Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Song of Solomon 5:3
I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?
3. As all commentators remark, the reasons for not opening the door are of a very trifling kind, and such as are insurmountable only in dreams.
my coat ] or tunic, a garment, generally of linen, worn next the skin by both men and women. The man’s tunic reached to the knee, the woman’s was longer.
how ] Heb. ’khkhh, found elsewhere in the O.T. only in Est 8:6. The use of this form has consequently some bearing on the date of the book. Budde remarks in this connexion that all the words occurring in this passage which are not used elsewhere occur in Judaeo-Aramaic.
I have washed my feet ] Budde sees in this phrase an indication that the Shulammite was accustomed to go barefoot; but all wearers of sandals would have to wash their feet as much as those who might go barefoot.
defile them ] soil them, Heb. ’tann phm, found here only in O.T., but occurring in the Heb. of the Mishnah and in the Talmud. The suffix for them here is masculine, though the word for feet is feminine. This is one of the grammatical inaccuracies which are frequent in this book, but this particular irregularity is not uncommon elsewhere.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
She makes trivial excuses, as one in a dream.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Son 5:3
I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on?
Profession, tested by the unusual
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 rhapsodizing, 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? 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 l rise again? Thus 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 realization? 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. 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? Where do we begin to economize? Do we begin in the region of luxury? Where is there a man who can truthfully say that when he begins to economize he begins in the wine-cellar? 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? (J. Parker, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 3. I have put off my coat] The bride must have been in a dream or in much disorder of mind to have made the frivolous excuses here mentioned. The words relate to the case of a person who had gone to take rest on his bed. As they wore nothing but sandals, they were obliged to wash their feet previously to their lying down. I have washed my feet, taken off my clothes, and am gone to bed: I cannot therefore be disturbed. A Hindoo always washes his feet before he goes to bed. If called from his bed, he often makes this excuse, I shall daub my feet; and the excuse is reasonable, as the floors are of earth; and they do not wear shoes in the house. – WARD.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I have put off my coat, my day clothes, as persons use to do when they go to rest.
How shall I put it on? it is inconvenient and troublesome to do it at this time. Thus she tacitly reflects upon the Bridegroom for coming to her so unseasonably, and giving her such disturbance, and puts him off to another time, and excuseth her non-admission of him by her present indisposition, and the difficulty of the thing required of her.
I have washed my feet; which the Eastern people commonly did when they went to bed, partly to cool their feet, and partly to cleanse them from that dust and sweat which they had contracted in the day time by labour and travel, as being used to go barefoot.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. Trivial excuses (Lu14:18).
coatrather, the inmostvest, next the skin, taken off before going to bed.
washed . . . feetbeforegoing to rest, for they had been soiled, from the Eastern custom ofwearing sandals, not shoes. Sloth (Lu11:7) and despondency (De7:17-19).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I have put off my coat,…. In order to lie down on her bed at night, and take her ease; meaning her conversation garments, which she had not been careful of to keep, but had betook herself to carnal ease and rest, and was off her watch and guard, Ne 4:23; and being at ease, and free from trouble, affliction, and persecution, was unwilling to arise and go with her beloved, lest she should meet with the same trials and sufferings as before, for the sake of him and his Gospel; which may be greatly the sense of her next words;
how shall I put it on? which suggests an apprehension of difficulty in doing it, it being easier to drop the performance of duty than to take it up again; and shows slothfulness and sluggishness, being loath and not knowing how to bring herself to it; and an aversion of the carnal and fleshly part unto it; yea, as if she thought it was unreasonable in Christ to desire it of her, when it was but her reasonable service; or as if she imagined it was dangerous, and would be detrimental to her rest, and prejudicial to her health;
I have washed my feet; as persons used to do when come off of a journey, and about to go to bed e, being weary; as she was of spiritual exercises, and of the observance of ordinances and duties, and so betook herself to carnal ease, and from which being called argues,
how shall I defile them? by rising out of bed, and treading on the floor, and going to the door to let her beloved in; as if hearkening to the voice of Christ, obeying his commands, and taking every proper step to enjoy communion with him, would be a defiling her; whereas it was the reverse of these that did it: from the whole it appears, that not only these excuses were idle and frivolous, but sinful; she slighted the means Christ made use of to awaken her, by calling and knocking; she sinned against light and knowledge, sleeping on, when she knew it was the voice of her beloved; she acted a disingenuous part in inviting Christ into his garden, and then presently fell asleep; and then endeavoured to shift the blame from herself, as if she was no ways culpable, but what was desired was either difficult, or unreasonable, or unlawful; she appears guilty of great ingratitude, and discovers the height of folly in preferring her present ease to the company of Christ.
e Homer. Odyss. 19. v. 317.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
3 I have put off my dress,
How shall I put it on again?
