Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Song of Solomon 5:6
I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, [and] was gone: my soul failed when he spoke: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.
6. had withdrawn himself ] Lit. had turned away. This disappointment is just such as comes in dreams.
my soul failed when he spake ] R.V. My soul had failed me when he spake. This is the explanation of his departure. She had fainted when she heard his voice, and when she came to herself and opened the door he was gone. This seems to be the simple explanation of a clause which has greatly vexed interpreters. Hitzig, Ewald, and Oettli would read for bdhabbr = ‘when he spake,’ bdhobhr, in the sense ‘when he turned away.’ But this is an Aramaic meaning, and though, according to the Oxford Heb. Lex. this is probably the root meaning of the word from which all the others are derived, the verb is not found in Heb. in this sense. As the ordinary signification of the verb gives a good meaning here it seems unnecessary to go beyond it.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Withdrawn himself; denied me his gracious and comfortable presence, as a just punishment for my former neglect and folly.
And was gone; either she repeats the same thing to show how deeply she was affected with it; or this is added to imply that he had not only stepped aside, but was quite gone away.
My soul failed, Heb. went out of me. I fainted and was ready to die away through excessive passion, as this phrase is used, Gen 35:18; 42:28, and elsewhere.
When he spake; or, for what he spoke; for those endearing expressions related Son 5:2, which then I did not heed, but this sad occasion brings them to my remembrance; as ofttimes that word which is ineffectual when it is preached, is afterwards brought to a mans mind, and, produceth blessed effects.
I sought him by diligent inquiry and importunate prayer. He gave me no answer; that so he might both chastise her folly, and quicken her desires, and prepare the way for a more hearty welcome, and his longer abode with her.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. withdrawnHe knockedwhen she was sleeping; for to have left her then would haveended in the death sleep; He withdraws now that she is roused,as she needs correction (Jer 2:17;Jer 2:19), and can appreciate andsafely bear it now, which she could not then. “The strong He’llstrongly try” (1Co 10:13).
when he spakerather,”because of His speaking”; at the remembrance of His tenderwords (Job 29:2; Job 29:3;Psa 27:13; Psa 142:7),or till He should speak.
no answer (Job 23:3-9;Job 30:20; Job 34:29;Lam 3:44). Weak faith receivesimmediate comfort (Luk 8:44;Luk 8:47; Luk 8:48);strong faith is tried with delay (Mat 15:22;Mat 15:23).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I opened to my beloved,…. Which was what he desired, and was done in virtue of his putting in his hand by the hole of the door; or by the exertion of his efficacious grace, working in her both to will and to do, without which it would not have been done; namely, her heart dilated, the desires and affections of her soul enlarged towards Christ, and every grace drawn forth and exercised on him; and though the heart of a believer is sometimes shut to Christ, yet when it is opened, it is only patent to him; the church thought Christ was still at the door, and might be the more confirmed in it by what she found on the handles of the lock; but lo her mistake,
but my beloved had withdrawn himself, [and] was gone: a sad disappointment this! she expected to have seen him, and been received in his arms and embraced in his bosom; but instead of that, he was gone out of sight and hearing: this withdrawing was to chastise her for her former carriage, and to show her more the evil of her sin, and his resentment of it; to try the truth and strength of her grace to inflame her love the more, and sharpen her desires after his presence, to prize it more when she had it, and be careful not to lose it: her using two words of the same import, “he turned himself” h, and was gone, signifies that he was really gone, and not in her imagination only; and that he was gone suddenly, at an unawares, and, as she might fear, would never return; and these words being without a copulative, “had withdrawn himself, he was gone”, show her haste in speaking, the confusion she was in, thee strength of her passion, the greatness of her disappointment and sorrow; it is as if she was represented wringing her hands and crying, He is gone, he is gone, he is gone;
my soul failed when he spake; or “went out” i; not out of her body, but she fell into a swoon, and was as one dead; for a while; and this was “at” or “through his word” k, as it may be rendered; through what he said when he turned about and departed, expressing his resentment at her behavior; or rather at the remembrance of his kind and tender language he used when he first called her to arise, “saying, open to me, my sister, my spouse”, c. So 5:2 and when she called to mind how sadly she had slighted and neglected him, it cut her to the heart, and threw her into this fainting fit;
I sought him, but I could not find him; in the public ordinances of his house; [See comments on So 3:2];
I called him, but he gave me no answer; called him by his name as she went along the streets and broad ways of the city, where she supposed he might be; praying aloud, and most earnestly and fervently, that he would return to her; but had no answer, at least not immediately, and thus be treated her in the same manner she had treated him; he had called to her and she disregarded him, and now she calls to him, and he takes no notice of her; but this was not in a way of vindictive wrath and punishment, as in Pr 1:24; but of chastisement and correction.
