sorrows that rolled over His soul were such that even human companionship seemed a partial but necessary antidote.

We do not believe that we are straining the text a bit when we say,

Come with Me from Lebanon, My spouse, with Me from Lebanon.

Thou hast ravished My heart, My sister, My spouse; thou hast ravished My heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.

How fair is thy love, My sister, My spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!

Thy lips, O My spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.

A garden inclosed is My sister, My spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,

Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices;

A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon,

is a cry for the fellowship of love.

He indulges in a riot of words to express the craving for affection.

Ive found a Friend; oh, such a Friend!

He loved me ere I knew Him;

He drew me with the cords of love,

And thus He bound me to Him.

And round my heart still closely twine

Those ties which naught can sever,

For I am His and He is mine,

For ever and for ever!

Ive found a Friend; oh, such a Friend!

He bled, He died to save me;

And not alone the gift of life,

But His own Self He gave me;

Naught that I have my own I call,

I hold it for the Giver:

My heart, my strength, my life, my all,

Are His, and His for ever!

Ive found a Friend; oh, such a Friend!

So kind, and true, and tender,

So wise a Counsellor and Guide,

So mighty a Defender!

From Him, who loves me now so well,

What power my soul can sever?

Shall life? or death? shall earth? or hell?

No! I am His for ever!

HER INDIFFERENCE IS HEART-BREAKING

She sleeps while He knocks and waits.

I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to Me, My sister, My love, My dove, My undefiled: for My head is filled with dew, and My locks with the drops of the night.

I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?

My Beloved put in His hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for Him.

I rose up to open to my Beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock.

I opened to my Beloved; but my Beloved had withdrawn Himself, and was gone: my soul failed when He spake: I sought Him, but I could not find Him; I called Him, but He gave me no answer (Son 5:2-6).

What a picture this of the Church! How many congregations all across this country sleep; and for that matter, in every country these sleeping churches are found. A noted statistician called attention a year or two ago to the circumstance that in three denominations in America over eleven thousand churches had not seen a single soul saved in a twelfth month. Sleeping!

It reminds us of Holman Hunts famous painting of Christ knocking at the door. The door had rusty hinges, and the vines had grown over it showing how long it had been closed; and the fact that it did not open is a further indication of the certainty that only death reigned within.

This is not only a picture of the church at its best; but sad to say, it is a picture of the best of the church, under some conditions. Unquestionably James, Peter and John were the choice spirits in the apostolic college; if anybody could be looked to, to watch, when needed, they were the ones, and on that very account they were selected for that awful night of His betrayal and arrest. And yet, while the diabolical deed of Judas is being carried out these three choice spirits slept.

We have a custom, I fear, of imagining ourselves more awake in this church than we are. The circumstances that no year goes by without seeing a considerable number of souls brought to Christ, leads us to feel that we are not asleep; but, alas, for the facts that we have to face upon a little reflection. Hundreds of our members in this church never speak to a single person on spiritual matters; and even those of us who are looked upon as leaders, are often sound asleep at the time when our opportunity of service is not only greatest but most sorely needed.

We have a notion that there is a dual sense to Solomons proverb:

Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:

Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,

Provided her meat in the summer, and gathered her food in the harvest.

How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?

Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.

There is a spiritual poverty that is even greater than the financial, and there is a soul-lethergy that exceeds that of bodily indolence. Think of the time that Jesus

Took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray.

And as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment was white and glistening.

And, behold, there talked with Him two men, winch were Moses and Elias:

Who appeared in glory, and spake of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.

But Peter and they that were with Him were heavy with sleep (Luk 9:28-32).

How strange, you say! How almost unthinkable that men should sleep under such circumstances! Asleep! at a time when they were called to pray and yet were asleep; at a moment when Heavenly visitors were present; and still more, asleep through the very hour of Christs glorification.

Doubtless these things are recorded as our warning; and yet it must be confessed that we learn not from them. It is little wonder that Paul wrote to the Thessalonians of the Coming of the Lord,

But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that Day should overtake you as a thief.

Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.

But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation (1Th 5:4-8).

We speak sometimes of a revival. What does it mean? It really means a waking up of the Church. How greatly is that needed! Of all the Prophets of the Old Testament Isaiah is truly the evangel. It is interesting to run through his Volume and see how often he calls upon the people of God to awake, anticipating the day of the Lords Coming,

Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise (Isa 26:19). And then his appeal to his people, Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city. * * Shake thyself from the dust. * * For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves for nought (Isa 52:1-3). Then still further, Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

Not once, but often do we hear some man in impassioned prayer calling upon God in this language: O wake us up! and there is occasion.

James Montgomery must have been dwelling upon the very language of the Prophet Isaiah when he wrote:

Awake, awake; put on thy strength,

Thy beautiful array;

The day of freedom dawns at length,

The Lords appointed day.

Rebuild thy walls, thy bounds enlarge,

And send thy heralds forth;

Say to the south, Give up thy charge,

And Keep not back, O north!

She responds only when it is too late.

I opened to my Beloved; but my Beloved had withdrawn Himself, and was gone: my soul failed when He spake: I sought Him, but I could not find Him; I called Him, but He gave me no answer.

The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.

I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my Beloved, that ye tell Him, that I am sick of love (Son 5:6-8).

He has gone! How often in human history it has been so! The antediluvians were wakened at last! But, alas, too late! The storm of judgment had broken; the flood was at its full. The last dread enemy, death, was victor, the Lord was gone.

San Pierre wakened at last; but not until its citizens were all dead beneath the ash heap of the exploded mountain.

San Francisco wakened at last. But not until its heart had either been swallowed up by the earthquake, or licked clean by fire.

Father Ryan, the poet priest, would forgive me I know for changing and accommodating some words from his pen which must express the loneliness of that heart that knew Christ and loved Him, but slept through all His appeals and drove away His presence:

Gone, and there is not a gleam of you,

Tour face has floated into the far away.

Gone! and we can only dream of you.

Dream as yon fade like a star away;

Fade as a star in the sky from us,

Vainly we look for your light again;

Hear ye the sound of a sigh from us?

Come, and our hearts will be bright again.

Come! and gaze on our faces once more

Bring us the smiles of the olden days;

Come! and shine in your place once more,

And change the dark into golden days.

Gone! gone! gone! joy is fled from us

Gone into the night of the nevermore,

And darkness rests where you shed for us

A light we will miss for evermore.

Originally this was spoken of earthly friends; but it has its truest meaning when applied to the Heavenly Ones.

Cowper perhaps has voiced this experience as no other uninspired writer has done; and yet voiced it as every backslidden Christian has felt it.

Where is the blessedness I knew

When first I saw the Lord?

Where is the soul-refreshing view

Of Jesus and His Word?

What peaceful hours I then enjoyed!

How sweet their memory still!

But they have left an aching void

The world can never fill.

Return, O Holy Dove, return,

Sweet messenger of rest;

I hate the sins that made Thee mourn,

And drove Thee from my breast.

Cowper concluded his poem with the only language that will ever conclude this slumber, this sense of loneliness, this unspeakable loss, and with the very language that nine out of ten present-day Christians should employ, namely:

The dearest idol I have known,

Whatever that idol be,

Help me to tear it from Thy throne,

And worship only Thee.

The world sleeps and one day it will awake; but alas, too late! It will awake to a ruined universe, to an earth shaken in every part by fire and earthquake, to a day when the sun shall be black as sackcloth, and the moon as blood, and the stars have fallen, and the heaven itself has departed as a scroll, and every mountain and island has been moved out of its place; then its kings and its great men and rich men and chief captains shall hide themselves in the rocks of the mountains and say to the mountains, Fall on us, and hide us, for the great day of His wrath has come, and who shall be able to stand?

This picture of a departed Christ is followed by a strange, and yet very natural suggestion:

The Church, His Bride, defends Him against all competitors (Son 6:1-4). Strange we never prize love at its best until we have lost it; nor esteem the lover as he deserves until he is gone. So it is with our Divine Lover. When He is with us daily we accept it as a matter of course and fail to appreciate the fullness of His affection. What wife ever saw a husbands virtues in the full light until he was taken away; what Christian ever esteemed the ineffable Person and Presence of Christ as He deserved, until by some sin or spiritual drowsiness His companionship was lost!

Doubtless the five foolish virgins had some appreciation of the bridegrooms presence and also of the feast that had been prepared for the occasion; but the full sense of their loss was never felt until they knew the door was closed; and admission to his presence and the appointments of joy and rejoicing were denied them.

You say it is very strange that one who thought her Lover as the Chiefest of ten thousand should have slept while He knocked and slumbered until He slipped away.

But strange as it seems to us, our. conduct is not less selfish, nor even less sinful, nor does our belated language contribute to the glories of His Person. Our extravagant terms of personal affection do not excuse, in the least, the daily indifference to His calls; and more than one of us have had to endure the fears of His lost love, and to search long and diligently for His presence as a result of our own sinful sluggishness and wicked slumbers.

However, as we pursue this study, another feature of His matchless character comes to the surface.

HER NEGLECT IS FORGIVEN AND FORGOTTEN

Her beauty ravishes His heart. In Son 6:4-10, He voices this thought. In response to her statement that He is chiefest among ten thousand and the One Altogether Lovely. He answers, Thou art beautiful, O My love. There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number. My dove, My undefiled is but one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the choice one of her that bare her. * * Fair as the moon, clear as the sun. And He for whom the Bride sought not, turns about and seeks instead, calling, Return, return, * * that we may look upon thee.

In my work as a minister I have married a great many couples. Occasionally it is easy to see why the bride has been sought out. Her beauty is evident to all; her graces of person are most manifest. But on thousands of occasions it is not so; only the husbands eyes could see beauty in some brides. But evidently the true husband, who has given his heart with his hand, must behold that beauty whether others can see it or not. Such is the influence of love.

When we think on Gods people and know them intimately enough to understand their deficiencies we marvel all the more that Christ, Gods only Son, and the King of Glory, finds in them attractive features. The explanation is not so much in either their attractiveness or their accomplishments as it is in the manifestation of His affection.

That is why the poet could write:

Glorious things of thee are spoken,

Zion, city of our God;

He whose Word can neer be broken

Formed thee for His own abode.

Lord, Thy Church is still Thy dwelling,

Still is precious in Thy sight;

Judahs Temple far excelling,

Beaming with the Gospels light.

Her absence is His anguish.

I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished, and the pomegranates budded.

Or ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib.

Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies (Son 6:11-13).

We know that the individual Christian suffers when he or she feels that there is no further communion between his soul and Christ.

But is it not certain that Christ suffers still more? Undoubtedly Peter, James and John were ashamed of their neglect when once they were wakened out of slumber and knew that they had failed Christ in the hour of His greatest need. But was their suffering comparable to that through which He passed as in the garden great drops of sweat were on His brow; and in the wisdom that was His own, He understood that they had failed Him in that awful hour?

Christ was human and as such He craved human fellowship. What man or woman is there who is normally and Divinely constituted, and yet can live contentedly without the conscious love of lifes choice one?

Again and again it has been my duty to lay away either husband or wife after a long period of fifty or sixty or more years of walking together; and I have noticed that when that walk has been intimate and sweet, the old man or the old woman thus left alone, longs for the end and is happy when it comes. Beyond question that is due to the circumstance that he believes that this fellowship will be renewed in another land; and to live alone after one has gone, makes life a desert and Heaven a land of rejoicing. Who doubts that Divine love is as much more intense than human love as the Divine thoughts are high above the human ones, and that Christ Himself is anguished whenever the members of His Bride, the Church, are indifferent and are practically out of communion with Him.

If one would take the time to read Son 7:1 to Son 8:7 he would discover that

HER POSSESSION IS HIS PLEASURE

It would seem as we pass from chapter six to seven that His cry, Return, return! has not been in vain.

The language that follows indicates her presence, and consequently, pleasure. The statement of the Bride, I am my Beloveds indicates the same. Love is strong as death. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it, are sample sentences of the mutual expressions that follow.

I wonder if people, in general, have noticed what has often impressed me, namely, how we can measure the pulse of affection by the language that r is unconsciously employed to express the same? Older friends, who have long walked together, quite often introduce the spouse as Mr. or Mrs. Smith or Jones; but not so with the young husband or wife.

Their introduction is on another basisThis is my husband, This is my wife, with the emphasis upon the possessive pronoun. That is a natural expression of a keen sense of possession, of pride and joy in the same.

That possessive pronoun also has played conspicuous place in both Old and New Testament. On the one side it voices the believers affection for Christ; and equally on the other, Christs affection for the Christian. Beyond all question, the Psalmists love to Christ reached no higher expression than the twenty-third Psalm; and in that Psalm his language is, The Lord is my Shepherd. Perhaps hundreds of times this single phrase will be found in that Book of the Psalm, My God. It is the language of love, and it is also appropriating faith, and it is justified by the Divine attitude.

Jesus said, As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: continue ye in MY love. If ye keep My Commandments, ye shall abide in MY love. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, rather, can we not say with the Apostle, We are persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord?

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

The Bridegrooms Response

CHAPTER 5 Son. 5:1

SCENE SECOND. Place: Banquet Hall in the Palace. Speaker: The King

TO THE BRIDE

I am come into my garden,
My sister, my spouse;
I have gathered my myrrh with my spice;
I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;
I have drunk my wine with my milk.

TO THE GUESTS

Eat, O Friends;
Drink, yea drink abundantly, O beloved.

I. The Bridegrooms address to the Bride. I am come, &c. The King, like Ahasuerus, accepts the Queens invitation to the banquet of wine. Expresses his readiness and delight to do so. The believers desire for Christs presence no sooner expressed than fulfilled. Before they call I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear (Isa. 65:24). Christs visits not long delayed when His people are earnest and ready to receive them. When the hour was come, He sat down with the twelve. The Bride herself the banquet; yet a material feast the accompaniment and outward expression of it. The marriage celebrated with a marriage feast. The feast now prepared, and the guests assembled. The bridegroom conducts his bride to the table. Picture of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, after the reception and presentation of the Bride. Also, historically, of the Last Supper, soon after the triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and immediately preceding the crucifixion. That Supper to be continued in the Church till Christ the Bridegroom come again. Believers, especially while seated at the Lords Table, and, according to His dying command, showing forth His death by eating and drinking the symbols of His body and blood in remembrance of HimHis garden and His banquet. The Bride, as well as the table and all its provisions, His own. These provisions only mentioned by the Bride, but enlarged and dwelt on by the rejoicing Bridegroom. A higher value set by Christ on the fruits of His Spirit and His own mediatorial work, than by the believer himself. Those fruits of great variety. Each of them a special delight to the Saviour. The myrrh of a believers repentance as acceptable to Christ as the spice of His love. The humblest gifts of love as acceptable as the most costly. The honeycomb as well as the more valuable honey within it. The common milk as well as the richer and more costly wine. The widows two mites more precious in His eyes than the larger offerings of the rich. Enough for Him when He can say: She hath done what she could. The turtle dove or young pigeons of the poor as acceptable as the lamb or bullock of the rich, when laid in love upon the altar. It is accepted according to what a man hath, and not what he hath not. The cheerfulness of the giver makes the acceptableness of the gift. Where Christ gets a welcome, He never complains of the fare.Durham. When Christ was risen from the dead, His disciples gave Him a broiled fish and a piece of a honeycomb, and He ate before them. (Luk. 24:42-43). Probably designed by the Holy Spirit as another Connecting link between the Song and the Gospels.

II. The Bridegrooms address to the guests. Eat, O Friends, &c. The king invites his friends to partake of his joy. Recals the Saviours language to His disciples at the Supper table: Take, eat: Drink ye all of it. I have not called you servants, but friends: Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I have commanded you. The Marriage Supper of the Lamb partaken of by His friends, who are also the Bride herself. Observe

1. A high honour and privilege to be called Christs friends; though a higher still to be called His Bride.

2. Where Christ is, He wishes her friends to be with Him. Those who invited Christ must also invite His friends. At Cana, both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the marriage (Joh. 2:1).

3. Christs desire that all who are His should share His joy. His reward to His faithful servants: Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.

4. When Christ comes into His Church and people, He brings His provisions with Him; and while He sups with them, He gives them to sup with Him (Rev. 3:20).

5. The provisions of Christs house and table, of great variety, richness, and plenty (Psa. 36:8; Psa. 65:4). I am come that my sheep might have life, and have it more abundantly. I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness; I only satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished evey sorrowful soul (Jer. 31:14; Jer. 31:25). Christs provisions both nourishing and refreshingboth milk and wine. Correspond with the blessings of salvation offered in the Gospel (Isa. 55:1). At His rich banquet, no danger either of surfeit or excess.

6. Christ gives not only wholesome and heaped cheer, but a hearty welcome.Drink, yea drink abundantly. Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. Be ye filled with the Spirit (Psa. 81:10; Eph. 5:18).

7. All the provisions of Christs table the purchase of His own suffering and death. Perhaps indicated in the first article mentioned by the king: I have gathered my myrrh. Myrrh bitter to the taste. This gathered by the King Himself. Vinegar and gall, the symbol of His own bitter sufferings, handed to Him on the cross, before the wine and milk, emblems of the blessings of salvation, could be handed to us. The bread given at the Supper Table the symbol of His broken Body; the wine that of His shed Blood. The bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world (Joh. 6:51).

8. A threefold Feast provided by Christ for His friends, as the Bridegroom of the Church

(1) In their personal and private experience as they journey through the wilderness. The feast of fat things made by Christ in His holy mountain, the Church, for the benefit of Zions travellers. The bread eaten in secret (Rev. 3:20).

(2) In the ordinance of the Lords Supper, as first instituted in the upper room at Jerusalem, and celebrated in the Church from time to time until He come again. The happiest experience of the believer often connected with that sacred Feast.
(3) The Marriage Supper of the Lamb after He has come to take the Bride to Himself, and she has made herself ready; the number of the elect being then accomplished, and the kingdom having come. The Lords Supper an image and foretaste of that heavenly banquet.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

TEXT 4:8 to Son. 5:1

SECOND MEETING (Jerusalem); Prolepsis, Son. 4:8 to Son. 5:1

(Chronologically coming between Son. 8:4 and Son. 8:5?)

Dialogue:

Shepherd, Son. 4:8-16 a

Shulammite, Son. 4:16 b

Shepherd, Son. 5:1 a

Comment:

Remarks of Wedding Guests or Shepherds Companions, Son. 5:1 b

8.

Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon; Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, From the lions dens, From the mountains of leopards.

9.

Thou has ravished my heart, my sister, my bride;

Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, With one chain of thy neck.

10.

How fair is thy love, my sister, my bride!

How much better is thy love than wine!
And the fragrance of thine oils than all manner of spices!

11.

Thy lips, O my bride, drop as the honeycomb:

Honey and milk are under thy tongue;
And the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.

12.

A garden shut up is my sister, my bride;

A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

13.

Thy shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits; Henna with spikenard plants,

14.

Spikenard and saffron, Calamus and cinnamon,

with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes,
with all the chief spices.

15.

Thou art a fountain of gardens,

A well of living waters,

And flowing streams from Lebanon.

16a. Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south;

Blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS 4:816a

104.

What is meant by suggesting in the above outline that this section of scripture is a prolepsis?

105.

How did the bride get so far north as the Lebanon mountains?

106.

What mountains are alluded to with the names of Amana, Senir and Hermon?

107.

Is the shepherd describing the house of the bride with his reference to lions and leopards? Why go there? Or is he asking her to leave it?

108.

The poor shepherd was overcome with one look of her lovely eyesshe has caught him and held him in a chainis this the meaning of verse nine?

109.

The shepherd returns the compliment of the Shulammite (cf. Son. 1:2), but he adds something. What is it?

110.

Why refer to her as his sister as well as his bride?

111.

Cf. Son. 1:3 with Son. 4:10 b and show the likeness and difference.

112.

Is the shepherd speaking of the kisses of his bride in Son. 4:11? Cf. Son. 5:1.

113.

If speech is intended as what comes from the lips of the maid, how shall we describe what she says?

114.

There is a beautiful figure of speech in verse twelve. Discuss its meaning and application.

115.

The shoots of Son. 4:13 a are enumerated through the fourteenth verse. List them.

116.

The maiden is a paradise to the shepherd. Explain.

117.

Pomegranates were a very special fruit to the Hebrews. Why? (Cf. Deu. 8:8; Exo. 28:33-34; 1Ki. 7:18-20)

118.

Define each of these words: henna; spikenard; saffron; Calamus; cinnamon; frankincense; myrrh; aloes.

119.

How was she compared to a flowing spring which formed a river from Mount Lebanon?

120.

Why ask for the north and south wind? Why is the meaning of the figure used here?

PARAPHRASE 4:816a

Shepherd (chronologically after Son. 8:4?)

8.

Come with me from Lebanon, O bride,

With me from Lebanon come away!
Depart from the top of Amana,
From the top of Senir and Hermon;
From the dens of lions,
From the mountains of panthers.

9.

Thou hast stolen my heart, O my sister-bride!

With one glance of thine eyes, with one turn of thy neck
Thou hast captured it.

10.

How delightful are thy endearments, O my sister-bride!

How much better than wine are thy endearments,
And the fragrances of thy perfumes than all spices!

11.

Thy lips, O bride, drip virgin honey;

Honey and milk flow from under thy tongue.
The odor of thy garments is like pinescented air from Lebanon.

12.

An enclosed garden is my sister-bride;

A spring locked up, a fountain sealed.

13.

Thy plants are a paradise of pomegranates and other luscious fruits.

With henna and spikenard plants,

14.

Spikenard and saffron,

Calamus and cinnamon with all incense woods;
Myrrh and aloes with all the chief spices.

15.

The garden fountain is a well of spring waters,

And its streams flow down from Lebanon.

16.

Awake, O north wind, and come thou south!

Blow upon my garden that the sweet odors may be wafted abroad.

COMMENT 4:816a

Exegesis Son. 4:8-16 a

If we consider carefully the content of these verses we will immediately recognize they are not in chronological order or time sequence. We must conclude this paragraph relates to the end of the storyi.e., between Son. 7:11 and Son. 8:14. There are examples of this literary devise in several books of the Bibleparticularly with Revelation and Ezekielbut even in the gospels. If this interpretation is correct, this passage contains the response of the shepherd to the maidens request that he take her back to her country home. The writer of the Song is anticipating the closing scenes. The purpose would seem to be to build suspense. Because of the length of this section we will indicate the verses related to our comments:

Son. 4:8. We believe Lebanon is used in a figurative sense. The shepherd is asking his beloved to leave the giddy heights of the court of Solomon and share true love with him. It is an invitation to escapebut also it becomes an insistent claim of the shepherd for the person of Shulammite. Perhaps it would be better to translate the phrase look from to depart from. The whole passage we believe is symbolicbut the mountains used in the symbolism are real mountainsi.e., they are peaks in the Lebanon chain which carry these names. He is saying in effectcome with me from the dangerous position you are inleave the high dignitaries and the ravenous wild beasts of Solomons court.

Son. 4:9. Here begins a description of the attractive qualities of his beloved. He is wounded to the heart with one look and he is enchained by one turn of her head. A physical feature, not an ornament, is intended. All figures used in verses nine thru eleven refer to graces of gesture and speech as indicative of inward character rather than to mere outward physical attractions. (Clarke)

Son. 4:10. Berkley has translated this verse as: How sweet is your love, my sister, my bride; How much more delicious is your love than wine; and the fragrance of your ointments than all the spices. We like very much the expression of Walter F. Adeney in the Exposition of the Bible (p. 532):

His language is entirely different from that of the magnificent monarch. He does not waste his breath in formal compliments, high-flown imagery, wearisome lists of the charms of the girl he loves. That was the clumsy method of the king; clumsy, though reflecting the finished manners of the court, in comparison with the genuine outpourings of the heart of a country lad. The shepherd is eloquent with the inspiration of true love; his words throb and glow with genuine emotion; love of his bride has ravished his heart. How beautiful is her love! He is intoxicated with it more than with wine. How sweet are her words of tender affection, like milk and honey! She is so pure, there is something sisterly in her love that she is almost like a part of himself, as his own sister. This holy and close relationship is in startling contrast to the only thing known as love in the royal harem. It is as much more lofty and noble as it is more strong and deep than the jaded emotions of the court. The sweet, pure maiden is to the shepherd like a garden the gate of which is barred against trespassers, like a spring shut off from casual access, like a sealed fountainsealed to all but one, and, happy man, he is that one. To him she belongs, to him alone. She is a graden, yes, a most fragrant garden, an orchard of pomegranates full of rich fruit, crowded with sweet-scented plantshenna and spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon and all kinds of frankincense, myrrh and aloes and the best of spices. She is a fountain in the garden, sealed to all others, but not stinted towards the one she loves. To him she is as a well of living waters, like the full fed streams that flow from Lebanon.
The maiden is supposed to hear the song of love. She replies in fearless words of welcome, bidding the north wind awake, and the south wind too, that the fragrance of which her lover has spoken so enthusiastically may flow out more richly than ever. For his sake she would be more sweet and loving. All she possesses is for him. Let him come and take possession of his own.

Verses eleven through Son. 4:16 a are very well discussed in the above quotation.

Marriage Son. 4:8-16 a

Surely this passage can be appreciated most by those who are married or who are engaged to be married. Adeney makes an interesting suggestion. He says:

What lover could turn aside from such a rapturous invitation? The shepherd takes his bride; he enters his garden, gathers his myrrh and spice, eats his honey and drinks his wine and milk, and calls on his friends to feast and drink with him. This seems to point to the marriage of the couple and their wedding feast; a view of the passage which interpreters who regard Solomon as the lover throughout for the most part take, but one which has this fatal objection, that it leaves the second half of the poem without a motive. On the hypothesis of the shepherd lover it is still more difficult to suppose the wedding to have occurred at the point we have now reached, for the distraction of the royal courtship still proceeds in subsequent passages of the poem. It would seem then, that we must regard this as quite an ideal scene. It may, however, be taken as a reminiscence of an earlier passage in the lives of the two lovers. It is not impossible that it refers to their wedding, and that they had been married before the action of the whole story began. In that case we should suppose that Solomons officers had carried off a young bride to the royal harem. The intensity of the love and the bitterness of the separation apparent throughout the poem would be the more intelligible if this were the situation. It is to be remembered that Shakespeare ascribes the climax of the love and grief of Romeo and Juliet to a time after their marriage.
As interesting and instructive as is the above information we yet need application of the principles in the text to our marriages. We see two or three obvious lessons in the text; (1) The safety and comfort of our wife should be of very great concern to every husband. Surely this is how our Lord loved the church. It is not at all enough to issue verbal warnings as edicts from the head of the house. Please note that the text suggests the groom is to accompany the wife and lead by example and companionship. It would suggest, of course, that he knows where he is going. The lover is very much aware of the dangers and also of the nature of the one in danger. This kind of solicitious attention is most welcome when the bride is in love with her spouse. (2) Communicated admiration and respect is such an important part of marriage. We might carry a deep loveadmirationrespect for our wifebut if it is not communicated to her she will not know it. If she does not know itor is but vaguely aware of it, we are hurting her deeply. Self-image is so importantif she does not know and that real oftenthat we admire her greatly what difference will it make what others say about her? It could make a great deal of difference to us if we bottle-up our admiration and never verbalize it in appreciation. (3) Our wives are our gardens. These gardens or fountains are indeed closed to othersbut what we want to say is that we can and should find our enjoyment in this our gardenWe can and should find our refreshment from this our fountain. Gardens do respond to cultivation. Consider what a variety of good things can be continually grown here. Pomegranates and precious fruitall manner of spice and fragrance; but only if we find ourselves often in the garden. Only if we give the careful thought and effort to develop this lovely harvest.

Communion Son. 4:8-16 a

The call of our Lord to His bride to leave the heights of this world is very realbut it comes from One who not only loves us but admires us. He sees in us all the beauty described and ascribed in verses nine through sixteen. It is the mercies of God that become the motive for presenting our bodies to the bridegroom. Of course, we are transformed by the renewing of our mind, but we must be moved to set our mind upon the things that are above by a knowledge that He believes we can and loves us in our attempts as much as in our accomplishments. We could delineate these verses one by one and point out each of the qualities our Lord sees in uspotential and actual; we will not develop these thoughts because of the lack of spacejust a list of what He sees in me: (1) One look upwardone move of my heart toward Him is immediately met with an eager interest (verse nine). (2) My companionship and communion in prayer with Him is a high joy to Himindeed He created me to walk and talk with Him (verse ten). (3) How pleasing are my words to Him when I praise Him or speak of Him (Son. 4:11). (4) I am His alone and He is mineI want to be a garden in which He can walk with me in the cool of the day. I am a spring of living water not only because of Him but for Him (Son. 4:12). (5) My prayers are a sweet smelling incense to Himsupplicationsintercessionsthanksgivingspetitionsare all the varying fragrances of my praying (Son. 4:13-15). (6) He bids me to spread His praises to the ends of the earthmay the wind of heaven blow to all His lovely fragrance through me (Son. 4:16 a).

FACT QUESTIONS 4:816a

157.

What is meant by saying that these verses are not in chronological order?

158.

This passage contains a response of the shepherd to the maidens request. What was that request?

159.

How is the term Lebanon used? What does it mean?

160.

What is meant by the reference to the three peaks mentioned in verse eight?

161.

All figures used in verses nine through eleven refer to what?

162.

Show how the language of the shepherd is different than that of the magnificent monarch.

163.

Describe the details of the genuine emotion and fine wholesome passion expressed by the shepherd.

164.

There is a startling contrast here. What is it?

165.

How does the maid reply to this song of love?

166.

How does the lover respond to the rapturous invitation?

167.

This section offers an argument in favor of the shepherd hypothesis. What is it?

168.

Please discuss the three areas of application of this text to present day marriage.

169.

Discuss three-at-a-time the six areas of application of this text to our communion with our Lord.

TEXT 4:16bSon. 5:1

Shulammite, Son. 4:16 b

Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his precious fruits.

Shepherd, Son. 5:1 a

I am come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk.

Comment:

Remarks of wedding guests or shepherds companions, Son. 5:1 b

Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS 4:16bSon. 5:1

121.

It would seem the marriage is consummated and the story is overbut such is not truewhat has happened?

122.

What is the force of addressing her as both his sister and his bride?

123.

This seems to be past tensethere are no regretsnothing but very pleasant memories and present satisfaction. Why?

124.

Is the shepherd recommending his action to all? What is the import of Son. 5:1 b?

PARAPHRASE 4:16bSon. 5:1

Shulammite:

Son. 4:16 b. Let my beloved come into his garden, and partake of its pleasant fruits.

Shepherd:

Son. 5:1

I will come into my garden, my sister-bride;

I will gather my myrrh with my spice;
I will eat my honeycomb with my honey;
I will drink my wine with my milk.

Wedding Guests:

Son. 5:1 b Eat, O friends; Drink! Drink deeply of loves endearments.

(This closes the first half of the Song, the second part beginning retrospectively.)

COMMENT 4:16b5:1

Exegesis Son. 4:16 bSon. 5:1

Previous comments have discussed these verses but a few more remarks are needed. Readers of our comments will perhaps be inclined to think that the identity of the speakers and the emphasis we have given their words is a very clear and easy matter. It is not. We have struggled with many conflicting interpretations. We only say of our efforts that we have tried to offer a consistent pattern of understanding throughout the text.
The last two lines of chapter four we attribute to the Shulammite, she uses the same figure of speech and invites her lover to enjoy the luscious fruits that his own loving care had produced. This is also a rebuff to Solomon. She opens the door of her heart to her lover and in the same gesture closes it on the King.

The comments of Arthur G. Clarke are very good on verse Son. 5:1. (Song of Songs, p. 71).

Chapter Son. 5:1. Ignore the chapter division. Here is the shepherds immediate and eager response. The verbs are in the perfect tense and best understood in the modified sense known to grammarians as the perfect of confidence or certainty, anticipating in time the fulfillment of some purpose or cherished hope. Many examples are to be found in the Old Testament, notably in Psa. 2:6. This devise gives the future tense a more expressive form. Read, I will come . . . will gather . . . will eat . . . will drink . . . Dr. A Harper so understands the passage. Note the eight times my is repeated in this one verse. Honey was once of far greater importance than it is today since the introduction of sugar. with milkMilk is said to have been sometimes mingled with wine to cool its taste. Eat, O friends . . .These words clearly break in upon the narrative following the conversation of the two lovers and were introduced by the poet probably as a fitting close to the first half of the Song. The conversation was not necessarily overheard. Among many opinions offered by expositors the most satisfactory, we believe, is the third one suggested in the paragraph heading, namely, that they are the words of encouragement uttered by guests at the wedding celebrations. The lines could be paraphrased, You lovers! eat and drink (to the point of intoxication) of loves caresses. For similar language. see Gen. 43:34, RSV rendering.

Marriage Son. 4:16 bSon. 5:1

It is true that women think more often about their relationship with men than men do with womenyour wife is more anxious for you to share the joys of married life with her than you are. However, she must be assured with all the preparation and commitment of yourself that such a union is a continuing one. Such assurance we are glad to give. We want no other relationship. When this is true these verses can and do describe our marriage union.

Communion Son. 4:16 bSon. 5:7

Are we as anxious for our Lord to have access to our innermost thoughts and motivations as was the maiden in her marriage? It would be easy to give an easy agreementbut it could mean no more than many superficial marriages mean to those involved. We all have a tremendous capacity for ignoring what we do not like and of avoiding the unpleasant. Since our Lord lives in the same house with us (our bodies) I wonder if He shares this same capacity?

FACT QUESTIONS 4:16b5:1

170.

In one gesture the maiden accomplishes two things. What are they?

171.

What does the verb tense have to do with our understanding of the thought of Son. 5:1?

172.

Does this text suggest that someone should get drunk? Discuss.

173.

These verses can or should refer to our marriagebut conditions must be metwhat are they?

174.

Discuss the meaning of these verses to our fellowship with our heavenly groom.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

V.

(1) I am come into my garden.This continues the same figure, and under it describes once more the complete union of the wedded pair. The only difficulty lies in the invitation, Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved (Marg., and be drunken with loves). Some suppose an invitation to an actual marriage feast; and if sung as an epithalamium, the song might have this double intention. But the margin, be drunken with loves, suggests the right interpretation. The poet, it has been already said (Note, Son. 2:7), loves to invoke the sympathy of others with his joys, and the following lines of Shelley reproduce the very feeling of this passage. Here, as throughout the poem, it is the new strong wine of love, and not the fruit of the grape, which is desired and drunk.

Thou art the wine, whose drunkenness is all

We can desire, O Love! and happy souls,

Ere from thy vine the leaves of autumn fall,

Catch thee and feed, from thine oerflowing bowls,

Thousands who thirst for thy ambrosial dew.

Prince Athanase.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

1. I am come Hebrew, I am coming. All these verbs are of present action; I am eating, etc. Here, in the full blaze of her charms, and the exhilaration which her love breathes into his heart, the Beloved finds all that he has described, and his soul is melting in raptures.

O friends The remainder of this verse an utterance by the Chorus is as from the “daughters of Jerusalem,” or the ladies of the court, bidding the happy lovers take full enjoyment of affections so pure and simple. Sad or guilty indeed must be the heart that has no sympathy with tender and faithful love! That is the holy light of the wedding day and the wedding feast always so joyous, if innocent and sincere and on which the Countenance that gladdens both earth and heaven beamed at Cana of Galilee. This brief utterance is a gush of natural, beautiful sympathy from women, who, by experience or by instinct, at once appreciate the feelings of lovers.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The BRIDEGROOM accepts her invitation

“ I am come into my garden, my sister, my bride, I have gathered my myrrh with my spice, I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey, I have drunk my wine with my milk.”

Having finally made love and tasted of her delights the bridegroom assures his bride that he is fully satisfied. He has entered the garden of delights, he has plucked the myrrh and spices by absorbing the beauty of her perfumed body, he has eaten the sweetness of the honeycomb by kissing her adorable lips (Son 4:11), and he has drunk his wine and milk by enjoying her spiritual beauty (compare Isa 55:1-3).

It should be the aim of all our lives to ensure that our heavenly Bridegroom is equally satisfied with our lives in the spiritual sphere, enjoying the beauty that He has bestowed on us, partaking of our love, drinking of our worship, and rejoicing in the fact that our desire is to please only Him. When we think of what He has done for us on the cross, how can we offer Him anything less?

Son 5:1

“Eat, O friends (or ‘O lovers’). Drink, yes, drink abundantly, O beloved.”

The Marriage being consummated the bride’s call now goes out to the guests to enjoy the remainder of the feast, along with her beloved. Let them eat their fill, let him drink abundantly. Let all experience the joy of her union with her new husband. It is a reminder to us that once we have been united with Him we should immediately begin to call on others to share Him and experience our joy along with us.

(Alternately it may be a call by the daughters of Jerusalem to the couple to enjoy their love to the full, which is responded to by the new wife).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

SECTION 3.

The Loving Couple Are Married And The Marriage Is Consummated ( Son 3:6 to Son 5:1 ).

The young maiden need not have worried. Her beloved had not forgotten her. And soon the arrangements went forward for the wedding. In her love she had never really thought about the greatness and splendor of her beloved. But now it was brought home to her in its totality when a splendid litter arrived accompanied by the bridegroom and his friends, and she was taken in great splendor to Jerusalem, where they were met by the daughters of Jerusalem who had come out to greet them. It was the custom at ancient weddings for the bridegroom to collect the bride and take her to the wedding.

The BELOVED carries his bride in splendor to Jerusalem for their wedding.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Wedding (Scene 3: The Wedding Processional, Wedding Festival, and Wedding Chamber) (Communion, or Full Consecration to Christ [Divine Service]) Literal Interpretation – Many scholars see in Son 3:6 to Son 5:1 the symbolism of the wedding ceremony between the bridegroom and the bride. We have the wedding procession described in Son 3:6-11, followed by the wedding song of the bridegroom singing to the bride (Son 4:1-15), with the exchange of wedding vows in Son 4:16 to Son 5:1.

Figurative Interpretation Figuratively speaking, this third song represents the phase in a believer’s spiritual journey when he/she gives oneself entirely to God and receives a divine commission to serve Him. Within the context of Songs, a believer’s call to divine service is described as a bride who gives up her people and will and gives herself entirely to her new husband. We now belong to Jesus, our will yielded to His plan and purpose for our lives in divine service.

A good example of this phase of loving God with all of our heart is seen in Acts 13, when Paul and Barnabas were sent on their first missionary journey, although Paul had been evangelizing the regions of Syria and Cilicia for over a decade. We see Anna, the prophetess, serving the Lord day and night in the Temple. She moved into this level of love when she entered the full-time ministry of prayer and intercession in the Temple. Another example is seen in the life of Abraham, when he left his family and went to the land of Canaan. Another example is seen in the life of Joseph when he was exalted over Egypt to serve that nation.

Outline – Note the proposed outline of this section:

1. Scene 1- The Wedding Processional Son 3:6-11

2. Scene 2 – The Wedding Ceremony Son 4:1 to Son 5:1

a) The Wedding Song Son 4:1-15

i) The Bride’s Beauty Son 4:1-7

ii) The Request for Marriage Son 4:8

iii) The Bridegroom’s Love Son 4:9-10

iv) The Bride’s Purity Son 4:11-15

b) The Wedding Vows Son 4:16 to Son 5:1

The Wedding Contrasted with the Adulteress in Proverbs We can contrast this holy wedding ceremony of the bride and the groom with the act seduction between the adulteress and the nave young man in Pro 7:1-27. The adulteress woos her victims by presenting herself in seductive clothing (Pro 7:9-12), while the bride arrives in all of her beauty and glory (Son 3:6-11). While the bridegroom sings a love song to his bride (Son 4:1-15), the adulteress romances her victim with words of seduction (Pro 7:13-20). Finally, the wedding is consummated with marriage vows (Son 4:16 to Son 5:1), while the adulteress lures her victim into the bed of adultery with vain promises (Pro 7:21-23). The outcome of the marriage bed is rest and fulfillment of God’s divine plan for two individuals, while the outcome of adultery is destruction.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Wedding Vows – Some Christian scholars have interpreted Son 4:16 to Son 5:1 as a description of the act of consummating the marriage between a man and a woman in the wedding bed. We find a similar description of this bed of spices in Pro 7:16-18 when the adulteress tries to woo the naive young man into her bed of worldly pleasures. However, I understand it to be symbolic of the couple’s wedding vows towards one another. Having been impressed by the wedding processional (Son 3:6-11) and wooed by a wedding song (Son 4:1-15), the bride finally yields to his desires by allowing him to come into her “garden,” which is figurative of an experience of intense delight (Son 4:16 to Son 5:1). She vows herself to him (Son 4:16) and he responds by accepting her as his wife (Son 5:1).

Pro 7:16-18, “I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.”

Son 4:16 Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.

Son 4:16 Word Study on “garden” – Strong says the Hebrew word “garden” “ gan ” ( ) (H1588) literally means, “a garden (as fenced).” The Enhanced Strong says this word is used 42 times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as “garden 42.” The word is used 8 times in the Song of Songs (Son 4:12; Son 4:15-16; Son 5:1; Son 6:2; Son 8:13). It figuratively refers to a place of communion with God; for this was one of the reasons God planted the Garden of Eden, to have fellowship with man in the cool of the day.

Son 4:16 Word Study on “the spices” Strong says the Hebrew word “spices” “besem” ( ) or “bsem” ( ) (H1314) means, “fragrance, spicery, the balsam plant.” The Enhanced Strong says it is used 29 times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as “spice 24, sweet odours 2, sweet 2, sweet smell 1.” This word is used six times in the Song of Solomon (Son 4:10; Son 4:14; Son 4:16; Son 5:13; Son 6:2; Son 8:14).

Son 4:16 Literal Interpretation – A garden symbolizes a place of pleasure and delight. In fact, God created a garden for Adam and Eve and named it “Eden”, which means, “delight”. It was created as a place where God could fellowship with Adam and walk with him in the cool of the day. In the same way, the Beloved invites her Lover into her “garden of delights” to taste of them. This means that she has yielded herself entirely to him and allows their love to be consummated in the marriage bed.

Figurative Interpretation “Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south” The wind is figurative of the Holy Spirit; or, the north wind symbolizes her willingness to endure adversities, and the south winds symbolize times of refreshing. Her commitment to accept the north wind is tested in Son 5:3-7 as she faces persecution. “blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out” Bickle refers to 2Co 2:15 to suggest the outflow of spices symbolizes her effort to offer life to others, committing herself to a deeper walk of consecration. [200]

[200] Mike Bickle, Session 12 – The Ravished Heart of the Heavenly Bridegroom (Song of Solomon 4:9-5:1), in Song of Songs (Kansas City, Missouri: International House of Prayer, 1998), 24.

2Co 2:15, “For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:”

Son 4:16 may also suggest that she is opening her heart for the Holy Spirit comes upon her. His presence during times of communion allows us to pray effectively and confidently as we feel God’s presence. We can pray according to the will of God. This verse may also imply that a child of God is praying in the Holy Ghost, praying in tongues.

Son 5:1 I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

Son 5:1 Word Study on “a garden” – Strong says the Hebrew word “garden” “ gan ” ( ) (H1588) literally means, “a garden (as fenced).” The Enhanced Strong says this word is used 42 times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as “garden 42.” The word is used 8 times in the Song of Songs (Son 4:12; Son 4:15-16; Son 5:1; Son 6:2; Son 8:13). It figuratively refers to a place of communion with God; for this was one of the reasons God planted the Garden of Eden, to have fellowship with man in the cool of the day.

Son 5:1 Word Study on “my spouse” Gesenius says the Hebrew word “spouse” “kal-law’” ( ) (H3618) means, “a bride, maiden bethrothed, a daughter-in-law.” Strong says it means, “a bride, a son’s wife.” The Enhanced Strong says it is used 34 times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as “daughter in law 17, bride 9, spouse 8.” This word is found 6 times in the Songs (Son 4:8-12; Son 5:1).

Son 5:1 Word Study on “O beloved” Strong says the Hebrew word “love” “dwd” ( ) (H1730) means, a love-token, lover, friend, beloved, uncle,” and comes from an unused root properly meaning “to boil.” The Enhanced Strong says this word it is used 61 times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as, “beloved 34, uncle 16, love(s) 8, father’s brother 2, wellbeloved 1.” It is used 39 times in the book of Songs of its 61 Old Testament uses. This Hebrew word in Son 5:1 is used in its plural form, so should be translated “beloved ones,” which is a reference to the wedding guests within the context of this passage.

Son 5:1 Comments – Son 5:1 serves as a final verse to one of the five divisions of the Song of Solomon.

Literal Interpretation – “I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk” – The bridegroom responds to the bride’s invitation and enters into the garden of delight, which is the first act of intercourse. It is a garden that God actually designed and made for this occasion. The variety of metaphors used in Son 5:1 implies the manifold delights of the marriage bed. “drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved” – The bridegroom invites his new bride as well as his wedding guests to enjoy the wedding festival by drinking wine in abundance so that they will feel the pleasure of its effects.

Figurative Interpretation “I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk” The bridegroom now calls her “my garden, my sister, my spouse,” indicating ownership over her will. We are to give our heart entirely unto the Lord. For it was created to belong entirely to Him. We are to guard our hearts with all diligence (Pro 4:23). However, when He alone is the partaker of our heart and affections, as in Son 5:1, “ I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk,” then His love overflows through us so that He may now say, “ eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.” Then there is abundance for everyone to partake of. “eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved” It is the Spirit of God that moves upon our hearts (Son 4:16) and releases His divine gifts that others may partake and be blessed. Communion with God through the Spirit is for everyone.

Pro 4:23 reads, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Christ’s Call to the Drowsy Church.