I have washed my feet,
How shall I defile them again?
She now lies unclothed in bed. is the worn next to the body, from , linen (diff. from the Arab. kutun , cotton, whence French coton , calico = cotton-stuff). She had already washed her feet, from which it is supposed that she had throughout the day walked barefooted, – how ( , how? both times with the tone on the penult.;
(Note: That it has the tone on the penult., like , e.g., Son 5:9, is in conformity with the paragog. nature of . The tone, however, when the following word in close connection begins with , goes to the ult., Est 7:6. That this does not occur in , is explained from the circumstance that the word has the disjunctive Tifcha. But why not in ? I think it is for the sake of the rhythm. Pinsker, Einl. p. 184, seeks to change the accentuation in order that the penult. accent might be on the second , but that is not necessary. Cf. Psa 137:7.)
cf. , where ? Son 1:7) should she again put on her dress, which she had already put off and laid aside ( )? why should she soil ( , relating to the fem. , for ) again her feet, that had been washed clean? Shulamith is here brought back to the customs as well as to the home of her earlier rural life; but although she should thus have been enabled to reach a deeper and more lively consciousness of the grace of the king, who stoops to an equality with her, yet she does not meet his love with an equal requital. She is unwilling for his sake to put herself to trouble, or to do that which is disagreeable to her. It cannot be thought that such an interview actually took place; and yet what she here dreamed had not only inward reality, but also full reality. For in a dream, that which is natural to us or that which belongs to our very constitution becomes manifest, and much that is kept down during our waking hours by the power of the will, by a sense of propriety, and by the activities of life, comes to light during sleep; for fancy then stirs up the ground of our nature and brings it forth in dreams, and thus exposes us to ourselves in such a way as oftentimes, when we waken, to make us ashamed and alarmed. Thus it was with Shulamith. In the dream it was inwardly manifest that she had lost her first love. She relates it with sorrow; for scarcely had she rejected him with these unworthy deceitful pretences when she comes to herself again.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
THE UNKIND RESPONSE
Son. 5:3
SHULAMITE
I have put off my coat;
How shall I put it on?
I have washed my feet;
How shall I defile them?
Sad answer from the beloved spouse of a king. More like the answer in a dream than in reality. The language only of one oppressed with physical or moral sleep. The excuse for not opening at once as silly as it was selfish. No great difficulty in resuming a garment just laid aside. No great sacrifice in soiling the feet by walking across the floor. The effects of spiritual sleep
(1) To see difficulties in the way of duty where none exist, and greatly to exaggerate those that do. The language only of the sluggard, There is a lion in the street (Pro. 20:4; Pro. 26:3. Hag. 1:2-4).
(2) To be unwilling to deny ourselves, or make sacrifices for Christ; and to think those we are called to make much greater than they really are.
(3) To be more careful about personal comfort and carnal case, than about the pleasures of Christ and the interests of His kingdom.
(4) To be oblivious of our own best interests.
(5) To forget our character and condition as believers, and to act in a way entirely inconsistent with it. Too common for believers to act in a way unlike themselves. In a low state of religion this usually the case. The wise virgins too often slumbering with the foolish ones. An early Apostolic rebuke to a Christian Church: Are ye not carnal, and walk as men? Possible even for believers to act at times more according to the flesh than the Spirit.
(6) To act rather as in a dream than as one awake. The life and conduct of men in general. Possessed of deathless souls, yet caring only, or most, for a short-lived body. Born for eternity, yet concerned only, or most, for the things of time. Possessing interests inconceivably high, glorious, and important, and yet expending their time and energy on trifles. Sentenced as sinners to eternal damnation, but with the gracious offer of a free pardon; and yet under no concern to secure it. Under the power of a loathsome disease that must, unless removed, exclude them from heaven, and shut them up in hell; and yet slighting the freely proffered services of the only Physician who is able to cure them. The endless glories and felicities of heaven, with peace and comfort in the way to it, procured at an amazing cost by the Son of God, and freely offered, along with Himself, for the immediate acceptance even of the chief of sinners; and yet slighted and refused for the paltry enjoyments of time and the pleasures of sin, which are but for a season. The testimony of Scripture true: Madness is in their hearts while they live, and afterwards they go down to the dead (Ecc. 9:3).