h “verteret se”, Pagninus; “circuerat”, Montanus. i , Sept. “egressa est”, Pagninus, Montanus, Marckius. k , Sept. “in loquela ejus”, Marckius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
6 I opened to my beloved;
And my beloved had withdrawn, was gone:
My soul departed when he spake –
I sought him, and found him not;
I called him, and he answered me not.
As the disciples at Emmaus, when the Lord had vanished from the midst of them, said to one another: Did not our heart burn within us when He spake with us? so Shulamith says that when he spake, i.e., sought admission to her, she was filled with alarm, and almost terrified to death.
Love-ecstasy ( , as contrast to ) is not here understood, for in such a state she would have flown to meet him; but a sinking of the soul, such as is described by Terence ( And. I 5. 16):
“Oratio haec me miseram exanimavit metu.” The voice of her beloved struck her heart; but in the consciousness that she had estranged herself from him, she could not openly meet him and offer empty excuses. But now she recognises it with sorrow that she had not replied to the deep impression of his loving words; and seeing him disappear without finding him, she calls after him whom she had slighted, but he answers her not. The words: “My soul departed when he spake,” are the reason why she now sought him and called upon him, and they are not a supplementary remark (Zckl.); nor is there need for the correction of the text , which should mean: (my soul departed) when he turned his back (Ewald), or, behind him (Hitz., Bttch.), from = (Arab.) dabara , tergum vertere , praeterire , – the Heb. has the word , the hinder part, and as it appears, , to act from behind (treacherously) and destroy, 2Ch 22:10; cf. under Gen 34:13, but not the Kal , in that Arab. signification. The meaning of has been hit upon by Aquila ( ), Symmachus ( ), and Jerome ( declinaverat ); it signifies to turn aside, to take a different direction, as the Hithpa. Jer 31:22: to turn oneself away; cf. , turnings, bendings, Son 7:2. and (cf. Gen 32:25), Aethiop. hakafa , Amhar. akafa (reminding us of , Hiph. ), are usually compared; all of these, however, signify to “encompass;” but does not denote a moving in a circle after something, but a half circular motion away from something; so that in the Arab. the prevailing reference to fools, ahamk , does not appear to proceed from the idea of closeness, but of the oblique direction, pushed sideways. Turning himself away, he proceeded farther. In vain she sought him; she called without receiving any answer. is the correct pausal form of , vid., under Psa 118:5. But something worse than even this seeking and calling in vain happened to her.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Notes
Son. 5:6. My soul failed when He spate.