The Church Aroused from Sleep

v. 1. I am come into My garden, My sister, My spouse, this being the King’s answer to Shulamith’s invitation, 4, 16; I have gathered My myrrh with My spice; I have eaten My honeycomb with My honey; I have drunk My wine with My milk, all expressions showing the measure with which the King enjoyed the fruits of His singular garden. Eat, O friends, the wedding-guests being addressed; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved, partaking to repletion of the rich gifts provided by the King’s bounty and by His garden. The reference is plain. When the heavenly Gardener comes into the garden of His Church, the enjoyment is mutual, since He rejoices in her faith and in the works of her faith, and the Church, with all her members, is refreshed by the rich blessings of His grace.

The next paragraph pictures a period of spiritual depression, together with a merciful visitation of the Lord, the bride herself relating the events in their order.

v. 2. I sleep, but my heart waketh, unable to shake off the half-conscious drowsiness which came upon her; it is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to Me, My sister, My love, My dove, My undefiled, the one of whom He is sure that she is wholly devoted to Him in love, as His terms of endearment show; for My head is filled with dew and My locks with the drops of the night, the fall of dew being very heavy in Palestine.

v. 3. I have put off my coat, the tunic or undergarment, which served as a covering in the night; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, as custom requires it where only sandals are worn; how shall I defile them? She had become so indifferent to her Bridegroom that she eagerly adopted the slightest excuse, as though she no longer relished His company.

v. 4. My Beloved put in His hand by the hole of the door, through which the bolt could be reached from the outside if no other locks were employed, and my bowels were moved for Him, she was greatly excited, or agitated, in sympathy for Him, she began to repent of her indifference.

v. 5. I rose up to open to my Beloved, once more thoroughly aroused in love and longing; and my hands dropped with myrrh, best token of her reawakened love, and my fingers with sweet-smelling myrrh, whose perfume was sure to please the King, upon the handles of the lock, as she eagerly attempted to push back the bolt.

v. 8. I opened to my Beloved, ready now to appreciate His visitation of love; but my Beloved had withdrawn Himself and was gone, apparently tired of waiting, ready to extend His merciful call to some one else; my soul failed when He spake, when He had spoken before, this also explaining her long inaction. I sought Him, but I could not find Him, He had withdrawn His gracious presence; I called Him, but He gave me no answer.

v. 7. The watchmen that went about the city found me; they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls, whose business it was to protect the inhabitants of the city, took away my veil from me, an act which was an indignity offered to an Oriental girl at any time, and here doubly so, since the veil was the bride’s greatest pride and the sign of her exalted state.

v. 8. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, adjuring them most earnestly, if ye find my Beloved, that ye tell Him that I am sick of love, her longing had now become overwhelmingly great, due to the very indifference professed by the Lord.

This paragraph correctly pictures the spiritual sleep which sometimes falls upon a single congregation or upon a whole section of the Church. There may still be some feeling of duty and a corresponding battling against the benumbing influence of sleep, but in the eyes of God such a community is dead, even while it has the name that it is living, Rev 3:1. When the Lord comes to such a church to admonish and incite her to true watchfulness, she is often unwilling to be disturbed. She would prefer to go her lukewarm way, without true life and spirituality. And so the Lord, after an urgent call and attempt to arouse the Church, withdraws His merciful presence. Meanwhile the Church arouses herself to the remembrance of the many evidences of grace and love which she has received at His hands, and so she, on her part, now tries to hold Him back from leaving her. She is again filled with the sweet savor of good works flowing from true faith; her heart eagerly seeks Him; she realizes that His condemnation Rev 3:17-19 applies to her. Having been deprived of His presence, she searches most diligently. But the very men who should have aided her in finding the Bridegroom now abuse the Church, while she loudly protests her love for the Bridegroom. Compare the words of the Lord, Joh 7:33-34: “Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto Him that sent Me. Ye shall seek Me and shall not find Me; and where I am, thither ye cannot come. ” If at such times the individual congregation or the Church as such relies only upon the grace of the Lord, there is the best hope for the future.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

Son 5:1

I am come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. My myrrh with my balsam (see 1Ki 10:10). There were celebrated plantations at Jericho. The Queen of Sheba brought “of spices very great store;” “There came no more such abundance of spices as these which the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.” Is there a reference to the conversion of the heathen nations in this? The wine and milk are what God offers to his people (see Isa 55:1) without money and without price. is what Chloe gives to Daphnis (cf. Psa 19:6). It would seem as though the writer intended us to follow the bridal procession to its destination in the royal palace. The bridal night intervenes. The joy of the king in his bride is complete. The climax is reached, and the rest of the song is an amplification. The call to the friends is to celebrate the marriage in a banquet on the second day (see Gen 29:28; Jdg 14:12; Tobit 11:18; and cf. Rev 19:7 and Rev 19:9). A parallel might be found in Psa 22:26, where Messiah, at the close of his sufferings, salutes his friends, the poor, and as they eat at his table gives them his royal blessing, “Vivat cor vestrum in aeternum!” The perfect state of the Church is represented in Scripture, both in the Old Testament and in the New, as celebrated with universal joyall tears wiped away from off all faces, and the loud harpings of innumerable harpers. Can we doubt that this wonderful book has tinged the whole of subsequent inspired Scripture? Can we read the descriptions of triumphant rejoicing in the Apocalypse and not believe that the apostolic seer was familiar with this idealized love song?

Verse 2-ch. 8:4

Part IV. REMINISCENCES OF LOVE DAYS. The bridegroom rejoicing in the bride.

Son 5:2

The bride‘s reminiscence of a love dream. I was asleep, but my heart waked, It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, my locks with the drops of the night. There is a resemblance between this account of what was apparently a dream, and that which is related in So Son 3:1-4; but the difference is very clear. In the former case the lover is represented as dismissed for a season, and then the relenting heart of the maiden sought after him and found him. In this case he “stands at the door and knocks,” coming in the night; and the maiden rises to open, but finds him gone, and so is drawn after him. The second dream is much more vivid and elaborate, and seems to be an imitation and enlargement of the other, being introduced apparently more for the sake of dwelling on the attractions of the beloved one and his preciousness in the eyes of the maiden than in self-reproach. Is it not possible that the poem originally concluded at So Son 5:1 with the marriage, and that the whole of the latter half was an amplification, either by Solomon himself, the author of the first half, or by some one who has entered into the spirit of the song? This would explain the apparent repetition, with the variations. But, at all events, the second part certainly is more from the standpoint of married life than the first. Hence the bride speaks at great length, which she does not in the earlier portion. Delitzsch thinks that this second love dream is intended to represent what occurred in early married life; but there are two objections to thatfirst, that the place is evidently a country residence; and secondly, that such an occurrence is unsuitable to the conditions of a royal bride. It is much more natural to suppose that the bride is recalling what occurred in her dream when the lover, having been sent away until the evening, as on the former occasion, returned, and in the night knocked at the door. “My heart waked” is the same as “My mind was active.” The “heart” in Hebrew is the inner man, both intellect and feeling. “I was asleep, but I was thinking” (cf. Cicero, ‘De Divinatione,’ 1.30). The lover has come off a long journey over the mountains, and arrives in the night time. The terms with which he appeals to his beloved are significant, denoting

(1) equal rankmy sister;

(2) free choicemy love;

(3) purity, simplicity, and lovelinessmy dove;

(4) entire devotion, undoubting trustmy undefiled. Tammanthi, “my perfection,” as Arabic tam, teim, “one devoted to another.” as a servant.

Similar passages are quoted from heathen love poetry, as Anacreon, 3.10; Propertius, 1.16-23; Ovid, ‘Amor.,’ 3.19, 21. The simple meaning of the dream is that she is full of love by night and by day. She dreamed that she was back in her old country home, and that her lover visited her like a shepherd; and she tells how she sought him, to show how she loved him. When we are united to the Saviour with the bonds of a pledged affection, we lose the sense of self-reproach in the delight of fellowship, and can even speak of our own slowness and backwardness only to magnify his grace. We delight to acknowledge that it was his knocking that led us to seek after him, although we had to struggle with the dull heart; and it was not until it was moved by his approach, by his moving towards us, that we hastened to find him, and were full of the thought of his desirableness. There are abundant examples of this same interchange of affection in the history of the Church’s revivals and restorations.

Son 5:3

I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? Evidently the meaning is, “I have retired to rest; do not disturb me.” She is lying in bed. The cuttoneth, or , was the linen garment worn next the bodyfrom cathan, “linen.” The Arabic kutun is “cotton;” hence the French coton, “calico, or cotton” shift. Shulamith represents herself as failing in love, not meeting the condescension and affection of her lover as she should. Sloth, reluctance, ease, keep her back. “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion!” The scene is, of course, only ideally true; it is not meant to be a description of an actual occurrence. Fancy in dreams stirs up the real nature, though it also disturbs it. Shulamith has forsaken her first love. She relates it with sorrow, but not with despondency. She comes to herself again, and her repentance and restoration are the occasion for pouring out the fulness of her affection, which had never really changed, though it has been checked and restrained by self-indulgence. How true a picture both of the individual soul and of the Church in its decline! “Leave me to myself; let me lie at ease in my luxury and my smooth, conventional ways and self-flattering deceit.”

Son 5:4

My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my heart was moved for him. The door hole is a part of the door pierced through at the upper part of the lock, or door bolt (), that is, by the opening from without to within, or through the opening, as if, i.e; to open the door by pressing back the lock or bolt from within. There was some obstacle. He tailed to open it. It had not been left so that he could easily obtain admittance. The metaphor is very apt and beautiful. How much he loved her! How he tried to come to her! As applied to the Saviour, what infinite suggestiveness! He would be with us, and not only knocks at the door, but is impatient to enter; tries the lock, and too often finds it in vain; he is repelled, he is resisted, he is coldly excluded. My heart was moved for him. , “my inner being” (cf. Isa 63:15, where the same word is used of God). It is often employed to express sympathy and affection, especially with tender regret. The later authorities, as the older translations, have “to him” (), i.e. over him, or on account of him, in the thought of his wounded heart.

Son 5:5

I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with liquid myrrh, upon the handles of the bolt. The meaning seems to be that the lover had come to the door perfumed as if for a festival, and the costly ointment which he brought with him has dropped on the handles of the bolts. Similar allusions may be found in Lucretius and other heathen writers. This description is, of course, inapplicable to the shepherd theory. It would not be a rough country swain that came thus perfumed; but Solomon is thought of as at once king and lover. It would be stretching the poetry too far to suppose that Shulamith meant the natural sweetness of her lover was the perfume. Neither is there any probability in the explanation that she dipped her hand in perfumed oil before she opened the door. That would destroy all the form and beauty of the dream. It is her lover whose fragrance she celebrates, not her own. Whether he brought perfumes with him, or the innate personal sweetness of his presence left its fragrance on that which he touched, in either case it is the lover himself who is spoken of. His very hand, wherever it has been, leaves behind it ineffable delight. His presence reveals itself everywhere. Those who go after him know that he is not far off by the traces of his loving approaches to them. The spiritual meaning is too plain to need much exposition.

Son 5:6

I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone. My soul had failed me when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer. The meaning is thisThe voice of my beloved struck my heart; but in the consciousness that I had estranged myself from him I could not openly meet him, I could not offer him mere empty excuses. Now I am made sensible of my own deficiency. I call after him. I long for his return, but it is in vain (cf. the two disciples going to Emmaus, Luk 24:1-53; “Did not our heart burn within us,” etc.?). Similar allusion to the effect of the voice of the beloved is found in Terence, ‘And.,’ Son 1:5, Son 1:16, “Oratio haec,” etc. The failing or departing of the soul at the sound of the voice must refer to the lack of response at the time, therefore it was that she sought him and cried out after him. When he spake; literally, in his speaking; i.e. when he said, “I will not now come because at first refused;” cf. Pro 1:20-33, the solemn warning against the loss of opportunity. It is a coincidence between the two books of Solomon which cannot be disregarded. If there is any spiritual meaning at all in Solomon’s Song, it certainly is a book which he who wrote the first chapter of Proverbs is likely to have written.

Son 5:7

The watchmen that go about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my mantle from me. The intention is to show into what evil she fell by having to seek her beloved instead of being with him. She is mistaken and misjudged; she is smitten and wounded with reproaches and false accusations, as though she were a guilty and evil minded woman. She is subjected to abuse and ill treatment from those who should be her guardians. She had hard work to escape, leaving her robe behind her (cf. Gen 39:12). The redhidh, like ridha in Arabic, is a plaid-like upper garment thrown over the shouldersso says Aben Ezra; but it is derived, no doubt, from the root “to make broad or thin,” to spread outperhaps, therefore, “a thin, light upper robe” which was worn over the chiton, a summer overdress, a cloak (LXX; : Jerome, pallium; Luther, Schleier). If we take the dream thus described, and which seems to conclude at this point, as related to the surrounding ladies, then we must suppose that it is introduced for the sake of what follows. The bride feels that she does not love her beloved one half enough; she is so conscious of deficiencies, that she might even have acted as her dream represented. It had entered her soul and made her ill with inward grief and self-reproach. She might so act, she might so treat her husband. So she adjures her companions to tell him how much she loves him. The spiritual application is not difficult to see. When the soul loses its joy in Christ, it becomes the prey of fears and self accusations, and even of reproaches from Christ’s servants and the guardians of his Church. For when our religion ceases to be a spontaneous delight to us, we are apt to carry on even the active work of our life in a manner to be misunderstood by sincere believers around us. Yea, the very efforts we make to recover peace may bring reproach upon us. Any Christian minister who has had to deal with religious despondency will quite understand this dream of the bride’s. We may often smite and wound, and even deprive of the garment of reputation and esteem, those who are really seeking for Christ, because we have misunderstood them.

Son 5:8

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love. This appeal to the ladies suggests that the bride is speaking from her place in the royal palace; but it may be taken otherwise, as a poetical transference of time and place, from the place where the dream actually occurred, to Jerusalem. It is difficult, in a poem of such a kind, to explain every turn of language objectively. We cannot, however, be far wrong if we say the bride is rejoicing, in the presence of her attendant ladies, in the love of Solomon. He has just left her, and she takes the opportunity of relating the dream, that she may say how she cannot bear his absence and how she adores him. The ladies enter at once into the pleasant scheme of her fancy, and assume that they are with her in the country place, and ready to help her to find her shepherd lover, who has turned away from her when she did not at once respond to his call. The daughters of Jerusalem will, of course, symbolically represent those who, by their sympathy and by their similar relation to the object of our love, are ready to help us to rejoiceour fellow believers.

Son 5:9

What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? what is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so adjure us? This, of course, is poetic artifice in order to give the opportunity to the bride to enter upon a glowing description of the object of her love. She wishes to say that he is perfect, everything that he can be.

Son 5:10

My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. The mingling of colours in the countenance is a peculiar excellence. The word tsach, from the root tsahach (cf. Lam 4:7), means a bright, shining clearness; it is not the same as lavan, which would mean “dead white.” So in Greek differs from . The red adhom, from the root dam, which means “to condense,” is dark red (rouge puce), no doubt as betokening health and vigour. The pure, delicate white among the Caucasians denotes high rank, superior training, hereditary nobility, as among ourselves the “aristocratic paleness” (cf. Hom; ‘I1.,’ 4:141, “ivory with purple;” Virg; ‘AEn.,’ 12.65; Ovid, ‘Am.,’ 2; ‘ Eleg.,’ 5.39; Hor; Od; 1.13, etc.; Tibull; ‘Eleg.,’ ext. 4, etc.). The chiefest, that is, the distinguished one, the chosen (so the Greek versions, Syriac, Jerome, Luther). The LXX. has , e cohorte selectus. Another rendering is “bannered,” furnished with a banner or pennon () hence the word as a past participle (so the Venetian ). The numeral (revava) “ten thousand“ is simply used to represent an innumerable multitude; “myriad” is so used among ourselves (of. Eze 16:7).

Son 5:11-16

His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven. His eyes are like doves beside the water brooks; washed with milk and fitly set. His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as banks of sweet herbs; his lips are as lilies, dropping liquid myrrh. His hands are as rings of gold set with beryl; his body is as ivory work overlaid with sapphires. His legs are as pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold. His aspect is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. This description, which is complete in itself, is best regarded in its unbroken perfection. We must not expect to find a meaning for each separate part of it. There are ten corporeal excellences enumerated. We naturally recall the descriptions in Daniel and in the Apocalypse, which certainly have reference to this, and manifestly combine the attributes of greatness and beauty in the Son of man. Solomon, no doubt, as the son of Bathsheba, was distinguished by his personal attractions. Some of the details of description are differently rendered by different commentators. Delitzsch regards the description of the hair in verse 11 as compared to a hill or hilly range” his locks hill upon hill,” i.e. “his hair, seen from his neck upwards, forms in undulating lines hill upon hill.” The black colour is no doubt mentioned as a contrast with the fair, white complexion. The eyes are not only pure and clear, but with a glancing moistness in them which expresses feeling and devotion. So Plutarch has to denote a languishing look, and we find the same figure in the ‘Gitagovinda ‘ and Hafiz, and in Ossian. So Luther, “Und stehen in der Falle.” The pureness of the white of the eye is represented in the bathing or washing in milk. They are full and large, “fine in their setting,” referring no doubt to the steady, strong look of fine eyes. “The cheeks” are compared to towers of plants; that is, there is a soft elevation in them. LXX; : Jerome, Sicut areolae aromatum consitae a pigmentariis. The Targum says, “Like the rows of a garden of aromatic plants, which produce deep, penetrating essences, even as a (magnificent) garden aromatic plants”perhaps referring to the “flos juventae,” the hair on the face, the growth of the beard. “The lips” are described as the organs of speech as well as inviting to embrace. They drop words like liquid fragrance. “The bands” may be differently described according as they are viewed. Delitzsch says, “His hands form cylinders, fitted in with stones of Tarshish.” Gesenius thinks the comparison is of the closed hand and the stained nails, but that seems farfetched. Surely it is the outstretched hands that are meant. The form of the fingers is seen and admired; they are full, round, fleshy like bars of gold. The word “Tarshish” may mean clay white, as in the Greek versions; that is, topaz, called Tarshish from Tartessus in Spain, where.it is found. The description of the body is of the outward appearance and figure only, though the word itself signifies “inward parts.” The comparison with ivory work refers to the glancing and perfect smoothness and symmetry as of a beautiful ivory statue, the work of the highest artistic excellence. The sapphire covering tempers the white. The beautiful blue veins appear through the skin and give a lovely tint to the body. So in the description of the legs we have the combination of white and gold, the white marble setting forth greatness and purity, and the gold sublimity and nobleness; intended, no doubt, to suggest that in the royal bridegroom there was personal beauty united with kingly majesty, as in the following description of his general aspect, which, like the splendours of the mountains, was awe-inspiring and yet elevating and delightful (cf. Psa 80:11 (10): Jer 22:7; Isa 37:24). His mouth, or palate, is sweetness itself; that is, when he speaks his words are full of winning love (cf. Pro 16:4; Psa 55:16). We may compare with the whole description that given of Absalom, Solomon’s brother, in 2Sa 14:25, 2Sa 14:26. It has been truly remarked by Zockler that “the mention of the legs, and just before of the body, could only be regarded as unbecoming or improper by an overstrained prudishness, because the description which is here given avoids all libidinous details, and is so strictly general as not even to imply that she had ever seen the parts of the body in question in a nude condition.” It merely serves to complete the delineation of her lover, which Shulamith sketches by a gradual descent from head to foot, and, moreover, is to be laid to the account of the poet rather than to that of Shulamith, who is in everything else so chaste and delicate in her feelings. Certainly it would be much less delicate regarded as the description of a shepherd lover who is seeking to obtain possession of the maiden taken from him, than of the royal bridegroom to whom Shulamith is at all events affianced, if not already married. The highest spiritual feelings of loving adoration of the Saviour have welcomed some parts of this description, and adopted them into the language of “spiritual songs.” To some minds, no doubt, it is repellent; to those to whom it is not so, the warmth and glow of Eastern language is by no means too realistic for the feelings of delight in the Lord which express themselves in rapturous music.

HOMILETICS

2Sa 14:1. Response to So 4:16:

The bridegroom accepts the bride’s invitation.

He calls her again by the endearing title, “my sister-bride.” He comes, as she bids him, into the garden which was hers and yet his. He takes delight in its produce, in the entertainment which she has prepared for him. He invites his friends to share his enjoyment. He addresses, apparently, the chorus of young men, his companions, who have already appeared in So 2Sa 3:6-11, calling them “O friends,” and “O beloved ones;” unless, indeed, the last clause be translated, as the Hebrew at least permits, “Drink abundantly of love.” The heavenly Bridegroom accepts the offering of the Church, his bride. He loved her, and gave himself for her; therefore her love is very precious to him. He comes into her garden. He calls it his”my garden”in gracious acknowledgment of the bride’s gift. He uses the same pronoun of all its varied products. They are his, each and all. He gave them to the bride. She offers them back to her Lord. He invites his friends to share his joy. He said once to his friends in his holy parable, “Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost;” so now he says, “Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly of love.” “Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rev 19:9). So the Lord listens to the call of the Christian soul that thirsts for him. He answers the cry, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” He will come with the Father, and make his abode with them that love him (Joh 14:23). He graciously accepts the offerings of love. He welcomes the beauty and sweetness of the fruits of the Spirit in the believing soul. They are his, for it was he who gave the Spirit, who watered the growing fruits with the dew of his grace; his, again, because the heart that gives itself to God gives with the gift of self all its belongings, gladly owning that whatever it has of good comes from his only gift. He acknowledges their imperfect efforts: “I know thy works, thy labour, and thy patience.” He saith unto his friends, “Rejoice with me;” and “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over each sinner that repenteth.” Then if our love gives joy to the dear Lord who gave up the glory of heaven for us, and for us endured the long torture of the cross, how very earnestly we Christians ought to try to make our heart indeed a “garden enclosed,” wholly dedicated unto him, and separated from all profane uses! If our poor growth in holiness pleases him, how earnestly we ought to pray and strive to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; how earnestly we ought to try never to grieve his Holy Spirit, but to give him our whole heart, with all its affections and desires, that we may be wholly hishis forever!

Son 5:2-8

The second dream of the bride.

I. THE BRIDEGROOM AT THE DOOR.

1. The voice of the beloved. The bridegroom is absent; the bride is alone. There is a temporary separation, something approaching to an estrangement; yet the old love is not lost. The bride is sleeping when she should be awake and watching for the bridegroom’s approach. Yet her heart waketh. She has a dreamy consciousness of what is going on around her; she seems to hear in her dream the voice of her beloved. So the Church sometimes sleepsleaves her first lovelapses into something like spiritual apathy; yet her heart waketh. The Lord never leaves himself without a witness. At the worst times of indifference there has always been some dim consciousness of his presence, some faint love for him who loved the Church and gave himself for her. So the soul sometimes sleeps when it is high time to awake, when the night is far spent and the day is at hand. The heavenly Bridegroom will not let us slumber on without a warning. He knocks at the door of our heart. “Behold,” he saith, “I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Rev 3:20). The Church of Laodicea was lying wrapped in a deep sleep: the Lord sought to arouse her. So he knocks at the door of our hearts now by his Word, by his ministers, by his chastisements, by the warnings of his Spirit. If we can in truth call him “my Beloved;” if we have really set our love upon him, and given him our heart in answer to his seeking love, we shall hear him. We shall know his voice, recognizing it in judgments and in mercies, in warnings and in consolations. When duty calls us, even if it be, as it will sometimes be, hard and displeasing to flesh and blood, we shall say, “It is the voice of my Beloved.” It is the Master’s call; he speaks. The heart waketh to listen. Does he come with stern reproof for indifference and coldness of heart? No; his words are full of tenderness. “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled.” It is the Lord’s great love for the souls of men that produces those utterances of yearning affection. He still calls the bride “my sister,” as he had done before the cloud had come upon her love. He still says “my love, my dove,” as he said before; and he has a fresh term of endearment, “my undefiled, my perfect one.” We know, alas I that we are not undefiled, we are not perfect. (“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect,” says even the great apostle, St. Paul.) But what the Lord would have us to be, what he will make us at the last if we abide in him, that he is graciously pleased to call us now. How those holy words of deep tenderness should excite in us repentance for the past, and earnest effort to become by his grace less unworthy of those most gracious and loving titles! He asks us to open, that he may enter in. He has been wandering in the darkness, and as when he came unto his own there was no room for him in the inn, and as during the days of his earthly ministry he had not where to lay his head, so now he knocks at one heart after another, and heart after heart is closely barred against him. They will not open, that he may enter in and make his abode with them. He comes now to the sister bride of old times, asking her as if for his own sake (such is the unutterable depth of his infinite, self-abasing love), “Open unto me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled.” Ah, how can any of those souls of men whom he loved even unto death shut up their hearts against that call of unspeakable affection! He pleads as for himself, as if needing shelter: “My head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.” Alas! the bride, still half asleep, scarcely heeds the bridegroom’s call, does not realize its meaning

“For none of the ransom’d ever knew

How deep were the waters cross’d;

Or how dark was the night that the Lord pass’d through

Ere he found his sheep that was lost.”

It cost more to redeem our souls than our poor thoughts can comprehend. When we try to realize the Lord’s sufferings, we seem to stand afar off beholding, like the people who came together to that sight of awe, who smote their breasts (Luk 23:48). The Church pleads those bitter sufferings in her solemn Litany: “By thine agony and bloody sweat, by thy cross and passion, good Lord, deliver us.” “Remember, good Lord Jesus,” we say in the ancient hymn, “that it was for me thou didst undertake that long, weary journey; in that long search for me thou didst sit faint and exhausted; it was to redeem me that thou didst endure the cross. Let not that toil and labour be in vain, O Lord.” But here it is the Lord himself who pleads with us in our hardness; he so longs for our salvation. He bids us remember what he endured for us. It is the expression of his intense yearning love. He would have us comprehend with all saints something of the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of that great love; to return it in our poor way, to open our heart to him, that he may enter in and take that heart to be his own which he bought with the price of his most precious blood.

2. The answer. The bride does not realize the deep, solemn meaning of the bridegroom’s call. She is half asleep still. She lies dreaming in her bed. She makes excuses to herself. And we, alas! far too often do the like when the Lord calls us to work, to deny ourselves for his sake. We slumber on in careless sleep; we forget what he did for us. We do not hear his voice; or, if we hear, we listen dreamily, lying still in spiritual sloth, not thinking that when the Lord calls it is time to bestir ourselves, to be up and doing, to “pass the time of our sojourning here in fear forasmuch as we know that we were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ” (1Pe 1:18). We must not make vain excuses, like those that were bidden in the parable (Luk 14:18), for the time is short. It is our eternal salvation that is at stake. It is Christ the Son of God who is calling us; and he loved us, and gave himself for us (Gal 2:20). Alas! the bride, whom the bridegroom loved with so great a love, makes poor excuses in her dream. She will not rise and open till it is too late; she will not take a little trouble for his sake.

3. The repentance. The beloved put his hand through the hole of the door; he sought to open it. The bride’s heart was moved at last by his earnest appeals. “My bowels were moved for him,” she says, as she repeats her dream. She thought of her past love for him, of his great love for her, of the hardships he had gone through in seeking her. She wonders how she could have forgotten all this even in a dream; she rose up to open to her beloved. So the soul that has made many excuses, that has slumbered long, that has spent its time as in a dream, forgetting the solemn realities of life, hears at last through the long suffering grace of Godlistens to the patient call of the heavenly Bridegroom. Then our heart burns within us when we think that he has indeed been talking with us, opening the Scriptures (Luk 24:32); our bowels are moved for him. We think that it is the Saviour of the world, our Saviour, who is standing without, waiting for us to answer; that the hand with which he seeks to open the door was once pierced through for us, nailed upon the cross for our souls’ sake. We listen to his voice

“O Jesu, thou art pleading

In accents meek and low:

‘I died for you, my children,

And will ye treat me so?’

O Lord, with shame and sorrow

We open now the door;

Dear Saviour, enter, enter,

And leave us never more.”

The bride opens to her beloved. The bridegroom’s hand had been dipped in oil of myrrh. Some of the unguent remained upon the bolt; it dropped upon the fingers of the bride. It was a token of the bridegroom’s presence. He had gathered his myrrh (Son 5:1) from the “garden enclosed” before this passing shadow had fallen upon their love. It may be, too, that we may see in the myrrh a parable of self-denial. It may be regarded as a loving warning left by the bridegroom to teach the bride a necessary lesson. She must not slumber on; it is time to wake and to work. Working for Christ is sometimes like the wine mingled with myrrh (Mar 15:23); it has a bitter taste to our pampered palate. But if we take the cup which the Lord gives us to drink, we shall find at last that the smell of it is sweet; even as his yoke, hard at first, becomes easy in the discipline of obedience, and his burden, heavy at first, becomes light when he bears it with us. For self-denials meekly borne for him bring us nearer and nearer to him who bore the supreme self-sacrifice of the cross for us; and in his presence there is a depth of sweetness which takes away the bitterness.

4. It is too late. The beloved had withdrawn himself. “My beloved withdrew himself, was gone,” she says, in the plaintive wailing of disappointment (there is no conjunction in the original). “My soul went forth,” she continues, “as he spake.” My soul, my heart, my affections, went forth to him at the sound of his voice. The well known tones aroused the old love. She had once given her heart to him; and now, though in her dream her love seemed to have been chilled, and she seemed to lie heedless, unwilling to rouse herself to exertion, yet now his words at last reached her heart. Her soul went forth to him in response to his calling. Or the Hebrew words may rather mean, as in the Revised Version, “My soul had failed me when he spake.” The same words are used in describing the death of Rachel: “It came to pass, as her soul was in departing” (Gen 35:18). His words awoke in her soul the fear lest she should lose him by her coldness and selfish neglect. The thought was like death to her. “Love is strong as death” (So Son 8:6). Her soul went forth; it failed her. For the moment she was helplessprostrate as in a death-like swoon. Then she aroused herself. It was time to act, to bestir herself. He was gone; she might lose him forever; and her heart was bound up in him. To lose him was deathworse than death. She sought him, but she could not find him; she called him in her dream, but he gave her no answer. The dream of the bride is a parable of the Christian life. The soul sometimes sinks into a state of listlessness and apathy. There is no actual transgression, perhapsno open sin. The evil spirit is not there; the house is empty (Mat 12:43, Mat 12:44). But the Bridegroom is absent, and love has grown cold. There is no recollection of the absent Lordno regret, no longing for his return. The soul lives on, as it were, in a dream, not realizing the solemn meaning of life, not thinking of the awful future. But God in his gracious mercy will not let us dream away our lives without a warning. He calls us by his blessed Son: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.” Sometimes, alas! we will not hear; sometimes we listen dreamily, half-conscious, recognizing in a sense the Bridegroom’s voice, but not realizing the solemn, holy meaning of the call; not thinking of his love and of our ingratitude, his promises and our broken vows, what he did for us and what return we have made to him; not thinking of his grace and our responsibility, his longing for our salvation and our fearful danger. That lethargy, that slumber of indifference, creeps over us all from time to time when we have not been watchfulwhen we have neglected our prayers and other blessed means of grace. But the dear Lord seeketh that which is lost until he find it. He “is long suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2Pe 3:9). He comes again and again, calling us, sometimes in the gentle tones of entreating love, sometimes in the sterner language of reproof and chastisement. Sometimes he makes as though he would force his way. He puts his hand in at the hole of the door; he lays the cross upon us; he reminds us of the burden which he bore for us; he teaches us that the cross is the very badge and mark of his chosenthat whosoever doth not take up his cross cannot be his disciple. At last we are stiffed in our slumbers. We rise from our sleep. But perhaps we are only half awake, half-hearted. Our will goes back to our old slothful rest. We say, like the sluggard in the Proverbs, “Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep” (Pro 6:10). Then the Lord deals with us as a wise physician of the soul. He would have us feel our weakness, our danger. “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick” (Mat 9:12). He would have us feel our need of him. He withdraws himself; and when we open to him he is gone. He makes as though he would go further, as he dealt with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus (Luk 24:28). Then our soul goes forth to him. It faints within us; we feel how helpless we are without him; we feel that without him life is not worth living; and we try to constrain him, like those two disciples, saying, in their words, “Abide with us; for it is toward evening, and the day is far slant.” We seek him in earnest prayer, sometimes with strong crying and tears. But for a time we cannot find him. We call him, but he gives us no answer. It is in love that he thus deals with us, to arouse us, to make us feel the need of exertion, of active effort. He cannot be found without diligent search. The bride said, in relating her first dream, “By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth” (So Pro 3:1). It is not thus that the soul should seek for Christ, still lying, as it were, upon the bed of spiritual sloth, thinking dreamily of Christ, pleasing itself, perhaps, with the poetry of religion, with the beauty of the Saviour’s life, with the comfort which the Scriptures offer. Religion is not a dream; it is not mere poetry, mere love of beauty; it is a lifea life of action and energya prolonged effort to imitate Christ, to please Christ, to follow Christ’s holy example. The first cry of the really awakened soul is, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” (Act 9:6). The soul that answers in earnest to the Saviour’s call knows and feels instinctively that God has work for us; that that work must be done even in fear and trembling by his help, who worketh in us both to will and to do. The Lord would have us realize this truth; therefore sometimes he withdraws himself, to make us feel that life is blank without himto make us cry like Job, “Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me; when his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness; as I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle!” (Job 29:2-4). The contrast makes us feel that God was certainly with us then, even if we cannot feel his presence now. Therefore we seek him, even though for a time we cannot find him. It was so with Job for a season. “He hideth himself,” he said; “I cannot see him.” He trusted God even in the midst of darkness. “But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:9, Job 23:10). So we must believe in his love even when he seems to hide his face from us and not to listen to our prayers. He seemed long to disregard the supplications of the Syro-Phoenician woman, but at last there came the gracious answer, “O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt.”

II. THE SEARCH.

1. The bride goes forth in her dream. Again, as in So Job 3:2, she goes about the city seeking the beloved; again the watchmen found her. They had not been unfriendly in the first dream, though they were not able to guide her in her search. Now they seemed to treat her with cruelty. They smote her, and wounded her, and took her mantle from her. Difficulties will always arise in our search after Christsometimes dangers and persecutions: “We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” We may perhaps also see another lesson here. The bride has more trouble now in her search than she had on the former occasion. She has been more blamable. Then she had been for a time listless and slothful; now her sin had been not only sloth, but selfish disobedience. She refused at first to open to the beloved; she did not heed his call; she did not heed the hardships which he had suffered. So it is in the Christian life. To sin against light is very grievous; repeated sin makes repentance each time more difficult. We must be watchful always, as the Saviour bids us: “Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch” (Mar 13:35-37). We must learn the prayer of the child Samuel, “Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth.” Each time we refuse to listen the old torpor steals more and more over our souls, our slumber becomes deeper, the difficulty of awakening us becomes greater, and repentance more doubtful, more encompassed with dangers, calling for more exertion of will, more determined effort.

2. The charge. The bride cannot find her beloved. She seeks the help of the chorus of maidens, the daughters of Jerusalem. She adjures them in her eager anxiety, “If ye find my beloved, what will ye tell him? That I am sick of love.” She had used the last words once before (So Job 2:5), but in a different connection. Then his banner over her was love; then the joy of his love was almost too great for her; she was sick of love. Now it is her longing for the absent bridegroom which produces the heart sickness which she describes. She fondly thinks that if he only knew her yearning for him he would return; he would forgive all that was past, and bring her again under the banner of his love. So the Christian soul, awakened out of sleep, longs for the Saviour’s presence. She feels that she is sick. She needs the great Physician. Without him all is dark; without him there is no spiritual health, no joy, no hope. She seeks him in earnest prayer. She asks for the intercession of Christian friends; she would have them bring her distress and longing before the throne. “My God, my soul is cast down within me;” “My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God;” “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.”

Son 5:9-16

The bride’s praise of the bridegroom.

I. THE QUESTION OF THE DAUGHTERS OF JERUSALEM.

1. The bride. The bride is dreaming still. The chorus seem in her dream to address her again as they had done in So Son 1:8. She is still to them the fairest among women. They awe daughters of Jerusalem, the children of the kingdom; and to them the Church, which is the bride of Christ, must appear exceeding fair. She is not, alas! without spot or blemish now. She recognizes her own faults, her many shortcomings. But the children of the kingdom remember the holiness of the saints departed. They see traces of the beauty of holiness existing always in the Church. Being themselves children of God, they are learning that grace of charity which “believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things; which rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.” And so they regard the beauty of the bride rather than her blemishes; they think more of her yearning love for the Bridegroom than of her past shortcomings. It is a sad mistake, a sin against charity, to refuse to recognize the real goodness of Christian people who have from time to time fallen into various inconsistencies.

2. The bridegroom. What is he more than others? “What is thy beloved more than another beloved that thou dost so charge us?” The daughters of Jerusalem know King Solomon well, but in her dream the bride seems to hear them asking the question of the text. She has always loved the bridegroom for himself, not for his crown, his magnificence. She fancies that the maidens of the chorus take the same view of wedded love, and ask what are the distinguishing merits of her beloved. Sometimes, indeed, that question is asked in scorn or in temptation, “What think ye of Christ?” What is he more than other masters? Those other masters have their attractions; they offer more of earthly pleasure, more of present ease. What has Christ to offer? What are his attractions? What are the rewards of his service? “What is thy Beloved more than another beloved?” men say sometimes to the Christian. “What is thy Master to us, that thou dost so adjure us?” But the daughters of Jerusalem, in this second dream of the bride, do not ask the question in scorn or irony. It is asked with a dramatic purpose to give the bride an occasion for dwelling upon the glorious beauty, the many endowments of her beloved. She gladly takes advantage of it.

II. THE BRIDE‘S ANSWER.

1. The bridegroom is the chiefest among ten thousand. “My beloved,” she says, “is white and ruddy.” We think of him whose “garment was white as snow,” and “his throne like the fiery flame” (Dan 7:9). Ancient writers have applied the description to our Lord. He was white in his spotless purity; his sacred body was reddened with the precious blood. These are the first thoughts of the Christian when he meditates upon the Lord’s perfectionsthe perfect beauty of his most holy life, the glory of self-sacrifice which sheds a golden light upon his atoning death. His life exhibited a picture of holiness such as the world had never seen, such as none of its greatest sages had ever imagined. It stands alone in its pure beauty, unique, unapproachable. We know that no human intellect could have imagined such a life; no merely human pen could have described it. It is unlike the accepted moral ideals of the time; it stands apart by itself, immeasurably higher than all beside. But it was his death, he said, that should draw all men unto himself. It was the great love manifested upon the cross that would constrain the best and noblest hearts of all times and countries to live no longer to themselves, but unto him who died for them and rose again (2Co 5:14, 2Co 5:15). Therefore he is our Standard bearer (as the word rendered “chiefest” seems to mean), our bannered One. He is the Captain of our salvation. He goeth before us, bearing the banner of the cross. The thousands of his disciples follow. And he is the chiefest among ten thousand, marked out and distinguished from all others by his unapproachable holiness, by the infinite power and majesty of his self-sacrificing love. The bride enumerates the various points of excellence which together make up the completeness of the bridegroom’s beauty. The Christian loves to meditate upon the various graces which make up the holy beauty of the Saviour’s characterhis lowliness, his gentleness, his long suffering kindness, his holy wisdom, his absolute unworldliness, his unselfish devotion to his sacred mission, his meekness, his forbearance, his patience with the many mistakes, the obstinate misunderstandings of his disciples, his endurance, his calm and lofty courage, the majestic bearing which forced even Roman soldiers to exclaim, “Truly this Man was the Son of God.“

2. He is altogether lovely. The bride sums up her praises of the bridegroom. “His mouth is most sweet: yea, the whole of him is desires” (for this is the literal translation). The Prophet Haggai, using another form of the same Hebrew word, says, “The Desire of all nations shall come” (Hag 2:7). Daniel is called three times “a man of desires” (Dan 9:23; Dan 10:11, Dan 10:19). The Lord Jesus Christ is the Desire of all nations. He is the Messiah, the Consolation of Israel, for whose coming so many faithful hearts had yearned. He spake as never man spake. His mouth was all sweetnesses (the literal rendering), both his holy words and his gracious looks. How often we are told significantly that Jesus looked upon his disciples as if that look was (as indeed it must have been) a thing to be remembered all one’s life, full of heavenly meaning, full of Divine love! We know what power his words had, what power they have now. The very tones of that most sacred voice must have had an indescribable sweetness. “Jesus said unto her, Mary,” That one word was enough. It brought sweet comfort to the penitent, joy unutterable, heartfelt gladness to the mourner. And who can tell the entrancing sweetness of those most blessed words which with all our heart’s deepest yearning we long one day to hear, “Come, ye blessed children of my Father”? Therefore we desire his presence now. “The whole of him is desires.” Therefore God’s people have “a desire to be with Christ” (like St. Paul, Php 1:23); for they know that to be with him here, and still more to be with him in the paradise of God, is “far better”by much very far better, than the greatest of earthly joys. “The whole of him is desires.” Every one of those holiest graces which adorn his perfect character should be to us a subject of loving study and adoration, with a longing desire to imitate it and to work it in our poor way into our own hearts by the help of the Holy Spirit. He hath all things who hath Christ. He hath enough, and more than enough, to satisfy all his desires, to fill all the yearnings of his heart. He will count all things else as drossas very dungin comparison with the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord. Then herr earnestly we ought to pray that by the grace of God we may be enabled to make those last words of the bride our very own, “This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.” If he is indeed ours, our Beloved, our Friend, our Saviour, then we have all that we can need for our soul’s truest blessedness, both for this life and for the life to come.

HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY

Son 5:1

Christ’s response.

“I am come,” etc. Here we have for the second time the name of “sister” prefixed to that of “spouse,” and it seems to teach that this song is not to be understood in any mere dry, literal, earthly sense; but is to be regarded in such spiritual way as, in fact, most readers have regarded it. How prompt Christ’s answer is! Cf. Isa 65:24, “Before they call I will answer,” etc. The soul hears the knock of Christ, opens the door, and at once he comes in (Rev 3:1-22.). Cf. Jacob, “Surely the Lord was in this place, and I knew it not;” Mary Magdalene at the sepulchre: “She knew not that it was Jesus.” In this verse we learn

I. SUCH SOUL IS CHRIST‘S GARDEN. For it has been chosen, separated, watered, cultivated, adorned, made fruitful.

II. IT HAS CHRIST‘S PRESENCE AND IS HIS DELIGHT.

1. The aspirations of such soul proves his presence. They are his footprints, though not perceived to be so. Cf. “Their eyes were holden, that they should not know him” (Luk 24:1-53.). He is the unperceived Author of its holy desires and purposes.

2. And he delights in it. He calls it “my garden” (cf. on So 4:9-15).

III. THE ANGELS ARE SUMMONED TO SHARE IN HIS DELIGHT. “Eat, O my friends.” Not that we say this address to his “friends” proves this truth, but suggests it. We know that “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over,” etc. (Luk 15:1-32.); and see Revelation, passim, where the joy of Christ is ever shared in by all heaven. They know what transpires here, and they rejoice in what is joyful. They are the “great cloud of witnesses” by which we are surrounded and surveyed. And what gladdens Christ must gladden them. They “enter into the joy of their Lord.” The good conduct of those whom we behold makes us glad. Can it be otherwise with them? What great encouragement, therefore, we have in our Christian life in knowing that we can further the joy of our Lord and of the holy angels! Be it ours so to do.S.C.

Son 5:2

The flesh and spirit.

“I sleep, but my heart waketh.” The body sleeping, the heart awake.

I. SOMETIMES, AS HERE, BUT ONE OF THESE IS AWAKE.

1. Here it was the spirit.

(1) This fact an argument against materialism, which insists that the spirit is altogether dependent upon the body. Hence that death ends all. But, as here, the body may be weighed down with sleep, but the mind is active; the body is dead, but the mind alive. Surely, therefore, the mind is something more than some special arrangement of the molecules of the brain.

(2) It is well that, if the spirit be willing, the flesh should be weak. As a general rule it is well, for else, unless the wholesome drag of the body were put on, brain workers would not live out half their days.

(3) But it is at times the occasion of much harm. It was so here. It was so to our Lord through his disciples yielding to the sleep that weighed on them. And the flesh is a tyrant which will, if allowed, enslave the spirit. Hence we need to “keep under the body.” For:

2. Often it is only the flesh that is awake. This a fearful condition. Cf. St. Jude, “These be sensual, not having the Spirit.” Men may, do, sink down into gross animalism. It is horrible as well as disgraceful. It was that which led to the destruction of Sodom, of the Canaanites, etc. It is a dread possibility threatening very many. God keep us therefrom!

II. SOMETIMES NEITHER ARE AWAKE. There are many people of whom one would have much more hope if they were a little better or a little worse than they are. They are such as we have just named. They are generally decent people outwardly; they never offend against the conventionalities; they are to be found in all Churches, more’s the pity; for they are but caricatures of the Christian character. They are dull, cold, selfish, hard, and spiritually dead. What is to be done with such? They are the despair of the earnest Christian, who would almost be willing that they should fallwere it possibleinto some miserable sin if so only their present self-content could be shattered and they made to wake up.

III. SOMETIMES BOTH ARE AWAKE. This the ideal condition. It is that, and more than that, which is meant by the “Sana mens in corpore sano.” For wherever this condition is, the spirit will, as is right, rule the flesh, having it well in hand, causing it like a properly trained dog to come to heel at once at the word of command (Huxley). The body will be the active, faithful servant of the master will, the spirit of the man. And when that spirit is inspired by the Spirit of God, then that is salvation, which means “health.” May such health be ours!S.C.

Son 5:2-8

The dream of Gethsemane.