The language of the Spouse an example of the
Excuses,
made for not giving immediate attention to the Saviours call, and the concerns of the soul. Such excuses usually either
(1) Want of time and leisure;
(2) The difficulty and sacrifice involvedas, loss of worldly favour, friendship, or enjoyment; the scoff and ridicule of neighbours and associates; the effort required to keep up a religious profession and attendance upon religious ordinances, &c.; or,
(3) The intention to give more heed to the things of eternity at a future and more favourable opportunity. Such excuses foolish and unreasonable; as
1. Nothing of an earthly nature can for a moment be compared, in point of importance, with the concerns of eternity. What shall a man be profited if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Well-being for eternity obviously, with an immortal soul, the one thing needful.
2. No difficulty involved in accepting Christ and His salvation which His grace will not enable us to overcome; and no sacrifice which will not be infinitely more than compensated. His own testimony true: My yoke is easy, and my burden is light. When I sent you without purse or scrip, lacked ye anything? And they said: Nothing, Lord.
3. The present moment only ours. A more favourable opportunity may never come. Felix never found his more convenient season. With our salvation it may be now or never. Delay only hardens the heart, and makes salvation more difficult.
4. Persons of all classes, and in all circumstances and conditions, are continually by their example shewing the practicability and blessedness of receiving Christ and experiencing His salvation.
Main truths suggested by the passage in reference to believers:
1. The carnal mind remaining in a believer always the same, and as much disinclined to spiritual communion as it was in his unconverted state.
2. That in a believer, through the remains of a carnal nature, which continually subjects him to condemnation, with the increased guilt arising from greater knowledge and past experience of the divine mercy.
3. Only the unchangeableness of Christs love, and of the Covenant of grace which has been made with him in Christ, along with the existence of a new and spiritual nature imparted to him at conversion, preserves the believer from final apostacy, and from sinking back into his former state of carnality and unbelief.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(3) Coat.Heb. cutoneth=cetoneth; Gr. , tunic.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. Coat The Greeks took from the Phoenicians both the garment and its name preserved in our word tunic. It was a linen shirt, reaching below the knees, sometimes to the ankles and to the wrists. I have washed, etc.
The wearing of sandals made the washing of the feet a frequent necessity, and, of course, on retiring at night. These are trifling excuses. The labours of humble life, in which the Beloved is located, give him little leisure or control of his time. Even a late visit, after the toils of the day, perhaps far away, should have been welcomed, in view of its evident cost to him. So she quickly came to think.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘I have put off my garment, How shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, How shall I defile them?’
Her drowsy voice reaches her beloved. Does he not realize how thoughtless he is being? She has undressed. Does he really expect her to put her clothes on again? She has washed her feet. Does he really expect her to get them dirty? She cannot be bothered, and she has become too nice for such behavior.
How easily Christians settle down in a similar way with their Lord, so that the dedication that they once had has slipped and they are no longer prepared to be inconvenienced, or to get their feet dirty. Their view is, ‘Let Him return in the morning when it is more convenient’. (It can sadly happen to us all).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?
If this verse affords as that it doth indeed afford, an awful example to what a degree of baseness and ingratitude our nature is capable of falling; it will serve at the same time to manifest the wonderful patience, and love, and forbearance of our Lord. What a beautiful representation of both is given by the Prophet. Hosea, Hos 11:7-9 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
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?