My soul failed. naphshi yatseah, literally, went forth. Failed, or fainted; breath forsook me; my soul almost went out of me. ZCKLER, EWALD, DELIZTSCH. Sunk. BURROUGHS. I swooned away, and was like a dead body (Gen. 35:18). FRY. I was not in my senses. DE WETTE, NOYES, SANCTIUS. My soul melted with anguish. ROWE. With sweet effusion of love. FROMONDI. Left me and flew away to my Bridegroom. DEL RIO. Was in great terror. COCCEIUS, Was in suspense. THRODORET. There remained no more spirit in her. DAVIDSON. VULGATE: My soul was melted. LUTHER: Went out. MARTIN: Fainted. DIODATI: I was out of myself. COVERDALE and MATTHEWS: My heart could not refrain. TIGURINE: My mind was disturbed. When be spake. bedhabbero, at his speaking; from dibber, to speak. So GESENIUS. When he spoke. EWALD, DELITZSCH. While he yet spoke. WEISS, MERCER, LE CLERC, &c. When he was speaking, i.e., through the window. ZOCKLER. Had failed as he spoke; a supplementary remark. DOPKE. SEPTUAGINT: At his word. VULGATE: When he spoke. SYMMACHUS: While be spoke. WICKLIFF: As he spake COVERDALE and MATTHEWS: Now like as aforetime when he spake. LUTHER: After his word. DUTCH: On account of his word. MARTIN: From having heard him speak. RASHI: When he spoke this word. JUNIUS: On account of the word with which he addressed me. Assemblys Annotations: My neglect of his speech troubled me when he was gone. BRIGHTMAN, AINSWORTH. BOOTHROYD: On remembering his words. BURROUGHS: In consequence of what he had said. SCOTT: Either remembering his tender and affectionate apeal or hearing a reproving word as he withdrew. NOYES and DE WETTE: I was not in my senses while he spokeacted insanely in not admitting my beloved at his request. EWALD proposes to read at his going away. HITZIG views the word as equivalent to after him. UMBREIT: In order to follow him; from to follow. Some propose on his account.
THE DISAPPOINTMENT
Son. 5:6
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.
Shulamites delay has disappointment for its fruit. Christs call not to be trifled with. Duty may be attempted too late to be immediately successful. God forgives His sinning people, though He may see fit to chasten them. Indulgence of the flesh, even for a short time, may bear bitter fruit. Davids short sin produced long sorrow. Falls, though not fatal, may bring broken bones. Samson, awaking from his sleep in Delilahs lap, wist not that his strength was departed from him Observe, in regard to
Divine Withdrawings,
1. These withdrawings real. A fact stated. My beloved had withdrawn himself. Such a thing as God hiding His face.
2. These withdrawings such as to be observed and known. The Bride bears testimony to the fact. She knew it. Believers to know their case.
3. Well for believers and others to know when the Lord withdraws Himself. The saddest case for a man when God withdraws from him, and he either does not know it or pays no attention to it. Israels misery that grey hairs were here and there upon him, yet he knoweth it not (Hos. 7:9). An ill sign for men when Gods anger sets them on fire round about, and they know it not; when it burns them, and they lay it not to heart (Isa. 42:25).
4. The withdrawings of Christ, in the case of a believer, the result of love. The greatest sign of wrath when men are allowed to sleep and sin on. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.
5. These withdrawings in wisdom, as well as in love. Wise as well as gracious reasons for them.
(1) To teach the sin of neglecting divine calls and invitations. Such sin to be seen and lamented (Jer. 2:19; Hos. 5:15).
(2) To make His presence more prized. The value of a blessing best known when it has been withdrawn. The misery of Christs absence to be sometimes learned by experience. Lamented absence better than slighted presence.
(3) To prove the believers love. Love unable to endure absence.
(4) To render more watchful and careful in the future.
6. Divine withdrawings the believers greatest distress. My soul failed (or fainted, as Gen. 42:28) when He spake (or, at His speakingat the remembrance of what He had said). So with Peter (Mat. 26:75). The Brides felt calamity indicated by a double expression: Had withdrawn himself, and was gone. The sweeter the past enjoyment of Christ, the greater the pain of His present withdrawal.
7. In the case of a believer, the joy of Christs presence withdrawn, but not His love. David mourned the loss of the joy of Gods salvation, but not of the salvation itself (Psa. 51:10).
Other lessons from the passage
1. The remembrance of a Saviours slighted calls, one day the bitterest ingredient in the sinners cup. My soul failed when he spake. Well when the remembrance is here, and not hereafter. An awful word to the rich man in hell: Son, remember (Luk. 16:25). One element of a true repentance, in the case of hearers of the Gospel, is the remembrance of a slighted Christ. The remembrance of past guilt an aggravation of present trouble.
2. Christ still loved by the believer in the midst of His withdrawing. My beloved, &c. True love made more ardent by the withdrawing of its object. One of the lessons of the Song. Realized in the disciples after the Saviours resurrection. The proof of a believer that he loves even an absent Christ.