Under the imagery of this dream devout students have seen pictured forth the pathetic facts of the garden in which our Lord was in agony, and his disciples slept (cf. Mat 26:40-43 and parallels). We have

I. THE DISTRESSED SAVIOR. (Son 5:2.) He desired his disciples to watch with him. He needed and desired their sympathy and the solace which their watchful love would have given him. His soul was troubled. He was as he who is told of here, and to whom the cold drenching dews and the damp chills of the dreary night had caused much distress, and who therefore asks the aid of her whom he loved. So did Jesus seek the aid of those he loved. He had right to expect it. He said to Peter, “Simon, sleepest thou?“thou so loved, so privileged, so loud in thy profession of love to me, so faithfully warned, sleepest thou? And still the like occurs. The Lord looking for the aid of his avowed disciples, distressed by manifold causes, and that aid not forthcoming, though he has such right to expect it. But he too often finds now what he found then

II. HIS DISCIPLES ASLEEP. (Son 5:3.) So the spouse here, as the disciples there, and as man now, had composed herself to sleep. The repeated calls of him who by voice and knock sought to arouse her failed. And so did the repeated visits of Jesus to his disciples fail. And he finds the same still. The poor excuses of Son 5:3 serve well to set forth the excuses of today when he calls on us now to aid and sympathize with him. Who really rouses himself for Christ, and puts forth earnest self-denying endeavour to help his work? No doubt the disciples had their excuses, and Christ then, as now, makes all allowances. But the fact remains the same. Christ wants us, and we are asleep. The sleeper told of in this dream evidently was filled with self-reproach. It can hardly have been otherwise with the disciples, and it is so with us now when in our holier moments the vision of our Lord in all his love for us comes before our hearts. Then we confess, “It is high time to awake out of sleep.”

III. THE SORROWFUL AWAKENING. The sleeper told of here awoke (Son 5:5) to find her beloved gone. And in Gethsemane the disciples awoke at last. In this song (Son 5:5) we are told how he had thrust in his hand by the latch hole (see Exposition). But he had withdrawn it, as she whom he had appealed to had not awaked; and, finding this, her heart was touched, and she rose to open to him. And doubtless when the disciples saw the gleam of the lanterns and heard their Lord’s word, “Arise,” and the tramp of the armed multitude who had come to arrest him, then their hearts were touched, and. they arose. But it was too late. And like as the sleeper here (Son 5:5) did not withhold tokens of her affectionshe richly perfumed herself, her hands especially, in token thereof as the Oriental manner wasso, too, the disciples in their way made plain their love for their Lord. They would have fought for himPeter drew his sword at oncehad he let them. But the opportunity for real service was gone. The sleeper of this song tells how her heart smote her when her beloved spoke, and we may well believe that it was so when the disciples heard their Lord’s voice. But in both cases it was too late. Who does not know the sorrow that smites the soul when we realize that opportunities of succouring, serving, and making glad the heart of some beloved one have been allowed to pass by us unused, and now cannot be recalled? Oh, if we had only been awake then!

IV. THE UNAVAILING SEARCH. (Son 5:6.) Cf. Peter’s tears; the sorrow of the disciples. The reproaches of consciencethey were the watchmen who met and sternly dealt with her who is told of here, and made her ashamed. Such failures in duty are followed by unavailing regrets and prayers. “Oh that I knew where I might find him!” Conscience, the Word of God, faithful pastors,these are as the watchmen who meet such souls, and scant comfort is or ought to be had from them, but only deserved rebuke and reproach. It is all true. What is told of in this verse must have happened then, does happen now. Our Lord has left us, our joy is gone, we cannot find him, tears and prayers and search seem all in vain.

V. THE HELP OF THE HOLY WOMEN. (Son 5:8 and So Son 6:1.) It was wise of the sleeper, now awake, to solicit help from the friends of her beloved. And in the Gospel narrative it is plain that the holy women who loved and ministered to our Lord when on earth were a great help to his sorrowing disciples. They were last at the cross and first at the sepulchre; they first brought the glad tidings that he was risen. They represent his true Church. And the sorrowing soul cannot do better than seek the sympathy and prayers of those who love the Lord. Restoration often comes by such means. Here is one of their intercessions: “That it may please thee to strengthen such as do stand, to comfort and help the weak hearted, to raise up them that fall, and finally to beat down Satan under our feet.” Blessed is he who hath intercessions such as that offered for him. But better still not to need them.S.C.

Son 5:9

The supremacy of Christ.

“What is thy beloved more,” etc.? The world asks this question. Upon the answer the Church gives depends whether the world remains as it isalienated from Christ or drawn to him. If the Church makes it evident that Christ is “chiefest among ten thousand” and “altogether lovely,” then the blessed era of the world’s conversion will be at hand. The Church asks this question of those whom she receives into communion. It should be clear that Christ is enthroned in the hearts of those whom she receives. They are not really members of the Church unless it is so. We should ask ourselves this question, so that we may see to it that we are giving him the chief place in our hearts, and that in all things he has the pre-eminence. The question may be answered in various ways. As for example

I. BY COMPARISON OF CHRIST WITH THE OBJECTS OF WORSHIP IN OTHER FAITHS. (Cf. Hardwick’s ‘Christ and other Masters.’) There have been and are “gods many and lords many;” it is well to compare and contrast with them the all-worthiness of him whom we serve. Missionaries to heathen lands do well to make themselves acquainted with the points of contrast and resemblance”the unconscious prophecies of heathendom”which they will find in the faiths they seek to supplant by the pure faith of Christ. Often will they find in such study that he is “the Desire of all nations.”

II. BY COMPARING THE OBJECTS OF MEN‘S PRESENT PURSUITS AND AFFECTION WITH CHRIST, who is the Beloved of the believer’s heart. Some set their affections only on earthly thingswealth, power, pleasure, fame, the favour of men. Some on those whom God has given them to lovewife, lover, children, friends. It is well to see how Christ surpasses all these, and deserves the chief place in our hearts: such place, when given to him, will not consign to a lower one than they before filled those objects of our lawful love; but, on the contrary, will uplift and enlarge our love for them, making it better both for them and us. But we prefer to take

III. THE ANSWER GIVEN IN THIS SONG ITSELF. See Son 5:10-16, translating its rich imagery into the plain language of “the truth as it is in Jesus.” She who was asked this question replied by giving the description of her beloved which we have in these verses. And, translated, they suggest these reasons for counting Christ chief of all.

1. He is the perfect Pattern and Sacrifice that my soul needs. (Son 5:10.) It is a representation of the beauty of perfect physical health: “white and ruddy” (cf. 1Sa 16:12; 1Sa 17:42). Fit type, therefore, of that perfect moral and spiritual health which we behold in Christ, and which constitutes him our all-perfect Pattern. His perfect sacrifice also has been seen in this same description, and it has been compared with that similar description of him in Rev 5:6, “a Lamb that had been slain.” Not alone the whiteness of purity, but “ruddy” as with the stain of his precious sacrificial blood.

2. He is God in his essential Person. (Rev 5:11.) Gold is, in the sacred symbolism of Scripture, ever associated with that which is of God. The head of fine gold suggests, therefore, that which St. Paul says (1Co 11:3), “The head of Christ is God.”

3. Yet he consecrated himself for our sakes. The unshorn hair, “his locks are bushy,” was the sign of consecration (cf. the vow of Nazarite).

4. And is evermore mighty to save. Youth and strength are signified by the “raven” hair. Whilst others wax old as doth a garment, he is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (cf. Psa 102:27).

5. Gentleness, purity, and the love and light of the Holy Spirit beam in his eyes. (Rev 5:12.) Cf. New Testament notices of the look of our Lordhew he looked with compassion, hew he “looked upon Peter” (Luk 22:61).

6. To see his face is heaven. (Rev 5:13.) To walk in the light of that countenance, to behold it fair and fragrant as sweet flowers.

7. And from his lips drop words of love. Men wondered at the gracious words which he spake. “Never man spake like this Man.” “Grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2; Isa 50:4).

8. He is invested with the authority of God. (Rev 5:14.) “His hands are rings of gold,” etc. The ring was the signet and seal of authority. He spake as one having authority; “I by the finger of God cast out devils;” “All things are put under him.”

9. Stainless purity and heavenly mindedness marked his life. (Rev 5:14.) The body, or rather the robe that covered it, as bright ivory, tells of the purity and perfectness of his life; the heavenly blue of the “sapphires” is the type of heaven. His conversation was in heaven. He walked with God.

10. He was firm and steadfast in God. (Verse 15.) The legs, as “pillars of marble,” tell of his steadfast strength; the “sockets of fine gold,” of the Divine basis and foundation of that strength.

11. Full of majesty and beauty, as Lebanon and its cedars. Cf. his appearance at the Transfiguration; to the guards at his rising from the dead.

12. And yet full of grace and benignity. (Verse 16.) “His mouth”his smile”most sweet.” The little children nestled in his arms. The poor fallen women read the benignity of that look. Publicans and sinners crowded round him, irresistibly drawn by his exceeding grace.

13. No human tongue can tell how fair he is. “Yea, he is altogether lovely.” The words tell of the giving up the task, of ceasing from the hopeless endeavour, to fitly fully set forth her beloved. She could only say, “He is altogether,” etc.

CONCLUSION. Such was the answer given when asked, “What is thy beloved more,” etc.? (Rev 5:9). And such answer is the best. The testimony of the loving heart to what Jesus is to such heart is more convincing than any argument. May such testimony be ours!S.C.

Son 5:16

Altogether lovely.

We apply these words to the Lord Jesus Christ, and affirm that they are true of him. May he grant us grace to see that they are so! And we remark

I. THAT WHETHER WE BELIEVE THEM OR NOT, THEY ARE ASSUREDLY TRUE. All generations have confessed them true. The hero of one age is not the hero of another; but Christ is the Beloved of all ages. Abraham saw his “day and was glad.” Prophets and psalmists beheld him, and to them all it was a beatific vision. They sang of him as “fairer than the children of men;” they exhausted all imagery of beauty and delight to tell of him. And since he came, apostles, martyrs, and generation after generation of those who have loved and toiled, and often died, for him, have confessed the truth of our text. And today myriads of souls are aglow with love to him, and gladly take up the same confession. “The goodly fellowship of the prophets, the glorious company of the apostles, the noble army of martyrs, the holy Church throughout all the world, doth acknowledge” him. And so will all ranks and classes of men. The rich and the poor, the lofty and the low, have met together in this confession. And all ages, the young and the old. And all lands, north, south, east, and west. And all characters and dispositions. See how varied the characters of those who gathered round our Lord, and of the saints of the Bible, and of all ages. And seen in all aspects, he still receives the same confession. As a child, as a man, as a teacher, as a sufferer, in his death, in his resurrection, in his intercession for us in heaven. With the choicest works of art, with the fairest scenes of nature, with the most glorious buildings that men have reared, all depends on the point of view from which we behold them. Seen from the right standpoint, they are beautiful and glorious; seen from another, they excite no admiration, they may appear the reverse of beautiful. And so with the characters of men. They may be excellent in some things, but the best of men are but men at the best. There are faults and flaws in the fairest human soul. But with our Lord, see him how, when, and whence we may, to the heart that loves him he is still “altogether lovely.” The testimony has come from every quarter, from every age; it is full, clear, complete, varied, reiterated, and has been tested and tried and found true always and everywhere. The holiest saints gaze on the perfect loveliness of their Lord as the one model to which they would be conformed, but from which they own they are far removed. His enemies themselves being judges confess that “they find no fault in him.” He is as a lamb without blemish and without spot. But, alas! to many he is not this; they see in him no form or comeliness, no beauty that they should desire him. Therefore we say of these words of our text

II. THAT SINCE THEY ARE TRUE WE OUGHT TO SEE THEM TO BE TRUE. If beautiful music, or works of art, or scenes in nature, do not impress men with their beauty, we pity such persons, we deem them lacking in a great good. And if they have no appreciation of moral beauty, we do not merely pity, but we Blame. What, then, must we ray of those who fail to see any beauty in him who is “altogether lovely”? But what is it that hinders in any soul that fails to see in Christ what the holiest and best of men always and everywhere have seen in him? Well, if men will not look they will not see. And this is one hindrance. The portraiture of Christ is given perfectly in the Gospels, but if men will not look into them, read them, and consider them, what wonder that they fail to see? And to see him as altogether lovely, that demands that we look long and attentively, that we study the portraiture that is given, and that we seek to be rid of all that would hinder the truth of cur seeing. But these persons never do this. Moreover, to see him as he is, we must stay with him. You cannot know a fellow man by a short interview. To know a man you must live with him. And so if we would really know Christ and see him as his saints have seen him, we must live with him, keep in his company, commune with him and be in daily intercourse with him. And we must be in right relationship to him; we must serve him, for that is his due. And then as we work for him, his true character will dawn upon us more and more; and we, too, shall come to see him as altogether lovely. Therefore

III. LET US RESOLVE THAT WE WILL THUS SEE HIM. To encourage us herein let us think of the results and recompenses of such beholding him. We shall come:

1. To resemble him. For we shall come to love him, and nothing so assimilates character as love.

2. To rejoice in him. Of common earthly things the well known line says, “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” But of our Lord to behold him, it is the very joy of heaven. For there “they shall see his face.”

3. Rest. The worries and frets of life will vanish in that beatific vision, like as even an unlovely landscape looks beautiful when the bright sun shines upon it. And so will it be with what is unlovely in life, that in itself irks and distresses us. If we see his face, if that vision of perfect loveliness shines before us, all will share more or less in that.

4. Reap for him, as never we did before. With our souls full of his love, even the stammering tongue will become eloquent, and our words will tell, and we shall wonder and rejoice to see how our children, our people, our friends and neighbours, listen to us and believe, and turn to him from whom we cannot and would not turn away. And at last we shall be:

5. Received by him into his own blessed presence, where we shall own that “the half was not told” us, and even the best of our seeing was but as through a glass, darkly.S.C.

HOMILIES BY J.D. DAVIES

Son 5:2

Languid life.

The experiences of the saints are useful guide posts on the heavenly road. They help by way of counsel, caution, inspiration, comfort, warning. Some experiences recorded serve as lighthouses, some as beacons. A wise pilgrim will not despise any one of them. If a traveller is about to cross Africa from west to east, he will not fail to ask what were the fortunes and experiences of those who have already made that perilous journey. He will learn from their mistakes and their sufferings what to avoid. He will learn from their successes how far he should tread in their footsteps. The journey is not so difficult now as it was to the first adventurer. A similitude this of the heavenly pilgrimage. Others have passed this way before us. We are indebted to them for the record of their checkered fortunes. They tell us how they climbed the hill Difficulty. They tell us how they were overtaken with the foe unwarily. They tell us how they fought, and by what methods they conquered. They tell us how at times spiritual drowsiness crept over them; how they bemoaned their folly; how they aroused themselves afresh. Then we discover that this infirmity is not peculiar to ourselves. We do not deny ourselves the consolation that we really belong to Christ, though we have been foolish enough to sleep in his service. There is blight upon the tree, and a reduction of fruitfulness; nevertheless, the tree has life in its roots. Blemishes are upon me; still I am in Christ.

I. HERE IS A STATE OF INSENSIBILITY CONFESSED. “I sleep.” It is a figure of speech borrowed from the sensations of the body. Our physical nature needs periodic sleep. But many indolent persons sleep when they do not need it; and it is this needless sleepthis ignoble sleepthat is here described. Unlike the body, the soul requires no sleep.

1. It is a state of inaction. For the time being sight and hearing are suspended. All bodily sensations are awaiting. The sleeper is unconscious of all that is occurring round about him. Sleep is the brother of death. So, if the soul sleeps, it is a transient death. Our best Friend is near, but we cannot see him. If he speaks, we do not hear his voice. We have no enjoyment of his friendship. The sun of God’s favour may shine upon our path; we do not perceive it. We have no conscious communion with Jesus. We find no nourishment in the sacred Word. The ordinances of the sanctuary have lost their charm. We do not grow in grace. We make no progress heavenward. It is inglorious inaction.

2. It is a blamable condition. We are servants of God, and to sleep is to waste our Master’s time. It is an act of unfaithfulness. The Son of God has entrusted to us the campaign against error and sin; yet, lo! we sleep on the battlefield. Tens of thousands round about us know nothing of God’s salvation; and yet we sleep. Satan is busy ensnaring men in the pitfalls of vice; and yet we sleep. The heathen world is waiting to hear Heaven’s gospel; now and again a voice booms across the sea, “Come over and help us!” yet we sleep. Our own crown is imperilled; yet we sleep. This brief life is slipping from us; the day of service wilt soon terminate; the great assize is close at hand; yet we sleep. Is it not matter for self-condemnation?

3. It is a state of peril. A time of sleep is the time for robbers to do their evil work; and we imperil the heavenly treasures when we slothfully sleep. Our wily adversary lies in wait for our unguarded moments. If he can breathe upon the Church a spirit of slumber, he has gained a great advantage for himself. To lull Christians into sleep is his most successful stratagem. In one of his parables Jesus tells us that “while men slept, the enemy sowed his tares.” Saul, the King of Israel, exposed his life to imminent danger when he slept in the cave. If a man is insensible to the deadly paralysis that is creeping over him, he is not far from death. And if we Christians become insensible to our sin, or insensible to our dependence on Christ, or insensible to God’s claims, we are in great danger. What if God should say to us, “They prefer their sleep: let them alone”! Then our sleep would deepen into the collapse of death.

4. Spiritual sleep entails loss. How much of spiritual blessing the eleven lost, when they slept in Gethsemane, no tongue can tell. We lose the approval of a good conscience, and that is a serious loss. We lose the approving smile of Christ, and that is a loss far greater. We lose the vigour of our piety. We lose the freshness of enthusiasm. We lose courage. We lose spiritual enjoyment. We lose self-respect. A sense of shame sweeps over the soul. The temperature of our love has gone down. Instead of pressing forward, we have gone backward. It is a loss immeasurable.

II. HERE IS A VERY PROMISING SIGN. “My heart waketh.” How true is this record to the facts in ourselves! The heart is the spiritual organ that wakes first. For the heart is the seat of feeling, desire, and affection. The heart must move before the will, and the will before the feet.

1. This language denotes disquietude. The man is neither quite asleep nor quite awake. This is an uncomfortable state. It denotes a divided heart. It is not altogether with Christ nor altogether with the world. We cannot endure the thought of leaving Christ, and so forego the hope of heaven. We like some of the experiences of religion. But then we love self in about an equal proportion. We grasp as much pleasure as we can. Hence this vacillation. This is a great loss of Christ’s friendship; a sin to treat Jesus thus. This self-indulgence now will produce a large fruitage of remorse by and by.

2. It is a good sign that this indecision is recognized. It might have been otherwise. The sin might have been unfelt. Conscience might have been drugged with the opiate of self-confidence. When a Christian perceives his own imperfections, and confesses them, there is manifestly some spiritual life within. His state is not hopeless. God’s Spirit has not withdrawn his activities from that man. If he will diligently follow the light which he has, it will lead him to his true home and rest.

3. This language indicates desire for a better state. The heart is the seat of desire, and, thank God, the heart is awake. If this desire be not overpowered by stronger desires of an evil sort, all will yet be well. This desire, unhindered, will work like leaven, till it has leavened the whole man. It will disturb the man’s peace until it is gratified. This desire is the work of God’s good Spirit; and, if we will only yield to his quickening influence, he will make desire ripen into resolve, and resolve into action. A man’s desires are a gauge of the man’s character. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

4. It is another good sign when a sleepy Christian recognizes Christ‘s voice. “It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh.” The bride in our text not merely heard a sound, but she was so far awake as to know that it was her lover’s voice. It is a fact that we hear the voice of one we know, and of one we love, much sooner than we bear the voice of a stranger. A mother will hear the cry of her babe sooner than she will hear the cry of another child. If we hear our Master’s voice, then faith is not asleep. “Faith cometh by hearing.” Of all Christ’s sheep this is a sure mark; they hear Christ’s voice. “A stranger will they not follow, for they know not the voice of strangers.” We know well that if any one strives to arouse us out of sleep, it will be our best Friend. No one else will take such pains to bless us. Ah! if I hear in my soul a rousing voice, if I am moved to holier aspiration, I instinctively say, “It is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh.” Then ought I most gladly to respond, “Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth.”

III. HERE IS A GRACIOUS CALL. This is the reason why the Christian’s heart is awake: Jesus calls and knocks. A Christian cannot sleep under such an appeal.

1. Christ‘s whole Person engages in this call. He not only speaks with his voice; he knocks with his hand. He knocks by the preaching of faithful ministers. He knocks by the counsels of a pious friend. He knocks by his afflictive providences. He knocks by his royal bounties. Every fresh gift is a fresh appeal. He knocks by many a startling event that happens about us. He knocks at the door of memory, at the door of feeling, at the door of conscience, at the door of affection. He tries every door, if so be his kindly errand may succeed. He has too much earnest love for us easily to desist. Such love is born, not on earth, but in heaven.

2. He not only knocks; he speaks. He appeals to our intelligent nature. He will not use force or compulsion. That were unseemly on the part of love. Jesus will use measures equally potent, but of a winsome, spiritual sort. He speaks to the heart of saints in a “still small voice.” There is a latent power in his gentleness. When God spake to despondent Elijah in the desert, he did not speak in earthquake, or in thunder, or in whirlwind, but in a soft human voice. No sound breaks on the ear; the message goes straight to the conscience and to the heart. Have we not, in hours of retirement, often heard the music of his voice, gently chiding us for neglect, or sweetly moving us to closer fellowship? We may resist the appeal, but, alas! we increase our guilt; we cheat our souls of joy.

3. He addresses us by the most endearing epithets. “My sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled.” Every argument that can move us to a better life he will employ. The whole vocabulary of human speech he will exhaust, to assure us of his interest. He reminds us of our many professions of attachment. He brings to our remembrance our plighted troth. Did we not at one time say that we were his? Have we not pledged ourselves to be faithful over and over again? What an array of perjured vows lie on his book? Can we think of them without self-condemnation?

4. He appeals to us on the ground of his deeds and endurances. “My head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.” It is the pathetic picture of a friend who has been refused customary hospitality, and who has spent the cold night appealing for admission. This is the picture, and the meaning thereof is plain. Jesus Christ has to endure hardship and pain through our self-indulgence and our spiritual stupor. Alas! we shut him out from his own temple. We shut out our best Friend’. Alter all that he has done for us, yea, suffered for us, in proof of his strong affection, shall we treat him with cold neglect, with heartless contempt? Shall he be all ardour, and shall we be frigid as an iceberg? Shall his nature be all love, and shall ours be all selfishness? Then we are not like him. Is not this to “crucify our Lord afresh, and put him to open shame”? Surely here is a test of character. He who can hear these gracious appeals unmoved, hath never felt the stirrings of the new life; he hath no part in the covenant of grace.D.

Son 5:9-16

The personal excellences of Jesus.

A man is always greater than his works, for his best work is only a part of himself. As there is more virtue in the tree than ever comes out in the fruit, so there is some quality in the man that has not come forth in his deed. The same is true in larger measure with respect to God. If there is sublimity in his works, how much more in himself! The redemptive work of Jesus is stupendous, yet his love is more stupendous still. That love of his was not exhausted in the great atoning act; it was only disclosed, and made visible. We admire his incarnation, his benevolent labour, his voluntary suffering, his humiliating death, his strange ascension. We love him in return for his great love to us. Yet his greatest claim to our admiration and our praise is, not his deeds of kindness, but himself. His character is so inlaid with excellences that it demands all the worship of our hearts. “He is altogether lovely.” Not simply is his doctrine nourishing, his example inspiring, his self-sacrifice attractive, his compassion winsome, but his very Person is an enchantment and a charm. At the outset of our acquaintance we “shall love him, because he first loved us;” nor will his compassion ever fail to be a spiritual magnet, which shall win and hold our hearts. Yet we gradually rise to a higher level of appreciation. We prize him for what he is in himself, even more than for what he has been unto us. Our best love goes out to him, because he is so transcendently good; so worthy to be loved. Love of gratitude comes firstan early fruit of the Christian life; but by and by, under the culture of the Divine Husbandman, there shall be the sweeter, richer love of complacent delight.

I. WE HAVE HERE A PERTINENT INQUIRY. “What is thy beloved more than another beloved?”

1. This may be the language of intellectual curiosity. The inquiry about Jesus is more eager and widespread today than in any epoch since his birth. During the last twenty-five years more than twenty-five lives of Jesus Christ have appeared in the English language. Some inquiries are of a sceptical sortare not honest searches after truth. Some inquirers hope to reduce Jesus of Nazareth to the level of a common mortal. In a past age, Lord Lyttelton and Gilbert West essayed to demolish the Divine credentials of Jesus; but they were conquered by the evidence, and became disciples. Many inquirers simply attempt to solve an old and curious question, “Is Jesus more than man?” They are not seeking any practical issues. Hence they obtain no success.

2. Or it may be the language of simple surprise. The kingdom of Christ hath in it many nominal adherents. For earthly advantages come from professing an attachment to Christ. It wins respect from men. It brings good reputation. It aids success in our worldly calling. Therefore many persons avow outwardly an indolent belief in Jesus Christ as Lord who yet can give no reasonable account of their belief. These see with wonder the ardour and zeal of genuine disciples. They smile when they hear the effusive and familiar language of true saints. They deem it religious extravagance. They label Christ’s friends as fanatics. “Our Christ,” say they, “is a Being far removed from us. We offer him our set praises and our set prayers on the sabbath. We hope for his rewards by and by. What is your Beloved more than ours?“

3. Or it may be the language of nascent desire. The speaker has seen what a real and present Friend Jesus is to his adopted. To them his friendship is sweeter far than the friendship of a thousand others. His name is music, fragrance, health, life. His help is a real blessing, which gladdens every hour. His favour is a present heaven. They consult him in their distress, and he brings to them prompt sympathy and unerring wisdom. They find in him a restfulness of spirit under every circumstance, a peace of soul no one else can impart. Having Jesus within them, their life is transfigured. This is a mystery to the bulk of men. So one and another yearn to attain this joyous life, and they ask in a spirit of sincere desire, “What is thy Beloved more than another beloved?”

II. WE HAVE HERE A PARTICULAR DESCRIPTION OF THE BRIDEGROOM‘S PERSON. “My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand;” “He is altogether lovely.”

1. Generally, he is pre-eminent. “Chiefest among ten thousand.” Among all the tribes of men he stands alone, for he is sinless. He is pre-eminent among the angels, for they are only servants of the great King; and, when the Father “brought his Only Begotten into the world, he said, Let all the angels of God worship him.” Among the gods of the nations he stands pre-eminent in power and in righteousness. They are dumb vanities, while he is absolute Power, eternal Righteousness, essential Love. In respect of the Godhead, he is eminent for condescension, for tender sympathy, and for self-sacrifice. Among all friends he stands pre-eminent, for “he is a Brother born for adversity.” Among all orators he is preeminent for eloquence, for “never man spake like this Man.” Among philanthropists he takes the highest place, for “he gave himself for us.” “For our sakes he became poor.” “In all things he has the pre-eminence.”

2. He is altogether lovely as the Son of God. Such perfect Sonship was never before seen. His reverence for his Father was unique, was beautiful At the tender age of twelve, his delight was “to be about his Father’s business.” His spirit of childlike trust was perfect. He is “the Leader and Finisher of faith.” During all the year’s of his busy life he “had not where to lay his head,” yet he declared that it was his meat and his drink to do the will of his Father in heaven. His own explanation of his ceaseless benevolence was this: “I do always the things that please him.” As he entered the black cloud of the final tragedy, he interrogates himself thus: “What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour?” But instantly he adds, “Father, glorify thy Name.” Filial reverence, filial trust, filial love and submission in him were completethings till then unknown on earth. “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.” Upon such sacred Sonship the Father expressed audible and public approbationexpressed it again and again: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” “My Beloved is white and ruddy” the quality of perfect health.

3. His personal qualities transcend all comparison. Every virtue, human and Divine, blossom in his soul. There’s not an excellence ever seen in men or in angels that is not found, the perfect type, in Jesus Christ. For nearly nineteen centuries shrewd men have turned their microscopes on the Person of Jesus, if haply they could find the shadow of a spot. The acutest eye has failed, and Jesus stands before the world today a paragon of moral perfection. His character is better known and better appreciated today than in any previous age, Modern criticism confesses at the bar of the universe, “I find no fault in him.” As all the colours of the prism meet and blend in the pure rays of light, so all noble qualities blend in our beloved Friend. As in a royal garden or in the fields of nature there is unspeakable wealth of flowery bloom, all forms and colours composing a very paradise of beauty, so is it in the character of Jesus. Other men were noted for some special excellenceMoses for meekness, Job for patience, Daniel for constancy; but Jesus has every quality of goodness, and has each quality full-orbed and resplendent. “Whatever things are true, pure, just, lovely, honourable, of good report,” they all unite in Jesus. Ransack all the homes of humanity if you will, cull out all the excellences that embellish the seraphim, and you shall not find a single grace that does not adorn our Immanuel. Yea, his soul is the seed bed of all the goodness that flourishes in heaven or on earth. “He is the Firstborn of every creature.” The unfallen, no less than the fallen, adore him as worthy to be worshipped. “He has by inheritance a more excellent name than they.” As the stars of heaven pale their ineffectual fires when the sun rises, so in the presence of Jesus Christ even Gabriel veils his face and bends his knee. Human thought fails to reach the height of this great theme, and. we can simply repeat the ancient words, “Altogether lovely.”

4. He is incomparable in all the offices he fills. A splendid theme for contemplation is Jesus in his manifold offices. As a Teacher he has no rival, for he still speaks “as one having authority.” “In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge;” and, with infinite patience, he unfolds these treasures to us in picture and parable, as we “are able to bear them.” Who is so competent to teach us heavenly things as the living Truth? “The words he speaks are spirit and life.” “His lips are as lilies, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh.” As a Priest, does he not excel all who went before him? Other priests had to offer oblation first for their own sin. Jesus had no personal sin. Other priests “could not continue by reason of death.” Jesus has no successor; his priesthood is perpetual. The best of earthly priests could only appear in material temples, gorgeous in marble and in gold though some of them were. Our great High Priest has gone on our behalf into the very presence of God. Our Advocate with the Father cannot fail, because he is “Christ; the Righteous.” And, as a King, Jesus has no compeer. The sceptre belongs to him by eternal right. He is a King by birth. He is a King by reason of inherent fitness. Every fibre of his nature is kingly. He is a King through conquest. Every foe is, or shall be, vanquished. He is a King by universal acclamation. Angels and men combine to accord to him the highest place”King of kings, and Lord of lords.” As the good Shepherd, he has given his very “life for the sheep.” As the Husband of the Church, he is perfect in fidelity; for “having loved the Church, he gave himself for her, and has cleansed her for himself a glorious Church, not having spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such thing.” View our Master in any aspect or in any office, and he is fall of inexpressible charm. “He is altogether lovely.”

III. WE HAVE HERE THE IDEA OF INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP. “This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.”

1. This means high appreciation. The believer in this passage means to say, “I have endeavoured to describe my heavenly Friend, but I have failed. I have mentioned some of the features of his character, yet I scarce think that these are the most precious. The theme is above me. I cannot do it justice. Mayhap I shall only lower Jesus in the estimation of mankind. Still, I have said enough to establish his superlative excellence, and to account for my enthusiastic love.” Ah! who can adequately portray the Person of God’s dear Son? Can Gabriel? Can Michael? Can Paul, after centuries of sweet companionship with him in heaven? I trow not! “What think ye of Christ?” is a question, likely enough, often asked one of another among the dwellers in glory. By and by we “shall see him as he is.” At present we have only imperfect glimpses of his glorious Person; nevertheless, we know enough to warrant our profound admiration, to awaken our unfaltering faith, and to excite into activity our most passionate love.

2. This means appropriations. This Being of transcendent excellence I claim as “my Friend.” Many of his august perfections seem to forbid my bold familiarity. Sometimes it seems like presumption to say this. But then his simple condescension to me, his genuine sympathy, his unlimited grace, his covenant with the fallen, “without respect of person,” his repeated assurances of love for meyes, for meencourage me to call him mine. He has said to me, “Thou art mine;” is not, therefore, the converse also a fact? Must he not be mine? And if at present I am quite unworthy to claim this relationship, will he not, by his great love, make me worthy? His love would not find full scope for its exercise, if it were not for such an unworthy object as I. Though deserving of hell, I should east fresh dishonour on his royal goodness did I not believe his promise, did I not accept his friendship. Yes, “he is mine.”

3. This means the public avowal of Christ. “This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend.” It is as if the Christian meant to say, “I have chosen Jesus to be my Friend, and I call the universe to witness the fact. No other being was competent to save me, and I publicly pledge myself loyally to serve him.” Such avowal is a fine trait in a renewed soul. To profess loyalty to Jesus while no love glows for him in the breastthis is an offence to him, a smoke in his eyes, a spear thrust in his heart. Nothing to him is so odious as hypocrisy. But when there is sincere love to our Immanuel, though it be accompanied with self-diffidence and timidity, there ought to be an open avowal of our attachment. It is but little that we can do to make the Saviour known and loved by others, therefore that little should be done with gladness of heart and with unwavering fidelity. Nor can we ever forget the words of our Well-beloved, “Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will 1 also deny before my Father which is in heaven.”D.

HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON

Son 5:1

Hospitality and festivity.

This verse is the central stanza of the Song of Songs. It brings before us the wedding feast, the crisis of the dramatic interest of the poem. The bride is welcomed to her regal home; friends and courtiers are gathered together to celebrate the joyful union; and festivity and mirth signalize the realization of hope and the recompense of constancy. Under such a similitude inspired writers and Christian teachers have been wont to set forth the happy union between the Son of God and the humanity to which, in the person of the Church, he has joined himself in spiritual and mystical espousals.

I. THE PRESENCE OF THE DIVINE BRIDEGROOM‘ AND HOST. “I,” says he, “have come into my garden.” It is the presence, first visibly in the body, and since invisibly in the Spirit, of the Son of God, which is alike the salvation and the joy of man.

II. THE GREETING OF THE DIVINELY CHOSEN BRIDE. The language in which this greeting is conveyed is very striking: “My sister-spouse.” It is the language of affection, and at the same time of esteem and honour. It speaks of congeniality of disposition as well as of union of heart. Christ loved the Church, as is evident from the fact of his giving himself for it and to it, and as is no less evident from his perpetual revelation of his incomparable kindness and forbearance. “All that I have,” says he, “is thine.”

III. THE PROVISION OF DIVINE BOUNTY. How often, in both Old and New Testament Scripture, are the blessings of a spiritual nature which Divine goodness has provided for mankind set forth under the similitude of a feast! Satisfaction for deep-seated needs, gratification of noblest appetite, are thus suggested. The peculiarity in this passage is the union of the two ideas of marriage and of feastinga union which we find also in our Lord’s parabolic discourses. We are reminded that the Divine Saviour who calls the Church his own, and who undertakes to make it worthy of himself, provides for its life and health, its nourishment and happiness, all that infinite wisdom itself can design and prepare.

IV. THE INVITATION OF DIVINE HOSPITALITY. “Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved!” Thus does the Lord of the feast ever, in the exercise of his benevolent disposition, address those whose welfare he desires to promote. This invitation on the part of the Lord Christ is

(1) sincere and cordial;

(2) considerate and kind;

(3) liberal and generous.

V. THE FELLOWSHIP OF DIVINE JOY. True happiness is to be found in the spiritual companionship of Christ, and in the intimacy of spiritual communion with him whom the soul loveth. The aspiration of the heart to which Christ draws near in his benignant hospitality has been thus well expressed: “Pour out, Lord, to me, and readily will I drink; then all thirst after earthly things shall be destroyed; and I shall seek to thirst only for the pleasures which are at thy right hand forevermore.” The spiritual satisfaction and festivity enjoyed by the Church on earth are the earnest and the pledge of the purer and endless joy to be experienced hereafter by those who shall be called to “the marriage supper of the Lamb.”T.

Son 5:2

The heart that waketh.

Thus opens the recital of a dreama dream which was the confused expression of deep feelings, of affection, of apprehension, of anxiety. The expression is poetical; the body slumbers, yet the mind and its feelings are not altogether asleep. A slumbering heart is inaccessible to the Divine approach, the Divine appeal, the Divine mercy. It is well when the heart waketh, for the wakeful heart is

I. PROMPT TO HEAR THE VOICE OF HEAVEN. The mother awakes at once when the babe cries; the surgeon wakes at once when the bell rings; the nurse wakes at once when the patient asks for medicine or for food. When the heart is awake, the ear hearkens, the eye is ready to unclose, the sleeper is half alert and prepared to rise. The heart that loves the Saviour is prompt to hear any word of his, whether it be a word of encouragement, a word of admonition, a word of command. “Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth,” denotes the vigilant attitude, the true preparedness of the soul.

II. PROMPT TO RESPOND TO THE LOVE OF CHRIST. The true heart is not wakeful to every call, to every presence, to every appeal. It is mutual love that ensures a heart that waketh. The Christian gives love for love. “We love him, because he first loved us.” Hence the very sound of Jesus’ name enkindles upon the devout and grateful heart the flame of pure and fervent affection. Nothing that concerns the Lord is indifferent to the Christian; for his heart is awake to every token of the Divine presence, and eager for the spiritual communion which is the privilege of the friends of Jesus.

III. WATCHFUL AGAINST THOUGHTS AND PURPOSES OF EVIL. The deep slumber into which the careless may fall is likely to render them a prey to the assaults of the tempter. Christ found his three nearest friends sleeping in the garden whilst he was enduring his bitter conflict. “Watch and pray,” was his admonition, “lest ye enter into temptation.” As soldiers during a campaign must take rest in sleep, yet, as it were, with one eye and one ear open, so that they may spring up, and fly to arms, if the foe approach them under cover of the darkness; so must the Christian take even his refreshing rest and recreation as upon the alert, and as ready to resist an approaching enemy. Watchfulness and prayer must guard him against surprise. The heart must be ever wakeful. “Keep thy heart with all diligence.”

IV. READY TO ENGAGE IN ALL REQUIRED SERVICE. The service of the hands, of the lips, alone is unacceptable to our Divine Lord, who desires above all things the devotion and loyalty of the heart. This, if the heart slumbers, cannot be given. But a wakeful heart, being ready to receive impressions, is ready also to obey commands, to summon all the powers of the nature to engage in that service which combines dimity with freedom, and submission with joy.T.

Son 5:2-5

Open to the beloved who knocketh.

This dream, so significant of fervent affection, and so full of tender pathos, is emblematic of the relation between the Divine Saviour and Lord and those whom he approaches in his grace and kindness, to whom he proffers the blessing of his presence and his love.

I. THE SUMMONS.

1. Its nature. There is the knock which demands attention, and there is the speech which articulately conveys the appeal. Christ comes to the world, and comes to the heart, with such tokens of Divine authority as demand that heed should be given to his embassage. The supernatural arrests the attention even of the careless and the unspiritual. That in Christianity which is of the nature of portent, the “mighty works” which have been exhibited, summon men to yield their reverent attention to a Divine communication. But the miracle is a “sign.” The display of power is revelation of a wisdom, a love, which are deeper and more sacred than itself. The knock that arouses is followed by the speech that instructs, guides, comforts, inspires. Authority is not blind; it accompanies the appeal to the intelligence, to the heart.

2. The danger of neglecting it. To give no heed to the Divine appeal, to sleep on when God himself is calling,this is to despise the Highest, to wrong our own soul, to increase our insensibility and to confirm ourselves in spiritual deadness, and to tempt the departure of the heavenly Visitor.

3. The duty of welcoming and responding to it. This appears both from the dignity of him who knocks, his right to the affection, gratitude, and devotion of the soul; and from the complete dependence of the soul upon his friendship for its highest welfare.

II. THE RESPONSE. When Christ “stands at the door and knocks,” there is but one thing to doto open wide to him, the Beloved, the door of the heart. This is the true response, and it should be:

1. Glad. His absence is mourned, his presence is desired; his summons, therefore, should be joyfully acknowledged. The heart may well beat strong with gladness, high with hope, when the voice of Jesus is heard; for it is “the voice of the Beloved.”

2. Grateful. The picture is one of poetic pathos and beauty. The head of the Beloved is filled with dew, his locks with the drops of the night. How suggestive of what the Saviour has endured for our sake, of his earthly humiliation, of his compassionate sacrifice! The contemplation of Christ’s weakness and weariness, distress and anguish, all endured for us, is enough to awaken the strongest sentiments of gratitude on our part. To whom are we indebted as we are to him? Who has such claims upon our heart’s gratitude and devotion? What language can justly depict the moral debasement of those who are unaffected by a spectacle so touching as that of the Redeemer, the “Man of sorrows,” appealing for admission to the nature he died to save and bless?

3. Immediate. Delay is here altogether out of place. The sensitive and responsive nature is forward to exclaim, “Apparitio tua est apertio!””To see thee is to open to thee!” The hesitation and apologies described in the dream are introduced toshow, by suggestion of contrast, how utterly unsuited they are to the circumstances and the occasion.

4. Eager and expectant. “My heart was moved for him; I rose to open to my Beloved.” The hope is fulfilled, the prayer is answered, the vision is realized, Christ has come. With him all Divine blessings approach the soul The prospect of his entrance into the spiritual nature is the prospect of a fellowship and intimacy fraught with purest joys and tenderest consolationsa fellowship and intimacy which will never fail to bless, and which no power on earth can avail to darken or to close.T.

Son 5:6

The dream of distress.

No passage in the Canticles is more pathetic than this. Whilst the prevalent tone of the Song of Songs is a tone of joyful love, we meet here with the sentiment of anxious sorrow. We are reminded of the grief of Mary, when, on the resurrection-morn, she exclaimed, “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.” A true transcript of the moods to which experience is subject! And not without spiritual lessons which may be turned to true profit.

I. A TRANSIENT ESTRANGEMENT AND BRIEF WITHDRAWAL. There have been periods in the history of the Church of Christ, resembling the captivity of Israel in the East, when the countenance of the Lord has been hidden from the sight of his people. The heart, which knoweth its own bitterness, is now and again conscious of a want of happy fellowship with the best and dearest Friend. But it is not Christ who changes. When the sun is eclipsed, it does not cease to shine, though its beams may not reach the earth. And when Christ is hidden, he remains himself “the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” But something has come between the Sun of Righteousness and. the soul which derives all its spiritual light from him, and the vision is obscured. Selfishness, worldliness, unbelief, may hinder the soul from enjoying the Saviour’s presence and grace. The fault is not his, but ours.

II. DISTRESSING SYMPTOMS OF SUCH ESTRANGEMENT AND WITHDRAWAL. How simple and how touching is the complaint of the bride! “I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.” Yet it is the nature of Christ to delight in the quest and the cry of those he loves, to reveal himself to such as ever ready to approach and to bless. There may, however, be a reason, and faith cannot question that there is a reason, for the withholding of an immediate response. There may be on the Saviour’s part a perception that a stronger confidence, a more evident desire, a truer love, are needed, and are thus only to be called forth. It may be well that for a season the soul should suffer for its sin, that it may be encouraged to deeper penitence and to more fervent prayer.

III. AFFECTIONATE YEARNING THE EARNEST OF SPEEDY RECONCILIATION AND RENEWED HAPPINESS. The parable represents the bride as sad and anxious, as enduring hitter disappointment, as oppressed by the heartless insult and injury of those indifferent to her woes; yet as retaining all her love, and only concerned as soon as may be to find her beloved. A true picture of the devout and affectionate friend of Christ, who is only drawn to him the Closer by the sorrowful experiences and repeated trials of life. When the Christian offends his Lord, it is a good sign that he is not really forsaken, it is an earnest of the restoration of fellowship, if he ardently desires reconciliation, and takes measures to recover the favour which for a season he has lost. The beauty of Christ appears the more inimitable and supreme, the fellowship of Christ appears the mere precious and desirable. And this being so, the hour is surely near when the face of Christ shall appear in unclouded benignity, when the voice of Christ shall be heard uttering Divine assurances and promises in tones of kindliest friendship.T.

Son 5:10

Chiefest among ten thousand.

The figure here employed by the bride to depict the superiority and excellence of her royal husband is very striking. In reply to the inquiry of those who mock and taunt her in the season of her sorrow and her loss, asking what her beloved is more than another, she replies that he is the banner in the vast embattled host, rising conspicuous and commanding above the thousand warriors by whom he is encompassed. Christians are often reproached with their attachment to Christ. Men who are willing to acknowledge him as one of many, to rank him with “other masters,” cannot tolerate the claims advanced by his Church on his behalf, and ask what there is in him to entitle him to adoration so supreme, to devotion so exclusive. The answer of Christ’s people is one which gathers force with the lapse of time and the enlargement of experience. Christ is “chiefest among ten thousand.” He excels all other teachers, leaders, saviours of society, in every respect.

I. IN THE PROFUNDITY OF HIS INSIGHT INTO TRUTH, AND IN THE CLEARNESS WITH WHICH HE REVEALS TRUTH. Among the sages and philosophers who have arisen in ancient and in modern times, and to whom the world is indebted for precious communications, for great thoughts, which it will not willingly let die, there is none who can compete with Christ. His sayings are more original in their substance than those of others, with regard both to the character and service of God and to the duty and hopes of men. In fact, he is “the Truth,” proved to be such by the persistence of those utterances which have sunk into the minds of men, enlightening and enriching humanity with its choicest treasures.

II. IN THE EFFECTUAL COMPASSION WITH WHICH HE RECOVERS THE MORALLY LOST. The Lord Jesus is not merely a wise Teacher; he is a mighty Saviour. He knew well that little good is done by communicating truth, unless at the same time the heart can be reached and the character moulded anew. During his earthly ministry he put forth his moral power in many and most memorable instances, and rescued the sinful, the degraded, those abandoned by men, restoring them to integrity, to purity, to newness of moral life. And since his ascension he has been exercising the same power with the same results. His Name, by faith in his Name, has made many whole. His gospel loses none of its efficacy, his Spirit exercises the same energy of grace, as generation succeeds generation. Ten thousand attempt what Christ alone performed.