Ver. 3. I have put off my coat. ] Thus the flesh shows itself not only weak but wayward, treacherous, and tyrannical; rebel it doth in the best, and reign it would if it might be suffered. This bramble would feign be playing Rex, King, and doth so at other times, till he be well buffeted, as St Paul served it, 1Co 9:27 and brought into subjection. But what a silly excuse maketh the Church here for herself? “Trouble me not, for I am in bed,” as he said to his friend. Luk 11:7 My clothes are off, my feet are washed, and I am composed to a settled rest. But are you so? might Christ have regested. And is that the part and posture of a vigilant Christian? Might it not better have beseemed you to have had your loins girt up, your lamp in your hand, and yourself to have waited for your Lord’s return, that when he came and knocked you might have opened unto him immediately? Luk 12:35-36 Or, being got to bed, must you needs mend one fault with another? Is it such a pains to start up again and let in such a guest, as comes not to take anything from you, but to enrich you much more than once the ark did Obed Edom? And in this sense some take those words in the former verse, “for mine head is filled with dew,” as if Christ came unto her, full of the dew of blessings, to enrich her. Sure it is that Christ is no beggarly or niggardly guest. His “reward is with him”; he brings better commodities than Abraham’s servants did to Laban, or the Queen of Sheba to Solomon – even purest gold, whitest raiment, sovereign eye salve, anything, everything, that heart can wish, or need require. Rev 3:17 ; Rev 3:19 How unworthily therefore deal they, and how ill do they provide for themselves that either deny or delay to entertain him, when either by the motions of his Spirit, by the words of his mouth, or by the works of his hands, he knocks at the doors of their hearts, and would come in to them! How do they “make void or reject the counsel of God against themselves” with those unhappy lawyers, Luk 7:30 being ingrati gratiae Dei, as Ambrose speaketh, and judging themselves unworthy of everlasting life, with those perverse Jews! Act 13:46 Who can say it is otherwise than righteous that Christ should regest one day upon such ungrateful Gadarenes, “Depart from me ye wicked”; that such as say to him, as Felix did once to Paul, “Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season I will call for thee,” Act 24:26 should hear from him, Get you to the gods whom ye have chosen, for I will not help you, &c.; and that those that would not obey this sweet precept, “Open to me,” &c., “Come down, Zaccheus, for today I must abide at thy house,” Luk 19:5 should have no other left to obey but that dreadful “Go ye cursed,” &c. The Church here did but lust awhile and linger, when she should have been up and about; and she soon rued it dearly, bewailed it bitterly. Now, what was it that she did? Did she rate Christ for coming at such unseasonable hours? did she answer him currishly, or drive him front her door? No, surely; but only pleads excuse, and pretends inconvenience. She had put off her clothes, washed her feet, &c. A great char she had done; and it would have undone her doubtless to have dressed her again, and set her fair feet on the foul ground. There is none so wise as the sluggard. Pro 26:16 He hath got together a great many excuses, which he thinks will go for wisdom; because by them he thinks to sleep in a whole skin. Sin and shifting came into the world together. But what saith the apostle? Surely his counsel is most excellent, and worthy of all acceptation, “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh,” Heb 12:25 scil., By his blood, Word, sacraments, motions of his Spirit, mercies, &c. “Look to it,” as the Greek hath it, “that ye refuse not,” , “that ye shift him not off” by frivolous pretences and idle excuses, as those recusant guests did, Mat 22:5 as Moses would have done; Exo 3:11 ; Exo 3:14 ; Exo 4:1 ; Exo 4:10 and Jeremiah. Jer 1:6 So again, Heb 2:3 , “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” He saith not, if we reject, renounce, persecute; but if we neglect, let slip, undervalue, &c. If, when God “sends forth his mercy and his truth,” Psa 57:3 and looks that we should send a lamb to that Lamb of God, the ruler of the land; Isa 16:1 we send messages after him, saying, “We will not have this man to rule over us”; Luk 19:14 we break his cords, those “cords of love,” Hos 11:4 and kick against his heart; and instead of serving him, “make him to serve with our sins, and even weary him with our iniquities.” Isa 43:24 How shall we escape? What hill shall hide us What will ye do in the end thereof?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
I have put off. She quotes (Son 5:3) the reply her shepherd lover gave in her dream.
defile = soil.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
have put: Pro 3:28, Pro 13:4, Pro 22:13, Mat 25:5, Mat 26:38-43, Luk 11:7, Rom 7:22, Rom 7:23
I have washed: As the Orientals only wear sandals, they are obliged to wash their feet previously to their lying down. Hence a Hindoo, if called from his bed, often makes his excuse that he shall daub his feet.
Reciprocal: Hag 1:2 – This
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Son 5:3. I have put off my coat My day clothes, as persons use to do when they go to rest. How shall I put it on? It is inconvenient and troublesome to do it at this time. I have washed my feet Which the eastern people commonly did when they went to bed.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
5:3 I have put off my {d} coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?
(d) The spouse confesses her nakedness, and that of herself she has nothing, or seeing that she is once made clean she promises not to defile herself again.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
However, she had lost interest. She gave a weak excuse: she had already gotten ready for bed (and may have had a headache!). When he tried to open her door but found it locked, he gave up and went away. It may be that "the opening" is a euphemistic reference to the entrance into the woman’s private parts. [Note: See Pamela J. Scalise, Jeremiah 26-52, p. 120, listed in the bibliography under Keown, Scalise, and Smothers; and Carr, The Song . . ., pp. 134-35.] If so, this is probably only an implied allusion, a double entendre, since the hole in a literal door is clearly evident in the context. It was not long before she knew she had erred in discouraging him.
"An ancient keyhole would form a large enough opening to place an adult’s hand through because the key would be large." [Note: Hess, p. 172.]