3. Better to follow Christ in sorrow, than to live at case in sin.
4. The more the soul has tasted of Christs love, the more deeply it repents its coldness.
5. Means to be diligently employed to recover a missing Christ. I called, &c.
6. The prayer of a penitent believer not always immediately answered. He gave me no answer.
7. A withdrawn Christ not immediately found. I sought Him, but I found Him not. The Saviours threatening to the Jews: Ye shall seek me but ye shall not find me.
8. Sin often visited with a corresponding chastisement. The Bridegroom had called, and the Bride had not answered. Now she calls to him, but receives no answer. Observe in regard to
Answers to Prayer.
1. Answers to prayer, and the contrary, to be carefully noted and recorded.
2. Prayers not immediately answered not therefore rejected. Efforts not immediately successful not therefore in vain. The promise of finding made not to search begun, but persevered in. Believers prayers often only apparently rejected. Never really unanswered without a greater benefit being bestowed. Moses not permitted to enter Canaan, but taken direct to a better land. Pauls thorn in the flesh not removed, but more of Christs grace imparted to him. Direct answers to prayer often withheld for the best and wisest reasons (Job. 30:20; Psa. 22:2; Lam. 3:8; Lam. 3:44). Prayer often answered by terrible things in righteousness (Psa. 65:5).
3. Strength and grace given a believer still to pray even when no answer is received. Such grace often an equivalent for a direct answer. The greatest praise bestowed by Christ in the Gospels on one who still prayed earnestly after repeated repulses (Mat. 15:21-28).
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(6) When he spake.We can suppose an ejaculation of disappointment uttered by the lover as he goes away, which catches the ear of the heroine as she wakes.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. My soul failed, etc. Hebrew, Departed because he had so spoken; had solicited admission and been slighted. She goes out in search of him. In just this way Virgil represents Dido, after her rejection by AEneas, as dreaming of following in vain pursuit of him through desert lands, until her dream turns to sick and weary despair.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘I opened to my beloved, But my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone. My soul had failed me when he spoke, I sought him, but I could not find him, 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 mantle from me. “I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, If you find my beloved, That you tell him, that I am sick from love.”
Opening the unbolted door at last, she discovered that her beloved had gone and had left the palace. Hurt at her rebuttal he had deserted her and left her on her own. And all because her soul had failed her when he had spoken.
In the horror of her nightmare she seeks him, but cannot find him. She calls to him but he gives no answer. And so covering herself with a mantle she races out into the streets of the city (compare her similar experience in Son 3:2-3). But this time there is no help from the watchmen. In her nightmare the watchmen find her and treat her like a loose woman, knocking her about and wounding her, and she knows that it is what she deserves. Then she reaches the walls of the city and the gatemen tear off her mantle revealing how little she is wearing underneath (it is the stuff of nightmares). But she does not care, for all that she can think of is that she has lost her beloved. And she calls to the women of Jerusalem, and asks that if they see her beloved, they will tell him that she is sick with love for him.
It must be obvious that a lesson is deliberately being given here. It is a clear example of Israel’s behavior towards God as they extend to Him their indolent and insulting response to His entreaties, which eventually leads to a half-hearted repentance which simply fails, and which is then followed by severe chastening. It is an illustration of their constant history. It is a warning of the dangers of treating God lightly, and then thinking that we can easily remedy the situation. But how easily we can discover like she did, that once we are on the path of disobedience and failure, it is not so easy to get off it. And it can be very unpleasant on the way.
We should carefully note here the difference between this and the previous nightmare. Then the watchmen had been helpful, but here they treat her with the utmost severity. For then she was not yet married to her bridegroom and they had recognized her need for assistance, but here she has spurned her husband and she is therefore in need of chastisement. We tend to think that the state of the seeker is worse than the lukewarmness of the Christian, but here we are reminded of the severity of God towards the sinfulness of His children. God does not see as a light thing the spurning of His Son’s approaches to the hearts of His people. It is time that we awoke, as the king’s wife does here, to the genuineness of the anger that is in His heart when we are walking in disobedience. But as here, because our Father loves us if we are really His, He chastens us (Heb 12:5-6). And if He does not we should beware. For it will reveal that we are not truly His sons (Heb 12:8).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Son 5:6. My soul failed when he spake My soul failed at the remembrance of his words. New Translation.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
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.