III. IS THE SPIRITUAL POWER WITH WHICH HE RULES OVER HUMAN SOCIETY. If A comparison be made between Christ and other founders of religious systems and Churches, it will be seen that the superiority rests with him, in the sway wielded over the true nature of men. Compare him, for example, with Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, or with Mohammed. What is the result of such a comparison? There can be no question that, in the matter of spiritual authority, it will be to establish the supremacy of the Son of man. He lays hold, as none other has done, of the affections, the moral susceptibilities and convictions, the inner principles, of men’s being, and thus controls and inspires their true life. In this respect ten thousand are inferior to him; but he stands alonehis banner towers above the host.

IV. IN THE WELL–FOUNDED PROSPECT WHICH HE IMPARTS TO THE WORLD‘S FUTURE. Every well wisher to his race, in looking forward to what shall be after him, must often be assailed with fear and foreboding. There is much to make the outlook gloomy and stormy. And there is no principle which can subdue such natural anxiety, which can inspire confident and sustaining hope with regard to the future of human society, except the principle of Christianity, i.e. the personal and spiritual power of the Lord Christ to govern and to guide mankind to glorious issues.T.

Son 5:16

Altogether lovely.

In the verses from the tenth to the sixteenth, the bride sets forth in detail the excellences and the attractiveness of her spouse. In similitudes according with Oriental imagination she describes the charm of his person, and accounts for the fascination he exercises. And she sums up the characterization by the assertion that he is “altogether lovely””totus est desiderabilis, totus est amor.” Augustine, in language dictated by the fervour of his heart, expresses the spiritual truths enshrined in this exclamation: “My soul is a sigh of God; the heart conceives and the mouth forms the sigh. Bear, then, my soul, the likeness of the heart and of the mouth of God. Sigh thou for him who made thee!”

I. CHRIST IS ALTOGETHER TO BE LOVED AND DESIRED FOR WHAT HE IS IN HIMSELF. In his Person and character Christ is a Being who commands and attracts the love of all who are susceptible to the charms of spiritual excellence. There is beauty beyond that which is physical, beauty of which the charms of feature and of form are the appointed symbols. And for this beauty in most perfect manifestation we must look to Christ. Others have their excellences, but they have also their defects. In him alone every virtue is present and complete, in him alone every blemish is absent. He is at once above all praise and free from all blame. The soul that can recognize and delight in moral excellence finds all scope for such recognition and delight in him who is “fairer than the sons of men.”

II. CHRIST IS ALTOGETHER TO BE LOVED AND DESIRED FOR WHAT HE HAS ACTUALLY AND ALREADY DONE FOR HIS FRIENDS. These know that he loved them, and that he loved them even “unto the end,” that he “gave his life for his friends;” and this knowledge is ever in their memory, is ever affecting their hearts, is ever influencing the attitude of their whole being towards him. Nothing enkindles love like love. “We love him, because he first loved us.”

III. CHRIST IS ALTOGETHER TO BE LOVED AND DESIRED AS THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD. He who is possessed with the Spirit of Christ is not selfish in his affections. He feels the spiritual power of his Saviour’s self-sacrifice. He loves his Lord, because that Lord has pitied and has died for men. Our love to Christ is not pure, is not perfect, until it springs from a grateful and sympathetic recognition of what he has done who “came into the world to save sinners.”T.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Son 5:1. I have eaten my honey-comb, &c. Taylor, in his Concordance, interprets this passage, I have eaten my pure wood honey with the honey of the pan; explaining wood honey to be that which in hot weather bursts the comb, and runs down the hollow trees or rocks, where, in Judaea, the bees made great store of honey. This interpretation has some considerable authorities in its favour: yet our rendering is supported by 1Sa 14:27 and debash, is evidently the honey of bees in Jdg 14:8; Jdg 9:18. The verbs in this verse should be read throughout in the present tense; and the last clause might be rendered, Yea, drink abundantly of our loves. This invitation is only metaphorical, the bridegroom calling upon his friends to come and feast upon the sight of their mutual happiness. Christ, in this day’s eclogue, to use the words of our English bible, sheweth his love to the church, who prayeth to be made fit for his presence, Son 5:16 while he awakeneth the church with his calling. The 8th verse of the preceding chapter contains Christ’s assurance of protection to his church from the rage and cruelty of persecutors, while, to encourage the church’s confidence, he expresses strongly the satisfaction he has in the unity and graces of her members, Son 5:9-10 in the excellence and purity of her doctrines, Son 5:11 and, in short, in that divine composition of graces, which is visible in the church, and which makes her members acceptable to God, and useful to men, Son 5:12-14.;virtues and graces which are preserved in life and vigour by that heavenly doctrine which flows from Him as plentifully and as perpetually as waters do from the springs of Mount Lebanon, Son 5:15. On this declaration of his love, the church earnestly intreats to be made worthy of it; praying that the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and his manifold gifts, may not be wanting to her, but breathe perpetually upon her, as the cooling winds do upon a pleasant garden; thus rendering her a paradise indeed, not only enabling her to fill the world with the sweet odour of the knowledge of Christ, but giving her boldness to invite Him, the beloved of her soul, to come and reap the delightful fruits of his own care and labour, Son 5:16. We are promised that no petitions for the Divine Spirit sent up from believing hearts, shall be rejected. Christ therefore replies with much complacence to his spouse, chap. Son 5:1.”I am well pleased to see the fruitfulness of my garden, and therefore have not denied thy request; but am present in it, and have brought it to such perfection, that it hath produced many excellent persons, more precious than myrrh and all the spices before-named, with whose services I am not only well pleased, but I rejoice in the purity of their doctrine, and of their lives; inviting all who bear any love to me, both in heaven and earth, to rejoice and be exceedingly glad with me.” See Luk 15:7-10.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

FOURTH SONG

Shulamiths longing for her home again awakened.

Son 5:2 to Son 8:4

FIRST SCENE:

Shulamith and the Daughters of Jerusalem

(Son 5:2 to Son 6:3)

Shulamith (relating a dream).

2 I1 was sleeping, but my heart was waking2

Hark!3 my beloved is knocking:

Open4 to me, my sister,

my dear, my dove, my perfect;5

for6 my head is filled with dew,

my locks with drops of the night!

3 I7 have taken off my dress,

how shall I put it on?
I have washed my feet,
how8 shall I soil them?

4 My9 beloved extended his hand through the window,10

and I was inwardly excited11 for him.

5 Up I rose to open to my beloved,

and my hands dropped with myrrh,
and my fingers with liquid myrrh,
upon the handle of the bolt.

6 I opened to my beloved,

and my beloved had turned12 away, was gone;

my soul failed,13 when he spoke;14

I sought him but I did not find him,
I called him but he answered me not.

7 Found15 me then the watchmen, who go around in the city;

they struck me, wounded me,
took my veil16 off from me,

the watchmen of the walls.

8 I17 adjure you, ye daughters of Jerusalem,

if ye find my beloved
what shall ye tell him?
that I am sick of love.

Daughters of Jerusalem

9 What18 is thy beloved more than (any other) beloved,19

thou fairest among women?
What is thy beloved more than (any other) beloved,
that thou dost adjure us thus?

Shulamith

10 My20 beloved is white and ruddy,

distinguished above ten thousand.

11 His head is pure gold,

his locks are hill upon hill,21

black as a raven.22

12 His eyes like doves by brooks of water,

bathing in milk, sitting on fulness.23

13 His cheeks like a bed of balm,

towers of spice plants;24

his lips lilies,
dropping liquid myrrh.

14 His hands golden rods,

encased in turquoises;25

his body a figure of ivory,
veiled with sapphires.

15 His legs columns of white marble

set on bases of pure gold;
his aspect like Lebanon,
choice26 as the cedars.

16 His palate27 is sweets,28

and he is altogether precious.29

This is my beloved, and this30 my friend,

ye daughters of Jerusalem.

Daughters of Jerusalem

VI. 1 Whither31 has thy beloved gone,

thou fairest among women?
whither has thy beloved turned,
that we may seek him with thee?

Shulamith

2 My32 beloved has gone down to his garden,

to the beds of balm33,

to feed34 in the gardens

and to gather lilies.35

3 I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine,

who feeds among the lilies.

SECOND SCENE:

solomon to the same as before

(Son 6:4 to Son 7:6)

Solomon

4 Fair36 art thou, my dear, as Tirzah,

comely as Jerusalem, terrible37 as bannered38 hosts,

5 Turn away thine eyes from39 me,

for they have taken me by storm.40

Thy hair is as a flock of goats,
reposing on Gilead.

6 Thy teeth as a flock of sheep,41

that go up from the washing,
all of which have twins,
and there is not a bereaved one among them.

7 Like a piece of pomegranate thy cheek

from behind thy veil.

8 There are sixty queens

and eighty concubines
and virgins without number.

9 My dove, my perfect is one,42

the only one43 of her mother,

the choice44 one of her that bare her.

Daughters saw her and called her blessed,
queens and concubines and they praised her:

10 Who45 is this, that looks forth like the dawn,

fair as the moon, pure as the sun,
terrible as bannered hosts?46

Shulamith

11 To47 the nut48 garden I went down,

to look at the shrubs of the valley,
to see whether the vine sprouted,
the pomegranates blossomed.

12 I49 knew it not, my desire brought me

to the chariots of my people, the noble.

Daughters of Jerusalem

VII. 1 Come50 back, come back, Shulamith,

Come back, come back, that we may look upon thee.

Shulamith

What51 do you see in Shulamith?

Daughters of Jerusalem

As the dance of Mahanaim.

Solomon

2 How52 beautiful are thy steps in the shoes, O princes daughter,

thy rounded53 thighs are like jewels,

the work of an artists hands.

3 Thy navel is a round bowl,54

let not mixed wine be lacking!55

thy body is a heap of wheat,
set56 around with lilies.

4 Thy two breasts are like two fawns,

twins of a gazelle.

5 Thy neck like a tower of ivory,

thy eyes like pools in Heshbon
at the gate of the daughter of multitudes;
thy nose like the tower of Lebanon
which looks toward Damascus.

6 Thy head upon thee like Carmel,57

and thy flowing locks like purple
a king fettered by curls !58

THIRD SCENE:

Solomon and Shulamith (alone)

(Son 7:7 to Son 8:4)

Solomon

7 How fair art thou and how comely,

O love,59 among delights!60

8 This thy stature resembles a palm tree,

and thy breasts clusters.61

9 I62 resolve: I will climb the palm,

will grasp its branches,63

and64 be thy breasts, please, like clusters of the vine,

and the breath of thy nose65 like apples,

10 And thy palate66 like the best wine..

Shulamith (interrupting him)

going67 down for my beloved smoothly,68

gliding over the lips of sleepers.

11 I am my beloveds,

and for69 me is his desire.

12 Come,70 my beloved, let us go out to the country,71

lodge in the villages,

13 Start early72 for the vineyards;

we shall see whether the vine has sprouted,
its blossoms opened,73

the pomegranates flowered.
there will I give thee my love.74

14 The mandrakes75 give forth their odor,

and over our doors are all sorts of excellent fruit,76

new as well as old,
(which), my beloved, I have laid up for thee.77

VIII. 1 O78 that thou wert as a brother of mine,

who sucked the breasts of my mother!
should I find79 thee without I would kiss thee,

yet80 none would despise81 me.

2 I would lead thee, bring thee to my mothers house,

thou82 wouldst instruct me;

I would give thee to drink of the spiced wine,
of my pomegranate juice.

3 His left hand is under my head,

and his right embraces me.83

4 I84 adjure you, ye daughters of Jerusalem,

that ye wake not, and that ye waken not
love; till it please.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. The place of the action in this new section is without doubt the same as in the foregoing act. The dialogue with the daughters of Jerusalem (Son 5:8-9; Son 5:16; Son 6:1-3; Son 7:1); the mention of the city and the keepers of its walls in this fresh recital of a dream (Son 5:2-7) which reminds one of its predecessor (Son 3:1-5); the garden of Solomon, to which he has gone down, Son 6:2; finally and above all her appeal to her lover to go out with her to the country (Son 7:12) and to the house of his chosen ones mother (Son 8:2), and there in the enjoyment of simple country pleasures to become to her as a brother who had sucked the breasts of her mother (Son 8:1); all this points to the kings palace at Jerusalem as the scene, and more probably to some room in this palace, than to contiguous grounds or the royal gardens, as is thought by Delitzsch. The room in the Palace on Zion, which, according to scene 2 of the foregoing act, was used for the marriage feast, may very well be the one in which the whole of the present act was performed; for there is no indication any where of a change of scene, not even between Son 7:1-2, or between Son 5:6-7 of the same chapter (vs. Del.).The time of the action is determined by its characteristic contents to have been some days or weeks later than the wedding festivities described in act third. For the relation of love so pure and happy at the beginning has since suffered certain checks and interruptions, which reveal themselves on the part of Shulamith at least by various symptoms of uneasiness, nay, of sadness and dejection, without her betraying, however, that she has been at all wounded or actually injured by her husband. The dream, which she tells her companions at the beginning of the section that she has very recently had in the night, begins exactly like the preceding, and runs on partly in the same way. It does not, however, end as that does in a bright and joyous manner, but with pain and fright. Seeking her beloved by night, she not only fails to find himshe is beaten and robbed by the watchmen! Her gloomy misgiving in respect to the unfaithfulness of her lover, expressed in her apprehension that she might soil her feet again, which had just been washed (Son 5:3, see in loc.), proves to be only too correct, and drives her therefore with an anxious and troubled heart to have it said to her lover, who has actually forsaken her for a time, that she is sick of loveof loving solicitude about his heart partially averted and alienated from her (Son 5:8)! She expresses this solicitude, it is true, not by open complaint; on the contrary, in what follows she sedulously avoids dropping any thing to the disadvantage of her husband in the hearing of the ladies of the court (Son 5:10-16), she apologizes for his leaving her by the harmless assumption that he may have gone to feed in the gardens and to gather lilies, Son 6:2, and only inserts in her exclamation at the close an allusion indicative of painful longing in respect to the way that she wishes to be and to remain her beloveds, viz., that he should now as formerly feed among the lilies, that he should be and remain a guileless, pure and simple-hearted country lover (Son 6:3)!When, therefore, Solomon himself returns to her after a considerable absence, the manifestations of her partial dissatisfaction with him assume a somewhat altered form. She regards him gravely and sternly, and thus leads him in the picture of her beauty and loveliness, which, full of ecstacy, he again begins to sketch (Son 6:4 ff.; comp. Son 4:1 ff.) to introduce some allusions to her terribleness (Son 6:4; Son 6:10), as well as to the effect of the glance of her eyes (Son 6:5 a), which overcome or dismay him. The spirited statement of the prior rank accorded to her above all his wives and virgins, into which this description finally passes (Son 6:8-10), she leaves wholly unnoticed; nay, she answers it with a description of what she once did and was engaged in, when a simple country maid in happier circumstances, and with more agreeable surroundings (Son 6:11), and thereupon she gives him plainly enough to understand that the elevation bestowed upon her in consequence of her love to the state-carriages of her people, the noble, i.e. to the highest rank among the nobles of her people, had also led to her being painfully undeceived (Son 6:12). She even wishes to escape from the society of the voluptuous ladies of the court, which has become irksome to her, and she is induced to return and remain, not so much by their urgent entreaties and representations (Son 7:1) as simply and alone by her unconquerable love to Solomon, whom she hopes finally to free from his corrupt surroundings and to gain wholly for herself and for the purer pleasures of her life at home.To the new and exaggerated laudation of her charms, in which her lover hereupon indulges (Son 7:2 ff.) she listens in silence; as in one place at least they offend against the rules of modesty (Son 7:3), she deigns not to answer. Not until the other ladies had left her alone with Solomon, does she venture to open her heart to him and to give free expression to her longing desire, which has been most strongly aroused, to return to her home and to have her lover changed from a voluptuous servant of sin to an innocent child of nature like herself. She does this by interrupting (Son 7:10) the fond language of her husband just where it had become most urgent and tender, and chiming in with what had been begun by him. With extraordinary address and delicacy she first, as it were, disarms and fetters him (Son 7:10-11) and then brings her desire before him with such overpowering force and urgency that refusal is impossible, and he is borne along as on the wings of the wind by her pure love, which triumphs thus over the enticements and temptations of his court (Son 7:12 ff.). He need not utter a word of express consent to her request; she has him completely in her power, and as he has just called himself a king fettered by her locks (Son 7:6), she but briefly refers to the fact, that his whole desire is toward her (Son 7:11 b), that his left arm is under her head, and his right embraces her (Son 8:3), and then leaves the scene on the arm of her beloved with that exclamation twice before uttered to the daughters of Jerusalem (Son 8:4), and which this time has the force of farewell advice.85

2. The sketch here given of the inner progress of the action in the course of this act departs in several important particulars from the view of the later interpreters; but it appears to us to be the only one which corresponds with the language and the design of the poet. It is principally distinguished from the view of Delitzsch, which approaches it most nearly, by its taking the little disturbances and troubles in the life of the newly married pair, which this scholar also affirms, to be more serious and real, and not restricting them for instance barely to the tragic contents of that story of her dream (Son 5:2-7) but letting the dissatisfaction of the chaste bride with the voluptuous conduct of the king and his court come properly forward as the actual cause of the clouded horizon of their married state. Our view too repels the assumption shared by Delitzsch with several recent commentators, but destitute of proof, that the description of Shulamiths charms contained in Son 7:2 ff. was occasioned by a country-dance which she was executing before him and the ladies of the court,a hypothesis dubious in every point of view, and upon which Shulamiths character could scarcely be freed from moral taint (for the dance in question, the dance of Mahanaim can scarcely be conceived of as other than an unchaste pantomime); and from this it would be but a single step to the notion of Renan that Solomon in this passage describes the charms of a danseuse of the harem, or to the similar one of Hitzig, that the king is here cooing round a concubine. Finally our view differs in one point at least from that of Delitzsch in respect to the division into scenes, inasmuch as it rejects the opening of a new scene or even act after Son 6:9 (comp. in loc., as well as the Introduction, 2, Rem. 2), and consequently takes the whole to be one act with three scenes, of which the first extends to Son 6:3; the second to Son 7:6; and the third from that to Son 8:4. Against the assumption of a point of division after Son 7:6 it has often indeed been urged (see e.g.Ew., Hitz., Weissb., and Hengstenb. too) that the passage Son 7:2-10 forms a continuous description of the beauties of the beloved, beginning with her feet and ending with her nose and palate. But with the more general exclamation Son 7:7, How fair and how delightful art thou, O Love, among the joys! this description evidently assumes an entirely different character from that it had before in Son 5:2-6, where the individual members are enumerated very much as had been done previously (Son 4:1-3 and Son 6:5-7) only in inverted order, and certain comparisons are instituted with them. And what Shulamith says to her lover (Son 7:10 ff.) in the closest connection with the second description (or rather interrupting it and proceeding of her own motion), is of such a nature that it can scarcely be conceived of as spoken in the presence of the daughters of Jerusalem, who had been present before. On which account Delitzschs assumption that a new scene begins with Son 7:7, does not in fact deserve so unceremonious an epithet as that of purely gratuitous, which Hitzig bestows upon it. The assumption of Hitz., Bttcher, Ren. and Hengstenberg that a new scene does not begin until Son 7:12, might with equal propriety be denominated gratuitous; and so might many other modes of division which differ from ours, e.g., that followed by Ewald, Dpke, Bttcher, Hitz., Hengstenb., etc., and in general by most of the recent writers according to which a new scene opens with Son 7:2; that of Vaih. and others (particularly the older writers) which begins this new scene with Son 7:1; the assertion of Ewald that Son 6:10 to Son 7:1 is a dialogue between the ladies of the court and Shulamith which is repeated by Solomon, etc. The question as to the beginning and end of the scenes in this act moreover appears to be of little consequence, inasmuch as the locality of the action, as has been before shown, does not change.86 The only matters involved are 1) an entrance at Son 6:4 of Solomon, who had not been present before and 2) an exit or retirement of the chorus in the neighborhood of Son 7:6, or Son 7:11. And this retirement of the chorus is furthermore, as is shown by the epiphonema Son 8:4, probably not to be conceived of as a total disappearance but simply as a withdrawal to the background, as toward the end of Act first (see above, p. 62).

3. Scene first. a.Shulamiths story of her dream,Son 5:2-8.This like the similar passage Son 3:1-5 must be a dream, which Shulamith had had shortly before, and which she now relates as indicative of the state of her mind. In opposition to the opinion that Shulamith is relating a real outward occurrence (Dpke, Hahn, Weissb., etc.) may be urged both the analogy of that prior passage and that such an affair is inconceivable in the history of Solomons love to Shulamith. It would have conflicted with decorum for that, which is narrated in vs. 25, to have actually taken place; and for the favorite of the king to have been beaten and robbed by the city night watch as is related Son 5:7, would form the non plus ultra of historical improbability. Besides the visionary character of the experience described is indicated not only by the introductory words, when correctly explained, I was sleeping but my heart was waking, but also by several characteristic particulars, as Son 5:3; Son 5:6.

Son 5:2. I was sleeping but my heart was waking.Hitzig adduces a striking parallel to the thought that in a dream the heart or spirit is awake, while the rest of the person sleeps, from Cic. de divin. I. Song 30: jacet corpus dormientis ut mortui, viget antem et vivit animus.Weissbaghs objections (p. 211) to this parallel as inadmissible amount to nothing. Comp. F. Splittgerber, Schlaf und Tod, nebst den damit zusammenhngenden Erscheinungen des Seelenlebens (Halle, 1866), p. 37 ff., espec. p. Song 43: The soul is still in the body during sleep, though freer from it than in the state of wakefulness. It is in a condition of inner self-collection and concentration in order that it may afterwards operate with the greater force upon the course of things around it in its particular sphere of life. And p. 71, The soul sinks down in sleep to its innermost life-hearth, and loses itself there in that potential self-consciousness, which forms the proper essential quality of our spirits;whilst in dreams it lifts itself to a comparatively higher region, that of the dawning consciousness, as it were, a region which stands considerably nearer the surface of the outward life and the daily consciousness, which moves upon it, and whose images therefore leave behind more impressive traces in our memory, which extend into our waking moments. Hence Gschel not incorrectly remarks: If sleep is to be conceived of as depression, (), dreaming is elevation (). From this statement also it further appears why the view maintained by Grot. and Dpke, that denotes a condition midway between sleep and wakefulness, a semi-sleep, is superfluous; an opinion by the way, which has the meaning of the words against it, for I slept is not the same thing as I was half asleep. The heart stands here in its customary O. Test. sense of the centre and organ of the entire life of the soul, not barely for the intellectual faculties of the soul, the region of thought, as Hitzig maintains. Comp. further on Pro 2:10 (in this commentary.)Hark, my beloved is knocking: Open to me, my sister, my dear, my dove, my perfect. Compared with the similar passage Son 2:8 this fond quadruple address shows a considerable advance in the relation between the loving pair. The predicate my fair one, which there stands with my dear is here wholly wanting, and is supplied by the more intimate my sister, which since Shulamiths marriage had become the common pet name, by which Solomon called her (see Son 4:9-10; Son 4:12, Son 5:1). He had it is true already said my dove to her before their nuptials (Son 2:14, comp. again Son 6:9); but my perfect is an entirely new appellation (comp. likewise again Son 6:9), which it is likely was first adopted after their marriage, and by which Solomon probably designed to express her innocence and purity ( perfect, integra) in contrast with the character of his other wives, who were not so perfect and pure. For he can scarcely have employed this appellation unmeaningly, as my angel among us (vs.Dpke and Hitz.), [nor can it mean as Thrupp alleges mine perfectly or entirely.]For my head is filled with dew, my locks with drops of the night. The copiousness of the nightly fall of dew in Palestine is attested also by the well-known history of Gideons fleece, Jdg 6:38; comp. also Psa 110:3; 2Sa 17:12; Mic 5:6; Bar 2:25. That Shulamith sees her lover come to her window dripping with the dew of the night, and chilly too in consequence, might seem to imply that she thought of him as a shepherd, who as abiding in the field (Luk 2:8) had had to endure wet and cold, and hence had sought shelter in her dwelling. But to explain that representation it is sufficient to assume that the first half of her dream (Son 5:2-4) transports her back to her home, or in other words that now in her dream, as she had done before when awake (see Son 1:7; Son 2:16; Son 4:6) she transfers her lover without more ado from the sphere of royalty to that of a shepherds life. That in the latter half of her dream (Son 5:6-7) she thinks of him again as living in the city, and herself too as wandering about in the city looking for him, is a feature of the most delicate psychological truth, which has its analogue in the story of her previous dream, Son 3:1-4.

Son 5:3. I have taken off my dress. lit., my tunic, my under garment. She here too thinks herself back again in her former humble circumstances, where she commonly wore nothing but a tunic, (comp. Exo 22:25 f.; 2Sa 13:18, also Mar 6:9,) and consequently in the night was entirely unclothed with the exception of the warm covering or upper garment (, Ex. ibid., Gen 9:23; Deu 22:17) under which she slept.I have washed my feet: how shall I soil them? This is again another particular referring back to her former scanty mode of life in the country. She did not then wear the shoes, which since her elevation to be a princes daughter (Son 7:2) she was now obliged to wear: on the contrary she ordinarily went barefoot in the house and in its immediate vicinity, except in long walks in the country when she wore sandals, (comp. Amo 2:6; Amo 8:6; Deu 29:4; Jos 9:5). Hence the feet washed before going to bed might easily get dirty again on the floor of the house. The soiling of the feet is in the religious and ethical region a symbol of moral contamination from the petty transgressions of every-day life (Joh 13:10); and in the figurative language of dreams it is a well-known symbol of moral defilement reproved by the conscience and accompanied with shame, comp. (Schubert, Symbolik des Traums, 3d edit. p. 13, Splittberger, ibid. p. 128 ff.87). It is therefore from going out to her lover, this symbol of more intimate and enduring intercourse with him, that she apprehends the soiling of her feet. Hence the objections which she makes to complying with his request, and the cold, almost indifferent, if not exactly rude (Del.) tone of her answer.88

Son 5:4. My beloved extended his hand through the window. lit., from the hole,89i.e., through the latticed window (for that is certainly what is intended here, as appears from Son 2:9, not a mere opening in the wall as Hitz. supposes) and from it toward me.90This gesture of extending () the hand in does not signify his intention to climb in through the window (Hitz.), nor his desire to gain access by forcibly breaking a hole through the wall (Hengstenberg after Eze 8:7-8) [so Wordsworth], but is rather the expression of an urgent request to be admitted. The customary gesture of a petitioner is, it is true that of spreading forth his hands (Exo 9:29-31, etc.) But this could not be done in the present instance on account of the smallness of the window and the darkness of the night, and would besides have been unsuitable in relation to his beloved, for everywhere else it appears only as a usage in prayer. He must here, therefore, in craving admission adopt a gesture, which would at the same time express his longing to be united with his beloved (comp. Del. and Weissb. in loc.)And I was inwardly excited over him; lit., my bowels91 were agitated, sounded over himwhich according to Jer 31:20; Isa 16:11; Isa 63:15 is equivalent to I felt a painful sympathy for him. This was of course because she had let him stand out in the wet and cold. According to the reading (so the so-called Erfurt Ms., see de Rossiin loc.) the feeling expressed would be regret instead of pity: my bowels were agitated on me (i.e. in me, or over me, on my accountcomp. Hitz. and Ew. in loc.) But this slenderly attested reading appears to have crept into the text from Ps. 42:6, 12, and for this reason to deserve no attention.

Son 5:5. Up I rose to open to my beloved. stands after without special emphasis, according to the more diffuse style of speaking among the people. So Hitz. no doubt correctly, whilst Weissb., is certainly far astray in asserting that Shulamith means by this to emphasize her entire person in contrast with any particular parts.92And my hands dropped with myrrh and my fingers with liquid myrrh upon the handle of the bolt. That is to say, as my hands touched the handle of the bolt (or lock on the door of the house) in order to shove it back and open it, they dropped, etc. , whose genuineness Meier suspects without any reason, plainly shows that the dropping of myrrh did not proceed from Shulamiths anointing herself, as she rose and dressed, (as Magn. and Weissb. imagine) [so too Burrowes], but from the fact that her lover had taken hold of the door on the outside with profusely anointed hands, and so had communicated the fluid unguent of myrrh to the bolt inside likewise.93 This might have resulted from the unguent flowing in from the outer lock through the keyhole (Hitz.), or some drops of myrrh from the hand of her lover inserted through the hole above the door, might have trickled down upon the inner lock, which was directly beneath (Del). Too accurate an explanation of the affair seems inadmissible from the indefinite dreamlike character of the whole narrative. But at any rate an anointing of the outer lock of the door by the lover on purpose is not to be thought of (with Less., Dpke, Ew., Vaih., etc.) because though classic parallels94 may be adduced for this silent homage of love, none can be brought from oriental antiquity. is not overflowing myrrh,95i.e., dealt out in copious abundance (Ew.), but myrrh exuding or flowing out of itself in contrast with that which is solidified and gum-like, in contrast with . (Theophr. Hist. Plant. 9, 4); comp. Exo 30:23, as well as above on Son 1:13.

Son 5:6. I opened to my beloved, comp. on 5a.And my beloved had turned away, was gone. My soul failed when he spoke. That is, before, when he was speaking to me through the window (Son 5:2; Son 5:4), my breath for-sook me, my soul almost went out of me.96 It is consequently a supplementary remark, whose principal verb, however, is not necessarily to be taken as a pluperfect (vs. Dpke).I sought him but I did not find him; I called him but he did not answer me. With the first of these lines comp. Son 3:2 b; with both together Pro 1:28; Pro 8:17.

Son 5:7. Found me then the watchmen,etc. Comp. Son 3:3, Hitz. correctly: In her previous dream the watchmen make no reply to her question; here without being questioned they reply by deeds.Took my veil off from me. (from spread out, disperse, make thin) is according to Isa 3:23 a fine light material thrown over the person like a veil, such as was worn by noble ladies in Jerusalem; comp. Targ. on Gen 24:65; Gen 38:14 where represents the Heb. .97 certainly means not a bare lifting (Meier), but a forcible tearing off and taking away of this article of dress; else this expression would not form with the preceding they struck me, wounded me, the climax, which the poet evidently intends.The watchmen of the walls; not the subject of the immediately preceding clause (Weissb.), but a repetition of the principal subject which stands at the beginning of the verse. In her complaint she naturally comes back to the ruffians who had done all this to her, the villainous watchmen.Watchmen of the walls, whose functions relate as in this instance to the interior of the city, and who, therefore, were not appointed principally with a view to the exterior circuit walls, occur also Isa 62:6.

Son 5:8. I adjure you,etc. For this expression, as well as the masc. form of address, comp. on Son 2:7.What shall ye tell him? So correctly Ew., Heiligstedt, Del., Hengstenb. etc.; for although sometimes expresses an earnest negative or prohibition, and might therefore be synonymous with in Son 2:7; Son 3:5, yet the translation do not tell him that I am sick of love (Weissb. and others) yields a less natural sense than the one given above, according to which Shulamith seeks to induce her lover to a speedy return by the intelligence of her being sick of love. And in fact she connects a charge of this purport to the daughters of Jerusalem immediately with the narrative of her dream, because this had already evidenced in various ways that she had an almost morbid longing for her lover (see especially Son 5:4, b; Son 5:6-7.)

4. Continuation. b. Shulamiths description of her lover, Son 5:9-16

Son 5:9. What is thy beloved more than (any other) beloved, thou fairest among women? This question of the daughters of Jerusalem which serves in an admirable way to connect what precedes with the following description of the beauty of her lover, springs from the assumption readily suggested by Son 5:2-4, that Shulamiths lover was some other than Solomon; an assumption admitted without scruple by the voluptuous ladies of the court, in spite of their knowledge of the fact that Shulamith had shortly before given her hand to the king as her lawful husband. It is therefore a question of real ignorance and curiosity,98 which they here address to Shulamith, not the mere show of a question with the view of leading her to the enthusiastic praise of the king who was well known to the ladies of the court and beloved by them likewise (Del.); and quite as little was it a scornful question (Dpke, Meier) or reproachful (Magn.) or one involving but a gentle reproof (Hitz.)against these last opinions the words fairest among women are decisive.

Son 5:10. My beloved is white and ruddy, distinguished above ten thousand. This general statement precedes the more detailed description of the beauties of her lover, which then follows Son 5:11-15 in ten particulars, at the close of which (Son 5:16) stands another general eulogium.The aim of the entire description is evidently to depict Solomon, as one who is without blemish from head to foot, as is done 2Sa 14:25-26 in the case of his brother Absalom. A commendation of his fair color, or his good looks in general fitly stands at the head of the description. lit., dazzling white; stronger than ; an expression which may be applied to a kings son, but scarcely to a simple young shepherd from the country. His face might very well be called ruddy or brownish (as 1Sa 16:12) but scarcely dazzling white; and it is to the face that the predicate mainly refers, as a comparison with Son 5:14-15 shows.To white as the fundamental color is added the blooming red. () of the cheeks and other parts of the face both here in the case of Solomon and Lam 4:7 in the description of the fair Nazarites of Jerusalem, which reminds one of the passage before us.Distinguished above ten thousand, lit. from ten thousand, or a myriad (), i.e., surpassing an immense number in beauty. Comp. Psa 91:7, as well as the plur. Psa 3:7; Deu 33:17. from standard, banner, as in Lat. insignis from signum, denotes one that is conspicuous as a standard amidst a host of other men, signalized, distinguished above others, and is again comparative as in Son 5:9. The expression is evidently a military one like Son 6:4; Son 6:10.

Son 5:11. His head is pure gold. The comparison is not directed to the color of the face, as though this was to be represented as a reddish brown (Hitz.), but to the appearance of the head as a whole. From the combined radiance of his fresh and blooming countenance, and of his glossy black hair adorned with a golden crown, it presented to the beholder at a distance the appearance of a figure made of solid gold with a reddish lustre. . according to Gesen., Hengstenb., and others, equivalent to that which is hidden, concealed = gold that is treasured up; according to Dietrich and others from to be solid, dense, hence massive gold; according to Hitz., Weissb., etc., equivalent to that which is reddish, of red lustre, which latter explanation is favored by Arabic parallels and by the expression Jer 2:22. The adjective connected with it designates this gold as carefully refined and purified (comp. the Hoph. part. with the like sense 1Ki 10:18).His locks are hill upon hill. may be thus explained with Del., Weissb., etc., by deriving it from to raise, heap up (whence a hill and high, Eze 17:22). Commonly palm branches, (flexible or curling palm branches from in the sense of wavering or swaying to and fro); or pendent, hanging locks (from suspenditso Hengstenb.); or pendulous clusters of grapes (as though = Isa 18:5so Hitz.). The comparison reminds us somewhat of that with the flock of goats on Mount Gilead (Son 4:2; Son 6:5); which was also designed to set forth his long curling locks piled one on another.Black as a raven. Parallels to this simile from Arab, poets, see in Hartmann, Ideal weibl. Schnheit, I. 45 f., comp. Magnus on Son 4:1 (p. 85) and Dpkein loc. The latter adduces particularly two verses of Motanebbi (from J. v. Hammer, p. 11):

Black as a raven and thick as midnight gloom,
Which of itself, with no hairdresser, curls.

Son 5:12. His eyes like doves by brooks of water. On the comparison of the eyes with doves comp. Son 1:15. In this case it is not doves in general, but particularly doves sitting by brooks of water (lit. water-channels or beds) to which the eyes are likened doubtless in order to represent the lustrous brightness and the moisture of the white of the eye by a figure like that employed Son 7:5, and to place it in fitting contrast with the iris whose varied hues resemble the plumage of the dove.Bathing in milk, sitting on fulness. A further description of the relation of the doves to the brooks of water, i.e. of the iris (with the pupil) to the white that surrounds it. These water-brooks here appear to be filled up with milk instead of water, and the doves answering to the irides of both eyes are represented as bathing in this milk and accordingly as sitting on or by fulnessin which there is an allusion likewise to the convex form of the eye (correctly the Septuag., Vulg., Syr., and after them Hengstenb., Weissbach, etc.). , lit. fulness, an idea undefined in itself, is here limited by the preceding and therefore means the fulness of the water-courses, that which fills them up (Weissb.); and the which stands before it, indicates the same sense substantially of sitting by this fulness, as is expressed by the same preposition before (comp. Psa 1:3). Others take in the sense of setting as of a gem (comparing Exo 28:17) and hence translate enthroned in a setting (Magn.) or jewels finely set (Bttch., Del., preceded by Ibn Ezra, Jarch., Rosenm., Winer). But in opposition to this may be urged both the absence of after the indefinite , and the prep. instead of which might rather have been expected. More correctly Cocceius and Dpke, who explain it over the setting i.e. over the edge of the brook, though still they do violence to the natural meaning of .

Son 5:13. His cheeks like a bed of balm. The tert. compar. is not barely their delightful fragrance, but likewise the superb growth of beard upon his cheeks. Shulamith would scarcely have compared beardless cheeks with a bed of balm, i.e. a garden plot covered with plants. That she likens the two cheeks to but one bed may be explained from the fact that the beard, which likewise surrounds the chin and lips, unites them into one whole, which like the borders in many gardens has its two parallel sides (comp. Hitzig). The punctuation , which the ancient versions seem to have followed (e. g, Vulg. sicut areol aromatum) and which Weissb. still prefers, accordingly appears to be less suitable than the sing. here retained by the Masorites; whilst the plur. is unquestionably the true reading in Son 6:2.Towers of spice plants. The expression is doubtless so to be understood, as explanatory apposition to and the bed of balm is accordingly to be conceived of as a plot embracing several towers or pyramidal elevations of aromatic herbs, by which the rich luxuriance of his beard and perhaps also its fine curly appearance is most fitly set forth (Ew., Delitzsch, Hengstenb., etc.). We can see no ground for the scruples, which are alleged to stand in the way of this explanation, or why we must with J. Cappellus suppose a reference to boxes of unguents (pyxides unguentorum) or with Hitzig, Friedr., Weissb., follow the Septuag. ( ) in reading the part. . The fem. plur. from is also attested by Son 8:10. The custom of raising fragrant plants on mounds of earth of a pyramidal or high tower-like shape, receives sufficient confirmation from Son 4:6 (the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense). And the whole comparison appears to be entirely appropriate, if we but think of the beard on the chin and cheeks of her lover as not merely a soft down (Hitz.) but as a vigorous, finely cultivated and carefully arranged growth of hair. And in this we are justified in precise proportion as we rid ourselves of the notion of a youthful lover of the rank of a shepherd, and keep in view king Solomon in the maturity of middle life as the object of the description before us. Besides the circumstance that they were in the habit of perfuming the beard, as is still done to a considerable extent in the east (see Arvieux, R., p. 52; della Valle, II. 98; Harmer, Beobacht., II. 77, 83; Reiske on Tarafa, p. 46) may have contributed its share to the particular form of the comparison.His lips lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.Of course it is not white but red lilies, lilies of the color, denoted Son 4:3 by the crimson thread, to which the lips of her lover are here likened. The dropping of liquid myrrh (comp. on Son 5:3) refers not to the lilies (Syr., Rosenm.) but directly to the lips. It serves to represent the lovely fragrance of the breath, which issues from her lips (comp Son 7:9); for the loveliness of his speech (Hengstenb., comp. Targ.) is not mentioned till Song 5:316.

Son 5:14. His hands golden rods. Others, as Coccei., Gesen., (Thesaur. p. 287), Rosenm., Dpke, Vaih., [so Eng. Ver.], take to be gold rings, which they refer to the bent or closed hand, with allusion also to the fingernails colored with alhenna as compared with the jewels of the rings. Very arbitrarily, because 1) the curved or hollow hand must necessarily have been denoted by ; 2) the proper expression for ring would not have been but or ; 3) could no more express the idea of being set with anything, than turquoises standing with it could yield a figure even remotely appropriate for yellow-stained finger nails. is rather roller, cylinder, rod, and the expression golden rods is applied primarily to the individual fingers with reference to their reddish lustre and finely rounded shape (comp. Son 5:11 a) and then by synecdoche to the hands consisting of the fingers.99Encased in turquoises. Whatever precious stone may be intended by , whether the chrysolite of the ancients (see Septuag.,Exo 28:17; Exo 39:13) which seems to answer to our topaz; or what is now called the turquoise (a light-blue semi-precious stone); or the onyx, which Hitzig proposes (though this was called Gen 2:12, etc.), it is at all events in bad taste to understand by this encasing of the fingers in costly jewels anything but actual jewel ornaments with which his hands glittered, agreeably to the well-known custom in the ancient East of wearing many rings. (Comp. Winer, Realwrterb., Art., Ringe and Siegelring). The nails in and of themselves differed too little in color and lustre from the fingers and hands as a whole, to admit of their being compared with precious stones; and staining them with alhenna (comp. on Son 1:14) if practised at all in the time of Solomon, was most likely a custom restricted to women and which could scarcely have been likewise in use amongst men. On in the sense of encasing (lit., to fill in the encasement or enclosure) comp. Exo 28:17; Exo 31:5; Exo 35:33. Golden rods encased in turquoise or with turquoise are properly such rods filled into the body of jewels here named i.e. surrounded and glittering with them (comp. Weissb. in loc.).His body a figure of ivory, veiled with sapphires. here, where the exterior parts of the body only are enumerated, is certainly not his bowels, his inwards (Hengstenberg), but his body, comp. Son 7:3, as well as Dan 2:32, where also stands as a synonym of . It is only the pure white and the smooth appearance of the body, i.e. of the trunk generally, including the breast, thighs, etc., which can be intended by the comparison with an a figure of ivory ( sing, of [but see Gesen. Lex. s. v.Tr.] forms, thoughts, Job 12:5), a comparison in which that ivory work of art restored by Solomon according to 1Ki 10:18 may have been before the mind of the speaker. The sapphires veiling the statue are naturally a figure of the dress of sapphire-blue or better still of the dress confined by a splendid girdle studded with sapphires. On the latter assumption the apparent unsuitableness of the comparison vanishes, which certainly would have to be admitted (Hitz.) if the sapphire referred to the azure color of the dress. For it would evidently be too far-fetched, with Vaih. to refer the sapphire to the blue veins appearing through the splendid white skin of the body, and this would neither comport with the deep blue color of the sapphire or lapis lazuli, nor with the expression veiled, covered () with sapphires.There is accordingly an indirect proof of the royal rank and condition of Shulamiths lover in the representations of this verse likewise, especially in its allusions to the ornaments of precious stones on the hands and about the waist of the person described.

Son 5:15. His legs columns of white marble. The figure of an elegant statue is here continued with little alteration. To understand the simply of the lower part of the legs and to assume that Shulamith omits to mention the i.e. the upper part of the legs from a fine sense of decorum (Hitz.) is inadmissible, because according to passages like Pro 26:7; Isa 47:2 appears to include the upper part of the leg, whilst according to Gen 24:2; Exo 28:42 : Dan 2:32, etc., denotes rather the loins or that part of the body where the legs begin to separate. Further, the mention of the legs and just before of the body could only be regarded as unbecoming or improper by an overstrained prudishness, because the description which is here given avoids all libidinous details and is so strictly general as not even to imply that she had ever seen the parts of the body in question in a nude condition. It merely serves to complete the delineation of her lover, which Shulamith sketches by a gradual descent from head to foot, and moreover is to be laid to the account of the poet rather than to that of Shulamith, who is in every thing else so chaste and delicate in her feelings.The legs are compared with white marble () principally on account of the lustrous color of their skin, not with reference to their solidity; for an Arabic poet (Amru b Kelth., Moal. 5:18) pictures even the legs of a girl as pillars of marble and ivory; and the figure of the marble column is also employed in a like sense by Greek poets and mythographers (comp. Vaih. in loc.). Set on bases of fine gold,viz., on the feet which are here named as the bases or pedestals of the columns (their ) without however going into any further description of them.100His aspect like Lebanon. not synonymous with stature (Son 7:8), but denoting his entire appearance, his whole figure and bearing comp. Son 2:14. By this comparison with Lebanon his figure is characterized as majestically tall and impressive, comp. Jer 46:18. There is probably no allusion to the lordly look which Lebanon bestows upon his beholders (vs.Rosenm., Magn.), and still less likelihood of a reference to the roots of the mountain penetrating deeply and extending widely in the earth as analogous to the roots of her lovers feet. Job 13:27; Hos 14:6 (vs.Hitz.).Choice as the cedars; that is, stately and majestic as these giant trees which crown the summit of Lebanon.

Son 5:16. His palate (is) sweets. is not the mouth for kissing (Magn., Bttch.) but the palate as an organ of speech, as in Job 6:30; Job 31:30; Pro 5:3; Pro 8:7. Hitz. correctly: It is speech which first betrays that the beautiful body described Son 5:10-15 has a soul; whilst Weissb. in asserting that the palate is here regarded as an organ of breathing like the lips Son 5:13, fails to perceive this advance from the corporeal to the spiritual and creates an unhandsome repetition. On the figure comp. Pro 16:21; Pro 27:9.And he is altogether precious. all of him combines in one the sum total of the ten corporeal excellencies enumerated in Son 5:11-15 together with the last named endowment of a spiritual nature, and thus completes the portrait of her lover, whereupon there follows the general reference to the preceding description: This is my beloved, and this my friend, ye daughters of Jerusalem.

See Son 8:1 for DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL.

Footnotes:

[1][Wicl., Mat.: The voice of the Church.]

[2]The unmistakably close connection of these words with what follows Hark! my beloved knocking! gives to both the participles and the sense of imperfects. Hitzig correctly says: The connection makes the two partic. as well as express the relative past (comp. Jer 38:26; Exo 5:8); and this first part of the verse is therefore= Gen 41:17.

[3]Lit. The sound of my beloved knocking, etc. Comp. Son 2:8. is not in apposition to , but the predicate, and for this reason is without the article; comp. Gen 3:8 [see Greens Chrestom., p. 95, on this passage]. Hitzig correctly: is just the knocking, and is known to be by the accompanying words.

[4][Mat.: Christ to the Church.]

[5][Cov., Mat., Cran., Bish.: darling. Genev., Eng. Ver.: undefiled.]

[6] before assigns the reason as Ecc 6:12, or as Son 2:11.

[7][Mat.: The voice of the spousess.]

[8]The prolonged form instead of or serves to make the question more emphatic, like our How could I. ? How can you ask me to. ?

[9][Mat.: The voice of the Church speaking of Christ.]

[10][Wicl., Mat.: hole. Genev., Eng. Ver.: hole of the door.]

[11][Genev.: Mine heart was affectioned toward him. Marg. as Eng. Ver.: my bowels were moved.]

[12] cognate with to embrace is substantially synonymous with to turn; comp. the Hith. in the sense of turning and forsaking, Jer 31:22, as well as the substantive that which is turned or rounded, Son 7:2 below. He had turned away is now strengthened by adding the synonyme to express his total disappearance. Symmachus correctly: , and still better the Vulg.: at ille declinaverat atque transierat; for the pluperfect sense of the verbs is demanded by the context.

[13]Comp. Gen 42:8 : . [Cov., Mat.: Now like as aforetime, when he spake, my heart could not refrain. Wicl., Dow.: melted. Burrowes: sunk in consequence of what he had said. Noyes, better: I was not in my senses while he spake.]

[14]Others read instead of , and either explain this from the Arabic as equivalent to at his going away, at his departure (Ew., etc.) or (comparing the Arab. dabra behind him, (Hitz.) with which Umbreits reference of to a verb to follow (I went out to follow him) substantially agrees. But all these explanations, as well as that of Weissbach, according to which we should read on his account, for his sake, lack the requisite confirmation in point of language.

[15][Mat.: The Church complaineth of her persecutors.]

[16][Wicl.: mantle. Cov., Mat.: garment. Cran., Bish.: kerchief. Dow.: cloak.]

[17][Mat.: The spousess speaketh to her companions.]

[18][Wicl.: The voice of friends saith to the Church. Which is thy lemman (lover) of the loved? Mat.: The voice of the Synagogue. Who is thy love above other loversor what can thy love do more than other loves?]

[19] beyond any one who is a beloved, i.e., more excellent than any other. here simply states the idea in a general form, and is comparative, expressing the superiority of one thing above another, as in 10 b.

[20][Wicl.: The voice of the Church of Christ saith to the friends. Mat.: The Church answering of Christ.]

[21][Wicl.: as bunches of palms. Dow.: as the branches of palm trees. Genev.: curled. Eng. Ver.: bushy. Thrupp in imitation of the reduplicated form in Hebrew: flow flowingly.]

[22][Cov., Mat.: brown as the evening.]

[23][Cov., Mat.: remaining in a plenteous place. Cran., Bish.: set like pearls in gold. Genev.: remain by the full vessels. Dow.: sit beside the most full streams. Eng. Ver.: fitly set; Marg.: sitting in fullness, that is, fitly placed and set as a precious stone in the foil of a ring.]

[24][Cov., Mat., Cran., Bish.: His cheeks are like a garden bed wherein the apothecaries plant all manner of sweet things.]

[25][Cov., Mat.: His hands are full of gold rings and precious stones; his body is like the pure ivory, decked over with sapphires. Cran., Bish.: his hands are like gold rings having enclosed the pleasant stone of Tharsis. Dow.: his hands wrought round of gold, full of hyacinths. Genev.: his hands as rings of gold set with the chrysolite.]

[26] chosen, excellent (not young man, as Targ., Magn., Ew., Bttch. have it) is evidently intended to indicate the pre-eminence of the cedars above all other trees, their surpassing height and stately form. Comp. Son 5:10 above, which is substantially synonymous, as well as the expressions Jer 22:7, and (together with ) 2Ki 19:23. This word moreover belongs to as its predicate; for it is too remote to refer it to the suffix attached to this word, or to a new subject derived from it (Hitz.).

[27][Cov., Mat., Dow.: his throat. Cran., Bish.: the words of his mouth. Genev., Eng. Ver.: his mouth; Marg.: palate.]

[28]On the plur. sweetnesses see Ew. Lehrb. 179, a [Greens Heb. Gram. 201, 1, a and c].

[29] lit. preciousnesses, desirable things; comp. Joel 4:5; Hos 9:16; 2Ch 36:19.

[30]On the repeated comp. Gen 3:15.

[31][Wicl.: The voice of holy souls, of the church. Mat.: The voice of the synagogue speaking to the church.]

[32][Wicl., Mat.: The voice of the church.]

[33]In regard to comp. on Son 5:13 above.

[34][Cov., Mat., Cran., Bish.: that he may refresh himself.]

[35][Thrupp: Note in the Hebrew of this verse not only the rhyme between and , but also the resemblance in sound between and .Cov., Mat.: flowers. Cran.: roses.]

[36][Wicl., Mat.: The voice of Christ to the church. Wicl.: Fair thou art, my love, sweet and fair as Jerusalem. Cov., Mat.: Thou art pleasant, O my love, even as loveliness itself; thou art fair as Jerusalem, glorious as an army of men with their banners.]

[37][Good, Percy, Taylor, Thrupp: dazzling.]

[38] lit., provided with a banner, gathered about a standard (comp. Num 1:52; Num 2:2; Psa 20:6); not, distinguished, select, as Weissb. misled by the affinity between this expression and Son 5:10 supposes. The fem. is not to be explained by a understood (Ibn Ezra), but it expresses the idea of a collective, as in and (Hitz.).

[39] Weissb. preposterously: is equivalent to turn thine eyes away from thee to me, and then the only suitable sense in the second clause must be thine eyes encourage me. [So Thrupp: opposite, over-against. The full meaning is Thou who art standing over against me, bend thou thine eyes so as directly to meet mine.] Against this excessively artificial and over-refined interpretation of one single parallel is decisive, Isa 1:16 : put awayfrom before mine eyes.

[40]The Hiph. from to rage, be violent, most probably expresses a sense corresponding to the predicate , consequently not to encourage, inspire courage, as in Psa 138:3, but to assault, violently excite, take by storm. [Cov., Mat.: make me too proud. Cran., Bish.: have set me on fire. Dow.: make me flee away. Eng. Ver.: overcome me; Marg.: puffed me up. Thrupp.: swell my heart with pride.]

[41]Verbally corresponding with Son 4:2, except in the more special shorn instead of the more general expression lambs used here. [This is the meaning of the word in Arabic, but in Heb. it means ewes, sheep.]

[42]The numeral one, forming a marked contrast with the sixty, eighty, etc., receives its proper limitation from the added : one she, i.e., she only. [It is better to regard as the copula like in Son 6:8. Greens Heb. Gram. 258, 2]. That my sister which stands with my dove, my perfect in the parallel passage Son 5:2, can have influenced the selection of one in this place, is very improbable (vs. Weissb.).

[43] cannot be taken here otherwise than it was before; the predicate is, therefore, wanting after this expression, as well as after the parallel , and hence the predicate of the preceding clause, viz: my dove, my perfect must be supplied here again. The meaning therefore is only one, she alone is my dove, my darling; she alone of her mother (i.e. her only daughter), she as separated or chosen of her that bare her. So correctly Weissb. in opposition to Hitz. who takes the second time as the predicate and as subject: she is the only one of her mother.

[44]On electa (Vulg.) from to separate, comp. Eze 20:38; Jer 23:28. [Thrupp: For the same reason that lit., my perfect one may be rendered my own one may , lit. pure one be rendered sole darling. She is her parents pure one; and this would in fact be the best rendering, had not the word pure in its original sense become somewhat antiquated.]

[45][Mat.: The voice of the Synagogue. Wicl.: Who is she, this that goeth forth as the morrow tide, rising fair as the moon, chosen as the sun? Cov., Mat.: Who is she, this that peepeth out as the morning? fair as the moon, excellent as the sun.]

[46][Good, Moody Stuart and others: dazzling as the stars.]

[47][Wicl.: The voice of the church, of the synagogue, Mat.: Christ to the synagogue. Cov., Mat., Cran.: I went down into the nut-garden to see what grew by the brooks, and to look if the vineyard flourished and if the pomegranates were shot forth.]

[48][Castell., Parkhurst: pruned garden as if were from . Thrupp without authority proposes to substitute .]

[49][Mat.: The voice of the synagogue. Cov., Mat.: Then the chariots of the prince of my people made me suddenly afraid. Cran., Bish.: I knew not that my soul had made me the chariot of the people that be under tribute. Dow.: My soul troubled me for the chariots of Aminadab. Genev.: I knew nothing, my soul set me as the chariots of my noble people. Eng. Ver.: My soul made me like the chariots of Ammi-nadib; Marg.: Set me on the chariots of my willing people. Thrupp: All translations which introduce a preposition before the chariotson, to, among, on account of, etc., are grammatically untenable. He renders: my soul had made me the chariots of my people the Freewilling.] limits the meaning of the preceding , though there is no necessity of supplying . The relation is rather such that the preceding principal clause is logically subordinated to the limiting and explanatory clause annexed to it, and thus yields some such sense as without my knowing it, unawares my desire, etc; comp. Job 9:5, Isa 47:11 as well as Hitz. and Hengstenb. in loc. which can neither be the object, nor in apposition with the subject of might it is true, have the sense of I myself (comp. Hos 9:4; Job 9:21; Psa 3:3, etc.), but as the subject of the verb obtains the sense of desire, longing, which is attested by Gen 23:8; Job 23:13; 2Ki 9:15, etc.

[50][Wicl.: The voice of the church to the faith of the neophyte. Mat.: The voice of the church calling again the synagogue.]

[51][Wicl.: The voice of Christ to the church, of the synagogue. Mat.: Christ to the synagogue. What pleasure have ye more in the Shulamite than when she danceth among the men of war?]

[52][Wicl., Mat.: The voice of Christ to the church. Mat.: O how pleasant are thy treadings with thy shoes.

[53]For and its root turn, revolve, see on Son 5:6, and for thighs, on Son 5:15.

[54][Thrupp: Note the homophony in the Hebrew.] bowl of roundness is of course equivalent to round bowl, see Ewald, 287 f. [Greens Heb. Gram. 254, 6, a] The root , as appears from the Samaritan, is synonymous with to go round, surround; comp. on the one hand shield, Psa 91:14, and on the other hand castle, fortress, tower; also little moon, and the Talmudic wall, fence.

[55][Wick.: Never needing drink. Con., Mat.: which is never without drink. Dow.: Never wanting cups. E. V.; which wanteth not liquor.]

[56] Aramism for ; literally hedged in lilies.

[57][Genev.: scarlet. Eng. Ver. Marg.: crimson.]

[58] elsewhere channels, water-troughs are here manifestly the flowing ringlets or locks of her hair, comp. the Lat. coma fluens. [Cov., Mat.: like the kings purple folden up in plates. Cran.: like purple and like a king going forth with his guards about him. Dow.: as a kings purple tied to water-pipes. Genev.: the king is tied in the rafters; with the marginal note he delighteth to come near thee and to be in thy company. Eng. Ver.: the king is held in the galleries. Wordsworth: the king is bound or tied at the water-troughs, i.e. dispenses grace through the appointed channels.]

[59][Wicl.: Thou most dearworth. Cov., Mat.: my darling. Genev.: O my love.]

[60][Thrupp, who is quite too fond of ingenious emendations: O daughter of allurements. We may follow the Syriac and Aquila in dividing the of our Hebrew text into the two words .]

[61][Cov., Mat.: like the grapes.]

[62][Wicl.: Christ of the holy cross saith. Mat.: The spouse speaking of the cross.]

[63][Wicl., Dow.: fruits.]

[64][Wicl.: The voice of Christ to the church. Mat.: The spouse to the spousess.]

[65][Wicl.: The smell of thy mouth. Dow.: odor of thy mouth. Cov., Mat.: the smell of thy nostrils. Genev.: the savor of thy nose.]

[66][Wicl., Cov., Mat., Dow.: throat. Cran.: jaws. Bish., Genev, Eng. Ver.: the roof of thy mouth.]

[67][Wicl.: The church saith of Christ,worthy to my love to drink, to the lips and to the teeth of him to chew. Cov., Mat.: this shall be pure and clear for my love; his lips and teeth shall have their pleasure. Cran,: which goeth straight unto my beloved and bursteth forth by the lips of the ancient elders. Bish.: which is meet for my best beloved, pleasant for his lips and for his teeth to chew. Genev.: which goeth straight to my well-beloved and causeth the lips of the ancient to speak, Dow.: worthy for my beloved to drink and for his lips and his teeth to ruminate. Eng. Ver.: that goeth down Sweetly (Marg. straightly) causing the lips of those that are asleep (Marg. the ancient) to speak, Thrupp: In so difficult a passage some variations of text must be expected; and for the lips of the sleepers, the LXX, Syriac and Aquila apparently concur in reading my lips and teeth; to which reading the versions of Symmachus and Jerome also lend partial and indirect support. It has, however, the disadvantage of being ungrammatical, the true Hebrew for my lips and teeth being . Moreover, the received text is decidedly upheld by the Targum, and yields a more appropriate meaning.]

[68]On lit. going according to evenness (in an even, smooth way) comp. the similar Pro 23:31; also Isa 8:6.

[69]On = comp. Pro 29:5; Psa 36:3. [Wicl.: I to my love and to me the turning of him. Dow.: I to my beloved and his turning is towards me. Cov., Mat., Cran.: There will I turn me unto my love, and he shall turn him unto me. Bish.: I am my beloveds and he shall turn him unto me. Genev.: I am my well-beloveds (Eng. Ver.: beloveds) and his desire is toward me. Ginsburg: It is for me to desire him. lit. on me, i. e. it is upon me as a duty, thus 2Sa 18:11; Pro 7:14.]

[70][Wicl.: The voice of the church to Christ. Mat.: The church speaking to Christ.]

[71]On of going out of the city into the open country comp. also 1Sa 20:6.

[72]To start early () for the vineyards i. e. to rise early and go to them, a constr. prgnans, comp. Ew. 282, c. [Greens Heb. Gram. 272, 3. Wicl.: early rise we to the vine. Cov., Mat.: in the morning will we rise betimes and go see the vineyard.]

[73]The Piel is to be taken reflexively, opened themselves (Del., Hengstenb., Meier), perhaps also inchoatively, whether they are opening, are on the point of bursting (Ew., Heiligst., Vaih. etc.). For comp. on Son 2:13.

[74]On comp. Pro 29:17. [Wicl. omits. Cov., Mat., Cran. Bish., my breasts.]

[75][Wicl.: the mandrakes give their smell in our gates. All apples new and old, my love, I kept to thee. Cov., Mat.: there shall the mandragoras give their smell beside our doors; there, O my love, have I kept unto thee all manner of fruits both new and old.]

[76][Genev.: All sweet things.]

[77]This last clause cannot be taken as an independent sentence (Dpke, Rosenm., Hengstenb.) for then the verb would have new fruit likewise for its object. must be supplied and the resulting relative clause must only be connected with the last predicate (correctly Hitz.).

[78][Wicl., Mat.: The voice of the patriarchs speaking of Christ. Wicl.: Who to me giveth [Dow. shall give to me] thee my brother sucking the teats [Dow. breasts] of my mother, that I find thee alone without forth [Dow. I may find thee without] and kiss thee. Cov., Mat.: O that I might find thee without and kiss thee, whom I love as my brother, which sucked my mothers breasts; and that thou wouldst not be offended if I took thee and brought thee, etc. Cran.:and that thou shouldst not be despised. I will lead thee and bring thee, etc.]

[79]On the conditional clause without , and with nothing to mark the apodosis, comp. Hos 8:12; Pro 24:10; Jdg 11:36.

[80] yet, nevertheless, see Ew. 341, a, [Gesen. Lex. in verb.]

[81]On see Son 7:7 below, Pro 6:30. Instead of me some inferior MSS. read thee, which however seems far less appropriate, and has doubtless been repeated here from the close of the preceding verse. All the ancient versions read . [Genev.: they should not despise thee; Marg. me].

[82][Wicl., Dow., Genev.: Thou shalt teach me. Cov., Mat., Cran., Bish.: that thou mightest teach me. Eng. Ver.: who would instruct me.]

[83]This exclamation differs from that in Son 2:6, with which in other respects it agrees verbatim, merely in the omission of after , Just as stands alone also in Son 7:5 b, so likewise in Exo 24:4; Exo 32:19. We have already seen Son 6:3; Son 4:1; Son 7:4, etc. that the poet does not like exact verbal repetitions of formulas before used.

[84][Wicl., Mat.: The voice of Christ.] Repeated with some freedom from Son 2:7; Son 3:5. In place of there, a prohibitory is introduced here (see Ewald, 325, b, comp. also on Son 5:8 above) [Ainsworth, with more scrupulous adherence to the form of the Hebrew expression; why should ye stir, and why should ye stir up the love.] And by omitting the gazelles and hinds of the field as well as contracting into one word by means of Makkeph, a rhythmical reduction of the whole exclamation to a verse of but two members has been attained.

[85] [That Solomon had given Shulamith any occasion for disquietude, or that her pain at his absence arose from a suspicion of the constancy, warmth or purity of his affection, is the merest figment without the shadow of a foundation in the language of the Song. Solomon is Shulamiths ideal as she is his. She does not utter one word of complaint to others or of reproach to him. There is nothing to imply that in her most secret thoughts she censures him for an absence which is intolerable to her. As far as there is any blame in the case, she casts it upon her own drowsy sluggishness, which forbore to open to him promptly and grant him the admission that he sought. Even this, however, occurring as it did in a dream, seems to be told not so much in a spirit of self-reproach as to demonstrate that she was sick of love. She longs for her beloved every moment, and, sleeping or waking, he is ever in her thoughts, and she is uneasy and restless when he is not by her side. But her confidence is unabated that she is her beloveds and her beloved is hers, Son 6:3. Her language respecting him is that of affectionate admiration, Son 5:10, etc., and his to her is that of the most tender fondness, Son 6:4, etc. There has been a brief separation, but there is nothing to indicate so much as a momentary estrangement on her part or on his.

The current allegorical interpretations seem here to be at fault in one direction as much as that of Zckler errs in the other. The image of ideal love presented in the Song should not be marred by the untimely introduction of any thing outside of itself, whether the sins and inconsistencies of the church or of believing souls on the one hand, or the actual historical character of Solomon as learned from Kings and Chronicles on the other. We are not at liberty to put constraint upon the language here employed for the sake of making the bride mirror forth the deficiencies of the Church or of preserving the consistency of Solomons character as represented here with all that is recorded of him elsewhere.

The bride supplies an emblem of devoted attachment and faithful love, which is to be set before the Church as the ideal towards which she should tend, and after which she should aspire and struggle, rather than as a picture which has been or is realized in her actual life. It is a bride loving, longing for, delighting in her lord, but conscious of no unfaithfulness on her part and suspecting none on his.

And the bridegroom is equally removed from any charge of inconstancy. The military metaphor of Son 6:4-5, to which Zckler appeals, is not suggestive of frowns or of displeasure any more than Son 4:4 or the strong language of Son 4:9. It is her incomparable charms, the batteries of beauty and of love which assault him with such resistless energy that he pleads for quarter. Nor is there any foundation for the desire attributed to Shulamith to escape from Solomons court or to have him forsake it on account of its presumed excesses. It certainly cannot be deduced from language which simply expresses an exquisite delight in natural objects, and a wish to enjoy them in the company of her beloved, and to possess the opportunity which would thus be afforded for uninterrupted and unrestricted converse. The language of the bride Son 7:11-12 is entirely parallel to Son 2:10-13 in the mouth of her lover. And the indelicacy alleged in Son 7:2 is not in the pure language of the song, nor in the chaste and beautiful emblems employed, but must be wholly charged to the account of mal-interpretation. Commentators of what our author justly terms the profane-erotic class have put their own offensive glosses upon this Song; and some devout and evangelical interpreters have unfortunately made concessions which the facts of the case do not warrant. There is not the slightest taint of impurity or immodesty to he found in any portion of this elegant lyric.Tr.]

[86][The difficulty of finding a suitable beginning and close for these divisions suggests a doubt of their certainty, or at least of their importance.Tr.]

[87]A marked instance of this is to be found in the well-known dream of the youthful Ansgar at Corbie, of the broad morass, which prevented him from coming to his mother and other pious women, whom he saw in the company of the blessed virgin on a delightful road, comp. A. Tappehorn, Leben des heil. Ansgar, Apostels Von Dnemark, etc. Munst. 1863, p. 69 f. Rimbert, Vita S. Ansgarii, c. 2, in Pertz, Monum. Germani Tom. II. p. 690.

[88][Burrowes states the true sense much more simply and correctly: These words mean, that as the bride had retired to rest, she could not put herself to the trouble of arising even to let in the beloved.]

[89][Not withdrew his hand from the hole, a rendering mentioned by Ainsworth, disapproved by Williams, and adopted by Burrowes and Ginsburg.]

[90][Percy: It was the ancient custom to secure the door of a house by a cross bar or bolt; which at night was fastened with a little button or pin. In the upper part of the door was left a round hole, through which any person from without might thrust his arm, and remove the bar, unless this additional security were superadded. Thrupp: The hole is that through which according to the fashion of eastern doors, a person from without thrusts in his hand in order to insert the key and so to open it, see Thomson The Land and the Book, chap. 22]

[91][Alexander (Comm. on Isa 16:11): The viscera are evidently mentioned as the seat of the affections. Modern usage would require heart and bosom. Barnes correctly applies to this verse the distinction which philologists have made between the ancient usage of bowels to denote the upper viscera and its modern restriction to the lower viscera, a change which sufficiently accounts for the different associations excited by the same or equivalent expressions then and now.]

[92][Thrupp: up I arose. Literally I arose. So too at the beginning of the next verse the literal rendering is simply I opened. But in both places the use, contrary to the Hebrew custom of the pronoun I is emphatic; and seems to indicate an alertness and forwardness, which must in an English rendering be expressed in some other manner.]

[93][Thrupp thinks the myrrh came from the hands of the bridegroom, Wordsworth from those of the bride. Williams: Commentators in general suppose that the perfume here called liquid myrrh, proceeded from the moisture of his hands, wet with dew; and the compliment in this view is very elegant and beautiful, implying that the fragrance of his body perfumed everything which came in contact with it. If the perfume, however, be referred to the spouse, I think it will imply that she had anointed herself with such luxuriancy that her fingers were still wet with myrrh; and this would partly account for her reluctancy to rise, since indulgence naturally induces sloth. Good and Patrick strangely imagine that in her haste to reach the door she overturned a vase of fragrance which agreeably to oriental practice she had prepared for her lover.]

[94] Particularly Lucretius, 4:1171:

At lacrimans exclusus amator limina spe

Floribus et sertis operit, postesque superbos
Unguit amaracino et foribus miser oscula figit.

Comp. also Tibull. I. ii. 14; Athen. ed. Casaubon, I. 669.

[95][Good: Pure or perhaps liquid myrrh, that which weeps or drops from the tree, the most esteemed but most expensive of this class of perfumes.]

[96][Noyes gives the most satisfactory explanation of this expression: I was not in my senses; literally, my soul was gone from me. The meaning most suited to the connection is, that she acted insanely in not admitting her beloved at his request. It seems to denote that bewilderment of the faculties caused by fear, as in Gen 42:28, or by any other passion; here by the passion of love. Or rather the bewilderment intended would seem to be that strange want of self possession so common in dreams, in consequence of which a person does precisely the wrong thing, and as the result, finds himself in most embarrassing and trying situations. Westminster Annotations: My neglect of his speech troubled me when he was gone. Scott: Either she now recollected his former most tender and affectionate call which she had resisted; or he spake a reproving word as he withdrew, which filled her with extreme distress. Thrupp: My soul failed me for what he had spoken. Here the reference must be to the words uttered by the bridegroom when he first presented himself at the door: for there is no record of his speaking subsequently. Ginsburg: When he spoke of it, i.e., of his going away. Moody Stuart: My soul failed for his speaking; with mingled desire and fear she listens till her soul faints within her.]

[97][Thrupp: It seems to be generally agreed that the word occurring here, and at Isa 3:23, denotes a wide and thin garment, such as Eastern ladies to the present day throw over all the rest of their dress. The Germans well translate it Schleierkleid, veil-garment. Good: To tear away the veil from an Eastern lady is one of the greatest indignities that can be offered to her.]

[98][Much better Thrupp: That the dramatic form may be preserved a question is here put by the chorus of the Daughters of Jerusalem in order to furnish occasion for the description which follows. It is also to he observed that the inquiry is not who he is, as though it implied their ignorance of his person, but what is he. They simply wish to draw from her her estimate of him.Tr.]

[99][Thrupp: His hands are folding panels of gold. The word is applied, as we learn from 1Ki 6:34, to the separate portions of a folding door; the doors to the holy of holies consisted of two leaves, each of which in its turn consisted of two halves or folds. There is no passage in which the word denotes a ring; nor would this meaning be here so appropriate. The image is that of a door, not necessarily a large door, constructed in four or five separate folds, corresponding to the appearance presented by the hand when the fingers, while kept in contact with each other, are stretched at full length.]

[100](Burrowes: These doubtless refer to the beauty of his sandals; so Good, Taylor, Williams and others. This seems to be the better explanation notwithstanding Ginsburgs objection: That it refers to his feet and not to his sandals is evident from Son 5:11; Son 5:14, where the head and the hands, the visible parts of the body, are described as golden; and it is but natural that the feet, the only remaining exposed parts, should also be described as golden.)

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

3. Solomon to Shulamith at the wedding entertainment, Son 4:1-6.

Son 4:1. Lo, thou art fair, my dear, etc.The verbal correspondence of this praise of Solomons beauty with Son 1:15 is designed as in Son 6:4 (and so in Son 6:10; Son 8:5 comp. with Son 3:6) to direct attention to Solomon as again the speaker of these words. And it follows with great probability that the person addressed is likewise the same as before, not some new object of the kings love different from Shulamith, as Hitzig asserts.Behind thy veil.So correctly Hitzig, Vaih., Heiligst., etc., with whom Bttch. and Gesen.-Dietr. (through thy veil, i.e., appearing through) substantially agree.1Thy hair like a flock of goats which repose on Mount Gilead.As Gilead is visible from the Mount of Olives in the far distance, but not from Jerusalem, its mention, like that of Lebanon and Hermon in Son 4:8, and like so many other allusions in the poem to localities in the north of Palestine, is to be explained from the circumstance that when Solomon was speaking to his beloved, he liked to transport himself to the region of her home with its peculiar circle of impressions and ideas. Gilead is, besides, a mountain land specially rich in cattle (comp. Num 32:1; Mic 7:14; Jer 1:19), and modern travellers have found it still strewn, as it were, with flocks and herds. Comp. Arvieux, II., 688; Paulus, Reisen, 7, 108; Rosenm., Morgenl., I., 85, etc.The point of comparison in the figure is to be found mainly in the glossy blackness and luxuriant abundance of Shulamiths hair, perhaps also in its silky softness and delicacy, less likely in her elegant and elaborately braided tresses, to which Magnus thinks there was subordinate reference. Old Luis de Leon correctly (in Wilkens, p. 219): He indicated thus the abundance and the color of her hair; for the goats, which pastured there, were dark and glossy. He says therefore: as the goats scattered on the summit of Gilead give it a fine and pretty appearance, whilst before it looked like a bald and arid rock, so does thy hair adorn and ornament thy head by its rich color and abundance.

Son 4:2. Thy teeth like a flock of shorn sheep.Sheep recently shorn, consequently smooth, and besides just washed in the pool, and hence snow-white, evidently are a peculiarly appropriate figure for dazzling white teeth, provided pastoral figures or those taken from the realm of country life were to be used at all. And this was to a certain extent necessary here; at least it was extremely natural to illustrate the contrast between the blackness of her hair and the whiteness of her teeth by adding a flock of white lambs to the flock of black goats spoken of in Son 4:1. The idea of the pool for the sheep spontaneously offered itself, since washing newly shorn sheep was a universal custom in antiquity; comp. Columellas advice (Son 7:4) to wash sheep four days after the shearing.All of which bear twins, and one bereaved is not among them.An allusion to the completeness of her teeth, the two rows of which, upper and lower, not only have no breaks, but in every instance exhibit a pair of teeth exactly answering to one another, twin teeth, as it were, throughout.2 That sheep in the East are still mostly , i.e., have two lambs at a time, is testified by recent travellers, e.g., the anonymous author of the publication, gypten wie es jetzt ist, p. 42 (comp. Magn. in loc.). L. De Leon (in the same place as before) has again finely shown the sensible and striking character of the comparison here selected: The figure almost paints the whole thing before our eyes. The flock of sheep, which always go crowded together like the scales of fir cones, represent the compactness and smallness of her teeth: their whiteness is expressed by their coming up from the washing; their uniformity by none being sick or barren.

Son 4:3. Like a crimson thread thy lips, and thy mouth is lovely.The lips immediately follow the teeth, not simply because they cover them (Hitzig), but also because the bright red of the one forms an elegant contrast with the dazzling whiteness of the other; comp. the combination of the two colors in Son 5:10. Then the mouth, comprehending both teeth and lips, stands here in its quality of an organ of speech, whence also it is called from , to speak, and is supplied with a predicate (, lovely; comp. Son 2:14; Son 1:15), which serves to characterize not so much its pretty shape or color as the agreeable and beneficent effects proceeding from it. The Sept., Vulg., Syr., Hengstenb., etc., take as equivalent to speech; A. Schultens and Dpke, to tongue; Hitzig, to palate. But like all that is described before and after, this expression must denote some part of the body, and one too that is externally visible, and which forms a substantial feature of Shulamiths beauty.Like a piece of pomegranate thy cheek. literally the temple (Jdg 4:21; Jdg 5:26), here manifestly the upper part of the cheek, whose soft red borders upon the white of the temple. For this figure of the half of a pomegranate ( ) refers to the pleasing combination of white and red; on one side of the exterior of this fruit a bright red is mingled with yellow and white, whilst the other side looks brown (Dpke). It is only to a half, a segment3 ( from , to cut fruit, 2Ki 4:39) of the pomegranate that the cheek is compared because its soft curve only corresponds in fact to the segment of a sphere. Not, therefore, like a slice of a pomegranate (Luth.) [so Durell, Hodg., Thrupp], as though the flat inner surface of a sliced pomegranate were intended (Hengstenb., Hahn., etc.). For the appearance of the reddish seeds of this fruit, lying in a yellowish pulp, would not form a suitable comparison, whether for a cheek or a temple.

Son 4:4. Like the tower of David thy neck, built for an armoury. His aim was not to describe the slender grace and erectness of Shulamiths neck in and of itself, but likewise with reference to its ornaments consisting of brilliant jewelry and ornamental chains (comp. Son 1:9-11) and consequently in respect to its superb and stately appearance (comp. Son 7:5 [4]). A pecularly suitable comparison was accordingly offered to the king in the tower, hung around with burnished pieces of armor, and probably built of white free-stone, which David may have erected somewhere in the vicinity, perhaps at one corner of his palace on Zion as a bulwark or a watch tower.4 The identity of this tower with the tower of Lebanon which looks toward Damascus mentioned in Son 8:5 (4) is contradicted by the fact that the latter is a figure for an entirely different thing from that now before us (versusEwald, Hitzig, etc.). Still less can the ivory tower spoken of in the very same passage be identical with this. This manifestly appears from the further defining clauses built for an armory, etc., to have been a fortification, a stronghold for arms, a tower for warlike purposes, and hence, perhaps, is not distinct from the house of the mighty ( ) spoken of in Neh 3:16, which is assigned to the neighborhood of the district of Beth-zur and the sepulchres of David, i.e., on the eastern side of Zion, on the very spot where Davids old palace must have stood (comp. Weissbachin loc.)The difficult expression , which the LXX render as a proper name (), the Vulg. by propagnacula, Aq., and the Versio Veneta by , is most correctly taken with Kimchi for a compound of collis (const.) and enses, edges, sword-blades (Pro 5:4; Jdg 3:16; comp. Psa 149:6), or which amounts to the same thing, referred to to hang and in the same sense as before (Hengstenb., Del., Weissb., etc.). In both cases it must designate a lofty object of the nature of a fortification, hung around with swords or bristling with swords, consequently, as mention is also made of shields in what follows, an armory which, as it served for the preservation of numerous martial weapons of offence and defence, was likewise hung around with them on the outside, and thus embellished. For the shields hung on it () according to the next clause of the verse, and not barely in it (as Hitzig supposes, who fancies a mound of earth, which hides in its bosom such murderous weapons as swords, shields, etc. This explanation is at any rate better suited to the connection and yields a more appropriate figure for Shulamiths neck decorated with brilliant ornaments than the derivation of from a substantive , which, according to the Arab., would mean host, army (Ewald: built for troops; Bttch., Rdig., compare Heiligst.), or from an alleged adjective exitialis, destructive, hence exitialia, viz. arma, murderous weapons, or from = to be white, hence pieces of alabaster (Hahn), and the like.5All the shields of heroes. has a wider meaning than , which specially denotes the shield of a light armed soldier, the target; see Gesen. Thes., p. 1418. We are scarcely to think of the shields of conquered heroes, of those for instance which David (2Sa 8:7) had taken from the Syrians (versus Weissb.), because the mighty men here mentioned are simply referred to as the garrison of the armory here described. Comp., moreover, Eze 27:11, a passage which is probably based on that before us.

Son 4:5. Thy two breasts like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, that are feeding among lilies. On c comp. Son 2:16. The comparison is plainly intended to express delicate and exquisite beauty (Hitz.); for since the gazelle itself, when full grown, is an admirable, attractive and favorite emblem of womanly grace and loveliness (Pro 5:19; comp. above on Son 2:7; Son 2:9), a twin pair of its young lying on a bed covered with lilies appears to be still better fitted to illustrate the fragrant delicacy and elegance of a chaste virgin bosom veiled by the folds of a dress redolent of sweet odors (comp. Son 1:13). A more detailed parcelling out of the comparison (as for instance by Hitzig, who thinks that the dress was red, or by Weissb., who supposes a particular reference in the young gazelles to the dark-colored nipples of her breasts as their especial charm, and in the lilies to the snowy whiteness of her bosom) is inadmissible, and leads to what is in violation of good taste or to what is obscene, from both which the poet has kept free here as every where else. Admirably here again Luis de Leon (p. 221, f.): In addition to the delicacy of the young kids, in addition to their similarity as twins, in addition to their loveliness and gentleness they have in their merry gambols a frolicksomeness and gayety, which irresistibly enchains the eyes of beholders, and attracts them to come near and touch them, etc.

Son 4:6. Until the day cools and the shadows flee I will get me to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense. If Solomon were still the speaker in these words, nothing else could possibly be meant by the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense, but the breasts of the bride which would be so designated here in facetious and flowery style (Ewald, Heiligst., Weissb., Ren., etc.,) with allusion to the fragrant substances, which were between them or upon them6 (comp. Son 1:13). But the very circumstance, that then the foregoing figure for the bosom would here be followed by one entirely new and of a different description, whilst every other part of the body spoken of in this section is represented by but a single figure (see Son 4:1-4) makes it improbable that the words before us belong to Solomon. To which may be added that , etc., must belong to Shulamith here as well as in Son 2:17; and that Bttchers attempt to assign only these introductory words to the vinedresser as he calls her, and the latter part of the verse from onward to the king who interrupts her, seems scarcely less arbitrary than Hitzigs view that the whole verse is spoken by the shepherd, who suddenly enters and declares his purpose to effect the speedy rescue of Shulamith! Umbr., Dpke, Vaih., Delitzsch, etc., properly assign the words to Shulamith, who seeks thus to parry the ardent encomiums of Solomon, and hence expresses the wish to leave the wedding hall resounding with the boisterous festivities of the guests until the approach of evening. The mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense, which she wishes to visit for this end, were probably certain localities about the royal palace, near the hall and visible from it, which either always bore those names or only on the occasion of the present marriage, to which fumigations with various spices belonged as an absolutely indispensable ingredient, comp. Son 3:6. As presumably solitary, shady spots, belonging, it may be, to grounds laid out as gardens (perhaps beds of balsam. of the sort mentioned in Son 5:13, raised in the shape of pyramids or towers), these must have been to the simple-minded, guileless child of nature more desirable places to stay in than the noisy festive hall. Comp. her similar expressions of a strong desire for the fresh solitude of nature in opposition to the luxurious life of the court; Son 1:7; Son 1:16, and especially Son 7:12 (11) ff. This understanding of the mountain of myrrh, etc., is evidently far less forced than explaining it of Lebanon, or generally of the region of Shulamiths home, for which she here expresses her desire (Umbreit, Vaih.), or of Sion as the seat of the court (Hitzig), or of Zion as a figure of the church (Hengstenb.), or of Moriah as the Temple-mountain which is here designated (Ibn Ezra, Jarchi). Comp. on Son 5:13 and Son 6:2.

4. Continuation: Son 4:7-11.

Son 4:7. Thou art all fair, my dear, and there is not a blemish in thee. Correctly Delitzsch: This childlike disposition expressed Son 4:6, makes her but the more lovely in the eyes of the king; he breaks out in the words, thou art all fair, my dear, etc., undoubtedly meaning that the beauty of her soul corresponds with her outward beautynot with reference, therefore; to the charms, of her bodily figure from her breast downward, which are more fully described subsequently Son 7:2 ff. (Weissb.)On the form of expression, particularly in b, comp. 2Sa 14:25; Eph 5:27.

Son 4:8. With me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon thou shalt come. Several of the advocates of the shepherd-hypothesis assume at these words a change of person and with it likewise a change of scene, either making the shepherd himself enter and speak all that follows to Son 4:16 (so Bttcher, Ren.), or at least to Son 4:8 (so Hitzig), or regarding all from this verse to Son 5:8 as a monologue of Shulamith, who herein relates the words previously spoken to her by her country lover (so Ewald, who accordingly imagines that the words: Lo, here comes my lover, and says to me, or the like, have been dropped out before this verse). But an unprejudiced interpretation renders such artifices needless. Led by the wish of his beloved, expressed in Son 4:6, to exchange her place amongst the jubilant guests for the quiet solitude of nature, Solomon recalls her descent from a simple shepherds family in the mountain region of Northern Palestine, and hence he exultingly and in exaggerated expressions announces to her how instead of living in sterile mountain districts, and on barren rocky heights rendered insecure by wild beasts, she should henceforth make her home with him in the royal palace, and in the midst of its rich joys and blissful beauties, herself its loveliest flower, the most charming and spicy of its gardens (see especially Son 4:12-15). The enthusiastic lover does not consider that in this he says nothing that is really agreeable to her, but actually contravenes her longing to escape into the open country from the close and sultry atmosphere of court life, any more than he concerns himself about the exaggerated character of his comparisons, e.g. of the mountains around Shunem with Lebanon, or of the little foxes in Shulamiths vineyards (Son 2:15) with lions and panthers. Poetical exaggerations of this sort are besides quite accordant with his taste (comp. Son 4:4 and especially Son 7:5), and appear much less strange in him than the bold comparison of Zion or of Solomons palace with the heights of Lebanon and Hermon (according to Hitzig, Bttch., Renan, etc.,) would sound in the mouth of a simple shepherd.Besides thou shalt come shows that the speaker had a definite term in mind, to which Shulamith was to come from Lebanon as her previous residence (comp. Hitzigin loc.), and that consequently the idea of going up and down from one peak of Lebanon to another (Delitzsch) is not found in the passage.7Shalt journey from the top of Amana. The summit or the top of Amana is without doubt the mountain by the river Amana mentioned 2Ki 5:12 Kri, that is to say that peak of the Lebanon or more accurately the Antilibanus-range, in which this river Amana, the Chrysorrhoas of the Greeks or the Barada of, the Arabs takes its rise. This peak, like the following Shenir and Hermon, stands of course by poetic license for the entire range. For the poet cannot have intended a contrast between the Lebanon in a and these names of mountains that follow, but he only varies the names because one meant the same to him as another (so correctly Hitzig, versusDelitzsch, Hengstenb., etc.).From the top of Shenir and Hermon. According to Deu 3:9 Shenir was the Amoritish name for Hermon itself, which thereby appears to be designated as the snow mountain (according to Jarchi on that passage and the Targum on this). Still it is shown as well by the passage before us as by Eze 27:5, 1Ch 5:23, that a distinction was commonly made between Shenir which lay further to the north and Hermon (now Jebel esh-Sheikh) the more southern of the principal peaks in the entire Hermon or Antilibanus range (comp. Robinson, Palest. II. p. 440 (edit. 1838), Berth, on 1Ch 5:23). As now Amana, where the Chrysorrhoas has its source, must be the peak lying farthest to the east or north-east, the enumeration of the three peaks or ridges belonging to Antilibanus evidently proceeds from the north-east to the south-west, or from the region of Baalbec to that of Hasbeya and Paneas (comp. Hitzigin loc.).From dens of lions, from mountains of panthers. These expressions as belonging to the description and only alluding in a general way to the wild and inhospitable character of the region about Shulamiths home, are not to be pressed for the sake of obtaining any more special sense, particularly not so as with Kster, Bttcher, Hitzig, etc. to explain the lions of the king of Israel and his magnates who have dragged the graceful roe Shulamith into his den! Lions moreover must have had their haunts in the forests of Lebanon, as well as in the reeds on the banks of the Jordan (Zec 11:3; Jer 12:5) and on Bashan (Deu 33:22). And panthers (this is the meaning of , not leopards, which as is known, are only found in Africa) are still found in the region of Lebanon according to modern travellers, (Burckhardt, Reisen in Syrien, pp. 99, 66).

Son 4:9. Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my bride. This double designation of his beloved as sister and as bride is neither meant to indicate a peculiarly intimate nor preeminently chaste and pure relation of love. The thing here intended by it is the designation of a certain relationship. As Solomons lawful wife Shulamith now, after the marriage has taken place, stands next to him as a sister to her brother.8 She is not barely one of a number of wives (Son 6:8) but a sisterly sharer of his royal rank and name. She is queen, as he is king, yes, a princes daughter, Son 7:2, as he is a princes son (correctly Hitzig and Weissb.). not thou robbest me of courage (Umbr., Magn.), non thou hast given me courage (Symm., Syr., Ewald, Dpke, Bttcher, Meier, Weissb., etc.), but thou hast unhearted me (Delitzsch) i.e. robbed me of my heart, so that it is no more mine but thine, hast enchanted me and made me wholly thine own.9With one of thy glances; literally with one from thy eyes, i.e. with a single one of the glances that proceed from them (Hengstenb., Hitzig, etc.); for the masc. of the Kthibh, which is certainly to be retained, cannot refer to one of the two eyes ( is never masc.), but only to one thing which comes forth from the eyes, an effect proceeding from them.10With one chain of thy necklace. The representation is ideal and hyperbolical as in the preceding verse. It proceeds in rapturous exaggerations as well here where it paints in detail, as before where it dealt in pompous and grandiloquent expressions. But to be sure, in the matter of love, it always remains true: small causes often produce great effects! not ringlet, lock of the front hair hanging down on the neck (Hitzig), but neckchain, or ornament (comp. the plur.: Pro 1:9; Jdg 8:16). , since it is plural, can neither mean neck (Sept., Vulg., Hitzig, etc.) nor be a diminutive of endearment, tiny neck (Gesenius, Ewald, Heiligst., etc.). It must rather denote something suspended about the neck, a necklace or jewelry for the neck,11 and a single piece or constituent of it. What had enchanted the king was of course not the elegance or ingenious workmanship of this ornament itself, but that Shulamiths neck looked so charmingly in it. Comp. above on Son 1:10.

Son 4:10. How fair is thy love, my sister, my bride. here again, not breasts (Sept., Vulg., Luther), but caresses, manifestations of love, as Son 1:2. Comp. generally Son 1:2-3. Solomon here gives back to his beloved with larger measure, what she had there declared of him when absent.

Son 4:11. Liquid honey thy lips distil, my bride; honey and milk are under thy tongue. As in the preceding verse, which like the present consists of three clauses, the first two members refer to one and the same subject, so these two clauses aim to depict but one attribute or one characteristic of Shulamith, viz., her lovely discourse, how sweetly she talked. For it is to this that the figures of lips and tongue point, comp. on the one hand Pro 5:3; Pro 6:24; Pro 7:5; Pro 16:24; and on the other Psa 55:22; Psa 66:17; Psa 10:7; Pindar, Nem. iii. 134; Theocrit. Id. viii. 82 ff.; xx. 26 ff. The fragrant spittle of the kissing mouth can scarcely be intended (vs. Dpke, Magn., Weissb.), in spite of Arabic and classic parallels, that might be adduced (the saliva oris osculantisHorat. Od. I. 13, 16; Catull. 99, 2, etc.). For the parallels Son 2:14, Son 5:13; Son 5:16, likewise refer to the loveliness of discourse, not to the sweetness of kisses.And the fragrance of thy garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon. As is shown by the parallel, Hos 14:7, the Lebanon of this passage is not to be converted into frankincense as Dpke imagines, on account of the sicut odor thuris of the Vulg. (which probably arose from misunderstanding the of the Sept.). Modern travellers testify (Schulz, Leit. d. Allerh., Th. V. p. 459; Zeller, Bibl. Wrterbuch fr d. Christl. Volk II. p. 42) that the cedar groves of Lebanon diffuse a strong balsamic odor. Isaac also commends the scent of his son Esaus garments (Gen 27:27); and so Psa 45:9 praises the garments of a king celebrating his marriage, which were perfumed with myrrh, aloes and cassia.