This is a very interesting verse, and full of divine matter. The departure of Jesus from his people doth not mean a total departure, or a loss of covenant interest in Christ’s righteousness, or an union with his person. Neither his love nor his affection can he take away; for having loved his own which are in the world he loveth them unto the end. Joh 13:1 . And his betrothing his church unto himself is forever. Hos 2:19 . But it means the hiding of his countenance, the suspension of the influences of the Holy Ghost. And if Jesus thus withdraws, the soul of a believer will feel what the Church felt, when she expressed herself as in this verse. Reader! pause over this subject. If you know the Lord you will know also, what a blessedness it is to live always under the visits of his love; and if at any time he remits those visits, to mourn after him. My soul can derive no joy, no comfort, from the consciousness that the Holy Ghost is with the Church always, if at the same time he is not with my soul. I still go heavily all the day if I have nothing of his quickening, upholding, and communicating grace, leading me into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ. Hence the cry of the Psalmist, Psa 51:11 , and again Psa 143:7 . The Church seeking Christ as expressed in the latter part of this verse, hath been observed upon, Son 3:2 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Son 5:6 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.
Ver. 6. I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone. ] Or, “He was gone, he was gone”; a passionate complaint for his departure, which lay so much the heavier upon her spirit, because, by her unworthy usage of him, she had foolishly occasioned it. “Fools, because of their transgression, and because of their iniquity, are afflicted.” And when affliction comes with a sting in the tail, it is very grievous. But then they “cry unto the Lord in their trouble; he saveth them out of their distress; he sendeth his word and healeth them,” Psa 107:17-20 he sendeth for them by his Spirit, and brings them back again into his own bosom, “that his banished be not expelled from him,” 2Sa 14:14 though to themselves and others they may for the present seem to be as “water spilled on the ground, that cannot be gathered up again.” Those fragrant footsteps and heart attracting stamps of his favour, that sweet smelling myrrh, mentioned in the former verse, had so eneagered and edged her affections, that she could not rest till she had recovered him. She opened unto her beloved, and, presuming upon his patience, was in good hope to have had him at hand; but patientia loesa fit furor, Christ will not always bear with our evil manners, a “but hide his face from us, like as we have behaved ourselves evil in our doings.” Mic 3:4 And whereas spiritual desertions are of three sorts, (1.) Cautional, for preventing of sin, as Paul’s seems to be; (2.) Probational, for trial and exercise of grace, as Job’s; (3.) Penal, for chastisement of spiritual sloth and sluggishness, as here in the Church; this last is far the heaviest.
My soul failed when he spake.
I sought him.
I called him, but he gave me no answer.
a Heu rara hora, et parva mora. – Bernard.
b .
c Bernard.
d .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
my soul = I (emph.) Hebrew. nephesh. App-13.
he spake = when he was speaking of it.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I sought him
Observe, it is now the Bridegroom Himself who occupies her heart, not His gifts– myrrh and washed feet Joh 13:2-9.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
but my: Psa 30:7, Isa 8:17, Isa 12:1, Isa 50:2, Isa 54:6-8, Hos 5:6, Hos 5:15, Mat 15:22-28, Rev 3:19
my soul: Son 5:2, Son 5:4, Gen 42:28, 2Sa 16:10, Psa 69:3, Psa 77:3, Isa 57:16, Mat 26:75, Mar 14:72, Luk 22:61, Luk 22:62
I sought: Son 3:1, Son 3:2, 1Sa 28:6, Psa 22:1, Psa 22:2, Psa 28:1, Psa 80:4, Psa 88:9-14, Isa 58:2-4, Isa 58:7-9, Lam 3:8, Zec 7:13
Reciprocal: Luk 11:9 – seek Luk 12:36 – when Joh 12:8 – but
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Son 5:6. My beloved had withdrawn Denied me his comfortable presence, as a just punishment for my former neglect. My soul failed Hebrew, went out of me. I fainted, and was ready to die away; when he spake Or, for what he spake; for those endearing expressions related Son 5:2, which then I did not heed. I sought him By diligent inquiry and importunate prayer.