5. Continuation. Son 4:12-15.

Son 4:12. A garden locked is my sister, my bride; a spring locked, a fountain sealed. If instead of in b we were with about 50 Heb. Mss. of Kennicott, the Sept., Vulg., Syr., etc.,12 to read again, the comparison with the garden, being immediately repeated, would appear to be the main and prominent thought. But it is evidently more suitable that the figure of the spring, which is not carried out any further in what immediately follows, should be twice repeated, in order that it may not be too abrupt. The change of the unusual (which means spring, fountain, as appears from Jos 15:19; Jdg 1:15; comp. English well, of which the German Wellen (waves) is the plural) into which had been used just before, would also be easier to explain, than a conversion of the latter into the former expression. The garden and the spring being locked up and sealed, naturally indicates that the access is open only to the owner and possessor himself. Comp. Son 4:16, where Shulamith designates her hidden charms first as her own garden, then as Solomons; also Pro 5:15-18, where the figure of a spring is likewise applied to the natural relation between a wife and her wedded lord, so that she is represented by a fountain absolutely inaccessible to all men except her husband, and the right of the latter freely to enjoy and to refresh himself with the waters of this spring is clearly presupposed.13 A previous coyness of Shulamith toward her lover (Hitzig, Vaih., etc.) is not at all the thing intended.

Son 4:13-14. A more minute description of the garden, i.e., of the charms of Shulamith, in so far as they may be represented by the choice plants and delicious fruits of a pleasure garden, accessible only to the king; an expansion therefore of Son 4:12 a (as Son 4:12 b is more fully unfolded in Son 4:15). Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates. means here as in Exo 31:5, not a plantation (Hengstenb.), but a single plant, literally a shoot, sprout (comp. Psa 80:12; Jer 17:8; Eze 17:6-7). By this figurative expression are denoted the charms, the ravishing beauties of the beloved in general, not specially her limbs (Hitzig), or the fragrance of her unguents (Weissb.). A particular explanation of the individual products of the garden is, on the whole, impossible, and it leads to what is at variance with good taste. pomegranates, i.e., the trees, not their fruit (Dpke, Ewald, Weissb.); for the fruit is mentioned afterwards.On the different opinions respecting the etymology of , comp. the Introduction, 3 Rem. 2.With most excellent fruit; lit., with fruit of excellencies ( as Son 7:13). The fruit of the pomegranate trees before mentioned may very well be intended; with does not necessarily, as is shown by Son 1:11, introduce something entirely new and of a different sort (vs. Weissb.)Cyprus flowers with nards. As already remarked on Son 1:12; Son 1:14, the cyprus flower or alhenna was the only one of these plants, which was also cultivated in Palestine. The nard grass, grown only in India, is therefore simply added here for the sake of the delightfully fragrant unguent obtained from it, as in the following verse incense, calamus, cinnamon, and probably also saffron are exotic plants known to the Hebrews only from their aromatic products. The description accordingly loses itself here again in rapturous exaggerations and improbabilities in natural history, which however at the same time bear witness to an extensive knowledge of nature (comp. Introduc. 3, Rem. 1).Nard and crocus, calamus and cinnamon., Chald., Sept. (comp. Sanskrit, kunkuma) is the saffron flower, (Crocus sativus) indigenous in India, but introduced also into Egypt and Asia Minor, and consequently perhaps also into Palestine. A water was prepared from it for smelling bottles, with a pungent but agreeable odor, which was a great favorite in antiquity; comp. Winer, R. W. B. Art. Safran., Sept., is, according to Jer 6:20; Isa 43:24; Eze 27:19, an article of trade brought from Arabia Felix, sweet cane, calamus. The calamus (juncus odoratus, Plin. XII. 22; XXI. 18) which according to Theophrastus, Pliny and Strabo, grew in Coelesyria and by the lake of Gennesaret, was of an inferior and less valuable sort. a Semitic name, as it would appear (lit. the reed, or the rolled together, from =), in case it is not of Indian origin, and connected with the Malay kainamanis (so Rdiger, Additamenta ad Thesaur., p. 111) signifies cinnamon, which, according to Herodot. III. 111 came through Arabia from the remotest south, that is, probably from Ceylon.With every variety of incense woods,i.e., with every species of wood, which yields a fragrant gum of the nature of frankincense, or when pulverized is used as aromatic dust, or as a powder to be sprinkled for fumigation. In opposition to the reading (Sept., Velth., Dpke), see Hitzigin loc.Myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices. For myrrh comp. on Son 1:13; and for aloes ( or , as Pro 7:17.; Num 24:6; Gr. , Sanskr. aguru, aghil) see Winer, R. W. B.Under all the chief (lit., all heads of) aromatic plants, balsams or spices ( a general expression, as in Exo 30:23; Est 2:12), in addition to the substances already named, cassia is especially to be regarded as included. For according to Exo 30:23 ff., this particular aromatic product was mingled with myrrh, calamus and cinnamon, in the holy anointing oil, and in Psa 45:9 (8) it appears with myrrh and aloes among the precious spices, with which the garments of the royal bridegroom were perfumed.

Son 4:15. Further expansion of Son 4:12 b.A garden spring (art thou), a well of living water. Comp. Gen 26:19; Jer 2:13. By the garden spring (lit. spring of gardens) Hitzig understands the fountain of Siloah in particularan assumption which is the more gratuitous, as the allusion to which he finds in Son 4:13, exists merely in the fancy of the overacute modern critic, in spite of Neh 3:15; Isa 8:6; Ecc 2:6, etc.And streams from Lebanon,i.e., water as fresh and delightfully refreshing as the gushing streams fed by the snows of Lebanon, Jer 18:14. On the figure comp. besides Pro 5:15, the Phenician inscription of Kition (No. 2) adduced by Hitzig, in which a husband calls his deceased wife , i.e., , the spring of my life.

6. The complete union of the lovers, Son 4:16; Son 5:1.Ibn Ezra, followed by Ewald and Delitzsch, correctly puts the whole of Son 5:16 into the mouth of Shulamith. The contrast of my garden in a with his garden in b does not make in favor of two speakers, but simply brings out the thought that her garden is his, and therefore that she, with all she has and is, belongs to him; a delicately refined suggestion which is lost by dividing the verse between the lover and his beloved, as approved in recent times (Dpke, Magn., Bttch., Hitz., Ren., etc.).

Son 4:16. Awake, north wind, and come, O south. Shulamith in her poetically excited frame summons just these two winds to blow upon her garden, because neither the east wind with its parching effects and its frequent storms (Gen 41:6; Isa 27:8), nor the rainy west wind (1Ki 18:44 f; Luk 12:54) would be suitable in the connection; and yet two opposite winds must be named, as it is not a blowing off or blowing away that is intended, but causing the odors to flow forth and wafting them in all directions.14That its spices may flow,i.e., that every thing in me, which pleases my lover, all my charms may show themselves to him in their full power and loveliness.Let my beloved come to his garden, and eat his excellent fruits. The language here becomes plainer, and passes over into a solicitation to her lover to enjoy to the full her charms which he had been praising (for to eat in this comp. Pro 30:20.) Yet she expresses this wish not by a direct address to him, but by speaking of him in the third persona token of her chaste, modest and bashful mind.Son 5:1. I come to my garden, my sister, my bride. That Solomon is here the speaker, whilst full of rapture he sets himself to comply with his beloveds invitation and to devote himself entirely to her loving embrace incontestably appears from the correspondence of with in b of the preceding verse, and of here with there. These verbs, as well as (= I pluck, Exo 16:16) and are not to be taken as preterites: I have come, etc., (Del., as the Sept., Vulg., Luther, etc.,) because the acme of loves enjoyment, to which both are tending, was by no means reached and exhausted by a single conjugal embrace, but strictly as present, as serving to state that which is in the very act of being performed.15 Comp. ; Son 1:9, and numerous examples in Ewald, Lehrb., 135 c, [GreensHeb. Gram., 262, 2.]I pluck my myrrh. I eat my honey. I drink my wine. A threefold declaration in different forms of his immediate readiness to enjoy the charms of his beloved, with a partial return to the figures in Son 4:10-11; Son 4:13.16Eat friends, drink and drink to repletion, O beloved. Every other understanding of these closing verses seems inappropriate and forced but that already suggested, according to which they are an encouraging address of the bridegroom to the wedding guests, who remain behind at the table. Thus, e.g., that of Ewald, that Shulamith describes in these words the way in which her distant lover, if she were with him and were celebrating her marriage with him, would remember his friends; the strange and burlesque idea of Bttcher referred to above, p. 72; that, too, of Eichhorn, Magnus, Hitzig: that the words are an exhortation of the poet to the two lovers to enjoy their love and intoxicate themselves therewith; and the like views of others, according to which Solomon either encourages his beloved (Umbr., Hengstenb., Hahn) or she him (Weissb.) to the enjoyment of love. These latter views are based upon an untenable translation of by love as though it were the object of (intoxicate yourselves with love) for with the scriptio plena is plur. of beloved (comp. on Son 1:2), and consequently Pro 7:18 (where it is caresses with the scriptio defectiva) cannot decide for the present case. The Sept., Vulg., Luther, Dpke, Vaih., Del., are substantially correct, the last of whom adds the just remark in explanation: For each (of the guests) was to have his share in tasting the joy of this day.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. That the action of the Canticles reaches its centre and acme in this act, and especially at the close of it, cannot be doubted upon an unprejudiced view of the whole. The newly wedded bride is now in the arms of her husband and king. Their ardent mutual love is the joyous spectacle presented to a festive assembly, which is attached to the king by friendship and love. Every where the feeling suited to a wedding, enjoyment, and this enjoyment shared by loving sympathy. Arrived at the summit of loves mystery and moving there with holy purity the song here dies away amid the revelry of the guests. (Del., p. 115.)

2. The recognition of the central and superior significance of this section is of necessity precluded upon the allegorical interpretation, because it fails to perceive the organic progress of the action in general, and supposes the union of the two lovers to have become complete long before this, (comp. above, p. 56) so as neither to require nor admit of increase. This unio mystica, this perfect union of Christ with His church or with the individual soul it consequently finds not at the conclusion merely, but already indicated at the very beginning of the present act in the bed of Solomon, Son 3:7, by which it is true many allegorists understand every different sort of thing, (e.g., Ibn Ezra, the land of Israel; the Targ. and in recent times again Jo. Lange, the temple; Sanctius, prayer; Theodoret, the Holy Scriptures; Aponius, the cross of Christ; and Osiander, the free exercise of religion even!) But the majority find represented in it the communion of believers with Christ at the acme of its perfection, whether their particular explanation points to Christ Himself (Ambrose), or they find symbolized in it the heart of the Christian believer in conformity with Eph 3:17 (Coccei., etc.,) or the free access of believers to the throne of grace in this world and the next (Joh. Marck.), or the church militant on earth, in which many children are born to the Lord (Starke after many of the older writers, as Gregory the Great, Cassiodor., Beda, Calov., Heunisch, etc.), or the intimate relation between the heavenly Solomon and the church (Hengst.), or the kingdom administered by Solomon, so far as its power is directed ad extra (Hahn). In the case of the sedan or magnificent couch ( Son 3:9) this divergence of interpretations is repeated with a prevailing disposition to refer it to the unio mystica. For besides the holy of holies in the temple (Targ.), or the word of God (Mercer.), or the church (Zeltn.), or the human nature of Christ (Ambros., Athanas., Greg., Beda, Anselm, Jo. Lange), it is particularly the work of redemption with the gracious results proceeding from it (Sanctius; similarly Cocceius, Groenewegen, Starke, etc.,) or as expressed by Hengstenberg: the glory of those measures by which the heavenly Solomon brings the Gentile nations into His kingdom, that is supposed to be intended by this figure of the sedan.17 It is the same with Son 3:11, where the day of Solomons marriage according to Starke signifies three things: 1. The day of salvation, when a sinner yields to converting grace, and is united to Christ by faith; 2. The day of the resurrection of the just, when Christ will make them partakers of the blessedness of the world to come. 3. The time when the Jewish people, who have long rejected Him shall crown Him in faith and publicly acknowledge Him as their bridegrooman explanation with which most of the older and the later writers (even Hengstenb., Hahn, etc.,) substantially agree, especially in so far that nearly all of them understand by the mother of Solomon the church of the Old Testament or the people of Israel, and by the crown with which she adorns her son the entire body of converted souls, which are an ornament and an honor to the Messiah,18 comp. Php 4:1; 1Th 2:19, etc.

This method of putting every possible interpretation upon every particular thing, and thus attaining an extravagant exuberance of multifarious significations, is also followed, of course, by the allegorists in the enthusiastic description of the beauty of the bride in Son 4:1 ff. The hair of Shulamith compared with the flock of goats is made to signify either the entire body of believers or the weak and despised members of the church, or on the contrary, those who strive after a higher measure of perfection, the prelates of the church who have a keen eye like the goats, seek their food on the summits, eat what is green and chew the cud, and have parted hoofs and horns, wherewith to fight the heretics! The teeth of the beloved are prelates who feed upon the Scriptures, or teachers who attack the heretics; the lips either the preachers of Gods word or confessions of faith of the church; the neck the Holy Scriptures or the steadfastness and assured hope of believers; the breasts compared with twin roes either the law and the gospel, or the Old and New Testament, or the Jews and Gentiles, or the eastern and western church, or baptism and the Lords Supper as the two sacraments of the church!19 The locking up of the garden Son 4:12 ff, denotes the strong protection with which God surrounds His church as with a wall of fire; the sealing is the gracious operations of the Holy Spirit on the church to enlighten and preserve it, Eph 4:30. The blowing of the north and south wind, Son 4:16 also signifies the Holy Spirit in the varied operations of His grace, purifying, quickening, comforting, rendering fruitful, etc.; and the coming of the bridegroom into his garden

(Son 5:1) according to the chronological expositors denotes the dawn of some new epoch in church history, e.g., according to Cocceius the times immediately succeeding Constantine the Great; according to Heunisch the ante-reformation period from the time of the great Schism (1378); according to Corn. a Lapide the incipient old age of the church, etc., but according to the greater number the particular times when Christ enters with the heavenly blessings of His grace into the hearts of believers (Rev 3:20; Joh 14:23), or the threefold advent of the Redeemer: 1. In the form of a servant to found His church. 2. His invisible coming by His Holy Spirit to every individual of His people. 3. His eschatological coming at the judgment and the consummation. Compare generally the multitude of old interpretations of this sort collected by Starke on this section; also Wilkens, Fray Luis de Leon, p. 207, 215, and Dursch, Symbolik der Christlichen Religion, Vol. II. (Tbing., 1859),) passim.

3. Against such excesses and capricious trifling there is no protection but in that historical exegesis, which on the basis of the meaning of the words impartially ascertained endeavors, it is true, to point out the relations in which this action stands to the mysteries of revelation and redemption, and so to make application of its contents to the matters of the Christian life, but conscientiously refrains from all seeking or chasing after any direct spiritual and practical interpretation of individual passages, much less of individual words. To such an exegesis there appear to be chiefly three particulars of especial consequence in that stage of the action which is represented in this act: the elevation of the bride from a low condition to royal dignity and glory; her wondrous beauty as the ground of this elevation; and her chaste and humble mind which impels her to belong only to her lover and to live for him alone.

a. The simple country maiden from the tribe of Issachar is raised to be queen of all Israel, conducted in Solomons stately couch with a brilliant military escort, welcomed by the women of Jerusalem with pride and admiration, brought for her marriage to his splendid palace in Zion by Solomon, the most famous prince of his time. Here full of rapture he declares to her that he loves and admires her more than all beside, that she has completely won and captivated him, so that his heart belongs to her alone, and that she is henceforth to exchange her humble surroundings and her country home for his royal palace and its rich enjoyments and brilliant pleasures (see especially Son 4:8-9). In like manner Christ, who is a greater than Solomon, who is King of all kings, and Lord of all lords, has exalted His church from misery and a low estate to a participation in His divine glory; He has made the despised and forsaken His sister and bride, a joint-heir of His eternal glory in heaven, has received her into His kingdom, into His heavenly Fathers house and there prepared a place for her, which she shall never be willing to exchange for her former abode in a remote and foreign land, in the wilderness of a sinful, earthly life. For the infinite superiority of that exaltation which the church of the Lord has experienced above that of Shulamith, and which every penitent and believing soul in it still experiences day by day, is shown in this that the shepherd girl from northern Palestine might with good reason look wistfully back to her poverty from Solomons palace, that her desire to return from the sultry life of the court to the fresh cool mountain air of her home was but too well justified, whilst the soul which has been translated out of the wretchedness of a sinful worldly life into the blessed communion of Gods grace, has no occasion nor right to be dissatisfied with its new home, but on the contrary has gained unmingled joy, delight and imperishable glory instead of its former condition of unhappy bondage and darkness.

b. The cause of Shulamiths elevation to be queen of her people lay in her wonderful beauty, which throws the king into such an ecstasy that he analyzes it with the utmost detail in order that he may adduce the finest objects of nature, which his realm affords, to set forth her charms; yes, that he represents one single glance of her eyes, one chain from the ornaments of her neck as possessed of the power to chain him to her completely. So also it is the beauty and god-like dignity, originally belonging to human nature, obscured indeed by sin, but not completely and for ever destroyed, which brought the Lord down to our earth and made Him our Redeemer, the royal bridegroom and loving husband of His church. But there is this difference between the earthly Solomon and his celestial antitype, that the latter must restore the partially destroyed and hideously distorted beauty of His beloved before He can raise her to sit with Him on His throne; He must in order to effect this restoration endure the direst sufferings; He must redeem the poor captive from the prince of this world by the ransom of His own precious blood; and afterwards, too, He must with much trouble and pains seek to retain her whom He has dearly purchased in the way of righteousness and truth and preserve her from falling back again into the defilement of sin. The heavenly Solomon can never, during the course of this present world, attain to a really pure and undisturbed joy in His bride. He has quite too much to do in cleansing her ever anew with the washing of water by the word in order to present her to Himself holy and without blemish, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing (Eph 5:26-27). The heavenly bridegroom of souls can neither sing to His church as a whole, nor to its individual members such a praise of her beauty as was sung by Shulamiths husband, culminating in the encomium, Thou art all fair, my dear, and there is not a blemish in thee, Son 4:7. He has, on the contrary, but too abundant occasion to speak to her in the tone adopted in the 16th chapter of the prophet Ezekiel. He must too often hold up before her not only the wretchedness of her birth and the misery of the first days of her childhood, but also the gross unfaithfulness and scandalous defilement of the flesh and spirit, of which, though His elect and His beloved, she has since made herself guilty. And He must all the more postpone her entrance upon the full enjoyment of His blessed society and His heavenly benefits until the future state, for the reason that she is previously lacking in many respects in another virtue which is most of all commended in Shulamith, her historical type. This is:

c. The chaste and humble mind, which the beloved of the earthly Solomon still preserved even after her elevation to regal dignity and glory, that child-like, pure and obedient heart which she brings to her husband, and in virtue of which she will belong only to him and offer the sweet-scented flowers and delightful fruit of her garden to him for his exclusive enjoyment. On the ground of this most sterling of all the qualities of his beloved, this crown of her virtues, Solomon celebrates on the very day of his marriage, his perfect union with her; the locked garden, the bolted and sealed fountain is opened to him for his comfort and refreshment.The Church, as the bride of the Lord, remains a mere bride so long as she has to suffer and to fight here below, because she does not remain a locked garden and a sealed fountain, to the extent that this could be affirmed of her Old Testament type; because, on the contrary, she too often admits the seductive and defiling powers of sin and of the world to the sanctuary of her virginity, and allows them to desecrate the temple of her heart. Not until the end of days will her perfect union with the heavenly bridegroom be consummated, when she has suffered and contended to the full, and the great mystery, of which Paul writes, Eph 5:32, has been fulfilled by the final and visible coming of her beloved. Until then it is only individual souls in the midst of her, that band of His faithful and elect, who are truly known to the Lord alone (2Ti 2:19; Rom 8:28 ff.), whom He raises to the blessed height of a most intimate communion with Himself, and by the outpouring of His love in their hearts makes them partakers of the full blessings of His heavenly grace. This is that invisible communion of saints, which, as the true salt of the earth and light of the world, forms the real soul of Christendom, the genuine realization of the idea of the Church; which, as the true Bride of the Lamb, day by day with longing hearts unites in the supplication of the Spirit: Come, Lord Jesus, Rev 22:17; which, as the entire body of the wise virgins (Mat 25:10) with loins girded and lamps burning (Luk 12:35) waits and watches until He comes that is holy and that is true, that openeth and no man shutteth; and shutteth and no man openeth (Rev 3:7); which shall therefore one day in glorious reality and with never-ending joy experience the fulfilment of that desire which bids them sigh and cry here below:

Oh! come, do come, Thou Sun,
And bring us every one
To endless joy and light,
Thy halls of pure delight.

Footnotes:

[1][Percy gives the preposition a privative sense, and translates now thy veil is removed. He supposes that the royal pair having alighted from their carriage, the ceremony of unveiling the bride here follows, which gives occasion to the bridegrooms encomium on those features which the veil in great measure concealed. But Williams observes that the Eastern poets celebrate the charms of the fair through their veils, and improve this circumstance into an elegant compliment. Ainsworth and others remark upon the circumstance that seven particulars are here mentioned in the description of the bride, viz.: her eyes, hair, teeth, lips, temples, neck and breasts, uniting, as Moody Stuart expresses it, perfection of number with perfection of beauty.Tr.]

[2][Ginsburg adopts the translation of Lowth, Percy and Fry with advantage to the figure: All of which are paired. That is, each upper tooth has its corresponding lower one; thus they, as it were, appear in pairs, like this flock of white sheep, each of which keeps to its mate, as they come up from the washing pool. And no one of them is deprived of its fellow, i. e., no tooth is deprived of its corresponding one, just as none of the sheep is bereaved of its companion. The teeth surely, which are here compared to the flock, cannot be said to bear twins like the sheep.]

[3][Castellus, followed by Patrick, Good and others: the opening flower or blossom of the pomegranate. Williams: If the bridal veil of the Hebrew ladies was like that of the Persians, made of red silk or muslin, it would throw a glow over the whole countenance that will account more fully for this comparison.]

[4][Good: The graceful neck of the fair bride is compared to this consummate structure; and the radiance of the jewels that surrounded it to the splendor of the arms and shields with which the tower of David was adorned. The simile is exquisite.]

[5][Our first business is here with the controverted word , our translation of which with projecting parapets, is in partial accordance with, and derives support from that of Symmachus, (al. ). The word , or rather its singular [better ] is regularly derived from the root . That root is, according to Buxtorf, actually found in the Chaldee in the Targum of Jonathan on Lev 6:5; although in the Targum, as printed by Walton, we read not but . However, whether the root be used or no, its meaning may be assumed to be identical with that of , which is found in other places in the Targum of Onkelos. The meaning is to add on, to join on. The substantive derived from it, when applied to a building, would thus naturally denote the projecting parts of the building, which seem as it were to be added on to the rest. We have an analogous term in the Chaldee , derived from the same root as , and used in the Talmud of strongly marked eyebrows. The projecting parapets of a tower are in fact its eyebrows. And that ancient towers were built with such projecting parapets, and moreover that shields were hung by way of display on the exterior of the parapets, is established in the most satisfactory manner by a representation on a bas-relief at Kouyounjik, given by Layard, and also in Smiths Dict. of the Bible, s. v. Gammadims. Of the current explanations of , the only one which seems to call for notice, is that which derives it from to hang, edges, and makes it mean an armory. Against this lie the objections, 1st that it unnecessarily treats as a composite word; 2d, that an armory would be more naturally described as a hang-weapons than a hang-edges; 3d, that the figure before us is not that of an armory, but of a building with shields hung on its exterior; 4th, that any etymological connection between the words and in the two adjoining clauses is improbable, as it would destroy the charm of the studied homophony. There are two other passages of Scripture in which we may trace some allusion to this tower, Mic 4:8; Isa 5:2. Thrupp.]

[6][Noyes thinks that the bride herself, in respect to her general charms, is here compared to a mountain of myrrh, etc., to whom the lover says he will return as the antelope flies to the mountain.]

[7][This interpretation certainly assumes such extraordinary exaggerations as to cast suspicion upon its correctness. Noyes says: Verses 8 and 9 seem to be introduced very abruptly, and their import in this connection is not very obvious. Dderlein and others suppose them to be an invitation to the bride to take an excursion with him, in order that they might admire together all that was grand and beautiful in scenery. Others suppose them to be an invitation to the maiden to come from a place of danger to a place of complete, security in the arms of her lover. Good: By this forcible appeal the royal speaker invites his beloved to his arms as to a place of safety; and encourages her to look towards him for security amidst any dangers, either actual or imaginary, of which she might be apprehensive. Burrowes: These mountains thus beautiful but dangerous are put in contrast with the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frank incense. The beloved would have his spouse leave the former and seek his society in the retreats of the latter. The majority of English commentators adopt a similar view, though with some variety in the figurative or symbolic sense which they put upon the mountains in question.Tr.]

[8][Patrick: Sister is only a word of tenderness and endearment used by husbands to their wives; as appears by the book of Tob 7:16; Tob 8:4; Tob 8:7. Noyes, with less cogency, compares Tibul. 3:1, 26. Thrupp is consequently not warranted in saying: The union of the two appellations is of itself an almost decisive objection against all literal interpretation of the Song. When it is urged by the literalists that the term sister is merely used as an expression of endearment, it may be at once replied that that is the very last term which in chaste love a bridegroom would ever think of applying to his bride.]

[9][Wordsworth obtains substantially the same sense by a rendering precisely the opposite: Lit.: Thou hast be hearted me. It implies the answering of heart to heart; the passing of one heart into another, so as to be united with it and fill it.]

[10](Williams, who remarks that the Kri and many MSS. read fem. to agree with , endeavors to account for the singularity of the expression so understood in the following manner: Supposing the royal bridegroom to have had a profile or side view of his bride in the present instance, only one eye or one side of her necklace would be observable; yet this charms and overpowers him. Tertullian mentions a custom in the East of women unveiling only one eye in conversation, while they keep the other covered; and Niebuhr mentions a like custom in some parts of Arabia. Trav. in Arab. I. p. 262.]

[11][Whether this conclusion be correct or not, the argument here urged in its favor is plainly not decisive; for the plural of , the ordinary word for neck, is more frequently used in a singular than a plural sense.Tr.]

[12][So Thrupp: The received Hebrew text here gives not but which our E. V. renders a spring. But the word never occurs elsewhere in this sense; nor is it indeed, in the singular, applied to aught but a heap of stones.]

[13][Fry imagines that this and the following verses do not contain comparisons of the bride, but are descriptive of the residence prepared for her reception. He translates: A garden is enclosed, my sister espoused, etc. Maundrell, in his Journey says: About the distance of one hundred and forty paces from these pools [i. e. of Solomon] is the fountain from which they principally derive their waters. This the friars told us was the sealed fountain, to which the holy spouse is compared, Son 4:12. And they pretend a tradition that King Solomon shut up these springs, and kept the door of them sealed with his signet, to preserve the waters for his own drinking in their natural freshness and purity. Nor was it difficult thus to secure them, they rising under ground, and having no avenue to them but a little hole like the mouth of a narrow well. These waters wind along through two rooms cut out of the solid rock, which are arched over with stone arches, very ancient, perhaps the work of Solomon himself. Below the pool runs down a narrow, rocky valley, inclosed on both sides with high mountains; this, they told us, was the enclosed garden alluded to in the same Song.]

[14][Burrowes: The east wind is, in Palestine, generally withering and tempestuous; the west wind brings from the sea clouds of rain, or dark, damp air; the north wind is cooling and refreshing, its power being broken by the mountain chain of Lebanon; the south wind, though hot, has its heat mitigated in the upland regions, and is never stormy. The north wind is called on to arise, because it is more powerful and strong; the south wind to come, as though it were the soft breathing zephyr. The north wind brought clear weather; the south wind was warm and moist. The bride here calls for the north wind, that thereby all clouds may be swept away and the sky cleared; and for the south wind that its genial influence might ripen the fruits of the garden and draw forth the fragrance of the flowers.]

[15][There is no reference in the language here employed to any thing low and sensual, but to pure and elevated enjoyment in the society and converse of his charming bride. The passage is thus appropriately paraphrased by Taylor: I already enjoy the pleasure of your company and conversation; these are as grateful to my mind as delicious food could be to my palate: I could not drink wine and milk with greater satisfaction. He also gives a like figurative turn to the last clause: And you, my friends, partake the relish of those pleasures which you hear from the lips of my beloved, and of those elegancies which you behold in her deportment and ad dress.Tr.]

[16][But see Son 7:13.Tr.]

[17][Weiss expounds it of the holy of holies in Solomons temple; the Geneva version of The temple which Solomon made; Thrupp and Wordsworth, of the cross of Christ: The Westminster Annotations, Moody Stuart and B. M. Smith, of the person of Christ; Adelaide Newton, of the church; Ainsworth, of Christ and His church; Scott, the everlasting covenant which Christ has meditated in our behalf; Patrick, the preaching of the gospel by which the church is carried triumphantly through the world; Williams, the gospel in its onward progress; Fry and Burrowes, that conveyance, or those methods of divine grace by which the believer is carried onward toward heaven; Gill and Henry, hesitate between the human nature of Christ, the church, the gospel, and the plan of salvation. Burrowes says: 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. Thrupp also conveniently declines to carry the allegory through in all its details; It is not necessary to suppose that any significance is intended in the assignment of separate materials to particular parts of the vehicle. Scott, however, is ready with distinct meanings for the pillars of silver, the bottom of gold, and the covering of purple. And Thrupp himself insists that every separate feature of the bride in Son 4:1-7 must have its own distinct allegorical import. The comparisons would be as extravagant on the allegorical as on the literal interpretation, if the former were not to be carried out into details; and in fact that interpretation is virtually literal which refuses to see any allegory except in the general words Thou art fair.]

[18]Besides this prevalent form of the spiritual interpretation of Son 3:11 there are various others of a more trifling character, especially among the older exegetes of whom, e.g., Beda and Anselm expound the wedding day of Christs conception and birth; Honorius v. Autun and Bernard of the death and resurrection of the Lord (and then the crown naturally becomes either the crown of thorns, or the crown of glory belonging to His resurrection and exaltation), whilst chronological expositors as Reinhard, Heunisch, etc., connect the wedding day with the epoch of Constantine the Great, or the conversion of the heathen in a body by the church, and Catholics like Cornelius a Lapide and Calmet explain the mother of Solomon of the Virgin Mary.

[19][The two breasts are further explained in the notes of the Doway version to mean the love of God and the love of our neighbor; in the Geneva, knowledge and zeal; by Moody Stuart and M. B. Smith, faith and love; Patrick, the preachers respectively among Jewish Christians and among the Gentiles; Ainsworth, the loving affection, wholesome doctrines, sweet consolations and gracious beneficence of the church; Scott, the believers simplicity of affection for Christ and the delight which Christ reciprocally takes in him; Thrupp, Weiss and Wordsworth, the fountains of nourishment whence is drawn the milk of pure and sound doctrine; while Gill allows a choice between ministers of the gospel, the two Testaments, the two Sacraments and the two great commandments of the law. Burrowes, whom none can suspect of an indisposition to allegorize, has the good taste to revolt at such mangling of inspired emblems. He says, p. 359, In the comparison of the foregoing verses the thing to be illustrated is the general beauty of the pious soul in the eyes of Jesus. Losing sight of this most commentators have marred the passage by separating these emblems from one another, and appropriating them to other uses than the one intended by the Holy Spirit. What would be thought of a person who under the plea of heightening the effect of a picture by a great artist, should cut out the several figures, the trees, the waters, the tinted clouds, and exhibit them apart in every imaginable variety of light and position? This would show something more than want of judgment. No argument would be necessary to make us feel that such was never the mind of the artist. The common method of expounding this and the other kindred passages in the Song, seems no less unreasonable.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

There is an immediate connection between the first verse of this Chapter, and the last of the preceding: for no sooner hath the church invited her Lord to come into his garden, than he declares himself come. The church professeth herself to be in a sleepy state, but awakened by Jesus, she breaks out into a commendation of her Lord, which runs through the whole chapter.

Son 5:1

I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

Reader! observe the instant answer, and the gracious answer of Jesus to the Church in these words. The moment she asked, her wishes are complied with; yea, agreeably to that promise of Jesus, Before his people calls, he will answer. Isa 65:24 . For as some read the words it is as if Jesus had said, I am come into my garden: that is, I am always with you. And surely if you considered aright you would know this, by the manifestations I am forever making to you. For how else would you invite me, had I not first inclined your heart to it, by the sweet influences of my grace? And do you not know of my presence with you, by the secret intimations I give you? Are you not sensible when I answer your prayers, accept and follow up your petitions, and meet you with blessings in the refreshment you feel at, and after you have been to a throne of grace. Is not this gathering my myrrh with my spice, eating of my honey and drinking of my wine? For all the graces you are enabled to exercise on me are mine, both in my first giving and in my after calling forth into use. And when you feel a fulness of enjoyment at my house or my table; in private, or in public worship; from whence do these enjoyments arise, but from me? Do you not hear my voice in all, calling upon you as my friends and beloved to eat and drink abundantly? I do not detain the reader with many observations on the several things here spoken of, for this would lead into an endless subject. I fear indeed in every line I write that I am swelling this work, which at the first was begun with a view to compress within a very few pages, to a bulk by much too large. But I would trespass here, on this verse in one part of it, to offer a remark on the honey-comb, and the honey the Lord so delightfully speaks of eating. Honey is in the flower, before it is extracted and formed by the bee. So it may be said that the love and grace of Jehovah in redemption goodness was in his infinite mind and will towards us, before that it was brought forth from the Father, towards us and our nature by the Lord Jesus Christ. And as honey in the comb is there made and prepared by the bee; so Jesus our adorable Redeemer, our Glory-man, made, and prepared, and wrought it all out by himself, for us and our nature. And as honey in the mouth is known and enjoyed by him that eateth it; so when God the Holy Ghost takes of the things of Christ and shows to us, doth he not make us eat and drink abundantly, yea, as the Lord’s beloved? Yea, more. We not only eat the honey, but of the honeycomb. We not only take the sweet things of Jesus, but Jesus himself which is sweeter far. Not only his gifts and graces, his whole redemption, but himself. Oh! precious Lord what beauties are in thy word, what endless subjects in this one verse? And what then, thou dearest Lord Jesus, what beauties must be in thyself, to ravish the souls of thy people with joy unspeakable, and full of glory, to all eternity?

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

The Incomparableness of Christ

Son 5:9

‘What is thy Beloved more than another beloved?’ Wherein is Christ incomparable?

I. Christ is Incomparable in the Inquiries He Excites. There must be something in our Beloved that is more than another beloved when such interrogatories are urged upon us. Commonplaceness does not arrest attention. Mediocrity does not challenge comparison. Ordinary personalities do not normally create extraordinary excitement. But our Beloved is much inquired about. Christ’s people are always being inquired of concerning their Beloved. The world is intensely interested in the Saviour. He has been lifted up, and through the reluctant centuries He is drawing all men unto Him.

The repeated inquiry in this text arises from the testimony the lover has borne to the Beloved. The Beloved has so captivated the Bride that she has made no secret of her love.

II. Christ is Incomparable in the Love He Evokes. Note the epithet, ‘thy Beloved’. Note that it is twice repeated. Note also that it is often used in this book. There is no designation by which Christ can be more suitably spoken of. Christ draws out love as none other can. He dominates love as He dominates everything. Others evoke love; there are many beloveds; but this Beloved is ‘more than another beloved,’ for none lay up such wealth of love as He. This is His supremacy. As Napoleon said, ‘Jesus alone founded His empire upon love’. And so His empire outlasts all other empires and outlasts the universe.

III. Christ is Incomparable in the Beauty of those who Follow Him. The loveliness of the Bride appeals to those who inquire of her and they exclaim, ‘O thou fairest among women’. It was largely by reason of her loveliness that bystanders and friends challenged her concerning her Beloved. They felt that He must be glorious after whom so beautiful a being followed. And it is generally the beauty of Christ’s followers which leads men and women to inquire after Him. These beautiful followers of Jesus are supremely fair in all eyes but their own. Perfect loveliness is ever unconscious of itself.

IV. Christ is Incomparable in the Earnestness which He Inspires. Christ’s follower is represented by those around her as charging them. The Revised Version reads, ‘that thou dost so adjure us’. Adjuration is an intense and solemn charge. This is typical of Christ’s followers they adjure the world and they adjure one another.

Dinsdale T. Young, The Crimson Book, p. 124.

References. V. 9. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlii. No. 2469. J. Richardson, Penny Pulpit, vol. xiv. No. 817, p. 217. V. 9, 10. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of. Songs, p. 239. V. 10. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlii. No. 2478. V. 13. Ibid. vol. xlii. No. 2479. V. 16. Ibid. vol. xvii. No. 1001; vol. xxiv. No. 1446. A. G. Brown, Penny Pulpit, No. 801, vol. xiv. p. 97. VI. 2. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 252. VI. 4. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii. No. 984. VI. 5. Ibid. vol. xlii. No. 2486. VI. 10. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 261. VI. 11. Ibid. p. 275. W. Robertson Nicoll, The Garden of Nuts, p. 81. R. Collyse, Where the Light Dwelleth, p. 19.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

Christ and His Church

Song of Solomon 5-8

The Song has a double action: sometimes the Church praises Christ, and sometimes Christ praises the Church. The most noticeable feature is that the praise on both sides is equal. Not one word does the Church say of Christ that Christ does not in his turn say of the Church. So there is no idolatry in Christian worship when that worship is directed to God the Son. God the Son does not take from the Church all praise and honour without returning to his Church a response which proves the dignity of the Church herself. The occasion is always double, or reciprocal. A worship that is unreturned would be idolatry; but the worship that is returned in recognition and honour and love and benediction is a reflected and re-echoed love; it is the very perfection of sympathy. An idol does nothing in return; there is a short and easy test of idolatry. A wooden deity makes no reply; it takes no interest in the worshipping or adoring life; it may be said to receive all and give nothing in return. To pour out the heart to such an unanswering presence is simple and fruitless idolatry. This is not the relation in which Christ stands to his Church. It would be difficult to say whether the Church more praises Christ than Christ delights in the Church. He speaks of the Church as if he could not live without it. He redeemed it with his precious blood; he comes to it for fruit, for blessing, may we not add, for comfort to his own heart? that he may see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied: he looks for beauty on our part, for all manner of excellence; and when he sees it does he stint his praise, does he speak with merely critical and literal exactness? Is there not a redundance of recognition, as if he could never say too much in return for the worship we render him, and the service we conduct in his name and to his glory? If we doubted this we should only have need to refer to the great rewards with which he crowns our humble, but sincere, endeavours: we cannot give any disciple of his a cup of cold water without receiving recognition from Christ; we cannot watch one hour with him without feeling that, having had participation in his sufferings, we shall have also triumph in his resurrection. Observe, therefore, the reciprocal action as between Christ in heaven and his Church on earth: how they love one another, and communicate with one another, and live in one another. This is the marvel of grace.

We may learn much from this Shulamite. This high privilege, this most sacred and tender joy, brings with it a reflection full of sadness. When the love is so tender, how sensitive it must be to neglect, or disobedience, or wavering! A love like that cannot be neglected with impunity. It is a solemn relation in which the Church stands to Christ: a breath may wound him; an unspoken thought may be a cruel treachery; a wandering desire may be a renewed crucifixion. To have to deal with such love is to live under perpetual criticism. Whilst the recognition is always redundant, yea, infinite in graciousness, yet even that species and measure of recognition may be said to involve a corresponding sensitiveness to neglect or dishonour. The very fact that our poorest service is looked upon with the graciousness of divine love also suggests that our neglect of that service leaves that love wounded and despondent.

Look at the case. The Church which goes into such rhapsodies of admiration as we find in the Canticles breaks down at one point. Whose love is it that gives way? It is not the love of Christ. When a break does occur in the holy communion, where does that break take effect? Look at the image in the fifth chapter. The Church is there represented as having gone to rest, and in the deep darkness a knock is heard at the door, and a well-known voice says: “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night” (Son 5:2 .) What is the response of the Shulamite or, as we should say, the Church? The answer is: “I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?” Thus we are caught at unexpected times, and in ways we have never calculated. It is when we are asked to do unusual things that we find out the scope and the value of our Christian profession. How difficult it is to be equally strong at every point! How hard, how impossible, to have a day-and-night religion; a religion that is in the light and in the darkness the same, as watchful at midnight as at midday; as ready to serve in the snows of winter as amid the flowers of the summer-time! So the Shulamite breaks down. She has been sentimentalising, rhapsodising, calling to her love that he would return to her; and now that he has come she says: “I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on?” How hard for human nature to be divine! How difficult for the finite even to urge itself in the direction of the infinite! How impossible to keep awake all night even under the inspiration of love, unless that inspiration be constantly renewed by intercourse with heaven! Keep my eyes open at midnight, O thou coming One, and may I be ready for thee when thou dost come, though it be at midnight, or at the crowing of the cock, or at noonday: may I by thy grace be ready for thy coming!

The whole subject of excuses is here naturally opened up. “I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on?” What a refrain to all the wild rhapsody! When the Shulamite cries that her loving and loved one may return, always add, I have put off my coat: how shall I put it on? I have laid myself down; how can I rise again to undo the door? Oh that he would come at regular times, in the ordinary course of things, that he would not put my love to these unusual and exceptional tests: for twelve hours in the day I should be ready, but having curtained myself round, and lain down to sleep, how can I rise again? Thus all rhapsody goes down, all mere sentiment perishes in the using; it is undergoing a continual process of evaporation. Nothing stands seven days a week and four seasons in the year but reasoned love, intelligent apprehension of great principles, distinct inwrought conviction that without Christ life is impossible, or were it possible it would be vain, painful, and useless. Have we any such excuses, or are these complaints historical noises, unknown to us in their practical realisation? Let the question find its way into the very middle of the heart. There is an ingenuity of self-excusing, a department in which genius can find ample scope for all its resources. Who is guiltless in this matter? Who is there that never was called upon in his conscience to rise and do Christ’s bidding under exceptional and trying circumstances? We may not have love making its demands by the clock; we must not have a merely mechanical piety that comes for so much and for no more: love is enthusiasm; love is sacrifice; love keeps no time; love falls into no sleep from which it cannot escape at the slightest beckoning or call of the object on which it is fastened.

Shall we go a little into detail? or do we shrink from the thumbscrew and the rack of cross-examination? Will not pulpit and pew go down in a common condemnation? The ailment that would not keep a man from business will confine him all day when it is the Church that requires his attendance, or Christ that asks him to deliver a testimony or render a sacrifice. Who can escape from that suggestion? Who does not so far take Providence into his own hand as to arrange occasionally that his ailments shall come and go by the clock? Who has not found in the weather an excuse to keep him from spiritual exercises that he never would have found there on the business days of the week? How comes it that men look towards the weather quarter on the day of the Son of man? It is not a little matter; this is not a detail that is insignificant: within limits that might easily be assigned the detail is not worth taking notice of; but even here we may find insight into character, revelation of spiritual quality, the measure of enthusiasm. We can only test ourselves by the criticism of our own day: it is in vain for us to say whether we should have risen or not when the knock came to the door, and the speaker said that his head was filled with dew and his locks with the drops of the night; into such romantic circumstances we cannot enter; but there are circumstances by which we can be tested and tried, and by which we can say to ourselves definitely, Our prayer is a lie, and our profession a rhapsody. It is not enough that we should be usual, regular, mechanical; that we should have a scheduled order of procession, whereby a duty shall come at a given hour, and be discharged at an indicated time. We are not hirelings; we ought not to be mere slaves, serving as men-pleasers serve in the domestic and commercial circles; we should be slaves in the sense of love that keeps nothing back, that delights in its golden chains, because every link binds the soul more closely and tenderly to the infinite heart of the universe. Where do we begin to economise? do we begin in the region of luxury? Where is there a man who can truthfully say that when he begins to economise he begins in the wine-cellar? Where is there a Christian man, how rhapsodic soever his piety and the more rhapsodic the less likely who can say that when he economises he begins by putting a bridle upon his own appetites and indulgences and worldliness: and that before he will take anything from Christ the last rag must be stripped from his own back? Yet how we sing, how we praise the hymn, how we admire the poet, how we ask him to go higher in his ascriptions and to be broader in his consecrations! Alas, if it be all rhapsody! We shall never know whether it is so or not by mere argument. What have we done? How often have we risen at midnight to help the poor, the helpless, the lost? Of how many meals have we denied our hunger that we might help a hunger greater than our own? How often have we put ourselves out of the way to do that which is good, benevolent, and helpful? Not what have we done by regulation and schedule, and bond and stipulation, and the like; but what irregular service have we rendered, what unusual devotion have we paid? These are the questions that try us like fire; these are the inquiries that mow down our rhapsody and sentiment, and soon discover how much there is left in the field of life for that which is good and solid and useful.

But the Church will repent: the Shulamite will cry; yea, the tears will burst from her eyes, and she will go out after she has had a fit of reflection. Let her go! “I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved; but——” we saw in how awful a relation the soul stands in regard to Christ; we saw how hard a thing it-is to live clearly up to the point of that infinite affection of his “but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone.” When he goes, who can measure the emptiness which he leaves behind? Hear the sad word “gone.” What is there left? Only emptiness, nothingness, disappointment, mortification, now cry and spare not thy tears, thou indolent Shulamite who did not spring to answer the call that was made by him whose head was filled with dew, and whose locks were heavy with the drops of the night! What a picture of forsakenness! He was gone “My soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.” Has he not left a shadow behind? No. Is there not a sound of his retreating footfall in the night air by which the forsaken one may discover at least the direction in which wounded love has gone? No. Herein we stand in jeopardy every hour. Let the Shulamite now examine her reasons, and she says, I would not rise to put on a garment, and therefore I have lost him who is fairest among ten thousand and altogether ever lovely; I would not put myself to any inconvenience, and therefore I have lost the king and his heaven. Strip all this soliloquy of its orientalism, and still there remains the solid time-long fact, that to neglect an opportunity which Christ creates is to lose the Christ who graciously created it. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in”: “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.” Did not the disciples sleep in the garden? Are we not all sometimes overborne with sleep? Is Christ, then, harsh with us? No: yet only by these forsakings can he get at some of us, so to say, with anything like healthful and permanent effect: argument is exhausted; appeal is lost. The ministry of abandonment plays an important part in the dispensation under which we live. We must be left to ourselves awhile; we must be given to feel how great a thing is the light which we do not value or which we neglect to use. When the light goes what is left? A great burden of darkness. And what does darkness mean? It means imprisonment, destruction. Darkness practically destroys every picture that the hand of skill ever painted; the night roots out all the flowers of summer, so far as their visibleness is concerned. Darkness undoes, limits, appals, imprisons. There is no jail like the darkness. In other prisons you may try to find crevices in the wall, flaws in the building that may be turned to advantage; but in the darkness there are no flaws, it is a great wall which cannot be broken up by our poor human strength: if we should strike a momentary light in its midst it would only be to discover that the prison is vaster than we had at first supposed. When Christ leaves the soul, the soul is sunk in night Not one ray of light has it of its own. All it can do is to cry bitterly, penitently, contritely; but all the crying of the gathered distress and agony of the world cannot dispel the darkness of night.

The Shulamite went forth, and was wounded by strange hands. “The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me” ( Son 5:7 ). Poor Church! That is thy lot when away from Christ! The world hates the Church; the world only awaits an opportunity to wound the Church. This is not only circumstantial; it is philosophical, it is necessary, it is inevitable: there is no communion or congeniality between them; they live in different universes, they are lighted by different flames one the eye of day, the other the baleful fire of hell. The worldly man cannot esteem the Christian. It is a difficult lesson to learn. The Christian is more frequently deceived upon this point than is the worldly man. The Christian speaks of his geniality, his neighbourliness, his evident disposition to return courtesies and to live upon friendly terms. There can be no friendly terms between the soul that prays and the soul that never prays! What communion hath Christ with Belial, or light with darkness? Not that the Christian may set himself in hostility against the world in so far as it would prevent his having an opportunity of revealing the kingdom of heaven. Certainly not. That, indeed, would be unwise generalship, that would be obviously insane and absurd piety; we are now speaking of the solemn fact that if the world should get the Church into its power, the world would wound the Church and kill it; if Christ were to descend the world would slay him every day in the week: and so doing the world is acting logically; it is in perfect sequence with itself; the inconsistency is not in the world. What if there be less inconsistency in the world than in the Church?

There is one expression to which allusion may be made: “Jealousy is cruel as the grave. the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame” ( Son 8:6 ). There is an unreasoning and unjust jealousy. There is a jealousy which every man ought to condemn and avoid as he would flee from the very spirit of evil. But there is a godly jealousy. “I the Lord thy God am a jealous God” : “Thou shalt worship no other God: for the Lord whose name is Jealous is a jealous God.” The Apostle Paul avails himself of this same sentiment when he says: “For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” When we condemn jealousy we must understand the direction in which jealousy operates. Let us never forget that there is a jealousy which is born of the very pit of perdition; but let us be jealous for truth, jealous for honour, jealous for domestic sanctities, jealous for mutual reputation. Let us feel that what injures a brother injures us. Never let us forget that when one minister is spoken against the whole ministry is involved. Do not imagine that some particular minister can be the object of jealousy without the whole brotherhood to which he belongs being in some degree involved in the tremendous blasphemy against human rights and human liberties. There is a fine scope for jealousy, if we want to be jealous, and it we are endowed with a jealous disposition. Let us beware of the serpent Jealousy: it will destroy our home, our love, our life; it will turn the sweetest, purest cream into the deadliest poison; with the fumes of hell it will mingle the incense of piety. It is the perversion of a sublime sentiment, and is without either the dignity of justice or the serenity of reason. “It doth work like madness in the brain.” We must be jealous of ourselves, and not of others. There is a fine range for jealousy for a man to sit jealously in judgment upon his own motives, and desires, and aspirations, and to be severe with himself. That is the way to become gracious to others. Let us be jealous of our jealousy; be jealous of our prayerlessness, our illiberality, our mean and despicable excuses. Along that line our jealousy may burn with advantage, but along every other line its proper figure is that of a fiend, and its only passion is thirst for blood. But we should not have jealousy excluded from the action of the Shulamite or from the spirit of Christ, wherein jealousy means regard for the principles of love, the integrity of honour, the flawlessness of loyalty, the completeness of consecration.

How healthful is the lesson, and what a range of application it has namely, let us be jealous in regard to ourselves. Let us say to the self-saving self, This is diabolical on your part, and ought to be punished with the heat of hell. When in the morning we would escape from religious discipline that we may mingle with the greater eagerness in the dissipation of the world, let us stop ourselves and say, Bad man, disloyal man, you have robbed God! What a field for jealousy! When we have neglected the poor and hungry, and listened not to the cause of those who had no helper, then let us be jealous of ourselves, and punish ourselves with anticipated hell. This would be a life full of discipline, but full of blessedness; it would check all evil-speaking, put an end to all malign criticism, and constrain the soul towards all graciousness and gentleness of judgment with others, for it would show others to advantage, and compel us to say, Compared even with them, how poor a figure we cut! To be severe with ourselves is the surest way to prepare for being gentle with our fellow-creatures. I keep myself under; I smite myself in the eyes, lest having preached to others I myself should be a castaway, so said the chief of us all, the loyalest, noblest Christian that ever followed the Saviour; and if he, so mentally strong and spiritually rich, needed so much self-discipline, what do we need, who feel how small we are and frail, and how easily we are moved about by every wind of doctrine and by every subtle temptation? My soul, hope thou in God!

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

(See the Song of Solomon Book Comments for other methods of interpreting the Song of Solomon)

XXX

AN INTERPRETATION OF THE SONG OF SOLOMON AS AN ALLEGORY

According to the first verse, the title of this book is “The Song of Songs,” and the author was Solomon. The Vulgate has the title, Canticum Canticorum, from which comes the title, “Canticles,” by which it is sometimes called and to which the references in some English versions are made. This title, as it appears here, implies that it is the choicest of all songs, in keeping with the saying of an early writer that “the entire world, from the beginning until now, does not outweigh the day in which Canticles was given to Israel.”

The parts of the book are marked with a refrain, thus: I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, By the roes, or by the hinds of the field, That ye stir not up, nor awake my love, Until he please, Song of Son 2:7 ; Song of Son 3:5 ; Song of Son 8:4 .

It will be noted that the second line in Song of Son 8:4 is omitted, perhaps, because it had been given twice before and the shortened form suited better the purpose of the author here.

It is well at this point to fix in mind the representative characters of the book, so as to make clear the interpretation and application. In this allegory the Shulammite may represent souls collectively, but more aptly applied to the individual soul seeking Christ. The daughters of Jerusalem represent the church. Solomon represents Christ, and the watchmen represent the spiritual leaders, such as priests, prophets, and preachers.

The prologue expresses the desire of a soul for Christ, a prayer to be drawn to him, conversion, and a consciousness of unworthiness.

In Part I the soul is instructed to seek its lover at the feeding places of the flock, or places where Christ meets his people; as, in meetings, etc., and upon their meeting they express their love for each other in which the soul is represented as being completely enraptured by its first love to Christ.

In Part II we have the beautiful serenade in which Christ is represented as entreating this new convert to come away and separate herself from her people and everything that might cause alienation. But upon neglect to heed this entreaty the little foxes, that is, little sins creep in and alienation is the result. So she sends him away till the cool of the day so characteristic of the soul that is neglectful of its early Christian duties. But soon she goes out to seek him another characteristic of the sheep that has wandered away from its shepherd and the flock. As she goes out to seek him she meets the city watchmen and inquires of them likewise the soul thus realizing its need at this point makes inquiry of spiritual leaders. She soon finds him and brings him to her mother’s house, thus representing the soul that has not left its former associations.

In Part III we have the procession of Solomon coming out to her to take her to his own home. Here he praises her, wooes her, and pleads with her to come away from her old associations. She is won and agrees to go with him, but when he knocks at the door she is half asleep and does not open to him. Her indifference brings about another alienation, and he leaves. Soon she arises to open, but, alas! he has grown tired of waiting and has gone away. She seeks him again, but the preachers (city watchmen) make it hard for her this time, upon which she appeals to the members of the church (daughters of Jerusalem) and they test her with a question, whereupon she declares her appreciation of him in a most glowing description of him. Then they submit the second test by asking another question as to his whereabouts. Here she understands perfectly as to his abiding place, which she shows them. While this is going on he draws near, speaking of his love. Surely, it is a sweet thought that, while we are talking about Christ and praising him, he draws near and is mindful of us, though we have suffered the little foxes to do their work and have not heeded every knock upon the door by our Lord. As he is thinking and speaking of her he sees her in the distance and exclaims, Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, Fair as the moon, Clear as the sun, Terrible as an army with banners?

After telling where he had been he pleads again, very earnestly, for her return. In the remaining part of this division they converse with each other and he wooes her again and she agrees to leave all and go with him into the fields and villages.

In Part IV the daughters describe them as they proceed toward his house, conversing with each other of love in which she shows love to be the strongest thing in the world.

The Epilogue contains the vows of the woman to do her part and applies beautifully to the loyalty of the soul espoused to Christ.

Now, I call attention to the prayers of the Shulammite which indicate the conflict and progress of the Christian life. These are as follows: Draw me; we will run after thee: The king hath brought me into his chambers; We will be glad and rejoice in thee; We will make mention of thy love more than of wine: Rightly do they love thee. (Song of Son 1:4 ) Tell me, O thou, whom my soul loveth, Where thou feedest thy flock, Where thou makest it to rest at noon: For why should I be as one that is veiled Beside the flocks of thy companions? (Song of Son 1:7 ) Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; Blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, And eat his precious fruits. (Song of Son 4:16 ) Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; Let us lodge in the villages. (Song of Son 7:11 ) Set me as a seal upon thy heart, As a seal upon thine arm: For love is strong as death; Jealousy is cruel as Sheol; The flashes thereof are flashes of fire, A very flame of Jehovah. (Song of Son 8:6 )

Two of the most beautiful passages in the book are the Serenade, which pictures all nature calling to activity, and the passage on Love and Jealousy, showing love to be “The Greatest Thing in the World.” These passages are well adapted to the theme of the book and furnish an appropriate closing for our discussion on “The Poetical Books of the Bible.” THE SERENADE My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past; The rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; The time of the singing of birds is come, And the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land; The fig-tree ripeneth her green figs, And the vines are in blossom; They give forth their fragrance, Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, In the covert of the steep place, Let me see thy countenance, Let me hear thy voice; For sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. The Song of Son 2:10-14

LOVE AND JEALOUSY

Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thine arm: For love is strong as death; Jealousy is cruel as Sheol; The flashes thereof are flashes of fire, A very flame of Jehovah. Many waters cannot quench love, Neither can floods drown it: If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, He would utterly be condemned. The Song of Son 8:6-7

QUESTIONS

1. According to Song of Son 1:1 , what is the title and who is the author of The Song of Solomon?

2. How are the parts of the book marked?

3. Whom does the Shulammite represent?

4. Whom do the daughters of Jerusalem represent?

5. Whom does Solomon represent?

6. Whom do the watchmen represent?

7. What is the spiritual interpretation and application of the Prologue?

8. What is the spiritual interpretation and application of Part I?

9. What is the spiritual interpretation and application of Part II?

10. What is the story and spiritual application of Part III?

11. What is the interpretation of Part IV?

12. What are the contents of the Epilogue and its application?

13. What are the prayers of the Shulammite?

14. What to you are the moat beautiful passages in the book and in what consists their beauty?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Son 5:1 I am come into my garden, my sister, [my] spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

Ver. 1. I am come into my garden. ] So ready is the Lord Christ to fulfil the desires of them that fear him. Psa 145:19 Sometimes he not only grants their prayer, but fulfils their counsel, Psa 20:4 fits his mercy ad cardinero desiderii, as Augustine a hath it, lets it be to his, even as they will. Or if he cross them in the very thing they crave, they are sure of a better; their prayers they shall have out either in money or money’s worth. Christ, though he be a God that hideth himself, yet he scorns to say unto the seed of Jacob, “Seek ye me in vain”; Isa 45:15 ; Isa 45:19 that is enough for the heathen idols. Isa 45:16 ; Isa 45:18 He is not like Baal, who, pursuing his enemies, couId not hear his friends; or as Diana, that being present at Alexander’s birth, could not at the same time rescue her Ephesian temple from the fire. He is not like Jupiter, whom the Cretans painted without ears, as not being at leisure to attend small matters; b and whom Lucian the atheist feigneth to look down from heaven through certain crevices or chinks at certain times; at which time, if petitioners chance to pray unto him, they may have audience, otherwise not. No, no; “the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are always open to their prayers.” Psa 34:15 Flectitur iratus voce rogante Deus. Basil compares prayer to a chain, the one end whereof is linked to God’s ear, and the other to man’s tongue. Sozomen saith of Apollonius, that he never asked anything of God in all his life that he obtained not. And another saith of Luther, Iste vir potuit apud Deum quod voluit. That man could do what he would with God; it was but ask and have with him.

I have gathered my myrrh with my spice, ] i.e., I have highly accepted thy graces and good works: these are to be gathered only in Christ’s garden. Hedge fruits and wild herbs, or rather weeds, are everywhere almost to be had. Moral virtues may be found in a Cato, who was homo virtuti similimus, a man as like virtue as may be, saith Velleius. c And he adds, but I am not bound to believe him, Qui nunquam recte fecit, ut facere videretur, sed quia aliter facere non poterat, that Cato never did well that he might seem to do so, but because he could not do otherwise than well. But why then, might a man have asked the historian, did your so highly extolled Cato take up the trade of griping usury? Why did he so shamefully prostitute his wife, so cowardly kill himself? Was it not because he lived in the wild world’s waste, and grew not in the Church’s garden, hence his fruits were not genuine? His moral virtues are but shining sins, beautiful abominations, a smoother way to hell. Civil honest men are but wolves chained up, tame devils, swine in a fair meadow, &c. Operam praestant, natura fera est, as the civil law saith of those mixed beasts, elephants and camels, they do the work of tame beasts, yet have the nature of wild ones. They are cried up for singularly honest as ever lived by such as are strangers to the power of godliness, and aliens from the commonwealth of Israel; like as in Samaria’s famine, a cab of doves’ dung was sold at a great rate, and an ass’s head at four pound. But Christ, and such as have the mind of Christ, are otherwise minded: they look upon an unregenerate man, though sober, just, chaste, liberal, &c., as a “vile person,” and upon all their specious works as “dead works”; whenas contrarily they “honour them that fear the Lord,” Psa 15:4 and set a high price, as Christ here doth, upon their good parts and practices. Myrrh and spices, or aromatic fruits, are but dark shadows and representations of them.

I have eaten mine honeycomb with mine honey. ] As it were crust and crumb together: not rejecting my people’s services for the infirmities I find cleaving unto them, but accepting what is good therein, and bearing with the rest, I take all well aworth, and am as much delighted therewith as any man is in eating of honey, whereof he is so greedy that withal he devours the comb too sometimes. Christ feedeth, saith an expositor d here, upon all the fruits of his garden; he so much delighteth in it as he eateth not only the honey, as it were the most excellent duties or works of the Church, Heb 13:15-16 ; Heb 13:21 but also the “honeycomb,” as it were the baser services and fruits of his Spirit, of least account: that he receiveth of all sorts most sweetly mingled together, both the common and daily fruits of godliness, understood in “milk,” and the more rare of greater price, as solemn fasts and feasts, signified by “wine”; both which he drinketh together, that is, accepteth of them all.

Eat, O friends. ] That is, O you holy angels (saith the former interpreter), which as my nobles, accompany me, the King of glory, in heaven, and have some communion with me in the gifts I bestow on you. Mr Diodate also thinks the same: but I rather incline to those that by Christ’s friends here understand those earthly angels, the saints, Joh 15:14 Isa 41:8 Jam 2:23 whom he cheereth up and encourageth to fall to it lustily, and by a sancta crapula, as Luther calls a holy gluttony, to lay on, to feed hard, and to fetch hearty draughts, till they be even drunk with loves, as the Hebrew here hath it, being ravished in the love of God, where they are sure to find it, as in honey pots, the deeper, the sweeter. Such as so eat, are called Christ’s friends, by a specialty, and such as so drink, his beloved, as Gregory here well observeth; and they only do thus that hear the Word with delight, turn it in succum et sanguinem, concoct it, incorporate it, as it were, into their souls, and are so deeply affected with it, that like drunken men, they forget and let go all things else, that they may retain and practise it. These are “not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but filled with the Holy Ghost.” Eph 5:18

a Confess., lib. v. c. 1,

b Non vacat exiguis, &c.

c Lib. ii.

d Mr Dudley Fenner.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Song of Solomon Chapter 5

Son 5 .

The last chapter gave the bride inviting her beloved to come into His garden and eat His pleasant fruits. But she must learn more of herself yet: whatever she was in His eyes, He was (sad to say) not everything to her. And if we are apt to think too well of our state, grace deigns to teach us it experimentally. So it will be with the godly Jewish remnant by-and-by, as we are here shown.

“I am come into my garden, my sister spouse;

I have gathered my myrrh with my spice;

I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;

I have drunk my wine with my milk.

Eat, O friends; drink, yea drink abundantly, beloved one.”

“I was asleep, but my heart waked.

The voice of my beloved that knocketh [saying],

Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, mine undefiled;

For my head is filled with dew,

My locks with the drops of the night.

I have put off my coat: how shall I put it on?

I have washed my feet: how shall I defile them?

My beloved put in his hand by the hole [of the door];

And my bowels yearned for him.

I rose to open for my beloved,

And my hands dropped with myrrh,

And my fingers with liquid myrrh.

I opened to my beloved;

But my beloved had turned away-was gone.

My soul went forth when he spoke:

I sought him, but I found him not;

I called him, but he gave me no answer.

The watchmen that go about the city found me,

They smote me, they wounded me;

The keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.

I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem,

If ye find my beloved,

That ye tell him, that I am sick of love” (vers. 1-8).

Alas! how readily we understand such experience. The very, and the fullest, assurance of the Saviour’s love is apt to induce carelessness in our hearts. When we are assured that we are precious to Him, if we know Him at all, we are earnest and importunate; but when all is fully out in His incomparable grace to us, how readily the flesh creeps in and takes advantage of it as if it were a matter of course! When faith is in lively exercise and the flesh consequently judged by the Spirit that dwells in us, His wondrous words of love act powerfully in drawing out the soul’s delight and praise and worship. But there is always for us the danger of that which the bride here is brought to feel and own. She yielded to sloth and circumstances, and truly though she loved Him, she made difficulties, slighted His love, and found to her shame and sorrow that He had withdrawn Himself-was gone!

This painful experience is turned to further profit. The bride is now so moved that she roams the streets of the city in quest of Him, unconscious of the strangeness of her acts in the eyes of those responsible for its order, who know little or nothing of her affection or her sorrow. For this is her secret. They see one abroad at a time when she should be at home. So the love she has, and grief over her folly, expose her to a blame in the eyes of those whose office it is to guard outward propriety, of which she never thought at such a moment. But when she awoke to it, could she deny that all was her own faultiness? She turns in her distress to others from whom she expects a sympathy not to be looked for in the watch or the keepers of the walls; and, not without fruit from that rough dealing, she pours out her heart to her enquiring companions.

“What is thy beloved more than [another] beloved,

Thou fairest among women?

What is thy beloved more than [another] beloved,

That thou dost so charge us?”

“My beloved [is] white and ruddy,

The chiefest among ten thousand.

His head [is] finest gold;

His locks [are] flowing, black as the raven;

His eyes [are] like doves by the water brooks,

Washed with milk, fitly set;

His cheeks [are] as a bed of spices, banks of sweet herbs;

His lips, lilies dropping liquid myrrh;

His hands, gold rings set with beryl;

His body [is] ivory work overlaid (with) sapphires;

His legs, pillars of marble, set on sockets of fine gold;

His aspect, as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars;

His mouth [is] most sweet;

Yea he [is] altogether lovely.

This [is] my beloved, yea this [is] my friend,

O daughters of Jerusalem” (vers. 9-16).

The bride can speak freely of the Bridegroom’s beauty to others: it is ever her happiness and suited place. And this is not only suitable in itself; but we can see how her own negligence with its bitter consequence made her feel and speak more fully than ever in His praise.

Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Son 5:1

1I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride;

I have gathered my myrrh along with my balsam.

I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey;

I have drunk my wine and my milk.

Eat, friends;

Drink and imbibe deeply, O lovers.

Son 5:1 I have come into my garden The VERB (BDB 97, KB 112, Qal PERFECT) is used to denote that the man has come to and remained with his lover. Garden is often used in this book as a reference to a sexual encounter with the maiden (cf. Son 4:12; Son 4:15-16[twice]; Son 5:1; Son 6:2; Son 8:13). It is a euphemism for her sexual delights.

It should be noted that the garden metaphor is begun in Son 4:12-15. The man is bidden to come into the garden (this act also has sexual connotations, cf. Gen 6:4; Deu 22:13; Eze 23:44). In Son 4:16; Son 5:1 is his arrival and enjoyment of the garden (i.e., the maiden)

1. I have come, BDB 97, KB 112, Qal PERFECT

2. I have gathered, BDB 71, KB 85, Qal PERFECT

3. I have eaten, BDB 37, KB 46, Qal PERFECT

4. I have drunk, BDB 1059, KB 1667, Qal PERFECT

There is a surprising repetition of the personal PRONOUN, my (eight times).

my sister This is an idiom used in Egyptian love songs to refer to one’s lover and new family member. It is parallel to bride (cf. Son 4:9).

balsam This (BDB 141) is a fragrant resin taken from the roots of certain plants. It is also translated spice and was an ingredient of the holy anointing oil (cf. Exo 25:4; Exo 35:8). It is used several times in Song of Songs (cf. Son 4:10; Son 4:14; Son 5:1; Son 5:13; Son 6:2; Son 8:14).

Eat, friends;

Drink and imbibe deeply, O lovers This is a series of three Qal IMPERATIVES:

1. eat, BDB 37, KB 46

2. drink, BDB 1059, KB 1667

3. imbibe deeply (lit. be drunk) BDB 1016, KB 1500

Both eat and drink can be literal (i.e., wedding feast) or euphemistic of physical love (i.e., Pro 7:18). Many of the words used in this context have double meanings related to physical intimacy.

The first relates to the wedding guests and the second and third to their response to the newly married. Weddings were long-lasting community events.

friends This (BDB 945) refers to special wedding guests (cf. Jdg 14:11; Jdg 14:20), neighbors, or other family members.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

I am come = I am coming. This is the shepherd’s suitable reply to her brief invitation.

spouse = betrothed, as in Son 4:8, Son 4:9, Son 4:10, Son 4:12.

I have gathered = I am gathering.

I have eaten = I am eating.

I have drunk = I am drinking. (The perfect tenses being used for the present. See Kautzsch’s Gesenius, 106.)

wine. Hebrew. yayin. App-27.

eat, O friends. The words of the court-ladies, encouraging the Shulamite and her beloved (masculine). See Structure on previous page.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Chapter 5

Chapter 5, the bridegroom replies,

I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved ( Son 5:1 ).

Now the bride responds, and she said,

I sleep, but my heart is awake: it is the voice of my beloved that knocks, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? My beloved put his hand by the hole in the door, and I was moved for him. I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer. The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick with love ( Son 5:2-8 ).

And so the daughters of Jerusalem, the chorus now responds and answers her.

What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? what is thy beloved more than another beloved, that you do so charge us? ( Son 5:9 )

She charged them, if she finds him, tell him that she’s just sick with love. And she answers now concerning her beloved as she describes him.

My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. His head is as the most fine gold; his locks are bushy, and black as a raven. His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set: His cheeks are as the bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh: His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires: His legs are like pillars of marble, set in sockets of fine gold: and his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars: His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem ( Son 5:10-16 ).

As she describes her lover. And thus again, in seeing the allegory of Christ in the church, as Jesus Christ has come to us to be the fairest of ten thousand. As He is become to us the all-together lovely One. And our love for Him. “

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Son 5:1

Son 5:1

Son 5:1

“I am come into my garden, my sister, my bride:

I have gathered my myrrh with my spice;

I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;

I have drunk my wine with my milk.

Eat, O friends; Drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.”

Balchin interpreted this thus: “The Shulamite maiden’s invitation is accepted by the Shepherd lover. He comes and eats with the bride. `Eat, O friends’ is either spoken by the Shepherd inviting others to celebrate their love, or by a chorus. Note also that this celebration is not taking place in Jerusalem, but in Lebanon. Bunn read the passage as meaning that, “It relates a clandestine meeting between the lovers. However, the invitation for the whole community (`friends’) to share the celebration denies that there was anything secretive about this.

In this writer’s allegorical understanding of the Song, this little paragraph corresponds exactly with Christ’s statement: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (Rev 3:20). This is continually fulfilled in the Church’s observance of the Lord’s Supper.

Waddey understood the verse to mean, “That the marriage is now consummated (with the king). We agree that this celebrates a marriage, all right; but it is the Shulamite’s marriage with the Shepherd, an allegory of the church’s marriage with Christ. Why? The scene here is Lebanon. Those celebrating the marriage are citizens of a different nation from that of Solomon. Otherwise, the marriage would have been in Jerusalem. We do not find any word in the whole passage that indicates the scene as being anywhere else except in Lebanon. Did not Solomon plead with the maiden to go with him “from Lebanon”? (Son 4:8). Where does the text say that she went with Solomon?

Redford likewise read the passage as a marriage ceremony, and wisely compared it to the marriage of Christ and his Church; but he failed to see that no single one of a thousand consorts of Solomon could ever have symbolized that holy union between Christ and his Church, so he supposed the marriage to have been between Solomon and the maiden.

Delitzsch also commented that, “Solomon now triumphs in the final enjoyment which his ardent desire had found. These are indeed great scholars who advocate this understanding of the verse; but this writer finds it absolutely impossible to find Solomon in the Holy Bible as a type of the holy and sinless Son of God, and that only one single member of his godless harem should be accepted as a type of the universal Church of God.

Balchin correctly understood the passage as, “An account of the marriage between the Shepherd and the maiden, the wedding feast here celebrating the joy of the Church’s union with Christ.

Even the scholars who insist on finding Solomon as the bridegroom here agree that what is symbolized is the union between Christ and the Church. Redford noted that, “The wine and the milk mentioned here are what God offers to the people without money and without price (Isa 55:1). These, of course, must be understood as symbols of the glorious gospel of salvation.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

ADDRESSES ON THE SONG OF SOLOMON

by H. A. Ironside, LITT. D. Author of Notes on Hebrews, Lectures on Romans, Colossians, Revelation, etc., etc.

Loizeaux Brothers, Inc. Bible Truth Depot A Non-Profit Organization, Devoted to the Lords Work and to the spread of the Truth Copyright @ 1933 CHAPTER SIX SONG OF SOLOMON 5:2-8:5

I sleep, but my heart waketh; it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undented: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him. I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer. The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love (Song of Solomon 5:2-8).

WE have a very long section before us beginning with the second verse of chapter five and concluding with the fifth verse of chapter eight. In this entire portion we have traced out for us in a very wonderful way the interruption of communion and its final restoration. We have already had one similar picture in this book where the bridegrooms absence produced a temporary sense of estrangement. We have that dealt with more fully in this section, where the bridegrooms advances are coldly spurned. If we will remember that the bride speaks of any regenerated soul and that the bridegroom is our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, I am sure we shall have no difficulty in getting the spiritual lesson of these chapters.

We have all experienced interrupted communion. We have all known such periods of glad joy in the Lord as those brought before us in the previous chapter. But how often have we found that, following almost immediately on a period of great blessing and delightful fellowship with the Lord, there may come a time of spiritual dearth and broken fellowship. You recall that in Israels history they were scarcely through rejoicing over the wonderful victory at Jericho before they were wringing their hands in despair because of the defeat at Ai. How often in our Christian lives we have similar experiences. Perhaps you go to an edifying meeting where your whole soul is stirred by the singing, by the prayers, and by the ministry of the Word, and you feel as though you would never again lose sight of your blessed Redeemers face; and yet the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, and within a very short time you find yourself inquiring,

Where is the blessedness I knew When first I saw the Lord?

And everything seems dark and cloudy and you no longer discern your Saviours presence. Is there anyone who has had uninterrupted communion with the Lord throughout all the years? I am sure there is not. Even if we imagined so, it would simply be because we lacked that sensitiveness which would enable us to apprehend the fact that He was in some sense grieved because of our behavior.

We have a wonderfully beautiful picture here. The bride has retired and she is drowsing, just about asleep, and yet a bit restless, when there comes a knock at the door. It is the knock of the beloved one who has returned from a distant journey and he cries, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled; for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. We have the same picture in the New Testament in the third chapter of the book of Revelation, in which we see the Lord Jesus waiting outside the door of the Laodicean church. He says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me. But what lethargy there is! How few respond to His gracious request! And so here the bride exclaims, I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? There is a fretfulness about it. Why am I disturbed at this hour? Why did you not come at some other time? I have taken off my coat; why should I put it on now? I have washed my feet; why should I defile them? This refers to the eastern custom of washing the feet before seeking repose, for in that land they wore sandals and the upper part of the foot had no covering. In other words, she did not want to bestir herself even so much as to open the door to him. Have you never known similar experiences?

Have you never been so much concerned with your own affairs, with seeking your own ease, with self-pleasing, that when His voice called you for an hour of communion and fellowship with Him, you really repelled His advances, instead of gladly throwing open the door and saying, Blessed Lord, nothing else is worthwhile but to enjoy the sunshine of Thy smile, to enjoy fellowship with Thyself?

In this instance, we may see in the brides behavior evidence of just such a state of soul. But then, as she lies there drowsing, neither actually asleep nor awake, she discerns something that moves her heart. She says, My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door. We will not understand the simile unless we are familiar with those eastern doors and locks. The lock was on the inside of the door, and there was an opening where the owner could, if he had the key, reach in and use the key from the inside to open the door. He comes, but he does not open the door in that way. He has asked admission and wants her to rise and open for him. She sees that hand come through the opening and the moment she does so, her heart is stirred and she cries, Oh, I must let him in. And now she rises and hurries to the door and even as she lays hold of the lock, she exclaims, My hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet-smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock. That refers to another eastern custom. When a lover came to visit the one who had won his heart and found that she was not at home, or if at home, she did not respond to his advances, he covered the lock of the door with sweet-smelling ointments and left flowers as a token of his affection. And so the bride says, My hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet-smelling myrrh. It was not a dream then; he had really been there and had gone. But she threw the door open to enable him to hear her cry, Come, come in! but there was no answering response. My beloved, she said, had withdrawn himself and was gone.

Love is very sensitive. The trouble with many of us is that we fail to recognize this. We have an idea that the beloved one should be ready whenever we are for a time of gladness together, but it is not always so. And so, sometimes when He comes to the hearts door we practically say, No; it is inconvenient. I do not want to drop things right now. But later when we would enjoy His presence we find He has gone. Have you never had such experiences? Has He come to you and said, I want you to sit down with Me over My Word; I want you to spend a little time in prayer; to dismiss other things from your mind and commune with Me, and you have said, Oh, but I have so much to occupy me; I cannot do it now. Plenty of time for self but very little for Him. And then some wonderful token of His loving-kindness came to you, and you said, Oh, I must respond to His heart, and you threw open the door as it were and called, but He was not there.

And did you ever know what it was to go on for days and weeks without any real sense of His presence? My beloved had withdrawn himself. If you do not respond to His voice when He comes to you in tender grace, you may seek Him for a long time before you will enjoy fellowship with Him again. Such is the sensitiveness of love. He wants to make you feel that His love is worthwhile, and wants to test you as to whether you are really in earnest when you profess to desire fellowship with Him.

And so as the story goes on, she leaves the house and goes out into the city seeking after him, and as she makes her way from street to street, perchance calling his name and looking here and there and wondering where he has hidden himself, she says, The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. You will always have to suffer if you refuse obedience to the voice of Christ when He calls you. You will always have to be tested before communion is restored.

There is a word in the New Testament that has troubled some of our sisters. In First Corinthians 11 we are told that a Christian woman, when she is engaged in worship with the people of God or in public prayer or testimony, is to cover her head with a veil. And people say, Why the veil? The Bible says that the veil is her power. Is not that a strange thing? In the margin of our Bible we have a rather peculiar interpretation of that. I think it must have been suggested by a man. It says, Power, a sign that she is under the power of her husband. But I do not think that is it, at all. This verse, I believe, explains what it means.

The covering on her head is her power. In what sense? Look at it this way. As long as her head was veiled that was her power, but when the keepers saw her going about the streets at night, they misunderstood her motive and character, and they took away her veil. The unveiled woman was marked out as one who was unclean and unchaste; but the covering on her head was the sign of the chaste and modest wife or maiden.

Years ago I was a Salvation Army officer. I remember that our Army girls could go anywhere with those little blue bonnets. I never knew but one in all the years I was connected with them, who was insulted by any one in any place as long as she had that little bonnet on. I have been seeking the lost in the lowest kind of dives on the Barbary Coast of San Francisco, and have seen them come in with their papers and go from one rough ungodly man to another, and ordinarily no one ever said an unkind or a wicked word to them. But once a drunken sailor dared to say something insulting to one of them, immediately practically the entire crowd jumped on him and knocked him down and gave him such a trouncing as he had never had before; and then threw him into the street for the police to pick up. The little blue bonnet was the power of the Salvation Army lassie.

Just so the covered head of the women in that oriental land. The uncovered head bespoke the immoral woman, while the covered head was her power, and told that she was seeking to live a life of goodness and purity. So here, because the bride has lost the sense of her bridegrooms presence, she is branded as though she were impure and unholy. This shame has come upon her because she did not immediately respond to her bridegrooms call.

She turns for help to the daughters of Jerusalem as the morning dawns and she sees them coming down the street. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love. In other words, Tell him my heart is yearning for him; tell him I repent of my indifference, of my cold-heartedness and my unconcern, and want him above everything else. Christian, is that what your heart says? Are you a backslidden believer? Do you remember times when you enjoyed communion with your Lord, when life with Him was sweet and precious indeed? But alas, alas, that fellowship has been broken, and you are saying with Job, Oh, that I knew where I might find Him! Does your heart say today, Tell Him that I am sick of love, that my whole being is yearning after Him; I want to be restored to Him, to the sweetness of communion? The daughters of Jerusalem say, What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? What is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us?

This one that you say means so much to you, why is he more to you than you might expect another to be to us? The world says, Why is Christ more to you than any other? Why does Jesus mean so much more to us than the things that you and I have known in the world? Tell us that we may seek him with thee. Then at once she begins to praise him and laud him. From verse ten to the end of the chapter in wonderful oriental imagery she praises his kindness, his graciousness, his aptness to help, his strength, and his tenderness. She cries, My beloved is the chiefest among ten thousand. And when she thus praises him they turn again and say, Where has he gone? How is it that you have let him slip out of your sight if he is so much to you? Is that not a proper question? If Christ is so precious to you, if He means so much to you, why is it that you so easily allow fellowship to be broken? Why do you so readily permit other things to come in and hinder communion?

Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? Whither is thy beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with thee.

And then instantly as she bears testimony to him, she recalls the last words he said to her before that eventful night, I am come into my garden, and her own heart was the garden, and she says, I know where he is. My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies. And instantly he speaks; he is right there. He had been waiting and watching for her to come to the place where he was everything to her soul, and at once he exclaims, Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners. And then through all the rest of the chapter he praises her; he expresses his appreciation of her as she had expressed hers of him. In chapter seven, verses one to nine, he uses one beautiful figure after another to tell all his delight in her. It is a wonderful thing to know that the Lord has far more delight in His people than we ourselves have ever had in Him. Some day we shall enjoy Him to the fullest; some day He will be everything to us; but as long as we are here, we never appreciate Him as much as He appreciates us. But as she listens to his expression of love, her heart is assured; she has the sense of restoration and fellowship. In verse ten she says, I am my beloveds, and his desire is toward me. In other words, he has not turned against her. When we turn from Him, the natural thought of our hearts is that He has turned against us, but He has not. If He allows us to go through trial, it is like Joseph testing his brethren in order to see if there was genuine repentance of sin.

Three times in this little book we have similar expressions to this, I am my beloveds and his desire is toward me. In chapter two, verse sixteen, we read, My beloved is mine, and I am his. That is very precious. Are you able to say, My beloved is mine, and I am His? In other words, Have you given yourself to Him? Have you trusted Him as your Saviour? If you have, He has given Himself to you. Just the very moment you give yourself to Him in faith, that moment He gives Himself to you and comes to dwell in your heart. This is the assurance, then, of salvation. My beloved is mine, and I am His. And then in chapter six, verse three, she says, I am my beloveds, and my beloved is mine. That is communion. I belong to him and he belongs to me, that we may enjoy one another together. And then in verse ten of chapter seven, we read, I am my beloveds, and his desire is toward me. Every doubt and every fear is gone. She has found her satisfaction in him and he finds his in her. What a wonderful picture! Shall it be only a picture, or is it to be a reality in our lives?

Is it not a fact that so often we do the very things the Shulamite did? So often we turn a deaf ear to the Bridegrooms voice. We can be so busy even with Christian work that we do not take time for Him. I can be so occupied with preaching that I do not have time for prayer. I can be so taken up with preparing sermons that I do not have time to feed on the Word. You may ask, Why, how can you prepare sermons without feeding on the Word? It is one thing to study the Bible in order to prepare an address which I am to give to other people, but it is another thing to sit down quietly in the presence of the Lord and say, Blessed Saviour, as I open Thy Book I want to hear Thy voice speaking to my heart. I want Thee to talk to me, to express Thyself to me in tones of tender love. As I read in that attitude, He speaks to my soul, and as I lift my heart to Him in prayer, I talk with Him. That is communion.

Do not be content with the knowledge of salvation; do not be content to know that your soul is eternally secure; do not be content to know that you are serving Him in some little measure. Remember, there is something that means more to Him than all your service, and that is to sit at His feet and delight your soul in His love. As you read this description in the sixth chapter it will remind you of the fulness there is in Christ. It seems as though every figure is exhausted to show His wonder.

Join all the glorious names

Of wisdom, love, and power, That angels ever knew,

That mortals ever bore All are too mean to speak His worth, Too mean to set the Saviour forth.

Oh, to have the heart so occupied with Him that we shall lose sight of everything else, and Christ alone will satisfy every longing of our souls!

~ end of chapter 6 ~

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Son 5:2-8

I. Christ is ever knocking at the heart; in those who have not received Him, that they may receive Him; in those who have received Him, that they may receive Him more fully; in those who are negligent or who relax that they may rouse themselves; in those who are holy that they may be holier still. Christ is within the heart, else we could not open it. He is without it, because it is finite, He infinite. He knocks by all things which teach us to choose Him; that He is all, and all else nothing, except as He is in it, and comes with it, and makes it anything.

II. In the Song of songs, our Lord speaks of another case, when at His knocking the bride delayeth to open. He finds the soul of the Church after long peace, when not strung by trouble within or without, at ease, relaxed, unaware that He is not with her as before. Since his tender voice fails he puts forth his hand. He takes away what we have set up instead of Him, the idols of our hearts within us or without, and “chastens us whereby we have offended.”

III. Our souls are not the home of grace that it should, without effort on our part to detain it, remain there. Its home is God; it comes to us, visits us, dwells with us, but only if we with diligence keep it and use it. We are ascending the mount of God; if we relax, we slip back. But then there follows a time of dreariness. God hides His face, and the soul is chilled. He withdraws His light, and the soul is dark. The remedies for this state are taught us in the Bride. (1) She opened that which was closed before. (2) She mortified what she found amiss. (3) When she found not Him whom her soul loved she sought Him perseveringly in the broad places of the city, in active duty. (4) She was not hindered by discouragement. (5) When she knew no more how to seek, she sent, exhausted, the aspiration to Him, “I am sick of love.” That one word speaks all her ills, all her needs, as Martha and Mary sent to Jesus, “Lord, he whom Thou lovest is sick.”

IV. Desolations of soul, even though chastisements of sin, are among God’s choicest means of enlarged grace. By these God teaches the soul how unutterable an evil it is to be separated from Him. He teaches her to hate the memory of all sin, to cleanse herself from all lesser faults which come between her and God. He stirs the inmost heart, kindles her longings, makes her love Himself for Himself, increases her desires that, when they are increased and enlarged, He may fill them.

E. B. Pusey, Sermons for the Church’s Seasons, p. 92.

References: Son 5:2-8.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv., No. 793. Son 5:3.-J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 367; C. A. Fowler, Parochial Sermons, p. 207. Son 5:4.-Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 273; J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 217. Son 5:5.-S. Baring-Gould, One Hundred Sermon Sketches, p. 97. Son 5:5, Son 5:6.-J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 230. Son 5:6.-Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 89. Son 5:8.-Ibid., Sermons, vol. ix., No. 539; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 235. Son 5:9.-J. Richardson, Penny Pulpit, No. 817; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 290. Son 5:9, Son 5:10.-J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 239. Son 5:11.-Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 304. Son 5:13.-Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 122. Son 5:16.-Ibid., Sermons, vol. xvii., No. 1001, and vol. xxiv., No. 1446; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 69. Son 6:1.-J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 252. Son 6:4.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii., No. 984. Son 6:5.-Ibid., My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 210. Son 6:10.-J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 261.

Fuente: The Sermon Bible

CHAPTER 5

The Bridegroom answers the invitation extended to Him when the bride had said, Let my Beloved come into His (not her) garden. He says, I am come into My garden, My sister, My spouse. She is both sister and spouse. When He speaks of her as sister, He owns the national relationship. In Mat 12:46-50 He disowned that relationship because they rejected the offer of the kingdom, but now it is reestablished and the godly portion of Israel becomes the spouse. In His garden, the product of His love and His death, He finds now His enjoyment, His joy and His satisfaction. He invites others to come and partake. Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, beloved ones.

But there is no response here from the side of the bride. She exhibits slothfulness. He is seen now standing outside; His head is filled with the night dew and standing at the door He knocks (See Rev 3:20. The comment on this difficult portion of the Song, as given in the Synopsis of the Bible, is especially helpful.

Alas, what hearts are ours! We turn again to ourselves as soon as we are comforted by the testimony of the Lords love. The Bridegrooms sensitive and righteous heart acts upon her word, and He retires from one who does not listen to His voice. She arises to learn of her own folly, and the just delicacy, with respect to herself, of His ways whom she had slighted. How often, alas! do we act in the same manner with regard to the voice of His Spirit and the manifestations of His love! What a dreadful loss, but, through grace, what a lesson! She is chastised by those who watch for the peace of Jerusalem. What had she to do in the streets at night, she whom the Bridegroom had sought at home? And now her very affection exposes her to reproof, the expression of its energy placing her in a position that proved she had slighted her Beloved. If we are not in the peaceful enjoyment of the love of Christ, where He meets with us in grace, the very strength of our affection and our self-condemnation causes us to exhibit this affection out of its place, in a certain sense, and brings us into connection with those who judge our position. It was right discipline for a watchman to use towards a woman who was wandering without, whatever might be the cause. Testimonies of her affection to her Beloved at home, the love of her own heart, do not concern the watchman. Affection may exist; but He has to do with order and a becoming walk. Nevertheless her affection was real and led to an ardent expression of all that her Beloved was to her–an expression addressed to others, who ought to understand her; not to the watchman, but to her own companions. But if sloth had prevented her receiving Him in the visitations of His love, her heart, now disciplined by the watchman and turned again to her Beloved, overflowing with His praises, being taught of God, knows where to find Him.

The words recorded in Son 5:9 are no doubt addressed to the bride by the rest of the nation. How beautiful is her answer! She speaks of Him as the chiefest among ten thousand. Here is symbolical language. White tells us of His holiness; ruddy reminds us of His love, so fully expressed in the shedding of His blood. His cheeks were once smitten; Grace is in His lips; the belly speaks of His bowels of mercy; His eyes are the eyes of love; the gold is the symbol of His Deity; the hair is the symbol of His perfect humanity. After giving ten features of His beauty, she has exhausted herself and in ecstasy cries out, as thousands upon thousands in every generation have done, Yea, He is altogether lovely … this is my friend. Blessed are all who can repeat these words and who can say, This is my friend.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

13.

Christ present with his church

Son 5:1

I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

In the preceding verse we see the church, the bride of Christ, making a twofold prayer. First, she asked for the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit. Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out. Then, she asked for the manifest presence of Christ himself. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.

Here we have the Lords gracious answer to that prayer. Here the Lord Jesus Christ himself speaks and says, I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

Here our Lord Jesus speaks of his manifest presence with his church. We should not be greatly surprised to hear him speak in such a manner. Did he not say that if any would open to him he would come in and sup with them (Rev 3:20)? Our all-glorious Christ is always as good as his promise. No sooner did his church throw open the doors of her heart than he entered and made himself known in sweet communion.

Of this one thing we may be sure. Every heart that is prepared by God to receive Christ, and anxiously seeks and desires the presence of Christ shall have Christ (Isa 65:24). Certainly this is true with regard to poor, needy sinners (Heb 4:16). This is most assuredly true with regard to you who are the Lords.

The fact that our hearts truly long for Christs presence is evidence that he is with us already. Sometimes we are like Jacob when he awoke out of his sleep, he said, Surely, the Lord is in this place and I knew it not. We are often like Mary; on one occasion the Lord was standing by her side in the garden, and she knew him not. George Burrowes wrote, The fact of the existence of such desires for him, is evidence of his being with us; as in this passage, in immediate connection with the request, he adds, I have already come. He was present in the heart, though his presence was not felt.

Christs presence

The Lord Jesus Christ calls for us to take notice of his presence. Our prayer in the last verse of chapter four was, Let my Beloved come into his garden. Here he says, I have come into my garden, as if to say, Look up, my beloved, I am here! Could it be that he has come without us perceiving it? Could he be present and us, who so earnestly long for him, not know it? I am afraid that it is so. Our hearts are so much taken up with doubt and worldly concern that unless Christ advertises his coming, as he does here, he might be at our side and us fail to see him.

A local church is the gathering of two or three needy souls in the name of Christ. Our Master promised that where two or three gathered together in his name, he would be present with them (Mat 18:20). The place in which his people gather is not important. The number present is not important. The denominational name is not important. The only matter of importance is that we gather in his name.

But what does it mean to gather in his name? To gather in his name is to gather believing on his name, trusting him alone as our Mediator and Savior. To gather in his name is to come together to worship him and seek his glory. To gather in his name is to come together seeking his righteousness, his will, his mercy, and the salvation of his sheep.

Our Savior has promised to be with his people, those who truly worship him in Spirit and in truth, at all times (Isa 43:1-3; Mat 28:18-20). He said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee (Heb 13:4). And our Lord Jesus Christ has promised his manifest presence to those who love him (Joh 14:18-23). This is the thing I am talking about. We know the doctrine of Christs presence. But we want to know his real, manifest presence with us. Wherever the door is opened to Christ, he comes in (Rev 3:20). Wherever there is a heart broken and contrite before God, Christ takes up his abode in that heart (Isa 57:15; Isa 66:1-2).

This personal, manifest presence of Christ among his people is an unspeakable blessing of grace. When our Lord is manifestly present in our assemblies there is life in our midst, fervency in our prayers, vitality in our songs, and blessedness in hearing his voice as his Word is read. The preaching of the gospel is the delivery of a message from God and the hearing of it is the hearing of a message from God. When he is absent, all is lifeless and dead. When He is present there is joy and peace in Jerusalem. Any who miss Christ, miss him because they will not seek him.

Christs satisfaction

Our dear Savior is ever present with his church because he finds great satisfaction in his church. His church is not a building, or a denomination. His church is his people. All true believers, considered collectively, are his church. And the Son of God finds great satisfaction in his people. He says to his church, I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk.

Here our Lord claims the church as his own garden, his rightful possession. In this one verse he uses the personal possessive pronoun my nine times. Certainly this is meaningful. We rightfully belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are his by divine gift in eternal election (Joh 6:39, by lawful purchase in particular redemption (1Co 6:19-20), and by omnipotent, effectual grace in regeneration (Eze 16:8).

The sweet produce, which Christ finds in his garden, is the result of his own cultivation. He takes pleasure in us just as a farmer takes pleasure in his fruitful field. He finds satisfaction in us just as a mother finds satisfaction in her living, healthy baby.

Without question, our Lords language in this place is designed to convey to us the message that he finds great satisfaction and delight in his people. What condescending grace! The Son of God comes to us! But that is not all; he even looks upon us with complacency, delight, and satisfaction! Because of his own blood and righteousness, he accepts the sincere, though feeble, worship of our hearts (1Pe 2:5). Our offerings are to him like the gathering of his myrrh and spice. Our prayers are like sweet-smelling myrrh to him. Our songs of praise are like spices and incense before him. Our love toward him is like honey in the honeycomb to our Redeemer. Our joy before him is like exhilarating wine. Our daily lives are like refreshing milk to him! Imagine that.

In this heavenly poetic verse, Christ is fed first, then his children are invited to eat. It seems to imply that our first concern should be for him. The first and best of everything must go to him.

Christs invitation

The Son of God gives a loving invitation to his beloved people. He says, Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. He calls us to a feast of fellowship, communion, and life. It is spread not for the world, but for his own peculiar people.

Notice the two words by which he tenderly calls us to the feast: friends and beloved. He calls us his friends (Joh 3:29; Joh 15:13-15; Luk 15:7). We were by nature his enemies. And we would have forever remained his enemies. But he has graciously reconciled us to himself. We are his friends! He calls us his beloved. All who are born of God are the peculiar objects of his great love. Electing Love! Redeeming Love! Immutable, Unchanging Love! Saving Love! Preserving Love! Oh, what blessedness is heaped up in that word as it falls from our Saviors lips, Beloved!

Notice the two provisions for our souls to feast upon. We are bidden to eat and drink. You know what the food of faith is, and what the delightful drink is. The food and the drink are in him. By faith, we eat his flesh and drink his blood (Joh 6:50-56). That is to say, we live by constantly trusting his righteousness and obedience unto death as our sin-atoning Substitute.

Notice this delightful word, too, Abundantly. Our Lord tells us to feast abundantly upon him. Let faith eat and drink, feeding upon Christ without end. The more your hunger and thirst is satisfied, the more you will hunger and thirst. Feast on! This is healthy gluttony. The marginal translation of this last phrase is, Be drunken with loves. It is as though the Lord is saying, Come, my friends, my beloved, drink the rich wine of my love, until your heart is drunk with my love, until you are totally under the influence of my love (Eph 5:18).

There is never any danger of overindulgence when it comes to preaching, feeding upon, and worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, child of God, gorge your self on Christ! Drink of him, O my soul, until you are thoroughly, completely intoxicated with him, and then drink on!

Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible

come: Son 4:16, Son 6:2, Son 6:11, Son 8:13, Isa 5:1, Isa 51:3, Isa 58:11, Isa 61:11, Joh 14:21-23

my sister: Son 4:9-12, Son 8:1, Heb 2:12-14

I have gathered: Son 4:13, Son 4:14, Psa 147:11, Isa 53:11

eat: Deu 16:13-17, Deu 26:10-14, 2Ch 31:6-10, Psa 16:3, Isa 23:18, Isa 55:1, Isa 55:2, Isa 62:8, Isa 62:9, Isa 65:13, Isa 66:14, Mat 25:40, Act 11:29, 2Co 9:11-15, Eph 5:18, 1Th 3:8, 1Th 3:9

friends: Luk 12:4, Luk 15:6, Luk 15:7, Luk 15:9, Luk 15:10, Joh 3:29, Joh 15:14, Joh 15:15

yea, drink abundantly, O beloved: or, and be drunken with loves, Zec 9:15-17, Rev 22:17

Reciprocal: Gen 43:11 – spices Gen 43:34 – were merry Exo 25:29 – to cover Neh 8:10 – eat Est 2:18 – made a great Psa 34:8 – taste Psa 36:8 – abundantly Psa 45:8 – All Psa 119:103 – sweet Pro 9:5 – General Pro 24:13 – eat Ecc 2:5 – me Son 1:13 – bundle Son 2:4 – brought Son 4:11 – honey Son 7:8 – I will go Son 7:13 – at our Son 8:2 – I would cause Isa 25:6 – make Jer 31:14 – my people Joe 2:26 – ye shall Mat 5:6 – for Mat 12:50 – and sister Mat 22:4 – Behold Mat 26:27 – Drink Mat 26:29 – until Mar 3:34 – Behold Luk 13:19 – cast Luk 14:16 – bade Luk 22:18 – the fruit Joh 2:10 – and when Joh 7:37 – drink Joh 12:2 – they made Rom 1:7 – beloved 1Co 9:5 – a sister 1Co 11:24 – eat 1Co 12:13 – to drink Eph 3:20 – exceeding Phi 1:26 – General Heb 6:17 – more 2Pe 1:11 – abundantly

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Son 5:1. I am come into my garden This is the bridegrooms answer. I have gathered my myrrh, &c. I have eaten of my pleasant fruits; I have taken notice of, and delight in, the service and obedience of my people. Eat, O friends Believers are here encouraged with freedom and cheerfulness to eat and drink their spiritual food.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Son 5:9. What is thy beloved more than another beloved? To address this question to Pharaohs daughter, had been the highest insult. More therefore is intended in this sublime of songs than a mere nuptial poem. The address is to the church of Judea, whose husband is the Lord of hosts.

Son 5:10. The chiefest among ten thousand. The standard bearer, or the captain general of ten thousand. So when he comes to judge the unbelieving world, the armies of heaven shall follow him on white horses.

REFLECTIONS.

The church being the garden of the Lord, the true paradise and joy of the whole earth; we have here the kings entrance into it, and his invitation to the spouse to walk with him, and see the delights of paradise. I am come into my garden, he says, my sister, for I am flesh of thy flesh, and bone of thy bone; my spouse, for I have betrothed thee in righteousness. How glorious then is the church! She is daughter of the Father of heaven, and king of glory; for her all things are and were created, and for her the Lord of glory died on Calvary. Hence Christ takes her from her earthly kindred, and calls her by his own name. He shares with her all his glory and honour, that she may forget the meanness of her earthly birth.

Christ having gathered in his garden myrrh and spice, and stored his table with honey and wine, invites his friend and beloved to eat and drink abundantly. But oh what spices are so fragrant as the merits and intercessions of the Lord of glory? What honey is so sweet as the gracious words which fall from his lips; and what wine is so delicious as the reviving influences of his Spirit? Oh what a happiness that we poor aliens are made friends of the Bridegroom, and called to sit in heavenly places, and eat of all the rich fruits of redeeming love. When the heart comes properly prepared, and is fully absorbed in the spirit of devotion, language cannot utter the joys which the ordinances afford even on earth. And to heighten the charms of grace, the nuptial feast has a social character. Our friends whom we love, banquet at the same board; and they augment the happiness of heaven by mutual love and joy in the Lord.

As a woman retiring to rest before her husband arrives, cannot enjoy perfect sleep, and is reluctant to rise when he calls, so a slumbering time is dangerous to the church. I sleep, but my heart waketh. At all times we are called to watch and wait for the Lord. But if we suffer a yawning supineness to steal upon us, if we begin to be less alarmed at the world and its maxims, and if we relax in zeal for God, we are sliding into a state of stupor highly displeasing to the Lord. Our heart will awake; and conscience will remind us that this is not the humble, holy and happy state we once enjoyed.

The sure signs of that state are reluctance to the cross, and a tardiness to duty. Christ says, open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled, for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. He calls the soul by these endearing appellatives, because they happily express the graces of the church. In particular, he calls her his dove, so true to her mate, so pure in her deportment, so peaceful in her life, and so fond of society. Now, if the Holy Spirit shall prompt us to prayer, to acts of faith and love, to reprove sin, and obey the severer commands of grace, we should never be tardy and reluctant to comply. Love should always kindle love; and here the Lord has set us a high example.

The excuses we make to religious duties are highly displeasing to the Lord, because they slight the greatness of his love, and he therefore withdraws his comforts from the slumbering soul. I have put off my robe, says indolence; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them? The flesh, says Dr. Richard Sibbs, in his excellent volume of sermons on this chapter, never wants excuses. There were never yet any went to hell but they had some pretense for going thither. There was never yet any sinful course, but it had the flesh to justify it with one reason or other. We make excuses because Satan has a great influence over our hearts, and they are naturally inclined to evasion in religious concerns. Master, said Peter, spare thyself.

We here see the alarms of a gracious soul, when it finds the Lord has withdrawn his presence. I rose to open, but my beloved had withdrawn himself. Then the soul should say, Oh how great is my sin; how provoking to the Lord. It has deprived me of his presence and comfort.The above pious divine farther adds, that the Lord withdraws himself to try our affectionsto teach us wisdom for the futureto correct our securityto prepare us for near communion with himand to acquaint us with the evil of sin. When the comforts of religion are once lost, they are difficult to be regained. I sought him, but I found him not. I called, but he gave me no answer. When that is the case, we must never give up the search, but rather redouble our efforts. So here; the church grieved for her folly, and alarmed for her loss, ran into the streets and asked the watchmen whether they had seen her beloved. But they treated her rudely, being strangers to the hallowed sentiments which glowed in her breast. Just so, when the distressed soul runs to hirelings for counsel, or to the world for comfort, they expose their weakness to insults and contempt.

Bad usage from the world did not discourage her in seeking her Lord, but it made her more prudent. She addressed her enquiries next to the daughters of Jerusalem, who called her the fairest among women; but withal sifted her sincerity by asking, What was her beloved more than another beloved? So a soul appears truly amiable when it is seeking the Lord with all its powers; and it never acts more wisely than when it goes in distress to the children of the heavenly Zion for instruction and comfort.

In seeking the Saviour we should get exalted ideas of his perfections and beauty. My beloved is white and ruddy. Blooming health, celestial beauty, and every grace irradiate his countenance. He has every virtue and lustre which can adorn a king. Nay, he is the chief of ten thousand kings who fill the thrones of heaven; for in the glory of his person, in his creation and providence, and in all the grace of redemption he is altogether lovely.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Son 4:13 to Son 5:1.The Bride as a Garden.The charms of the bride are now described under the figure of the fruits of the garden.

Son 4:16 gives the gracious invitation of the bride to the lover, who in such enthusiastic terms has praised her beauty.

Son 5:1 declares his ready acceptance and his call to friends to enjoy similar delights,

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

The Bridegroom.

(5: 1).

1. I am come into my garden, my sister, [my] spouse;

I have gathered my myrrh with my spice;

I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;

I have drunk my wine with my milk.

Eat, O friends; drink, yea drink abundantly, beloved ones!

How gladly the Bridegroom responds to the invitation of the bride. And may we not say Christ delights to be constrained by His willing people? The Emmaus disciples “constrained Him, saying, Abide with us.” And with what immediate grace the Lord responds, for we read “He went in to tarry with them.” And having come into the garden, the King not only partakes of the fruits of the garden but He spreads the feast, for He can say, “Eat, O friends; drink, yea drink abundantly, beloved ones.” We may spread our little feast for the Lord as in the home at Bethany, but how rich a feast He spreads for us. If He found delight in the midst of His own, yet it was His presence that filled their hearts with gladness, for we read, “Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.” Thus, again and again, as we journey on, He delights to come into His garden, set apart from this wilderness waste, and sup with us and we with Him, “until the day break and the shadows flee away.” Then at last we shall sit down to the marriage supper of the Lamb in His own home of heavenly glory, to go out no more.

Canticle 4. Son 5:2-16-6:1-12.

The Restoration of Love.

The Bride.

(v. 2).

2. I slept; but my heart was awake.

The voice of my beloved! he knocketh:

The bridal feast is over; the King has departed to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense, until the day break and the shadows flee away. In the night of the Bridegroom’s absence the love of the bride has waned, and she seeks her ease in her own home. How soon she passes from feasting in his presence to sleeping in his absence. In earlier times her love had weakened, but this was a more serious decline; before, she had rested in her home, now she sleeps. If, however, she sleeps, it is but a restless sleep – “I slept,” she says, “but my heart was awake.”

Alas, like the bride, again and again our love can grow cold even though we have known and enjoyed the love of Christ. How quickly, too, our hearts can change, like the disciples who pass from feasting in the upper room to sleeping in the garden. But such repose is only an uneasy sleep, for the heart that has tasted the love of Christ will ever he restless if it turns aside to seek its ease in this vain world. It has too much of Christ to enjoy the world and too much of the world to enjoy Christ. Sleeping but restless, describes the condition of such.

But the love of the Bridegroom never varies. The bride may sleep, but love gives him no rest until he has awakened her slumbering affections. And how true are the words of another: “Christ’s heart is never wearied, it is as freshly set on the bride as when God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.”

The Bridegroom.

(v. 2).

2. Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, mine undefiled;

For my head is filled with dew,

My locks with the drops of the night.

The bride may seek her rest, but not so the Bridegroom. He knocks at her door seeking admission. In love he appeals to her affections, seeking to restore the heart that has grown cold. His touching words, “Open to me,” express the longing of his heart to fill her heart. He lavishes upon her every term of endearment, “My sister, my love, my dove, mine undefiled.” He could have said, “Thy King, thy friend, thy beloved,” but love takes another way more calculated to reach her heart. He reminds her of all that she is in his sight. Her waning love has not changed his thoughts of her. And then, as a final appeal to her heart he speaks of his sufferings on her behalf. He has faced the night, the cold, the darkness, and the dew, to awaken her love.

In all this mystic scene can we not see the way Christ takes to restore our wandering affections to the enjoyment of His love? In the night of His absence we may seek our ease in this poor world, but He loves us too well to let us rest apart from Him. Solemn indeed, if the Lord has to say to us, “Sleep on and take your rest.” But if we wander, He follows with restoring grace, and knocks at our door. Alas that there could ever come a day that finds the door of our hearts closed and barred to Him, and that our Laodicean lukewarmness should compel Him to say, “Open to Me.” How touching these words I What a sorrowful tale they tell of wandering affections, and empty, unsatisfied hearts; and yet, withal, how blessedly they speak of His unchanging love, and His longing to fill our hearts with Himself. It is as if He said, “You have turned to other objects and found no rest; your soul sleeps, but without rest; your heart waketh, but without satisfaction now open to ME.”

But Christ will never force Himself upon the soul. He will not be an uninvited guest. He loves to be “constrained”; and so the word to the bride is “Open.” The Bridegroom is waiting and willing to enter, but the bride must “open” the door of her heart. Do we complain of little love to Christ? Let us remember He is willing to fill our hearts if we will but “open” the door and let Him in. The latch is on our side of the door.

And what more calculated to arouse our slumbering affections than the realization that, in spite of all our wanderings, He loves us still; that He is still ready to say, “You are mine,” “My sister, my love, my dove, mine undefiled.”

But, further, how must it move the heart that has grown cold, to hear again of the sufferings that Christ has endured for our sakes. What a journey the Bridegroom of our souls has taken to win our hearts! What night of woe He went into; and in that night what dews of sorrow fell on Him to win our love. He broke His heart to win our hearts.

If our hearts have turned aside to other objects; if our love has grown cold, may we get a fresh view of the One who stands at our door and knocks, and may we listen to His pleading voice as He says: –

I want your heart’s affections, “Open to Me.”

1 love you: “My sister, my love, my dove, mine undefiled.”

1 have suffered for you, “For my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.”

The Bride.

(3-8).

3. I have put off my tunic, how should I put it on?

I have washed my feet, how should I pollute them?

The bride, though not insensible to this touching appeal, knows not how to cast off her sloth. She finds it is easier to put off the tunic than put it on, easier to ungird the loins than to gird them up. To respond to this appeal calls for energy and sacrifice. Selfish ease has enfeebled the bride, and twice she asks, “How should I?” She has to learn, indeed, that, left to herself, she cannot throw off her lethargy. So, too, when affection for Christ grows cold and we, like the bride, settle down in our own things, we may, indeed, be interested and moved somewhat by some touching appeal, and yet know not how to cast off our spiritual langour. If, however, we cannot restore our souls, He can, and He does. “He restoreth my soul” is the experience of the Psalmist. And in the scene that follows we see the way love takes to work the restoration of our wandering affections, a way that may indeed be painful to the flesh but leads to a blessed end.

4. My beloved put in his hand by the hole [of the door];

And my bowels yearned for him.

Already he has spoken, but now the Bridegroom stretches forth his hand to the bride, and this silent appeal fills her with yearnings after the Bridegroom. Such also was failing Peter’s experience when in the very moment of his denial the Lord “turned and looked” upon him. It was a look that, speaking more effectively than words, seemed to say, “You have denied Me, but I love you.” And that look, like the Bridegroom’s hand in our Canticle, began the work of restoration, for “Peter went out and wept bitterly.” And do not our hearts burn within us when the Lord stretches out His hand towards us in our failures, that hand with the wound-marks that tell of His unchanging love?

5 I rose up to open to my beloved;

And my hands dropped with myrrh,

And my fingers with liquid myrrh,

Upon the handles of the lock.

6. I opened to my beloved;

But my beloved had withdrawn himself; he was gone:

My soul went forth when he spoke.

I sought him but I found him not;

I called him, but he gave me no answer.

This appeal has overcome the lethargy of the bride. She rises to open to her beloved. The door at which he had sought an entrance was redolent with his presence, but he himself had withdrawn. This, however, was the way love was taking to awaken her affections. If, when he drew near, the bride would not respond, he will now withdraw, but only to quicken her affections by his absence. And how effectual the way he takes. The bride is thoroughly aroused, “I rose up,” “I opened to my beloved,” “I sought him,” “I called him,” is the language of her heart. Every expression proclaims the renewed energy of her affections. But for the moment all in vain. He was gone, and he gave her no answer. The Beloved was at first the seeker; not finding any response from the bride, his love takes another way which turns the bride into the seeker, to find, in her turn, no response from the Bridegroom. Had then the love of the Bridegroom changed? Had he given up his bride? Ah no, it was not the love, but the manner of expressing the love, that had changed. The bride must learn that the communion of love is easily lost but only recovered through humbling experiences.

And after this same fashion love deals with the “slow hearts” of the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. They wandered, but the Lord followed, and so dealt, in restoring grace, with their affections that He turned their “slow hearts” into “burning hearts,” and, having awakened their affections, He “vanished out of their sight.” The One who sought them withdrew from them, and in so doing left behind Him two seekers after Him in place of two wanderers from Him. For that same hour of the night, they rose up and returned to Jerusalem. They sought the Lord, and they found the Lord; in the midst of His own.

The Lord loves to be sought after, and those that seek will not be disappointed, even though they may have to pass through painful experiences before their wandering hearts are restored to the enjoyment of the love of Christ. Such was the experience of the bride in her further search for the Bridegroom.

7. The watchmen that went about the city found me;

They smote me, they wounded me;

The keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.

Loss of affection means the loss of the company of the Bridegroom. But further it exposes the bride to the dealings of the city watchmen, and the keepers of the walls.

The business of the watchmen is to keep order in the city. How comes it that they find the bride wandering in the city at night, without the Bridegroom? This is contrary to order and they rightly rebuke her. They “wounded” her, but “faithful are the wounds of a friend.” Again the keepers of the walls have to protect the city from attacks of the enemy, and in following their calling must needs challenge all comers, to distinguish friends from foes. They are true to their work in their dealing with the bride. They must discover if she is really what she professes to be, and therefore they strip her of her veil. When we wander do we not expose ourselves to rebuke from those who watch for souls? It is often thus the Lord carries on His restoring work through the means of others. May we not say that Paul was doing watchman’s work when he had that sharp contention with Barnabas in regard to John Mark? And again was he not doing the work of a keeper of the walls when he withstood Peter to the face and exposed his dissimulation; thus, as it were, taking away his veil. But painful as such experiences may be, they work recovery in the true soul. And so with the bride; the dealings of “the watchmen,” and “the keepers,” awakened in the bride deeper longings of heart after the Bridegroom – yearnings of heart that she cannot conceal from others.

8. I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem.

If ye find my beloved . . .

What will ye tell him?

-That I am sick of love.

Unable to contain the longings of her heart, the bride charges others, if they find her beloved, to tell him she is sick of love. She supposes that all would know to whom she refers. To those, however, to whom she appeals the Bridegroom is as one unknown.

The Daughters of Jerusalem.

(9)

9. What is thy beloved more than [another] beloved,

Thou fairest among women?

What is thy beloved more than [another] beloved,

That thou dost so charge us?

They have never known the intimacy of love with the Bridegroom, and cannot understand the affections that fill the heart of the bride. They ask, “What is thy Beloved more than another Beloved?” But this is only another step in the restoration of the bride. Her motives must be searched. Is her Beloved more to her than another? It hardly appeared so in the eyes of others. She had taken her ease without the Bridegroom, and when he knocked she could not even bestir herself to let him in.

Peter professed great love for the Lord when he said, “Although all shall be offended, yet will not I.” But Peter evinced little love for the Lord when he slept in the garden, and no love for the Lord when he denied him in the palace. How seemly it is that in the way of his restoration Peter must be searched with the thrice repeated question, “Lovest thou Me.”

The bride, in response to this searching question, proves the reality of her affection by pouring forth all that is in her heart concerning the Bridegroom.

The Bride.

(10-16).

10. My beloved is white and ruddy,

The chiefest among ten thousand.

11. His head is as the finest gold;

His locks are flowing, black as the raven;

12. His eyes are like doves by the water-brooks,

Washed with milk, fitly set;

13. His cheeks are as a bed of spices, raised beds of sweet plants;

His lips lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.

14. His hands, gold rings set with the chrysolite;

His belly is bright ivory, overlaid [with] sapphires;

16. His legs, pillars of marble, set upon bases of fine gold:

His bearing as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars;

16. His mouth is most sweet:

Yea, he is altogether lovely.

This is my beloved, yea, this is my friend,

O daughters of Jerusalem.

This lovely description is but another step in the awakening of love, for as the bride unfolds the perfections of the Bridegroom to others, her heart, engaged with himself and his glories, is afresh stirred to its depths. To witness to others of the glories and perfections of Christ will most surely kindle afresh one’s own affections for Christ.

This glorious imagery can alone apply to Christ. It is His perfections that pass before us. He alone is “white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.” Whatever others may be, He is the “chiefest”: however many there may be, He is “the chiefest among ten thousand.”

His divine majesty passes before us in the head as the most fine gold.

His locks are flowing and black, betokening the vigour of manhood. No white hair, no trace of age or decay will ever pass on Him. Where all grows old, He never grows old. His years shall never fail.

His eyes, as the eyes of doves, speak of His tender compassion. “Washed with milk” speaks of purity. “Thou art of purer eyes than to ‘behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. “Fitly set “speaks of the perfection of His vision before whom “all things are naked and open.”

The cheeks speak of beauty and attractiveness. The world saw no beauty in Christ, and smote Him on the cheek. Judas professed attraction to Christ but only to betray Him by kissing Him on the cheek. The believer, on the other hand, can delight in the beauty and attractiveness of Christ as a bed of fragrant herbs calls forth the admiration of the passer-by.

His lips are likened to lilies dropping sweet-smelling myrrh. The lily may speak of purity and the sweet-smelling myrrh of grace. Isaiah had to confess he was a man of unclean lips, but the lips of Christ were pure; no guile was found in His mouth. And of Christ it could be said, “Grace is poured into Thy lips.” As He passed through this world, words of grace were ever dropping from His lips like sweet-smelling myrrh.

His hands are likened to rings set with beryl. The ring is the emblem of authority (Gen 41:42; Est 3:10), and the token of love (Luk 15:22) Man expressed his hatred to Christ by nailing His hands of love to a cross, but the believer delights to recognise that all power is in the hands of Christ. but the hand that wields the power is moved by love.

His belly, or body, is likened to bright ivory overlaid with sapphires. The whiteness and smoothness of the ivory may indicate the perfection of Christ without blemish or spot, and the sapphires the preciousness of Christ. Peter presents this twofold view of Christ when in one place he speaks of Him as “without blemish and without spot” and in another writes, “Unto you, therefore, which believe He is precious” (1Pe 1:19; 1Pe 2:7).

His legs as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold, speak of the stability and strength of purpose that ever marked the Lord Jesus. The base of fine gold may indicate that all the steadfastness and strength of Christ had its foundation in divine righteousness.

His countenance or “bearing” signifies “not the face only but the entire aspect.” It is likened to Lebanon, a figure which brings before us the excellence and dignity of Christ.

His mouth is most sweet. In the imagery of the song, it is the kiss rather than speech that is connected with “the mouth.” This clause in the bride’s glowing description would therefore serve to set forth the sweetness of the love of Christ.

“He is altogether lovely.” In Christ we have a perfect object, One who is altogether lovely. Here the heart can rest with satisfaction. In Daniel’s image the head was of fine gold, but the toes were of iron and day. Here the head of the Bridegroom is likened to fine gold, and the legs of marble are set upon bases of fine gold. In the Beloved there is no deterioration. His whole bearing is majestic, He is altogether lovely.

And having closed her description the bride can add, “This is my beloved and this is my friend.” So too each of the redeemed can say of Christ, “He is my Beloved, He is my Friend” even while they unite to sing –

“Join all the glorious names

Of wisdom, love and power,

That mortals every knew,

That angels ever bore;

All are too mean to speak His worth,

Too mean to set the Saviour forth.”

Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible

5:1 I have come into my {a} garden, my sister, [my] spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drank my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

(a) The garden signifies the kingdom of Christ, where he prepares the banquet for his elect.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Solomon exulted in the joy that union with his beloved had brought him, and he commended it to others. This interpretation seems preferable to the views that "the onlookers[?!] and guests," [Note: Carr, The Song . . ., p. 129.] or God, [Note: Deere, p. 1020.] or the poet (not Solomon) [Note: Glickman, p. 163.] spoke the words, "Eat . . . O lovers." The metaphors used express the fully satisfying nature of his sexual experience (cf. 2Sa 13:15).

"Biblically, when a lover gives himself to his beloved as these two have done, the relationship of each has changed to all the rest of the human race. That is why traditionally in our culture a wedding cannot be performed without witnesses. That is the reason behind the publishing of wedding bans [i.e., proclamations]. The taking of a woman by a man is a public matter.

 

"Furthermore, what one does with one’s sexuality is of concern to God (Exo 20:14). Likewise, it is a concern to everyone else. The woman now belongs to the man and the man to the woman. This changes all other personal relationships. Thus the witnesses present at weddings represent the larger society. This is why weddings are considered legal matters.

 

"Self-giving love between the sexes is of social significance. Society must know. How else can marriage be a witness and testimony to the relationship of Christ and the church? One Savior, one spouse!" [Note: Kinlaw, pp. 1230-31.]

"These bold but tender scenes from Song of Solomon point up a major difference between the world’s concept of love to what was created and endorsed by God. In the former case the focus is on self-gratification. In the latter the emphasis is on the well-being of the loved one and the extolling of his or her virtues. No wonder Jewish and Christian interpreters alike have seen this kind of love as a type of God’s great love for His own dear ones." [Note: Merrill, p. 515.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

-17

TRUE LOVE TESTED

Son 1:1-17; Son 2:1-17; Son 3:1-11; Son 4:1-16; Son 5:1

THE poem opens with a scene in Solomons palace. A country maiden has just been introduced to the royal harem. The situation is painful enough in itself, for the poor, shy girl is experiencing the miserable loneliness of finding herself in an unsympathetic crowd. But that is not all. She is at once the object of general observation; every eye is turned towards her; and curiosity is only succeeded by ill-concealed disgust. Still the slavish women, presumably acting on command, set themselves to excite the new-comers admiration for their lord and master. First one speaks some bold amorous words, {Son 1:2} and then the whole chorus follows. {Son 1:3} All this is distressing and alarming to the captive, who calls on her absent lover to fetch her away from such an uncongenial scene; she longs to run after him; for it is the king who has brought her into his chambers, not her own will; {Son 1:4} The women of the harem take no notice of this interruption, but finish their ode on the charms of Solomon. All the while they are staring at the rustic maiden, and she now becomes conscious of a growing contempt in their looks. What is she that the attractions of the king before which the dainty ladies of the court prostrate themselves should have no fascination for her? She notices the contrast between the swarthy hue of her sunburnt countenance and the pale complexion of these pampered products of palace seclusion. She is so dark in comparison with them that she likens herself to the black goatshair tents of the Arabs. {Son 1:5} The explanation is that her brothers have made her work in their vineyards. Meanwhile she has not kept her own vineyard. (Son 1:6) She has not guarded her beauty as these idle women, who have nothing else to do, have guarded theirs: but perhaps she has a sadder thought-she could not protect herself when out alone at her task in the country or she would never have been captured and carried off to prison where she now sits disconsolate. Possibly the vineyard she has not kept is the lover whom she has lost. (See Son 8:12). Still she is a woman, and with a touch of piqued pride she reminds her critics that if she is dark-black compared with them-she is comely. They cannot deny that. It is the cause of all her misery; she owes her imprisonment to her beauty. She knows that their secret feeling is one of envy of her, the latest favourite. Then their affected contempt is groundless. But, indeed, she has no desire to stand as their rival. She would gladly make her escape. She speaks in a half soliloquy. Will not somebody tell her where he is whom her soul loveth? Where is her lost shepherd lad? Where is he feeding his flock? Where is he resting it at noon? Such questions only provoke mockery. Addressing the simple girl as the “fairest among women,” the court ladies bid her find her lover for herself. Let her go back to her country life and feed her kids by the shepherds tents. Doubtless if she is bold enough to court her swain in that way she will not miss seeing him.

Hitherto Solomon has not appeared. Now he comes on the scene, and proceeds to accost his new acquisition in highly complimentary language, with the ease of an expert in the art of courtship. At this point we encounter the most serious difficulty for the theory of a shepherd lover. To all appearances a dialogue between the king and the Shulammite here ensues. {Son 1:9-17; Son 2:1-6} But if this were the case, the country girl would be addressing Solomon in terms of the utmost endearment-conduct utterly incompatible with the “shepherd hypothesis.” The only alternative is to suppose that the hard-pressed girl takes refuge from the importunity of her royal flatterer by turning aside to an imaginary, half dream-like conversation with her absent lover. This is not by any means a probable position, it must be allowed; it seems to put a strained interpretation on the text. Undoubtedly if the passage before us stood by itself, there would not be any difference of opinion about it; everybody would take it in its obvious meaning as a conversation between two lovers. But it does not stand by itself-unless, indeed, we are to give up the unity of the book. Therefore it must be interpreted so as not to contradict the whole course of the poem, which shews that another than Solomon is the true lover of the disconsolate maiden.

The king begins with the familiar device by which rich men all the world over try to win the confidence of poor girls when there is no love on either side, -a device which has been only too successful in the case of many a weak Marguerite though her tempter has not always been a handsome Faust; but in the present case innocence is fortified by true love, and the trick is a failure. The king notices that this peasant girl has but simple plaited hair and homely ornaments. She shall have plaits of gold and studs of silver! Splendid as one of Pharaohs chariot horses, she shall be decorated as magnificently as they are decorated! What is this to our staunch heroine? She treats it with absolute indifference, and begins to soliloquise, with a touch of scorn in her language. She has been loaded with scent after the manner of the luxurious court, and the king while seated feasting at his table has caught the odour of the rich perfumes. That is why he is now by her side. Does he think that she will serve as a new dainty for the great banquet, as a fresh fillip for the jaded appetite of the royal voluptuary? If so he is much mistaken. The kings promises have no attraction for her, and she turns for relief to dear memories of her true love. The thought of him is fragrant as the bundle of myrrh she carries in her bosom, as the henna-flowers that bloom in the vineyards of far-off Engedi.

Clearly Solomon has made a clumsy move. This shy bird is not of the common species with which he is familiar. He must aim higher if he would bring down his quarry. She is not to be classed with the wares of the matrimonial market that are only waiting to be assigned to the richest bidder. She cannot be bought even by the wealth of a kings treasury. But if there is a woman who can resist the charms of finery, is there one who can stand against the admiration of her personal beauty? A man of Solomons experience would scarcely believe that such was to be found. Nevertheless now the sex he estimates too lightly is to be vindicated, while the king himself is to be taught a wholesome lesson. He may call her fair; he may praise her dove-like eyes. {Son 1:15} His flattery is lost upon her. She only thinks of the beauty of her shepherd lad, and pictures to herself the green bank on which they used to sit, with the cedars and firs for the beams and roof of their trysting-place. (Son 1:16-17) Her language carries us away from the gilded splendour and close, perfumed atmosphere of the royal palace to scenes such as Shakespeare presents in the forest of Arden and the haunts of Titania, and Milton in the Mask of “Comus.” Here is a Hebrew lady longing to escape from the clutches of one who for all his glory is not without some of the offensive traits of the monster Comus. She thinks of herself as a wild flower, like the crocus that grows on the plains of Sharon or the lily (literally the anemone) that is sprinkled so freely over the upland valleys. {Son 2:1} The open country is the natural habitat of such a plant, not the stifling court. Solomon catches at her beautiful imagery. Compared with other maidens she is like a lily among thorns. {Son 2:2}

And now these scenes of nature carry the persecuted girl away in a sort of reverie. If she is like the tender flower, her lover resembles the apple tree at the foot of which it nestles, a tree the shadow of which is delightful and its fruit sweet. {Son 2:3} She remembers how he brought her to his banqueting house; that rustic bower was a very different place from the grand divan on which she had seen Solomon sitting at his table. No purple hangings like those of the kings palace there screened her from the sun. The only banner her shepherd could spread over her was love, his own. {Son 2:4} But what could be a more perfect shelter?

She is fainting. How she longs for her lover to comfort her! She has just compared him to an apple tree; now the refreshment she hungers for is the fruit of this tree; that is to say, his love. {Son 2:5} Oh that he would put his arms round her and support her, as in the old happy days before she had been snatched away from him! {Son 2:6}

Next follows a verse which is repeated later, and so serves as a sort of refrain. {Son 2:7} The Shulammite adjures the daughters of Jerusalem not to awaken love. This verse is misrendered in the Authorised Version, which inserts the pronoun “my” before “love” without any warrant in the Hebrew text. The poor girl has spoken of apples. But the court ladies must not misunderstand her. She wants none of their love apples, {See Gen 30:14} no philtre, no charm to turn her affections away from her shepherd lover and pervert them to the importunate royal suitor. The opening words of the poem which celebrated the charms of Solomon had been aimed in that direction. The motive of the worm seems to be the Shulammites resistance to various attempts to move her from loyalty to her true love. It is natural, therefore, that an appeal to desist from all such attempts should come out emphatically.

The poet takes a new turn. In imagination the Shulammite hears the voice of her beloved. She pictures him standing at the foot of the lofty rock on which the harem is built, and crying, –

“Oh, my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the cover of the steep place,

Let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice;

For sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.” {Son 2:14}

He is like a troubadour singing to his imprisoned lady-love; and she, in her soliloquies, though not by any means a “high-born maiden,” may call to mind the simile in Shelleys “Skylark”:

“Like a high-born maiden In a palace tower,

Soothing her love-laden Soul in secret hour,

With music sweet as love, which overflows her bower.”

She remembers how her lover had come to her bounding over the hills “like a roe or a young hart,” {Son 2:9} and peeping in at her lattice; and she repeats the song with which he had called her out-one of the sweetest songs of spring that ever was sung. {Son 2:11-13} In our own green island we acknowledge that this is the most beautiful season of all the round year; but in Palestine it stands out in more strongly marked contrast to the three other seasons, and it is in itself exceedingly lovely. While summer and autumn are there parched with drought, barren and desolate, and while winter is often dreary with snowstorms and floods of rain, in spring the whole land is one lovely garden, ablaze with richest hues, hill and dale, wilderness and farm-land vying in the luxuriance of their wild flowers, from the red anemone that fires the steep sides of the mountains to the purple and white cyclamen that nestles among the rocks at their feet. Much of the beauty of this poem is found in the fact that it is pervaded by the spirit of an eastern spring. This makes it possible to introduce a wealth of beautiful imagery which would not have been appropriate if any other season had been chosen. Even more lovely in March than England is in May, Palestine comes nearest to the appearance of our country in the former month; so that this poem, that is so completely bathed in the atmosphere of early spring, calls up echoes of the exquisite English garden pictures in Shelleys “Sensitive Plant” and Tennysons “Maud.” But it is not only beauty of imagery that our poet gains by setting his work in this lovely season. His ideas are all ill harmony with the period of the year he describes so charmingly. It is the time of youth and hope, of joy and love-especially of love, for,

“In the spring a young mans fancy

Lightly turns to thoughts of love.”

There is even a deeper association between the ideas of the poem and the season in which it is set. None of the freshness of spring is to be found about Solomon and his harem, but it is all present in the Shulammite and her shepherd; and spring scenes and thoughts powerfully aid the motive of the poem in accentuating the contrast between the tawdry magnificence of the court and the pure, simple beauty of the country life to which the heroine of the poem clings so faithfully.

The Shulammite answers her lover in an old ditty about “the little foxes that spoil the vineyards.” {Son 2:15} He would recognise that, and so discover her presence. We are reminded of the legend of Richards page finding his master by singing a familiar ballad outside the walls of the castle in the Tyrol where the captive crusader was imprisoned. This is all imaginary. And yet the faithful girl knows in her heart that her beloved is hers and that she is his, although in sober reality he is now feeding his flocks in the far-off flowery fields of her old home. {Son 2:16} There he must remain till the cool of the evening, till the shadows melt into the darkness of night, when she would fain he returned to her, coming over the rugged mountains “like a roe or a young hart.” {Son 2:17}

Now the Shulammite tells a painful dream. {Son 3:1-4} She dreamed that she had lost her lover, and that she rose up at night and went out into the streets seeking him. At first she failed to find him. She asked the watchmen whom she met on their round, if they had seen him whom her soul loved. They could not help her quest. But a little while after leaving them she discovered her missing lover, and brought him safely into her mothers house.

After a repetition of the warning to the daughters of Jerusalem not to awaken love, {Son 3:5} we are introduced to a new scene. {Son 3:6-11} It is by one of the gates of Jerusalem, where the country maiden has been brought in order that she may be impressed by the gorgeous spectacle of Solomon returning from a royal progress. The king comes up from the wilderness in clouds of perfume, guarded by sixty men-at-arms, and borne in a magnificent palanquin of cedar-wood, with silver posts, a floor of gold, and purple cushions, wearing on his head the crown with which his mother had crowned him. Is the mention of the mother of Solomon intended to be specially significant? Remember-she was Bathsheba! The allusion to such a woman would not be likely to conciliate the pure young girl, who was not in the least degree moved by this attempt to charm her with a scene of exceptional magnificence.

Solomon now appears again, praising his captive in extravagant language of courtly flattery. He praises her dove-like eyes, her voluminous black hair, her rosy lips, her noble brow (not even disguised by her veil), her towering neck, her tender bosom-lovely as twin gazelles that feed among the lilies. Like her lover, who is necessarily away with his flock, Solomon will leave her till the cool of the evening, till the shadows melt into night; but he has no pastoral duties to attend to, and though the delicate balancing and assimilation of phrase and idea is gracefully manipulated, there is a change. The king will go to “mountains of myrrh” and “hills of frankincense,” {Son 4:6} to make his person more fragrant, and so, as he hopes, more welcome.

If we adopt the “shepherd hypothesis” the next section of the poem must be assigned to the rustic lover. {Son 4:8-15} It is difficult to believe that this peasant would be allowed to speak to a lady in the royal harem. We might suppose that here and perhaps also in the earlier scene the shepherd is represented as actually present at the foot of the rock on which the palace stands. Otherwise this also must be taken as an imaginary scene, or as a reminiscence of the dreamy girl. Although a thread of unity runs through the whole poem. Goethe was clearly correct in calling it “a medley.” Scenes real and imaginary melting one into another cannot take their places in a regular drama. But when we grant full liberty to the imaginary element there is less necessity to ask what is subjective and what objective, what only fancied by the Shulammite and what intended to be taken as an actual occurrence. Strictly speaking, nothing is actual; the whole poem is a highly imaginative series of fancy pictures illustrating the development of its leading ideas.

Next-whether we take it as in imagination or in fact-the shepherd lover calls his bride to follow him from the most remote regions. His language is entirely different from that of the magnificent monarch. He does not waste his breath in formal compliments, high-flown imagery, wearisome lists of the charms of the girl he loves. That was the clumsy method of the king; clumsy, though, reflecting the finished manners of the court, in comparison with the genuine outpourings of the heart of a country lad. The shepherd is eloquent with the inspiration of true love; his words throb and glow with genuine emotion; there is a fine, wholesome passion in them. The love of his bride has ravished his heart. How beautiful is her love! He is intoxicated with it more than with wine. How sweet are her words of tender affection, like milk and honey! She is so pure. there is something sisterly in her love with all its warmth. And she is so near to him that she is almost like a part of himself, as his own sister. This holy and close relationship is in startling contrast to the only thing known as love in the royal harem. It is as much more lofty and noble as it is more strong and deep than the jaded emotions of the court. The sweet pure maiden is to the shepherd like a garden the gate of which is barred against trespassers, like a spring shut off from casual access, like a sealed fountain-sealed to all but one, and, happy man, he is that one. To him she belongs, to him alone. She is a garden, yes, a most fragrant garden, an orchard of pomegranates full of rich fruit, crowded with sweet-scented plants-henna and spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon and all kinds of frankincense, myrrh and aloes and the best of spices. She is a fountain in the garden, sealed to all others, but not stinted towards the one she loves. To him she is as a well of living waters, like the full-fed streams that flow from Lebanon.

The maiden is supposed to hear the song of love. She replies in fearless words of welcome, bidding the north wind awake, and the south wind too that the fragrance of which her lover has spoken so enthusiastically may flow out more richly than ever. For his sake she would be more sweet and loving. All she possesses is for him. Let him come and take possession of his own. {Son 4:16}

What lover could turn aside from such a rapturous invitation? The shepherd takes his bride; he enters his garden, gathers his myrrh and spice, eats his honey and drinks his wine and milk, and calls on his friends to feast and drink with him. {Son 5:1} This seems to point to the marriage of the couple and their wedding feast; a view of the passage which interpreters who regard Solomon as the lover throughout for the most part take, but one which has this fatal objection, that it leaves the second half of the poem without a motive. On the hypothesis of the shepherd lover it is still more difficult to suppose the wedding to have occurred at the point we have now reached, for the distraction of the royal courtship still proceeds in subsequent passages of the poem. It would seem, then, that we must regard this as quite an ideal scene. It may, however, be taken as a reminiscence of an earlier passage in the lives of the two lovers. It is not impossible that it refers to their wedding, and that they had been married before the action of the whole story began. In that case we should suppose that Solomons officers had carried off a young bride to the royal harem. The intensity of the love and the bitterness of the separation apparent throughout the poem would be the more intelligible if this were the situation. It is to be remembered that Shakespeare ascribes the climax of the love and grief of Romeo and Juliet to a time after their marriage. But the difficulty of accepting this view lies in the improbability that so outrageous a crime would be attributed to Solomon, although it must be admitted that the guilty conduct of his father and mother had gone a long way in setting an example for the violation of the marriage tie. In dealing with vague and dreamy poetry such as that of the Song of Solomon, it is not possible to determine a point like this with precision; nor is it necessary to do so. The beauty and force of the passage now before us centre in the perfect mutual love of the two young hearts that here show themselves to he knit together as one, whether already actually married or not yet thus externally united.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary