The Song of songs, which is Solomon’s.
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; for your love is better than wine.
Your oils have a pleasing fragrance. Your name is oil poured out, therefore the virgins love you.
Take me away with you. Let’s hurry. The king has brought me into his rooms. We will be glad and rejoice in you. We will praise your love more than wine! They are right to love you.
I am dark, but lovely, you daughters of Jerusalem, like Kedar’s tents, like Solomon’s curtains.
Don’t stare at me because I am dark, because the sun has scorched me. My mother’s sons were angry with me. They made me keeper of the vineyards. I haven’t kept my own vineyard.
Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you graze your flock, where you rest them at noon; for why should I be as one who is veiled beside the flocks of your companions?
If you don’t know, most beautiful among women, follow the tracks of the sheep. Graze your young goats beside the shepherds’ tents.
I have compared you, my love, to a steed in Pharaoh’s chariots.
Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels.
We will make you earrings of gold, with studs of silver.
While the king sat at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance.
My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh, that lies between my breasts.
My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi.
Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are like doves.
Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, yes, pleasant; and our couch is verdant.
The beams of our house are cedars. Our rafters are firs.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 14, 15 This is spoken in the person of the Church,…
This is spoken in the person of the Church, or of the faithful soul inflamed with the desire of Christ, whom she loveth.
Hebrew, a song of songs: so called because it is the chiefest of those 1005, which Solomon made, as is mentioned, I Kings 4:32.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–17 Son 1:1 The song of songs, which [is] Solomon’s.
Son 1:1 The song of songs, which [is] Solomon’s.
Ver. 1. The song of songs.] Not a light love song - as some profane persons have fancied, and have therefore held it no part of the sacred canon - but a most excellent Epithalamium, a very divine ditty, a heavenly allegory, a mystical marriage song, called here the Song of Songs, as God is called the God of gods, {Deu 10:17} as Christ is called the King of kings, {Rev 19:16} as the Most Holy is called the Holy of holies, to the which the Jewish doctors liken this canticle, as they do Ecclesiastes to the holy place, and Proverbs to the court, to signify that it is the treasury of the most sacred and highest mysteries of holy Scripture. {a} It streams out all along under the parable of a marriage, that full torrent of spiritual love that is between Christ and the Church {b} "This is a great mystery," saith that great apostle. {Eph 5:32} It passeth the capacity of man to understand it in the perfection of it. Hence the Jews permitted none to read this sacred song before thirty years of age. Let him that reads think he sees written over this Solomon’s porch, "Holiness to the Lord." {c} Procul hinc, procul este profani, nihil hic nisi castum. If any think this kind of dealing to be too light for so grave and weighty a matter, let them take heed, saith one, that in the height of their own hearts they do not proudly censure God and his order, who in many places useth the same similitude of marriage to express his love to his Church by, and interchangeably her duty toward him, as in Hos 2:19 2Co 11:2 Eph 5:25, with Eph 5:22-24, where the apostle plainly alludeth and referreth to this song of songs in sundry passages, borrowing both matter and frame of speech from hence.
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Which is Solomon’s.] He was the penman, God the author. Of many other songs he was both author and instrument. {1Ki 4:32} Not so of this, which therefore the Chaldee paraphrast here entitleth "songs and hymns," in the plural, for the surpassing excellence of it, "which Solomon the prophet, the King of Israel, uttered by the spirit of prophecy before the Lord, the Lord of all the earth." A prophet he was, and is therefore now in the kingdom of heaven, notwithstanding his foul fall, whereof he repented. For as it is not the falling into the water that drowns, but lying in it, so neither is it the failing into sin that damns, but dying in it. Solomon was also King of Israel, and surpassed all the kings of the earth in wealth and wisdom, {2Ch 9:22} yea, he was wiser than all men. {1Ki 4:31} And as himself was a king, so he made this singular song, as David did the 45th Psalm, "concerning the King," Christ and his spiritual marriage to the Church, who is also called Solomon, {Son 3:11} and "greater than Solomon." {Mat 12:42} If, therefore, either the worth of the writer or the weightiness of the matter may make to the commendation of any book, this wants for neither. That is a silly exception of some against this song, as if not canonical, because God is not once named in it; for as oft as the bridegroom is brought in speaking here, so oft Christ himself speaketh, who is "God blessed for ever." {Rom 9:5} Besides, whereas Solomon made "a thousand songs and five," {1Ki 4:32} this only, as being the chief of all, and part of the holy canon, hath been hitherto kept safe when the rest are lost, in the cabinet of God’s special providence, and in the chest of the Jews, God’s faithful library keepers. {Rom 3:1-2; Joh 5:39} It being not the will of our heavenly Father that any one hair of that sacred head should fall to the ground.
{a} Theodoret. lib. v. De Provid. Sic caena a Dionysio caeremonia caeremoniarum, et ab alio Pascha celebritas celebritatum dicitur.
{b} Jerome, Proaem. in Ezek.
{c} T. W. on Cantic.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–17 The song of songs; the most excellent of all…
The song of songs; the most excellent of all songs, whether composed by profane or sacred authors, by Solomon or by any other. So this Hebrew phrase is understood in other cases, as the holy of holies signifies the most holy; and the highest King is called King of kings; and there are multitudes of such instances, as hath been oft observed. And so this might well be called, whether you consider the author of it, who was a great prince, and the wisest of all mortal men, the two Adams only excepted; or the subject of it, which is not Solomon, but a greater than Solomon, even Christ, and his marriage with the church, as hath been noted; or the matter of it, which is most lofty and mysterious, containing in it the greatest and noblest of all the mysteries contained either in the Old or the New Testament; most pious and pathetical, breathing forth the hottest flames of love between Christ and his people; most sweet, and comfortable, and useful to all that read it with serious and Christian eyes. Nor is it the worse because profane and wanton wits abuse it, and endeavour to fasten their absurd and filthy senses upon some passages in it. The truth is, this book requires a sober and pious, not a lascivious and foolish readier; for which reason some of the ancient Hebrews advised young men to forbear the reading of it, till they were thirty years old.
Which is Solomon's; which was composed by Solomon; but whether before his fall, or after his repentance, is not easy to determine, nor necessity to be known.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–17 After the title, the church, the bride, speaks to…
After the title, the church, the bride, speaks to Christ, the bridegroom, ver. 1-4. To the daughters of Jerusalem, and to Christ again, ver. 5-7. Christ answers her complaints and requests, ver. 8-11. The church expresses her value for Christ, and her delight in him, ver. 12-14. Christ commends the church, ver. 15. And the church, Christ, ver. 16, 17.
The song - The most excellent of all songs. And so this might well be called, whether you consider the author of it, who was a great prince, and the wisest of all mortal men; or the subject of it, which is not Solomon, but a greater than Solomon, even Christ, and his marriage with the church; or the matter of it, which is most lofty, containing in it the noblest of all the mysteries contained either in the Old or the New Testament; most pious and pathetical, breathing forth the hottest flames of love between Christ and his people, most sweet and comfortable, and useful to all that read it with serious and Christian eyes.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–17 -Year from the Creation of the World, according to…
THE SONG OF SOLOMON
-Year from the Creation of the World, according to Archbishop Usher, 2990.
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-Year from the Flood of Noah, according to the common Hebrew text, 1334.
-Year before the birth of Christ, 1010. -Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 1014.
CHAPTER I
The bride's love to her spouse, 1-5.
She confesses her unworthiness; desires to be directed to the
flock, 6, 7;
and she is directed to the shepherds' tents, 8.
The bridegroom describes his bride, and shows how he will
provide for her, and how comfortably they are accommodated,
9-17.
NOTES ON CHAP. I
Verse 1. The song of songs] A song of peculiar excellence. See the Introduction. The rabbins consider this superior to all songs. TEN songs, says the Targum, have been sung; but this excels them all.
1. The first was sung by Adam when his sin was pardoned.
2. The second was sung by Moses and the Israelites at the Red Sea.
3. The third was sung by the Israelites when they drank of the rock in the wilderness.
4. The fourth was sung by Moses when summoned to depart from this world.
5. The fifth was sung by Joshua when the sun and moon stood still.
6. The sixth was sung by Deborah and Barak after the defeat of Sisera.
7. The seventh was sung by Hannah when the Lord promised her a son.
8. The eighth was sung by David for all the mercies given him by God.
9. The ninth is the present, sung in the spirit of prophecy by Solomon.
10. The tenth is that which shall be sung by the children of Israel when restored from their captivities. See the Targum.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 15, 16 Son 1:1. The song of songs — The most…
Son 1:1. The song of songs — The most excellent of all songs. And so this might well be called, whether we consider the author of it, who was a great prince, and the wisest of all mortal men; or the subject of it, which is not Solomon, but a greater than Solomon, even Christ, and his marriage with the church; or the matter of it, which is most lofty, containing in it the noblest of all the mysteries contained either in the Old or the New Testament; most pious and pathetical, breathing forth the hottest flames of love between Christ and his people, most sweet and comfortable, and useful to all that read it with serious and Christian eyes.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 9 The “Song of songs,” i. e., the best or…
The “Song of songs,” i. e., the best or most excellent of songs.
Which is Solomon’s - literally, “to” or “for Solomon,” i. e., belonging to Solomon as its author or concerning him as its subject. In a title or inscription, the former interpretation is to be preferred.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 Let. Hebrew yishakeni, (Haydock) "kiss or instruct me," as…
Let. Hebrew yishakeni, (Haydock) "kiss or instruct me," as if to insinuate the we must raise our thoughts from carnal to spiritual things. --- The. Hebrew, "kisses." --- His mouth. Others I reject. (Menochius) --- The synagogue prays for Christ’s coming, as the Church does for his glorious appearance. (Worthington) --- The figures of the law and predictions afford not satisfaction; only the Messias can bring it to mankind. (Origen) --- They shall all be taught by God, John vi. 45., and Hebrews i. 2. (Haydock) --- Breasts. Hebrew also, "loves." But the former is the primary signification of (Menochius) dodec. Christ, in his divine and human nature, is the source of all our good. His graces are manifested. He instructs and feeds us with the truths contained in Scripture, and in tradition, (Haydock) or in the Old and New Testament. (Ven. Bede, &c.) --- Spiritual delights are to be preferred before all terrestrial ones. From the incarnation of Christ, and sanctification of man, all other graces proceed. (Tirinus) --- At first the spouse speaks to the bridegroom in the third person, to show her respect, though he was certainly present. Her companions attend her. (Calmet) --- Wine. All seem to agree that these words are addressed to the bridegroom: which shews that they must be understood in the mystical sense. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v2 The first time the lovers were together at the…
I. 1 THE SONG OF SONGS, WHICH IS BY SOLOMON
FIRST SONG
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The first time the lovers were together at the royal palace (in or near) Jerusalem
(Son_1:2 to Son_2:7)
FIRST SCENE:
Shulamith and the Daughters of Jeruzsalem
(Son_1:2-8)
Shulamith
2 1Let him kiss me with kisses2 of his mouth,
3for better is thy love than wine!
3 In fragrance thine unguents are good;4
5an unguent6 poured forth is thy name,7
therefore virgins love thee.
Shulamith and the Daughters of Jerusalem (in responsive song).
4 Draw me!—after thee will we run!—8
9The king has brought me into his chambers!10
We will exult and be glad in thee,
will commend11 thy love beyond wine!—
Rightly12 do they love thee!
Shulamith
5 13Black I am, but 14comely, ye daughters of Jerusalem,
as the tents of Kedar, as the tent-cloths of Solomon.
6 Look15 not at me, because16 I am dusky,17
because the sun has scorched18 me;
19my mother’s sons were angry20 with me,
made me keeper of the vineyards;—
mine own vineyard I have not kept.21
(Looking around for Solomon)
7 22Tell me, thou whom my soul loveth, where23 feedest thou?
where makest thou (thy flock) to recline at noon?
For24 why should I be as one straying25
by the flocks of thy companions?
Daughters of Jerusalem
8 26If thou know not,27 fairest among women,
go forth in the footprints of the flock
and feed thy kids beside the shepherds’ tents.
SECOND SCENE:
Solomon and Shulamith
(Son_1:9 to Son_2:7)
Solomon
9 To my horse28 in Pharaoh’s chariots
I liken29 thee, my dear.30
10 Comely are thy cheeks with chains,31
thy neck with beads.32
11 Chains33 of gold will we make thee
with points34 of silver.
Shulamith
12 35Whilst the king is at his table,36
my spikenard yields its fragrance.
13 A bundle37 of myrrh is my beloved38 to me,
that lodges between my breasts.
14 A cluster of the cyprus-flower39 is my beloved to me,
in the vineyards of Engedi.
Solomon
15 40Lo! thou art fair, my dear,
lo! thou art fair; thine eyes are doves.
Shulamith
16 41Lo! thou art fair, my beloved, yea sweet;
yea our couch is green.42
17 The beams43 of our houses are cedars,
our wainscot44 is cypresses.45
II. 1. 46I am (only) a wildflower of Sharon,
a lily of the valleys.
Solomon
2 As a lily among thorns,
so is my dear among the daughters.
Shulamith.
3 47As an apple-tree among the trees of the wood,
so is my beloved among the sons.
In his shade delighted I sit.
and his fruit is sweet to my palate.48
4 He has brought me into the wine-house,
and his banner over me is love.
5 Stay me with pressed grapes,49
refresh50 me with apples,
for I am sick of love.
6 His left hand is under my head,
and his right embraces me.
7 51I adjure you, ye daughters of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles or by the hinds of the field,52
that ye wake not, and that ye waken not
love till it53 please.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. For the explanation of the title, see the Introduction, § 1 and § 3. To the view of those who assign Son_1:2-4 entirely to the “daughters of Jerusalem,” and suppose the words of Shulamith to begin with Son_1:5 (Hitz., Vaih. and others, so too Del.) stands opposed—1. That the wish “to be kissed with the kisses of his mouth” could scarcely have been expressed by the ladies of the court, or even by one of them, without filling Shulamith with indignation, of which, however, she shows nothing in what follows. 2. That the way in which the lover is extolled in Son_1:2-3, agrees perfectly with the fond encomiums and enthusiastic descriptions which Shulamith subsequently, Son_1:13 ff., and Son_2:3 ff., bestows upon her loSong Son_1:3. That the interchange of the 1st sing. and the 1st plur. plainly points to a diversity of persons speaking, or to an alternation between a single speaker and a whole chorus. This latter circumstance likewise renders their assumption impossible, who (as Ew., Hengstenb., Weissb. and most of the older interpreters) suppose that the whole of Son_1:2-7 is spoken by Shulamith. Undoubtedly Shulamith and the ladies of the court here respond to each other in speech or song; yet not so that only the words “Draw me after thee ... chambers” Son_1:4 a belong to Shulamith, and all the rest to Son_1:5 to the “women of the harem” (so Renan), but simply that all that is in the singular is to be regarded as spoken by her alone, and all that is in the plural by her and the ladies together, so that in particular נרוצה (we will run) and נגילה וגו (we will be glad, etc.) are to be assigned to the ladies who confirm the words of Shulamith by joining in them themselves, while אהרידמשבני (draw me after thee), הביאני המלך חדריו (the king has brought me into his chambers) and מישרים אהבוך (they rightly love thee) belong to Shulamith alone54 (comp. Döpkein loc.) Then Son_1:5-7 unquestionably belong to Shulamith alone; Son_1:8 again to the ladies of the court, who reply with good-humored banter to the rustic simplicity and naivetê with which she has expressed Son_1:7 her desire for her royal lover; Son_1:9, ff. to Solomon, who now begins a loving conversation with his beloved, reaching to the close of the act.55 During this familiar and cosy chat, which forms the second scene of the act, the chorus of ladies withdraws to the back-ground, but without leaving the stage entirely; for the concluding words of Shulamith Son_2:7 are manifestly directed to them again, and that not as absent, but as present on the stage. The place of the action must be supposed to be some locality in the royal palace or residence in or near Jerusalem, some one of the “king’s chambers” (חדרי המלך) Son_1:4; whether precisely the “room devoted to wine parties,” the “wine-room of the royal palace” (Del.), cannot, as it seems, be certainly determined from the repeated reference to the excellence of wine (Son_1:2; Son_1:4), nor from the mention of the “house of wine” (בית היין2:4); and even the “table” of the king spoken of Son_1:12 does not afford a perfectly sure support to this opinion. Only it appears to be certain from Son_1:16-17 that we must imagine the scene to be open outwards, and to afford a prospect of fresh verdure and stately trees, such as cedars, cypresses, etc. It must therefore have been either a room in the king’s palace upon Zion immediately adjacent to parks or gardens, or what in view of Son_6:2-3 (comp. Son_4:16) is still more probable, an open summer-house (or pavilion) in the royal pleasure gardens of Wady Urtas, south of Jerusalem, near Bethlehem and Etam, in those magnificent grounds of David’s splendor-loving son, which probably bordered upon Zion itself, and thence extended southward for several leagues, and of which there still remains at least a grand aqueduct, with three basins lying successively one above another, the so-called “pools of Solomon” (comp. K. Furrer, Wanderungen durch Palästina, Zürich, 1865, p. 178, etc.; C. Hergt, Palästina, p. 278, etc.;Ewald, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, III. 1, p. 64, etc.). That Shulamith had formed a personal acquaintance with the royal gardens in the neighborhood of Jerusalem directly after she had been brought from her home in the north of Israel to Solomon’s court, is shown by her mention Son_1:14 of the “vineyards” or “vine-gardens of Engedi,” near the Dead Sea, five or six German miles south-east of Jerusalem, from which however the conclusion must not be drawn that these pleasure-grounds of Engedi formed the scene of the action in the opening of the piece; see on that verse. Weissbach very properly locates the second scene of the Song from Son_1:9 onward in the gardens of Solomon near Jerusalem, but puts the action of Son_1:1-8 somewhere on the way to this retreat, where Shulamith in her search for her lover chances to meet the women of Jerusalem. But in opposition to this may be urged—1. That there is nothing in the context to indicate a change in the locality between Son_1:8-17. The mention of the “king’s chambers” in Son_1:4 certainly implies the immediate vicinity of a royal palace, and probably the presence of the speaker in it. 3. It by no means follows from the metaphors borrowed from pastoral life, in which Shulamith speaks of her lover, Son_1:7 that she thought he was really to be found in a “pasture ground,” and engaged in feeding sheep. 4. With as little propriety can it be inferred from Son_1:8 that Shulamith is represented as wandering about over the country and “accompanied by some little kids, searching for her lover in or near Jerusalem.”56
2. First Scene. Shulamith. Son_1:2-3.—Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.—יִשָּׁקֵנִי—for which Hitzig needlessly reads יַשְׁקֵנִי, “let him give me to drink,” etc. (comp. Son_8:2)—is manifestly the utterance of a wish, “O that he would kiss me;” and its subject is not פִּיהוּ, “his mouth,” which is too remote and manifestly stands in a genitive relation to נְשִׁיקוֹת “kisses;” nor מִנְּשִׁיקוֹת, equivalent to “one of his kisses” (Ewald, E. Meier), for “a kiss kisses not but is kissed, and מִנְּשִׁיקוֹת includes an accusative” (Hitzig). The speaker’s lover is rather thought of as the kissing subject, the same, whom in the vividness of her conception she immediately afterwards in b and in Son_1:3 addresses in the second person, as though he who is so ardently longed for were already present.57 The partitive מִן properly points to but one or a few kisses of her lover as the object of the beloved’s wish; comp. Gen_28:11; Exo_16:27; Psa_132:11, and generally Ew., Lehr., § 217, b, 294, c. [Green’sHeb. Gram., § 242, a]; J. H. Michaelis, in loc., “uno tantum vel altero de osculis.”—”Kisses of his mouth”58 are, moreover, in contrast with the idolatrous custom of hand-kisses, or kissing the hand to any one (Job_31:27; comp. Del., in loc.), tokens of honest love and affection between blood relations and friends (Gen_29:11; Gen_33:4; Gen_41:40; 1Sa_10:1; 1Sa_20:41; comp. Psa_2:12), and especially between lovers (Pro_7:13). It is not likely that the similarity of the words נשקkiss and שקהdrink gave occasion to the comparison in b of caresses with wine (Weissb.); this comparison is of itself a very natural one; comp. Son_4:10; Son_5:1; Son_8:2.—For better is thy love than wine.—דדִֹים different from דַדַּיִם “breasts, paps” (which the LXX here express by μαστοί, and the Vulg. by ubera [so Wic., Cov., Dow.]), as well as from דוֹדִים plur. of דוֹד “beloved” (Son_5:1), denotes manifestations of love, caresses, φιλοφροσύναι (comp. Son_4:10-11; Son_7:13; Pro_7:18; Eze_16:8; Eze_23:17), i.e., dalliance, exhibition of אַהֲבָה (Son_7:7; Son_8:6), fond endearments, (in bad taste Vaih., “Liebelei,” flirtation.) In the comparison of such love with wine, the tertium comparationis is, as is shown by the parallels Son_4:10 ff.; Son_5:1; Son_7:9, ff. not the intoxicating power of wine, but primarily its sweetness59 only; comp. Act_2:13. The figure of intoxication indicates a higher grade of loving ecstasy than is here intended, comp. Son_5:1 b;Pro_5:19; Pro_7:18, and in general Weissb., in loc.
Son_1:3. In fragrance thine unguents are good.—לְרֵיחַ, “in respect to odor, as to fragrance,” limits טוֹבִים, “good” (comp. Jos_22:10; 1Ki_10:23; Job_32:4), and is emphatically placed at the beginning of the sentence. Commonly: “to the smell,” or “for the smell,” against which, however, lies the twofold objection: 1, that רֵיחַ denotes not the organ of smell, nor the act of smelling, but the odor which any thing exhales (odor, halitus), comp. Son_1:12; Son_2:13; Son_4:10; Song 7:14; Hos_14:7, etc.; 2, it is not לָרֵיחַ, but simply לְרֵיחַ. Hitzig’s construction is quite too artificial; he connects 3 a with 2 b as its sublimitation, and translates “thy caresses are more precious than wine with the odor of thy precious ointment” (comp. the like mode of connection adopted in the Vulg., “ubera—fragantia unguentis optimis” [so Coverdale, Doway]). So also is that of Weissbach, “thy ointments are good to serve as a perfume,” where too much is evidently foisted into the simple לְרֵיחַ.60—An unguent which is poured forth is thy name.—The comparison of a good name with a fragrant unguent is also found, and on the basis of this passage in Hos_14:7-8; Ecc_7:1; Sir_49:1. The ideas of smelling and being (or being named, bearing this or that name) are, as a general fact, closely related through the intermediate notion of breathing, respiring; comp. in German “Gerücht, ruchbar.”61 That the name of the lover is thus compared to a costly perfume diffusing a wide fragrance (comp. Mar_14:3; Joh_12:3) plainly indicates that it is only the renowned King Solomon, an actual possessor of שֵׁם (name, i.e., fame, gloria—comp. Pro_22:1; 1Ki_1:47; Job_30:3), who can be thought of as this lover, and not a simple country swain (so Weissb. properly against Herd., Umbr., etc.).—Therefore virgins love thee—i.e., not barely on account of this thy renown, but on account of all the excellencies celebrated in Son_1:2-3. Observe that עֲלָמוֹת is without the article. It is not the virgins universally, but simply virgins, such as Shulamith herself, or the “daughters of Jerusalem,” the ladies of Solomon’s court, by whom she sees herself surrounded, that she describes as lovers, as reverential admirers of the graceful, brilliant and lovely king. The guileless country lass, who has but recently been transferred into the circle of the countless virgins of the royal court (comp. Son_6:8) here accounts to herself for the fact that many other virgins besides her are attached to the king with admiring devotion and love; comp., 4. e.
3. Shulamith and the daughters of Jerusalem.
Son_1:4. Draw me after thee—as it is to be translated with the Targ., Luth. and most of the recent expositors, connecting contrary to the common accentuation אַחֲרֶיךָ with מָשְׁכֵנִי, which requires it as its proper complement;62 comp. Hos_11:4; Jer_31:3. By this drawing is meant, as appears from b, a drawing into the king’s chambers, or at least into immediate proximity to him, not a conducting out of the palace into the country, as the advocates of the swain-hypothesis suppose, who see in these words an ardent call upon her distant lover.—We will run—i.e., not, “let us take flight, and hasten hence” [so Ginsburg: “Oh, let us flee together!”], as though here again there were a cry for help to her absent lover; but: “we will hasten to him,” viz.: the gracious king; a lively exclamation uttered by Shulamith, and at the same time by the chorus of the daughters of Jerusalem catching the word from her.—The king has brought me into his chambers—a simple expression of the virgin’s rapturous joy at the high honor and delight granted her by the king. As the words stand, they contain neither an indirect petition or complaint addressed to her distant lover (to which the following clauses of the verse would agree poorly enough), nor a wish directed to the king—as though the preterite הֱבִיאַנִי were to be taken in the sense of a precative or optative: “O that the king had brought me into his chambers” (so, e.g., Hug, Weissb.), nor finally a condition dependent on the following נָגִילָה וגו (so Hahn, who supplies אִם, if, before הֱבִיאַנִי. “If the king brings me into his chambers, we will,”63etc. Furthermore, the “king’s chambers” are by no means simply identical with the harem, the house of the women belonging to the royal palace (Vaih., Ren., etc.); this would rather have been designated בֵּית הַנָּשִׁים, as in Est_2:3; Est_2:9, ff., or simply called בית, house, as in 1Ki_7:8; 1Ki_9:24; Psa_68:13, etc. They are 2Sa_4:7; 2Sa_13:10, the king’s own rooms in the palace, his sleeping apartments and sitting-rooms, penetralia regis, in distinction from those of his wives and the ladies of the court, which formed a particular division of the royal palace. Comp. 1Ki_7:8; Est_2:12-14. Into these the king’s own innermost apartments, Shulamith, as the favored object of his special love, had been repeatedly brought,—nay, she has in them her own proper abode and residence. She had therefore a perfect right to say: “The king has brought me into his chambers.”64—We will exult and be glad in thee.—With these words, which recall Psa_31:7; Psa_118:24; Isa_25:9; Joe_2:21; Joe_2:23, the ladies of the court again chime in with the language of Shulamith, in order to commend with her the happiness of belonging to the number of those who were loved by the king. בָּךְ, in thee, belongs in equal measure to both verbs; comp. Isa_65:19.—We will celebrate thy love more than wine.—Comp. Son_1:2.—Rightly do they love thee.—The most obvious construction is to make the virgins again the subject, as in 3c, and consequently to regard Shulamith as again the speaker. But the 3d plur. might also be taken impersonally (they, i.e., people generally love thee. Comp. יָבֻזוּ, they despise, Son_8:1), and then the clause might be spoken by the entire chorus. מֵישָׁרִים, an adverbial accusative (as, e.g., פְּלָאִים, wonderfully, Lam_1:9), means neither “without reserve” (Weissb.), nor “sincerely” (Gesen., Del.) [so Noyes; Eng. Ver. marg.: uprightly], but, as appears from the context and the parallels Psa_48:2; Psa_75:3, “with good reason, rightly” (Ew., Hitzig, Vaih., etc.). This word is taken as the subject by the Sept. (εὐθύτης), Vulg. (recti diligunt te), Hengstenb. (rectitudes, i.e., abst. for concrete, the upright love thee), Umbr. (O favorite of all the virtues), etc. [so Eng. Ver., Thrupp, Wordsworth, Withington, Ginsburg], interpretations as ungrammatical as they are unsuited to the connection. The attempts at emendation proposed by Velth., Schelling, Augusti, are altogether unnecessary65 (see Weissb., in loc.).
4. Shulamith. Son_1:5-7.
Son_1:5. Black I am, but comely.—The explanation of the fact that she was black (שְׁחוֹרָה) contained in the following verse shows that by this blackness can only be meant her being browned by the hot sun. Then too in Lam_4:8 the substantive שְׁחוֹר denotes only the livid or swarthy appearance of one who has suffered long from famine and wretchedness, and in this very passage the strong expression “black” is qualified by the diminutive “blackish” (שְׁחַרְחֹרֶת) in the verse immediately following.—Moreover, the whole statement before us was occasioned according to Son_1:6, by the curious looks with which Shulamith had meanwhile been regarded by many of the daughters of Jerusalem and probably also by jeering remarks which they had made (comp. Son_1:8). “But comely” [Taylor: attractive, engaging] (נָאוָה., lit., “agreeable”); the plain country maid hereby expresses with frank, straightforward simplicity her consciousness that nevertheless she was not altogether unworthy of the love of Solomon. There is no vain self-laudation in the words.—As the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.—The first of these comparisons is designed to illustrate and set before the mind the idea of blackness, the second that of comeliness or elegance. “Kedar is a Bedawîn tribe near Palestine in the Arabian desert, Gen_25:13; Isa_21:17, which is here named in preference to all others, simply because the name קֵדָר seems originally to denote “blackness.” Tents of poor Bedawîns, which are always exposed to the heat of the sun, must certainly appear blacker and less attractive than those of Solomon; and we need not therefore with other interpreters (see especially Hitz. and Weissb. who refer to the observations of modern travellers as della Valle, Burckhardt, Harmer, Volney, etc.,) have recourse to the tents now commonly covered with black goat skins, as Shulamith only has in mind the blackness caused by the sun’s rays. But Solomon’s tents as a figure of the greatest elegance can only correspond to נָאוָהcomely. We may without difficulty assume that the splendor-loving Solomon adopted the custom of oriental monarchs of living in tents once in the year in some charming district and in the utmost elegance and splendor (comp. the remarks above, Son_1:1, respecting the pleasure grounds at Etham and Engedi.) It is, therefore, wholly unnecessary to understand by יְרִיעוֹת (with Del., Hitz., etc.,) tapestry,66 which is neither permitted by usage nor by etymology, from יָרַעcontinuit, prop. velum, then tent-cloth.” We shall have in the main to abide by this explanation of the passage given by Ewald, although we might assign to יְרִיעָה a different etymology, and derive it perhaps with Gesenius from יָרַעto tremble, flutter, or with Weissb. from יָרַעto be bad, i. e., of coarse, inferior workmanship. The two comparisons are in any case understood in quite too artificial a manner by the latter and by several others, who assume that both the tents of Kedar and the tent-coverings of Solomon set forth the peculiar combination of dark color with attractiveness in Shulamith’s looks (for which an appeal is made to the testimony of travellers like D’Arvieux, Shaw, etc., according to whom a plain filled with the black tents of the Bedawîn presents a very pleasing and even beautiful spectacle.) In opposition to Böttcher’s view, who though he assigns the words “Black am I, daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar” to the “vinedresser,” i.e., to Shulamith, refers the rest (“but comely” and “as the tent cloths of Solomon”) to an “elderly princess,” who looks with astonishment at the new comer, comp. Hitz. in loc., who properly rebukes the extravagance of the dissecting mania here exhibited.
Son_1:6. Look not at me because I am dusky, because the sun has scorched me. There is nothing in the context to indicate that the “look” is one of approval, in admiration of her beauty67 (versusBöttcher, Hitz., etc.) Comp. above on Son_1:5. My mother’s sons were angry with me.Velth., Umbr., Ewald needlessly think of step-brothers or half-brothers; the passages adduced for this purpose Lev_18:9; Lev_20:11 : Deu_23:2, etc., are outweighed by many others as Gen_27:29; Psa_50:20; Psa_69:9; Deu_13:7, where “mother’s sons” corresponds in the parallelism to “brothers,” and consequently is entirely synonymous with it. And this expression is the less surprising in Shulamith’s mouth since like a true Hebrew daughter she is in the habit of denominating everything after her mother; comp. “my mother’s house,” Son_3:4; Son_8:2, and so too Rth_1:8. We need not even assume that she would intimate a less favorable judgment of her brothers as more or less strange or distant in their bearing to her (Rocke, Hitz.); and there is still less to justify the assumption that her brothers are by this expression emphatically designated as Shulamith’s own brothers-german (vs.Magnus.) Yet it may with considerable probability be inferred from the expression before us, that Shulamith’s father was no longer living at the time of this transaction, and her brothers had assumed the prerogatives of a father (comp. Gen_34:5, ff.; 2Sa_13:20 ff.), but that her mother meanwhile was still living, which also seems to be favored by Son_6:9, (Son_8:2; Son_3:4).—Made me keeper of the vineyards. This manifestly does not assign the reason of her brothers’ anger, nor is this intimated in the following clause (vs. Hengstenberg and E. Meier), it is rather passed over in silence as irrelevant. But this clause tells what her brothers did in consequence of their anger, and then the last clause states what further happened to her when degraded into a vineyard-keeper.—Mine own vineyard I have not kept.—The addition of שֶׁלִּי not only gives a special emphasis to the suffix in כַּרְמִי, but distinguishes the vineyard of Shulamith here named as quite distinct and of another sort from those of her brothers, which she had been obliged to keep (Son_8:12). It is a vineyard of a higher and more valuable kind, which alas! she had not carefully guarded. She herself with all that she has and is, must be intended by this vineyard of her own (comp. Del. and Weissb. in loc.), or it may be her beauty (Ew., Döpke., Magn., Heiligst., Hitz., Vaih.),—at all events every thing that she had to surrender to Solomon and devote to him when she became his beloved and followed him. There is, in these words, no serious lament for her lost virtue (on the contrary see Son_4:12-16) or for her forsaken lover (as Böttcher, Meier and tentatively also Vaih.); but they contain a lament half in jest or with mingled sadness and irony for her forfeited freedom, for which she constantly longs in spite of her attachment to her royal lover. In favor of this double meaning of “vineyard” may also be urged the etymology of כֶּרֶם, which agreeably to its derivation from the root כרם, signifies the “noblest,” the “most valued possession,” the “highest good,” (comp. Hos_2:17; Isa_5:7; Psa_16:6, as well as Ewald and Hitzigin loc.).
Son_1:7. Tell me, thou whom my soul loveth, where feedest thou? To this dreamy exclamation of longing desire for her still absent lover, the close of the preceding verse forms a thoroughly appropriate introduction. Despoiled of her freedom and her beloved home she can only then feel happy amid the new and splendid objects which surround her, when he from love to whom she has forsaken all and to whom her whole heart belongs, is actually close beside her. הַגִּידָה לִּי “inform me” not “cause me to be informed,” for הגיד always denotes an immediate declaration or announcement. This expression would manifestly be less suited to an address to a far distant lover. The paraphrase of the idea דּוֹדִי by the fond circumlocution “whom my soul loveth” is found four times beside in the beautiful section Son_3:1-4.—Shulamith represents her royal lover as “feeding” and then as “reclining” (or more exactly as “causing to recline,” viz., his flock) simply because, as a plain country girl, she supposes that she can directly transfer to him the relations and occupations of country life, and hence assumes that the king may now be somewhere in the fields with his flocks, and have sought with them some shady resting-place as a protection from the hot noon-day sun. That Solomon was just then residing in his pleasure grounds near Jerusalem, that is to say in the country, might favor this artless conception of hers (comp. above on Son_1:5.) But the assumption of Weissbach is needless, that Solomon was then actually engaged in the over-sight of his flocks (Ecc_2:7) like Absalom and his brothers who, according to 2Sa_13:23, ff., were accustomed to manage the sheep-shearing themselves, and to convert it into a merry-making. Nothing further is to be sought in the expressions before us, than a ready trope from pastoral life, and consequently one of those criteria which mark this poem as at least a partially idyllic or pastoral drama (comp. Introduc. § 1, Rem. 3). That Joseph’s going to the pasturage of his brethren, Gen_37:15-16, was what specially suggested the present figurative representation is too far-fetched, though asserted by Hengstenberg, and connected with his allegorical mode of interpretation. Parallels for this “reclining at noon” may better be adduced from the figurative language of the prophets, as Isa_49:10; Psa_23:2; Eze_34:13-15, or even from the ancient classics, as Theocritus, Id., Son_1:14-15; Son_6:4; 25:216: Horace, Od., III. 29:21; Virg. Georg. III. 324 ff.68
For why should I be as one straying?etc.כְּעטְֹיָה is very variously explained. עָטָה “to cover” is commonly regarded as its theme, and it is accordingly translated “as one veiled” [so Eng. Ver. margin] i.e., as a harlot, Gen_38:14-15 (Rosenm., Del.) [so Thrupp, Burrowes, Noyes]; or as “one ashamed, veiled through shame” (Umbreit, Döpke, Hengstenberg), or “as one unknown” (Ewald, Heiligst., who compare the Arab. ״לobscurus fuit, occultavit) [Williams: as a stranger], or “as a mourner,” (so some of the older commentators, as R. Solomon ben Melek, [Ainsworth] after 2Sa_15:30). [Weiss.: Muffled up as eastern women always were when exposed to the eyes of strangers, and as a shepherdess subject to insolent and injurious treatment from the shepherds, comp. Exo_2:16-19]. But the signification “cover” can no more be proved for עטה, than that of “pining away,” which Schultens (Op. Min. p. 240), Rocke and others have sought to establish for the word. The Vulgate (ne vagari incipiam), Symmach. (ὡς ῥεμβομένη), Syr. and Targ., favor the meaning of wandering or straying, which is admirably suited to the context; [Clarke: as a wanderer; one who not knowing where to find her companions wanders fruitlessly in seeking them.] In proof of it we shall not need Böttcher’s emendation כְשׂטְיָה (“as a country-stroller”), but simply Hitzig’s assumption that עֹטְיָה by a transposition of the ע is for טוֹעָה (= תּוֹעָה comp. Gen_37:15); comp. ערף = רעף, עטף = Arab. ײetc., (a view as old as Kleukerin loc., who with S. Bochart actually proposes to read כְטֹעְיָה). The following expression “by the flocks of thy companions” is closely connected with this idea as the more exact limitation of the “straying.” The “straying by the flocks of the king’s companions,” is nothing but a figure of speech for remaining among the throng of ladies in the royal court without the presence of the king himself; and that is just the veritably desolate and forlorn condition, from which Shulamith wishes to be released by the return of her lover. Hitzig arbitrarily explains the wandering of a wandering of her thoughts; and still more arbitrarily Weissbach seeks to give to עטה (with the following עַל for אֶל) the sense of “laying hands upon, purloining” (“that I, by the flocks of thy companions, be not regarded as one who will lay hands upon them,” and for that reason is sneaking about them watching his opportunity.)
5. The daughters of Jerusalem.
Son_1:8. If thou know not, fairest among women,etc. This address (lit. “the fair (one) among the women.” compare [Green’sHebrew Grammar, § 260, 2 (2)], Ewald, Lehrbuch, § 513, c) which is also used Son_5:9; Son_6:1 by the “daughters of Jerusalem” in speaking to Shulamith, does not prove that the counsel here given “to follow the tracks of the flocks and pasture her kids beside the shepherds’ huts” is a seriously meant exhortation to Shulamith to return to the condition of a shepherdess, or a friendly direction to her on her way to the royal flocks (Weissb.). This language is evidently an “answer adapted to the narrow range of thought implied in Shulamith’s question (which must necessarily appear foolish to the ladies of the court) and hence an unmeaning one, after which the fair shepherdess knew neither more nor less than she did before” (Del.). It is therefore jeeringly intended, and if it did not exactly wound her deeply, it was certainly adapted to increase Shulamith’s longing for her lover.—אִם־לֹא תֵדְעִי means neither “if thou do not know thyself” (Sept., Luth.), nor “if thou art deficient in understanding” (Ewald, Hitzig, etc., who appeal to Isa_1:3; Isa_56:10, passages not appropriate in this connection), but conformably to the similar passage, Son_6:12, “if thou know not,” viz.: where thy lover feeds, this object being readily supplied from the context.—צְאִי־לָךְ בְּעִקְבֵי הַצֹּאן “go out at the heels of the flock,” i.e., go after it, follow its tracks, comp. Jdg_4:10; Jdg_5:15. יָצָא therefore denotes here, as the Hiphil in Isa_40:26; 2Sa_5:2, going forth with the flock, not going out of the palace (Vaih., etc.).—“Thy kids,” i.e., the kids which as such an enthusiastic admirer of country life, and a shepherd’s occupation you must certainly have. That she actually had some with her (Weissb.) by no means follows from this expression.
6. Second Scene. Solomon, Son_1:9-11. The king has now returned from the engagements, which had hitherto detained him from his women, and he begins a tender conversation with Shulamith, who is favored by him above all the rest; during which the others withdraw into the background. Comp. No. 1, above.
Son_1:9. To my horse in Pharaoh’s chariots, literally: “to my mare;” for סוּסָה can scarcely stand collectively for סוּסִים “horses, a body of horse,” (Vulg. “equitatui;Hengstb., Weissb., etc.), and there is nothing to justify its being pointed לְסוּסֹתַי (Magn., Hitz.). The singular לְסוּסָתִי evidently refers to a favorite mare of the king (comp. Zec_10:3), to a particularly fine, and splendidly caparisoned specimen of those τέσσαρες χιλιάδες θήλειαι ἵπποι, which according to 1Ki_10:26, Sept., Solomon had for his chariots; and more exactly to such a steed used on state occasions in Solomon’s “Pharaoh-chariots,” i.e., in those costly Pharaonic spans of horses, which according to 1Ki_10:28-29, he had imported from Egypt. Solomon compares his beloved to this mare of his, harnessed and magnificently decorated before stately Pharaoh-chariots (not exactly before one of them, Vatabl.), and that “on account of her youthful bloom and her unaffected demeanor, whose lovely charms are still further heightened by the simple ornaments worn upon her head and neck, Son_1:10-11” (Del.). The point of the comparison is not to be sought exclusively in the proud bearing of the horse, Job_39:19, etc. (Ewald, Vaih., etc.), any more than in the glittering ornaments of his head and neck. In opposition to Weissb., who thinks merely of the latter, and referring to Hartmann’sHebräerin am Putztische, (Hebrew woman at her Toilet), Olearius“Persische Reisen” (Travels in Persia), etc. [see also Harmer’sOutlines, p. 205, and the illustrations of a bride’s dress, in Calmet’sDictionary] maintains that there was a marked similarity between the ornaments of pearls and chains worn by horses and by women in the East, and consequently by Shulamith in the present instance, it may be said that according to Son_1:11 Solomon now first proposes to adorn his beloved with the proper gold and silver ornaments, and therefore she did not yet wear a burdensome head and neck ornament like a richly bridled mare.69—My dear; comp. Son_1:15; Son_2:2; Son_4:1, etc., where the same familiar form of address recurs.
Son_1:10. Comely are thy cheeks in chains.תּוֹר kindred with דּוֹר, טוֹרetc., is equivalent to a circle, ring; in the plural consequently it denotes a chain composed of many rings, which goes around from the head under the chin, by which therefore the cheeks are encircled. Shulamith may not have brought this ornament together with the necklaces named in b (חֲרוּזִים kindred with הרש, חרט, little disks of metal or corals pierced and strung together) with her from the country, but may have received it as a present from Solomon since her coming to the royal court. Solomon, however, is not satisfied with this simple ornament, but promises her, Son_1:11, much richer and more splendid jewels,—scarcely with the view of alluring her and binding her to his court (as even Del. supposes) but simply to adorn yet more handsomely one who is so lovely, and to have his full pleasure in her as a magnificently attired princess.70
Son_1:11. Chains of gold—with points of silver. Needlessly, and quite too artificially, Weissb. will have us understand by the נְקֻדּוֹת הַכֶּסֶף something similar to the חֲרוּזִים little disks of silver pierced and strung together, which might be worn along with the gold chains. But עִםwith by no means requires this explanation (comp. Son_4:13): it rather leads to the far more natural assumption that the golden chains were dotted with silver “punctis argenteis distincti” (Hitzig).71
7. Shulamith Son_1:12-14.
Son_1:12. Whilst the king (is) at his table, my spikenard yields its fragrance. If these words were to be translated: “whilst the king was at his table, my spikenard yielded its fragrance” (Rosenmueller, Ewald, Hengstenb., Vaih., Weissb., etc.), they could only mean: “as long as Solomon was absent, and did not burden me with his attentions, I was happy in the memory of my friend;” they would accordingly bear an emphatic testimony to the correctness of the herdsman or shepherd-hypothesis; for that the “fragrance of the spikenard” is to be taken literally and explained of the costly nard-oil on Shulamith’s hair and garments, which had been as it were suppressed and far exceeded by the coming of her lover with his much more delightful fragrance (Weissb.) is a very far-fetched explanation of these simple words.72 They are rather to be taken as referring to the present, because the fact of there being no הָיָהwas in the protasis makes against the preterite sense of נָתַןgive73 (comp. Hitz. in loc.) and because מֵסַב does not properly mean table, but rather company, festive assembly (comp. the adverbial use of the word in the singular, 1Ki_6:29, and in the plural, 2Ki_23:5; Job_37:12) and consequently points to the place where the king then was, to the women’s apartment of his palace or park in contrast with his former stay in the fields, with the soldiers, on the chase, or elsewhere. The fragrance of Shulamith’s nard is accordingly a figurative designation of the agreeable sensations or delightful feelings produced in her heart by the presence of her lover (comp. Del.: “it only emits again that fragrance, which it has absorbed from his glances”), a representation which by no means sounds too refined and courtly for this simple country girl, this child of nature, which therefore Hitzig very needlessly puts (as well as Son_1:13) into the mouth of an enamored court lady as a voluptuous piece of flattery for Solomon.74 For נֵרְדְּ, which must here denote not a stalk of the well-known Indian plant Valeriana Jatamansi (Magn., Böttcher), but the aromatic unguent prepared from it, and that as poured out, and consequently emitting its fragrance, comp. Winer, R. W. B. Art., “Narde.” [Smith’sDictionary of the Bible, Art. Spikenard. Kitto’sBiblical Cyclopedia, Art. Nerd].
Son_1:13. A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me. Evidently an advance upon the figure of the fragrant nard. The royal lover, who now rests upon Shulamith’s bosom, is compared by her to a parcel of the costly myrrh-gum such as the ladies of the East are in the habit of carrying in their bosom. צְרוֹר הַמּרֹ is not a bunch [so Noyes] or sprig of myrrh (Ewald, Delitzsch, etc.) for there is no more evidence of any aromatic quality in the branches and leaves of the myrrh tree than there is of its occurrence in Palestine at all. We must therefore think of a bundle or box (not exactly a flask, as Weissb. proposes, contrary to the meaning of צְרוֹר) of semi-fluid, or fluid myrrh gum, and must besides compare the use of this gum as an unguent, which is vouched for also in Son_5:5; Son_5:13; Est_2:12; Exo_30:28. On the carrying of boxes of ointment by Hebrew women, comp. also Isa_3:20; Job_42:14, and Hartmann, die Hebräerin am Putztische II., p. 280 f.
Son_1:14. A cluster of Cyprus is my beloved to me.כֹּפֶרSept.: (κύπρος here and Son_4:13) is the Cyprus flower or Alhenna, which is indigenous to India, and probably to Egypt (Pliny, H. N. xii. 24) and may have been transplanted by Solomon in his vineyards at Engedi (on which comp. No. 1 above) for the sake of the peculiarly strong odor of its yellowish-white, grape-like clusters of flowers. [See Harmer’sOutlines, pp. 218–221; Shaw’sTravels, pp. 113, ‘4: Sonnini’sVoyage, pp. 291–302]. Comp. in respect to the fondness of oriental women for this aromatic plant the testimony of a recent traveller in the “Ausland,” 1851, No. 17. “The white Henna-blossoms, which grow in clusters and are called Tamar-henna, have a very penetrating odor, which seems disagreeable to the European who is unaccustomed to it; but the Orientals have an uncommon liking for this odor, and prefer it to any other. The native women commonly wear a bouquet of Tamar-henna on their bosom.” The Hebrew name of this plant might with Simonis and others be derived from כפר to cover, with allusion to the custom which prevails among Oriental women of staining their finger nails yellow with Henna powder, but it is more natural to refer כֹּפֶר as well as κύπρος and the Lat. cuprum to the Sanskrit root cubh, “to shine, be yellow,” whence cubhra. The exact parallelism between Son_1:13-14, and in general the intimate connection of Son_1:12-14, with their figures taken without exception from the region of vegetable aromas further yields decided testimony against Hitzig’s division of the passage as though Son_1:12-13, belonged to one of the women of the Harem, and only Son_1:14 to Shulamith.
8. Solomon, Shulamith, Son_1:15-17.
Son_1:15. Lo! thou art fair, my dear. The fond ardor, with which she has just spoken of her lover, has doubled the expressive beauty of her features. The perception of this leads Solomon full of rapture to praise her beauty.—Thine eyes are doves,i.e., not “thine eyes are doves’ eyes,” as though (like Psa_45:7; 1Ki_4:13, Ezr_10:13) the const. עֵינֵי were to be supplied; and the dove-like simplicity and fidelity of Shulamith’s eyes were to be brought into the account as the point of comparison (Vulg., Syr., Ibn Ezra, Vat., Gesen., Del., etc.), [Eng. Ver.]; but as is shown both by the context and the parallel passage, Son_5:12, “thine eyes resemble the lustrous and shimmering plumage of doves,” wherein more particularly the white of the eyes is compared to that of the body, and the lustrous iris to the metallic lustre of the neck or wings of the dove (comp. Psa_68:14). Correctly therefore the Sept.: ὀφθαλμοί σου περιστεραί, and in the later times Targ., Rashi, Hengstenberg, Hitzig, etc.) [So Hodgson, Williams, Fry, Thrupp, etc.].
Son_1:16. Lo! thou art fair, my beloved, yea sweet. The exactly analogous form of expression, with which Shulamith here answers the flattering caresses of the king, makes it appear to the last degree forced to regard these words of hers as addressed to a distant lover. The climacteric אַף נָעִים “yes sweet, yes charming” is only the expression of her loving transport, and finds an illustrative commentary in the description Son_2:3-5. [Will., Gins. connect this adjective with what follows: “Lovely is our verdant couch”].—Yea, our couch is green, lit.: “greens, grows green” (רַעֲנָנָה) a reference to the stately, verdant, and refreshing natural surroundings, in the midst of which to their delight their loving intercourse now takes place, and perhaps more particularly to a shady grassplot under the trees of the park, upon which they were for the moment sitting or reclining; comp. § 1 above, and Weissb. in loc. In opposition to Hengstenb., who takes עֶרֶשׂ in the sense of “marriage-bed,” and רַעֲנָן in a purely figurative sense of a gladsome and flourishing condition, may be urged that no mention can be made of a marriage-bed for Shulamith and Solomon before their nuptials, which are not described until Son_3:6, etc.; likewise the contents of the following verses, especially Son_2:1-3, which point to a continued stay of the lovers in the open air, under shady trees, and beside fragrant flowers.75
Son_1:17. The beams of our houses are cedars, our wainscoting cypress-trees. This can neither be the language of the “choir of women belonging to the harem” (Böttcher), whose entrance here would be to the last degree disturbing; nor even of Solomon (Hitzig, Weissb., Ren.) to whom the beauty of the place where they are, is a matter of perfect indifference, by reason of the rapture with which he regards his beloved; but only that of Shulamith, the innocent, light-hearted child of nature, who has just begun to express her pleasure in that lovely spot in the open air, to which her lover had conducted her, and whose words would sound quite unfinished and end abruptly if nothing further were added to the commendation of their verdant couch.—”Cedars” and “cypresses,” also named together Isa_14:8; Zec_11:2, as costly species of wood for building and stately, lofty trees, are here evidently meant in the literal sense, of living trees of this description, such as were to be found, along with other rare and noble plants, in the royal gardens of a king so skilled in nature and so fond of splendor. The figurative part of her language lies rather in the “beams” and the “wainscoting” (רָחִיטִים from רהט = Ar. ּׁ״ “to hew,” hence = laquearia of the Vulg., wainscoting on walls and ceilings—not. “pillars,” Weissb., nor “rafters,” Vatabl. and L. Cappell, [so E. V.], nor “floor,” Hengstenberg, who prefers the K’ri רָהיטִים). She, who had hitherto been without Solomon in the showy apartments of the palace, felicitates herself that she can now rest with him under the green trees of the garden, which seem to her to arch over them a far finer ceiling than those richly adorned halls. It is impossible to reconcile the mention of cedars, which only grew wild in Lebanon, not in central or northern Palestine, and consequently not in the vicinity of Shunem, with the shepherd hypothesis, whose advocates here find expressed Shulamith’s longing for the verdure and shade of her home (e.g.Ewald, Vaih.).
For the DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL comments, see Son_2:7 ff.
Footnotes:
[1][Wicliffe: The Church of the coming of Christ speaketh, saying. Matthews: The voice of the Church. Cover-Dale: O that thy mouth would give me a kiss, for thy breasts are more pleasant than wine, and that because of the good and pleasant savor.].
[2]On the combination of the kindred words נשק and נשיקה. Comp. 1Ki_1:12; 1Ki_2:16; Isa_1:13; Isa_8:10; Jon_1:10; Jon_1:16, and generally Ewald, Lehrbuch, § 281 a, [Green’s Heb. Gram. § 271, 3].
[3][Wicliffe: The voice of the Father.]
[4][Thrupp’s proposed emendation לריח שמני קטורים “like as the scent which cometh from incenses,” is nothing but ingenious trifling, and has not even the merit of being good Hebrew.—Tr.]
[5][Wic. The voice of the Church.]
[6]Observe the assonance in שֶׁמֶן and שֵׁם which is probably intentional. [Thrupp: as ointment thou art, by thy name, poured forth.]
[7]In regard to the construction of the words שֶׁמֶן תּוּרַק שְׁמֶךָ four views are possible: 1. שֵׁם is taken as the subject, and תּוּרַק as 3 pers. fem. here employed because שֵׁם is exceptionally used as a feminine after the analogy of the Ethiopic (so Ew.: “thy name is poured out as an ointment;” Vaih.: “as the fragrance of balsam thy name pours itself forth,” etc.) 2. שֶׁמֶן is regarded as the subject, which is here exceptionally treated as feminine, and to which תּוּרַק belongs as a relative clause; “an unguent, which is shed forth, is thy name” (so the Septuag., Vulg., Luth. and the generality of interpreters). 3. שֶׁמֶן is taken as a masc., but the form תּוּרַק is regarded as a hardened form for יוּרַק (after the analogy of Isa_44:28; Ecc_10:15), and accordingly translated as before (Hitzig). 4. תּוּרַק is held to be the 2 pers. sing. fut. Hophal with a double accusative: “thou art poured forth in respect to thy name as ointment,” i.e., thou, or more precisely thy name, diffusest a noble fragrance, like a box of ointment which is emptied of its contents (so J. H. Michaelis: “sicut oleum effunderis nomine tuo;” Hengstenb., Weissb.). This last construction is to be preferred as grammatically the best established, while it agrees in sense substantially with Nos. 2 and 3.
[8][Matt. Yea, that same moveth me also to run after thee.]
[9][Matt. The spousess to her companions.]
[10][Cov., Cranmer, Bishops: “privy chamber;” Doway: “cellars,” altered in later editions to “store-rooms.”]
[11]Upon הִזְכִּיר prop. “to mention, bring to remembrance,” then “to mention with praise, celebrate,” comp. Psa_20:8; Isa_48:1; Isa_63:7; also Ps. 45:18; 1Ch_16:4, where it is parallel to הוֹדה thank, praise.
[12][Cov. Well is them that love thee. Eng. Ver. The upright, Marg. uprightly. Noyes, Burrowes: sincerely.]
[13][Wic. The Church, of her tribulations. Mat. The voice of the Church in persecution. Cov., Cran. I am black, (O ye daughusalem) like as the tents of the Cedarenes and as the hangings of Solomon; but yet I am fair and well-favored withal. Ginsburg: swarthy.]
[14][Withington: fair; Burrowes: lovely.]
[15][Cov. marvel; Doway: consider; Williams, Noyes: gaze; With. scorn; Ginsburg: disdain.]
[16] שֶׁ signifies in both instances, in שֶׁאֲניִ and in שֶׁשְׁזָפַהְני not “for,” but “for the reason that,” “because” (εἰς έκεῖυο ὅτι); comp. Exo_2:2. The second clause is therefore co-ordinated with the first, although explanatory of it (comp. Weissb. in loc.)
[17][Cov.: so black. E. Ver. black; Doway: brown; Weiss: swarthy; Bur., Thrupp: dark.] On שְׁחַרְחרֶת blackish, dusky (not “very black, deep black,” as Hitz. and formerly Ewald too would have it), comp. on Son_1:5 above [Green’s Heb. Gram., § 188].
[18] שָׁזַף is not “look upon” [so E. V.; Cov. shined; Will. beamed; Thrupp: fiercely scanned; Weiss: glanced] (Septuag. παρέβλεψε, comp. Job_20:9), but is here=שָׁדַף (Gen_41:23) “scorch, blacken,” the sense already expressed by Aquila (συνέκαυαέ με) and the Vulg. (decoloravit me) [Good: discolored; Bur., Gins. browned], and retained by most of the recent interpreters (in opposition to Rosenm., Hengstenb., Weissb.).
[19][Mat. The voice of the Synagogue.]
[20] נִחֲרוּ either Niph. of חרר to burn, glow, (so Ew., Meier, Hitz.), or more probably from חרה (so that the sing. would be נִחֲרָה or נֶחֱרָה); for the Niph. of חרר always elsewhere means “to be dried, parched” (Psa_69:4; Psa_102:4, etc.), whilst the meaning demanded here is “to be angry, wroth.” Comp. Gesenius’ Lexicon and Weissb. in loc. [Cov.: had evil will.]
[21][Cov.: Thus was I fain to keep a vineyard, which was not mine own.]
[22][Wic., Mat. The voice of the Church to Christ.]
[23] אִיִכָה elsewhere how? [which Weiss. retains] is here=אֵיפֹה where? so too 2Ki_6:13, K’thibh, whilst the Kri has אֵיכוֹ
[24] שַׁלָּמָה properly “for why” (comp. אֲשֶׁר לָמָּה, Dan_1:10), a fuller expression for the simple לָמָּה why, as in Job_34:27, אֲֹשֶר עַל־כֵּן stands for עַל־כֵּן, Psa_45:3. The sense is correctly given by the Sept. and Syr., which here and in Dan_1:10 translate “that not, lest” (μήποτε). [Cov.: and that. The critical conjecture mentioned by Williams, that this word should be pointed as a proper name שְׁלֹמחֹ O Solomon is unworthy of attention.—Tr.]
[25][Wic. go vagrant; Cov. lest I go wrong and come unto the flocks of thy companions; E. Ver. one (Genev. she) that turneth aside; Good, Percy, Clarke: wanderer; Williams, Fry: stranger; Taylor: rover; Ginsb.: roaming; E. Ver. Marg. one that is veiled, so Noyes, Weiss., Thrupp.]
[26][Wic., Mat. The voice of Christ to the Church.]
[27] לָךְ is here added inasmuch as the action returns upon its subject (comp. Pro_9:12; and Pro_2:6; Pro_8:14 below), so in general Ewald, Lehrb. § 315 a [Green’s Heb. Chrest. note on Isa_40:9.]
[28][Wic. my riding; Genev. troop (E. V. company) of horses; Will.: the horse; Noyes: the horses; Gins.: my steed.]
[29][Cov. There will I tarry for thee, my love, with mine host and with my chariots, which shall be no fewer than Pharaoh’s]
[30]The plur. רַעְיוֹת [rather רְעָיוֹת—Tr.] Jdg_11:37 K’thibh. [E. Ver. my love, Marg. in Son_1:15 : companion; Will.: consort; Fry: partner.]
[31][Genev. rows of stones; E. Ver. rows of jewels; Fry: jewels; With. chains; Thrupp, Ginsb.; circlet; Weiss.: reins.]
[32][Genev. chains; E. Ver. chains of gold; Doway: jewels; Fry: strings of beads; Good, Burrowes: strings of pearls: Thrupp, With., Ginsb. necklace; Weiss.: chains, i.e., such as are attached to the pole or beam of the carriage, and which the horse wears on his neck.]
[33][In addition to the renderings given to this word in the preceding verse, Wic. here translates it: ribands; Cov. neck-band; E. Ver. borders; With. collars.]
[34][Cov. buttons; E. Ver. studs; With. stars.]
[35][Wic. The voice of the Church, of Christ. Mat. The voice of the Church.]
[36][So Cov., Eng. Ver.; Genev. repast; Doway: repose, after the Vulg. accubitu and the LXX ἀνακλίσει; Good: banquet; Fry: ‘the king in his circuit’ may either refer to his going round in some part of the procession, or to taking his stand in the midst of his retinue, or we may translate, ‘until the king had taken his seat;’ Will., Burr, circle of friends; Weiss.: with his guest.]
[37][Ainsw.: bag; Taylor: scent-bag; Good: casket; Burrowes: amulet.]
[38][Cov. O my beloved. E. Ver. my well-beloved, so constantly throughout the book in Genev., except once in Son_5:9, “lover.”]
[39][So Cov., Doway, E. Ver. Marg. The text of the Eng. Ver. has camphire.]
[40][Wic., Mat. The voice of Christ to the Church.]
[41][Wic., Mat. The voice of the Church to Christ.]
[42][Cov., Cran., Bish. Our bed is decked with flowers. Dow.: our little bed is flourishing.]
[43][Cov. ceilings.]
[44][Cov. balks; Cran., Bish. cross-joints; E. V.: rafters, Marg.: galleries; Good, Noyes boardings; Parkhurst: ceiling; Gesen.: carved ceiling; Fuerst: carved beams].
[45][E. Ver. fir; Ains. brutin-tree.]
[46][Wic. The voice of Christ, of Him and of the Church; Mat. The voice of Christ.]
[47][Wic., Mat. The voice of the Church, of Christ.]
[48][Cov., Cran., Bish., Dow. throat; Genev. mouth; E. V. taste].
[49][Cov. grapes; Cran., Bish. cups; Genev., E. V. flagons].
[50][E. V. comfort; Marg. straw me; Doway, compass me about; Ainsworth: strew me a bed; Williams: strew citrons around me; Thrupp: strew me with citron leaves].
[51][Wic., Mat. The voice of Christ, of the Church; Wic., Dow. I adjure you; Cov., Cran., Genev., E. V.: I charge you.]
[52][Thrupp has: “fells,” so as to rhyme with “gazelles,” in fancied imitation of the original].
[53][Cov., Dow., Genev. she; E. V. correctly: he; Ginsb., Thrupp: it].
[54][So Patrick, Good, Williams, Taylor, Fry, the last two of whom divide Son_1:5 in like manner, assigning the words “but comely,” and “as the curtains of Solomon” to the daughters of Jerusalem, who compliment the bride on her beauty, while she in the remaining clauses speaks depreciatingly of herself; Taylor also apportions Son_1:2-3 between the bride and her attendant ladies, to whom Fry adds an imaginary messenger from the king. Harmer carries the sub-division of parts to an equal extent, claiming that not only the variation in number, but the change of person from third to second, and vice versa, indicates a diversity of speakers. The majority of English Commentators regard the bride as the sole speaker in Son_1:2, as is done also in the headings to this chapter in the authorized version, and either find in the change of number evidence of the plurality involved in the unity of the speaker, (Poole, Thrupp), or suppose that she in thought associates her companions with herself, we, i.e., “I and the virgins fore-mentioned” (Ainsworth), or that it is the language of modesty, though she means only herself (Clarke)].
[55][Patrick. Scott and Taylor suppose it interrupted by the attendant ladies in Son_1:11].
[56][Taylor and Williams make the place to have been the bride’s parlor in Solomon’s palace, and the time the first day of the week preceding the marriage, Son_1:1-8 belonging to the morning, and Son_1:9 to Son_2:7 to the evening of the day. Burrowes follows Harmer in the conjecture that “in the opening scene of this poem the king had probably gone forth, according to Oriental customs, to meet the bride, and was awaiting her with his princely retinue in an encampment where his rich pavilion, Son_1:5, stood pre-eminent. The spouse on coming in sight of those kingly tents, gives utterance to the strong emotions of her heart].”
[57][Patrick. As in Joh_20:15 “the pronoun is used without a consciousness of the absence of the antecedent. Her heart is so full that she supposes every one must know who she means by him].”
[58][“Permission to kiss the hand of a sovereign is considered an honor; but for that sovereign to give another the kisses of his mouth, is evidence of the tenderest affection, and is the highest possible honor.”—Burrowes.]
[59][“Thy love is more reviving and exhilarating than the effects of wine. Comp. Psa_104:15; Pro_31:6.”—Burrowes].
[60][Weiss.: Besides or in addition to the savor, etc. A sense which the prep. rarely has, and which is neither admissible here nor in Exo_14:28; Lev_11:26; Lev_16:16, to which he appeals. Incorrectly also the Eng. Ver.: Because of the savor, etc., which must then be connected with “therefore,” etc., in the last clause, the second clause being parenthetic. “She has ointments preparatory to her exaltation; just as Esther was purified to go in to the king, Est_2:12.”—Withington].
[61][Comp. Eng. To be in good or bad odor’ for good or ill repute. This explanation of the relation of these ideas, which is developed at length by Baehr, Symbolik d. Mos. Cultus, I., p. 459 ff., appears to be too subtle and remote. It is simpler to find the connection in the fact that the odor, like the name, indicates the character or quality of that from which it proceeds, or to which it belongs. It is an efflux from the object itself, the impression which it makes ad extra.—Tr.]
[62][There seems to be no sufficient reason for departing from the authority of the accents in the present instance. “We will run” requires “after thee” as its complement to indicate the direction of the running more than “draw me,” where the direction is sufficiently implied. The violation of the accents is merely for the sake of evading the evidence afforded by the masc. pron. אַחֲרֶיךּ, that “after thee we will run” is still the language of the bride to Solomon—not of her virgin companions to the bride.—Tr].
[63][So too Weiss.: “When the king shall have brought me;” nor is it a prophetic preterite, the bride anticipating the time when she shall be brought (Thrupp). Ginsburg insists that the changes of person in this verse “clearly show that the king here referred to is a separate person from the beloved to whom the maiden is addressing herself.” But he is compelled to acknowledge that just before in Son_1:2 the third person and the second both refer to the same subject.—Tr.]
[64][This would seem to compel the conclusion that the marriage has already taken place, and is not still future, as our author supposes.—Tr.]
[65][Fry, who disregards the points; they do right in loving thee. Good alters the text into: thou art every way lovely.]
[66][Eng. Ver., curtains, Ainsworth: the goodly hangings that were in his house and about his bed.]
[67][Look not disdainfully upon me, Hall; do not too accurately scrutinize, Taylor; Gaze with wonder at her presumption, Noyes.]
[68] [The introduction of these figures from pastoral life has occasioned much needless perplexity among interpreters. Clarke says: “How this would apply either to Solomon or to the princess of Egypt, is not easy to ascertain. Probably in the marriage festival there was something like our masks, in which persons of quality assumed rural characters and their employments.” Some have thought this to be a separate and independent composition, unconnected with the preceding in which the king was spoken of. So besides the German fragmentists, Fry, who begins a new idyl with Son_1:7 on account of “the entire change of imagery.” Others maintain that the unity of the poem is unbroken, but insist that the king and the shepherd are distinct persons; so Ginsburg and the entire class of interpreters to which he belongs, and extremes meeting here as not infrequently elsewhere, allegorical interpreters have gone so far in the same direction as to allege that these diverse representations are incompatible in application to any literal subject, and that no consistent sense can be made of them but by referring them to Christ. This, however, is to prejudice the beauty and perfection of the allegory, and to damage the spiritual interpretation of the Song itself. The author of the Song is not writing directly of Christ and His church, but only under the figure of a bridegroom and his bride. His language must, therefore, in all cases have immediate application to the latter, and can set forth the former only as the character and relations in which the more immediate subjects are presented, serve as their faithful image. If this image is distorted, wanting in consistency, and its various parts mutually discordant, the effect of the whole is marred, its beauty and its truth are defaced. It is at least safe to say that this is an assumption, which should not be made without necessity.
The objection to the explanation of the bride’s language given by Zöckler is, that it seems to impute to her the silly conceit that her royal husband or betrothed was actually engaged in the occupation of a shepherd, and it makes the reply by the daughters of Jerusalem utterly unmeaning. Withington presents three alternatives, the last of which is the only simple and natural one. This speech “may be a natural mistake of the rural lass on her first union with the king, or it may be the king went into her country to rusticate, or it may be an allegorical expression by which she signifies that the king is a shepherd and his kingdom is a flock.” Williams: “If he be like a good shepherd feeding his flock, administering public benefits and dispensing judgment, why should not I enjoy the common benefit? If he be indulging in retirement, why may not I, who am admitted as his wife, enjoy his company and conversation?”]
[69][Clarke, Burrowes, and others adhere to the singular, “to my mare or steed.” Good drops the pronoun: “one of the steeds,” supposing the final yodh to be paragogic. So the common Eng. Ver., which takes the noun in a collective sense “company of horses,” and is followed by the majority of English commentators, who find in this a proof of its allegorical meaning. The point of comparison according to the Westminster Assembly’s Annotations is “comeliness,” according to Fry “splendid decoration.” Poole, “An horse is a very stately and beautiful creature, and the Egyptian horses were preferred before others, and Pharaoh’s own chariot horses were doubtless the best of their kind.” Thrupp, Wordsworth, Moody Stuart suppose special allusion to the formidable character of Pharaoh’s horses and chariots at the Red Sea, Exo_14:9; Exo_14:23. Several classic parallels have been adduced as Theocritus, Idyl, 18:30; Horace, Odes, Son_3:11; Sophocles, Electra, 25.—Tr.]
[70][“The mention of the Egyptian steed in Son_1:9 naturally suggested the reference here made to the beautiful head-dress of the spouse.” Burrowes. “Whether she be still compared hereby to a company of horses, as in Son_1:9, or to a woman is doubtful, for both similitudes do agree to the things here spoken of. The bridles of horses are often adorned with rows (of jewels) especially in kings’ chariots. Also the next words ‘thy neck with chains’ may have like reference; for the kings of Midian when they went to war had chains about their camels’ necks, Jdg_8:26.” Ainsworth, so too Gill. Of the ornament spoken of in the first clause Ainsworth further says, “The same word תּוֹר is also used for a ‘turtledove,’ which some therefore take here to be jewels or ornaments that had the figures of ‘turtle-doves.’ ” It is so in fact translated both in the Sept. and Vulg., followed by Wicliffe and Doway, “thy cheeks are beautiful as the turtle-doves.” So too Cranmer and Bishops: “thy cheeks and thy neck are beautiful as the turtle’s.” It is needless to say after the explanation given in the commentary that this rendering confounds two entirely distinct words.—Tr.]
[71][Burrowes adopts the conjecture of Harmer in his Outlines, p. 206, that this is the description of a crown. So Moody Stuart: These silver studded circles of gold mean either the royal or the nuptial crown, or both in one. Patrick, Williams, Taylor make this the language not of the bridegroom, but of the attendant virgins.]
[72][Much less so, however, than that which would make the nard refer to a distant shepherd lover, of whose existence there is no evidence. Weiss, who adopts the above rendering gives a peculiar turn to the thought: “The bride is supposed to have been provided with a bundle of spikenard, with which she intended to regale her bridegroom, when he entered the banqueting house or saloon, where the guests and the bride await him, and he approached to salute her according to custom. But unfortunately the bridegroom being detained a long time in another chamber by one of the guests, the bride’s precious bundle of spikenard yielded all its fragrance, and became useless. When he enters, however, Son_1:13 it is more than supplied by the delicious odors of the bridegroom’s ointments and spices, which fill all the room.” This belongs to his historical interpretation of it as an emblem of Israel’s losing his pious fervor and lapsing into gross sin, while the Lord was with Moses on Mount Sinai, and the subsequent forgiving love and condescending grace of God.—Tr.]
[73][There is no need of departing from the preterite form of the Hebrew verb to obtain the sense desired. It should be rendered “Whilst the king has been (as he still is) with his company, my nard has yielded its fragrance.”—Tr.]
[74][The meaning of this verse is differently given by Coverdale: “When the king sitteth at the table, he shall smell my nardus.” Her spikenard was not for her own gratification; she had perfumed herself with it for the king’s sake alone, Est_2:12, and it now gladly diffuses its fragrance in his presence to afford him pleasure. This Fry takes in its literal sense, supposing allusion to the throwing of flowers and perfumes as a token of high respect and complimentary congratulation. To this Noyes adds with an unnecessary degree of hesitation its emblematic sense: “It would seem to be too harsh a figure to suppose ‘my spikenard’ to mean ‘my personal charms and graces’ though such a supposition is favored by the next verse.” Ainsworth suggests the spiritual application: “In her and from her so adorned by her beloved, the odor of the Spirit of God in her, flowed forth and spread abroad to the delight of herself and others.” Thrupp: “The symbolism of the song of songs was outwardly acted, as is recorded in the gospels in the earthly life of the Lord Jesus, and is also permanently embodied in the worship of the Christian church. It was while He sat at table that the feet of our Saviour were on two separate occasions anointed, Luk_7:36-50; Joh_12:3 ff. And it is in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper that the church still most solemnly presents her sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, which she beseeches God of His fatherly goodness to accept.”—Tr.]
[75][“The scene seems to be laid in the kiosk or summerhouse in the royal garden. The green flowery turf is our place of repose; our canopy is cedar interspersed with fir, richly carved.” Burrowes. Better still, GOOD: The lovers are not in a house, but a grove, where the spreading branches of the firs and the cedars are poetically called the beams and the roof of their chamber. Thus Milton, describing Adam’s bower, Par. Lost., 4:692, comp. Homer Il., 24:191. Harmer supposes Son_1:16 to be the language of the bride, and Son_1:17 that of the bridegroom. She commends the rural beauty of the spot in which they then were. He, impatient to introduce her to his palace, replies in substance: “Arise, my love, and quit this place, pleasant as it is, for equally pleasant and much more commodious will you find the abode to which I am conveying you, it being built of the fragrant cedar, and of other precious wood.” Poole, with many others, supposes the nuptial bed to be referred to “adorned with green garlands or boughs.” Ainsworth: “Green is not meant so much of color as of flourishing growth and increase.”]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17 1. Song of songs — The title is discussed…
1. Song of songs — The title is discussed in the Introduction.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–17 Chap. Son_1:1
Chap. Son_1:1
1. The song of songs, which is Solomon’s] For the superscription, which probably comes from a later hand than that of the author, see Introduction, § 1, p. ix.
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Chap. Son_1:2-8. In the King’s Household
The first scene from the life of the heroine called the Shulammite is contained in these verses. She has been brought by the king’s command into his chambers (Son_1:4). The scene is consequently in some royal residence, probably at Jerusalem, and we have present, the Shulammite, the Jerusalem ladies of the court, and perhaps also Solomon. The ladies of the court sing the praises of the king as the object of their love, and seek to rouse the Shulammite also to admiration of him (2, 3, 4b). She, rapt in dreams of her absent lover, pays no heed at first, but murmurs a wish that he might come and rescue her (4a). Then, becoming conscious of her surroundings, she turns to address the ladies of the court (5, 6). Again she falls to musing, and asks her shepherd lover where he may be found (7). The ladies answer ironically (8).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–17 Son_1:1 contains the title of the book: literally, A…
Son_1:1 contains the title of the book: literally, A song of the songs (Heb., Shîr hashîrîm), which to Solomon, i.e., of which Solomon is author. This has been understood as meaning “one of Solomon’s songs,” with allusion to the 1,005 songs (1Ki_4:32) which that monarch composed. But when in Hebrew a compound idea is to be expressed definitely, the article is prefixed to the word in the genitive. So here not merely “a song of songs” (comp. holy of holies), i.e., “a very excellent song,” but “The song of songs,” i.e., the most excellent or surpassing song. For the question of authorship and date of poem, see Excursus I.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16 The song of songs, which is Solomon"s. This is…
The song of songs, which is Solomon"s. This is certainly the title of the book which follows, although in our present Hebrew Bible it is the first verse of the book preceded by the shorter form, "The Song of Songs." The Septuagint has simply the title Asma , So that our English title in the Authorized Version, "The Song of Solomon," has no ancient authority. It is well altered in the Revised Version to "The Song of Songs." The word "song" (ryvi) does not necessarily convey the meaning. composed to be sung to music. If the performance of the words were chiefly in view, the word would have been rwOmwmi, carmen, "lyric poem," "hymn," or "ode." The Greek Asma asmatwn , and the Latin of the Vulgate, Canticum canticorum, accord with the Hebrew in representing the work as taking a high place either in the esteem of the Church or, on account of the subject, in the esteem of the writer. Luther expresses the same idea in the title he attaches to it, "Das Hohelied," that is, the chief or finest of songs. The reference may be to the excellence of the literary form, but probably that which suggested the title was the supreme beauty of the love which prompted the songs. The title may be regarded as applied to the whole book, or to the first portion of it giving the name to the whole. If it be a collection of separate songs strung together, as some think) by mere resemblance in style and subject, then the words, "which is Solomon"s" (rva wOm l apply to the first song alone. But the unity which is clearly to be traced through the book to the end makes it probable that the title is meant to ascribe the work to the authorship of Solomon. This is the opinion of the majority of critics. It must have come either from the wise king himself, or from some one of his contemporaries or immediate successors. The preposition is the lamedh auctoris. If the meaning were "referring to," another preposition (l) would have been employed. It has been remarked by Delitzsch that the absence of any description of Solomon as "King of Israel" or "son of David," as in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, confirms the view that Solomon himself was the sole author. Some have argued against the authenticity of the title on the ground that the longer form of the relative, rva, is used in it, whereas in the book itself the shorter form, v, is found, but no dependence, can be placed on that argument regarded by itself, for the same writer employs both forms, as e.g. Jeremiah, who uses the longer form in his prophecies and the shorter in Lamentations. The shorter form is, in fact, the elder, being Old Canaanitish or Phoenician, va, which is a lengthened form of v, and afterwards became rva. One writer, however Fleischer), holds that the relative pronoun as a substantive origin, and compares it with the Arabic ithe and the Assyrian asar, meaning "track" or "place," like the German welcher, which comes from wo. But whether this be so or not, it is certainly unsafe to date any book by the form found in it of the, relative pronoun. We know that in poetry the abbreviated form is common. It was probably a North Palestine provincialism, as we see in the Book of Kings. It became common in prose writings after the Captivity because of the degradation of Hebrew, but it was not unknown before that time either in prose or poetry. With regard to the exact description of the poetic form of the Song of Songs, the difference among critics is considerable, but the question is scarcely worth discussing. There undoubtedly is unity of conception in the songs which are brought together, but it cannot be of importance to prove that there is dramatic unity strictly speaking; there is no dramatic procedure, nor can we suppose that there is any ultimate aim at dramatic representation. But the Exposition which follows will suffice to show that there are facts of history in the background of the poem; if the suggestions of the language and scenery be followed, the facts are very beautiful and even romantic the love of the great king for one of his own subjects, a lovely northern maiden, whose simplicity and purity of character are a great attraction and lend much force to the religious sentiment of the song. 1Ki_5:12 we read that "the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him." That divinely inspired wisdom enabled him, notwithstanding his own personal errors, to idealize and sanctify the lovely episode of his life which lies at the foundation of his poem. And the Church of God in every age has appreciated, more or less widely, the inspiration, both of matter and of form, which breathed in it. We are told that Solomon composed one thousand and five songs; (1Ki_4:32) whether this is a part of that collection or not we cannot certainly say, but that it is a mere fasciculus , or collection of separate songs, strung together by their general erotic character, is what we cannot believe. No doubt, as Dr. Mason Good has observed, the Arabian poets were accustomed to arrange their poems in what they compared to a string of pearls, but we can scarcely carry such a fact into the Bible, and deal with sacred books as mere literary remains. There must be a deep religious meaning in such language, and it is in accordance with Eastern usage that amatory songs should be so employed. What the meaning is we must persistently ask, and however much has been wrongly said in the past, while we believe in the Divine authority of the Old Testament we must not renounce the endeavour to find the Song of Songs worthy of its title and its place.
Vers. 1-4. The prologue.
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I THE INSCRIPTION.
1. The title. We are told (1Ki_4:32) that the songs of Solomon were a thousand and five. This is the chief of all, the Song of Songs. It stands alone in the Old Testament. It is a pastoral drama of singular loveliness. It shows a delight in the beauties of nature such as we might look for in him who "spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall; of beasts also, and of fowl, and of creeping things." It exhibits a touching picture of early affection gradually ripening into the blessed love of wedlock that love which, when pure and unselfish, tends more than anything that is of this world to elevate and refine the soul. And it has a higher meaning. Holy men of widely different times have seen in it the spiritual Converse of the Church, or of the individual soul, with the heavenly Bridegroom. A famous Jewish rabbi, after saying that all the books of the Hagiographa are holy, describes the Song of Songs as a holy of holies; and a great Father of the Church says that in this book the perfected, who have the world beneath their feet, are joined to the embraces of the heavenly Bridegroom. Thus it combines all the elements which give a charm to poetry beauty of form and elevation of thought; a delicate appreciation of the attractions of external nature; a deep sense of the sweetness and power of the most universal, the most dominant, of human affections; and an uplook to higher things, an uplook from that love which is of God for such surely is the love of husband and wife (see Eph_5:25-28) to God who is love. Thus the title is abundantly justified. There are great difficulties here and there; but yet much of the Song of Songs has ever sounded to believing souls like far-off echoes of the new song which only the redeemed from the earth could. (Rev_14:3) There are few passages of Holy Scripture sweeter to the Christian heart than those thrice-repeated words, "My Beloved is mine, and I am his.
2. The authorship. "Which is Solomon"s." The Hebrew preposition may be translated "of" or "for." In the titles of Ps 72, and Ps 127 it is rendered in our Authorized Version "for Solomon," "of Solomon" standing in the margin. Ps 127, like the rest of the "songs of degrees," is almost certainly post-Exilic; and in Ps 72, the LXX translators are probably right in regarding Solomon as the subject, not the author, of the psalm. If the Song of Songs was written by Solomon himself, we have in it a most awful warning of the fickleness, the sinfulness, of the human heart. Solomon, who knew so well what is the sweetness of pure and holy love, was led astray by that sensual passion which usurps the name of love. Solomon, who was called Jedidiah, "the darling of the Lord," whom "the Lord loved", (2Sa_12:24) who himself "loved the Lord" (1Ki_3:3) that same Solomon "loved many strange women", (1Ki_11:1) and "when he was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods." "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall;" "Ye that love the Lord, see that ye hate the thing that is evil." The soul that would live in the love of Christ must hate, and reject with horror and loathing, the very smallest beginnings of that sin of impurity which separates a man from God utterly and with a tearful rapidity. If, on the other hand, it was written by some prophet or poet of Northern Palestine in Solomon"s time, we have an explanation of those peculiar words which some scholars regard as Aramaic, others as dialectic peculiarities of the Lebanon country; and we have a warning not to trust too much in human leaders. We must not put our trust in man, but only in God. When men, once honoured and esteemed, fall into sin, we cannot but be distressed; but we must not allow our faith to waver. God is the truth; he continueth faithful; we must trust in him. The internal evidence of the song itself points to a time anterior to the separation of the northern and southern kingdoms; this is not the place to discuss the arguments for a later origin.
3. The weaning. The song seems to rest on a historical basis; its many details, its geographical notices, its many references to circumstances of Solomon"s time, to its peace and prosperity (such a period of peace and prosperity as perhaps never occurred again during the chequered history of Israel), to its commerce, its magnificence, point to a groundwork of actual fact. It relates the love of the great king for some innocent country maiden a love that was returned, that for a time at least brought happiness to both, and seemed to refine and elevate the characters of both, as a pure love which leads to a blessed marriage ever does. But holy men of old were led by the Spirit to incorporate this beautiful narrative into the canon of Holy Scripture. That fact invests the song with another and a higher meaning. Jewish rabbis regarded it as a parable of the relations between God and Israel. Many of the Christian Fathers have seen in it the love that is between Christ and his Church; the longings of the Christian soul for the presence of the heavenly Bridegroom; the vicissitudes of the spiritual life; the blessed union of the bride, the Lamb"s wife, with the Lord of her redemption at the last. There are great difficulties in the spiritual interpretation of some passages; but when we consider the position of the song in the sacred book; when we remember that "every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness;" when we remember the great value which many of God"s saints have set upon this book, the great spiritual benefit which they have derived from it, we feel that it must be right to regard it as a parable of Divine love, to see under this earthly story a deep and holy heavenly meaning.
II THE FIRST SONG.
1. The bride"s longing for the beloved. The three verses (2-4) are often regarded as the song of a chorus of virgins, the companions of the bride; perhaps the mingling of the singular and plural pronouns seems rather to suggest that we have in this first song the voice of the bride herself blended with the strains of her virgin friends. The bride yearns for the embrace of love. In the pure love of Christian man and maid, the maiden long desired gives at last the full treasure of her love in answer to that love which had with earnest devotion sought for her affection. Ancient writers see in these words the longing of the Jewish Church for a closer union with God, for the fulfilment of the promise given through the prophet, (Hos_2:16) "In that day, saith the Lord, thou shalt call me Ishi "my Husband, and shalt call me no more Baali "my Lord." The Christian Church, the Christian soul, longs for the enjoyment of the Saviour"s love. We notice the abrupt beginning, "Let him kiss me." The bride is speaking of one well known, greatly loved. There is no need of exact description; the pronoun is enough; there is only One whose image is ever present to that loving heart. When the Christian, taught by the Holy Ghost, is learning, slowly and imperfectly (as, alas! it must be here), to fulfil the first of all the commandments, he will yearn above all things for that manifestation of himself which the Lord promises to them that love him. (Joh_14:21, Joh_14:23) The traitor"s kiss, treacherous as it was, shows that such a token of affection was usual in the intercourse between our Lord and his apostles. His love is unchanging, everlasting; still the Christian soul may say, "The Son of God loved me, and gave himself for me; still the soul longs for the sense of that blessed love; "the love of Jesus, what it is, none but his loved ones know." The woman that was a sinner kissed the Saviour"s feet. The kiss of peace was in apostolic times the token of the love which Christians had one towards another. The kiss of pure and holy love is a parable of the blessed love which is betwixt Christ and his Church. That love is better than wine. Now the bride speaks to the Lord. "Thy love," she says; she feels that he is coming in answer to the call of love. Earthly joys are poor indeed when compared with that joy which is in the Lord. St. Paul contrasts them in the Epistle to the Ephesians. (Eph_5:18, Eph_5:19) Excess in wine brings degradation, misery. The Christian soul needs not this spurious excitement; it has a source of joy higher beyond all comparison. It is filled with the Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit is joy joy which manifests itself in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
2. The response of the chorus. The attendant virgins assent. The love of the Bridegroom is better than wine, better than the fragrance of the sweetest of perfumes, sweeter than ointment poured forth which sheds its scent around. The odour of the precious ointment which Mary poured upon the Saviour"s head filled the house; the sweet odour of the name of Jesus fills the whole Church; it sheds its penetrating influence everywhere throughout the Church; "therefore," the chorus sings, "do the virgins love thee." The plural number seems to remind us that the love of Christ is personal, individual. The bride, the Lamb"s wife, is, indeed, the whole company of the elect. But the Lord"s love is not only general; it does not bless only the Church as a whole, an aggregate; he loves all and each; the whole Church and each separate Christian soul; therefore each separate Christian soul, all who take their lamps and go forth to meet the Bridegroom, rejoice in the Bridegroom"s love, and desire above all things to return it. "We love him, because he first loved us.
3. The blended voices of the chorus and the bride.
(1) The request: "Draw me, we will run after thee." The bride is listening for the bridegroom"s call; she is ready to answer. Her virgin companions join in assenting chorus; they will accompany her. The Christian soul longs for the fulfilment of the Divine Word, "I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love"; (Hos_11:4) it pleads that gracious promise, "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." "Break up the heavens, O Lord! and far, Thro" all yon starlight keen, Draw me, thy bride, a glittering star, In raiment white and clean.
It seems too much to ask; none feel their unworthiness, their guilt, so keenly as those whom the Lord is calling nearer to himself. But faith hears his voice and believes in his power. If only he will draw us, we shall run after him. Love is the magnet of love. When God deigns to shine into his people"s hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, when the blessed word, "We have seen the Lord," is realized in the heart, then the soul runneth in ever-deepening desire to respond to that condescending love. None can come to Christ, we know, "except the Father who hath sent me draw him"; (Joh_6:44) therefore that prayer, "Draw me, we will run after thee," is often in the Christian"s heart, often pleaded by the Christian"s lips. We are weak and helpless; but when he draws us with that holy invitation, "Come unto me," we must arise, we must run after him. To look back is ruin. "Remember Lot"s wife." And his call giveth strength to follow, to run after him. So St. Augustine says in well known words ("Conf.," 9:1), "How sweet did it at once become to me to want the sweetnesses of those toys; and what I feared to be parted from, was now a joy to part with! For thou didst cast them forth from me, thou true and highest Sweetness. Thou castedst them forth, and for them enteredst in thyself, sweeter than all pleasures, though not to flesh and blood; brighter than all light, but more hidden than all depths; higher than all honour, but not to the high in their own conceits.
(2) The answer. The prayer is heard; we hear the voice of the bride: "The King hath brought me into his chambers." Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for her, that he might present her to himself a glorious Church. The chorus answers, "We will be glad and rejoice in thee." Individual believers make up the great Church of Christ. Once we were afar off; now we are brought near; we are "fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God." In proportion as we realize our Christian privileges of access unto God we learn to rejoice in the Lord. The fruit of the Spirit is joy; that joy passes all earthly pleasures. Believers will remember the tokens of the Saviour"s love, dwelling on them in holy thought; they will leave no place in their hearts for sensual delights; they will love the Lord in uprightness, in sincerity, and truth.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY Ver. 1. "The Song of Songs, which is Solomon"s.
What does this mean?
I AS TO THE TITLE? "The Song of Songs." It affirms that this song is the most excellent of all songs, the incomparably beautiful song, a song beside which, as one writer says, "all others hide their heads.
II AS TO THE NAME AFFIXED TO IT? Not that Solomon was the author. For the very title would convict him of egregious vanity. A writer would hardly thus speak of his own productions. But it would be quite lawful that another should so speak; hence the poem might be Solomon"s and the title be added on by another writer. But even then we question his authorship of this song. For:
1. If we take the literal interpretation of it, as well nigh all modern competent Bible scholars do, in greater or less degree (cf. Ginsburg, Ewald, Maurer, Stanley, "Speaker"s Commentary," Hartwell Horne"s "Introduction," etc.), then, since it represents Solomon as foiled and frustrated in his endeavours to persuade the maiden Shulamith, whose constancy and fidelity the poem celebrates, to become his bride, it is hardly likely that he would depict himself in such an unlovely light, or in such undignified guise as that in which, in this song, he certainly appears. Or, if we take the most ancient and most common interpretation of the song, the spiritual and allegorical, which affirms that the bride though there is no bride in the song at all, but only one who is betrothed represents the Church; and that Solomon, whom this interpretation identifies with "the beloved," is a type of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that the poem is intended to set forth the mutual love of Christ and his Church; then we say that Solomon is in no sense a fit type of the Lord Jesus Christ, for he was not a man after God"s own heart, but very far from it. Moreover, he was not the man to write a spiritual poem of such exalted character. They were holy men of old" whom the Spirit inspired. But, certainly, Solomon can lay no claim to that character. Then:
2. David and Solomon are both spoken of in such manner as would hardly be likely if Solomon were the writer. (Cf. Son_3:9, 11 8:11, 12) It is the manner of one speaking of them, telling facts concerning them; but it is not as they would. speak themselves.
3. And even if the words, "which is Solomon"s," be held to mean that he was the author, such ascription need have no more value than the titles of many of the psalms, which are allowed to be of no authority.
4. But we read the words as concerning Solomon. " True, the poem literally understood has nothing to say in his favour; for what was there to say? But if he be a type at all, and we think he is, it is of that greedy, selfish, soul-corrupting world, which would draw away the faithful from the pure love of God, and seek to replace that pure love by its own. Shulamith loved and was beloved. Solomon tried by all manner of enticements to draw her from that love. But he utterly fails. So that the poem is a parable of the faithful soul and its constancy to its true Lord. By means of a beautiful earthly story, the yet more beautiful fidelity of the soul truly affianced to God is set forth a fidelity tried so as by fire, and therefore more precious than all gold, (cf. 1Pe_1:6, 1Pe_1:7) which might be taken as a text for the interpretation of very much in this book. It was written, probably, near the age of Solomon, but we think subsequently; and by some Israelite belonging to the northern tribes; and from the absence of all praise of Solomon, and the conduct it ascribes to him, the writer was probably hostile to him, perhaps one of those who in Rehoboam"s day raised the cry of "To your tents, O Israel!" and broke away from the kingdom of Judah altogether. The poem is sensuous, but not sensual, unless it be where Solomon is to be understood as speaking, when such speech would be in character. It is Oriental, of course, and not to be interpreted by those far different canons of taste which prevail in our more Northern and Western lands. And it is not a mere story of a maiden"s constancy. Were it so, however beautiful (and for remarks on its beauty cf. Isaac Taylor"s "Spirit of the Hebrew Poetry"), still it would not, we think, have found a place amongst the sacred writings. We hold it to be an allegory or parable of the souls true love to God, and, so read, it is like the rest of Holy Scripture, "profitable for doctrine, for reproof," etc. He who has no love of God in his heart, or even little, will never understand it, and had better leave it alone. But to the pure, devout, and Christ-loving heart the vision of him who is for them the "altogether lovely" is seen everywhere in it, and delighted in wherever seen. That vision may we see! S.C.
HOMILIES BY J.D. DAVIES Vers. 1-4. The Bridegroom and the bride.
Love"s native language is poetry. When strong and happy feeling dominates the soul, it soon bursts into a song. As young life in a fruit tree breaks out into leaf and blossom, so the spiritual force of love unfolds in metaphor and music. Among the lyrics composed by King David, those which celebrate the Messiah-Prince have the richest glory of fervour, blossom most into Oriental imagery; and inasmuch as Solomon inherited somewhat the poetic genius of his father, it was natural that he should pour out in mystic song the heart throb of a nation"s hopes. The deep and inseparable union between Christ and his saints is by no one set forth so clearly as by Jesus the Christ; hence love is strong and tender, because love"s Object is noble, winsome, kingly, Divine.
I THE BRIDEGROOM"S CHARMS.
1. The love of Christ is incomparably precious. "Thy love is better than wine." All true love is precious a sacred thing, a mighty force. The love of Jesus is absolutely perfect, without any admixture of alloy. Love is the mightiest force in the universe, a magnet whose attractive power reaches from the throne of God to the very gates of hell. And love is as precious as it is potent. It makes a desert into a paradise; changes base metal into gold; transforms foul rebels into loving sons. It is a banquet for the heart; a perpetual feast; a fountain of purest joy. What the rarest wine is for a fainting body, that the love of Jesus is to a burdened soul.
2. The love of Christ is diffusive. It is as "unguent poured forth." The love of God"s Son existed long before it was manifested. That love is seen in all the arrangements of creation. That love is unfolded in all the methods of daily providence. "By him all things consist." That love is shed abroad in the believer"s heart "by the Holy Ghost." As the flowers in our gardens pour out their essential life in their sweet fragrance, so the love of Christ is Christ"s life poured out for us. All the love which angels cherish is Christ"s love diffused. He is the "Firstborn of the creation of God." All the parental love that has ever glowed on the altar of human hearts is the love of Christ diffused. All practical benevolence for the well being of mankind is the outflow of Immanuel"s love. The love that constrains me to compassionate deeds and to intercessory prayers is the love of Christ diffused. Discovering the heavenly savour inspires our hearts with joy. Heaven is knit with silken cords to earth.
3. The love of Christ is condescending and gracious. "The King hath brought me into his chambers." Had we been told that God admitted into his presence chamber the unsinning angels, we should not have been so profoundly moved. They are meet for his service. But to admit the base and degenerate sons of men into his intimate friendship, this reflects a singular glory upon his kindness; this is a miracle of love. By such familiar intercourse he trains us in kingly conduct, communicates to us Divine wisdom, moulds us into his own image. Beyond this deed of grace not even God can go. As there was no depth of humiliation to which he was not willing to stoop for sinners, so there is no height of excellence from which he would exclude us. Such love no human thought can measure. It is higher than heaven: how shall we scale it? It is deeper than hell: how shall we fathom it?
II THE BRIDE"S RESPONSE.
1. Her love originates in the high renown of his love. Thy Name is as ointment poured forth." So long as this strong force of love was confined within the heart of Christ, no human soul could suspect its existence. On what ground could any dweller on earth conjecture or imagine that he was the object of Immanuel"s love? That love must be unfolded, declared, made clearly known. And this is what Jesus has done. Not content with warm protestations of his affection, he has stooped to perform impressive deeds of kindness yea, prodigies of compassion. All the romantic stories of heroic love Jesus has immeasurably surpassed. His renown is sung in all the courts of the heavenly palace. He has made for himself a "Name above every name," human or angelic... This high reputation warrants our approach, our admiration, our trust, our responsive love. "We love him, because he has first loved us.
2. Our love craves a closer fellowship with his Person. "Draw me!" We have made such discoveries of excellence in our Immanuel that we long for larger acquaintance. To us he is a vast mine of spiritual wealth, and the deeper we go the rarer jewels do we find. His charms seem infinite, and no fear troubles us that we shall exhaust them. We are troubled that our own love is so inadequate, so unworthy; hence we desire a closer approach, that his spiritual beauty may.quicken our languid affection. Feeling the magnetic power of his love, we too may be magnetized. We cannot command, by a mere volition or a mere resolve, that our love shall flow out. So the only way to intensify our love is by coming into fuller contact with his. Only life can generate life, and only the love of Christ can stir into activity the principle of true love in us. Therefore we pray, "Draw us into nearer fellowship, into more vital union!
3. Our love desires a prompt obedience. "We will run after thee." We love to walk in his footsteps, and when we discover where his haunts lie, we run to seek him there. So sincere is our love, that we long to do his will promptly and heartily. We wish to hear every whisper of his commands. We deprecate that anything on our part should chase the smiles from his face. We long that his thoughts may be our thoughts, his dispositions our dispositions, his purposes our purposes; so that between Christ and us there may be perfect concord. As said Ruth to Naomi, so say we, "Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou dwellest, I will dwell." We can do without food, we can do without friends, we can do without health, but we cannot do without Christ. Wrote Samuel Rutherford to a friend, "If hell fire stood between you and Christ, you would press through in order to reach him." All service is delight when the feet are winged by love.
4. Love brings us into the best society. "The upright love thee." The love that draws the best men near to Christ likewise draws them near each other. As the spokes of a wheel get near to the hub they get into closer proximity to each other. The more love we give out the more substantial good we get. The friendship of the pious is a precious treasure; their wisdom enlightens, their piety stimulates, their love enkindles, ours. In their society we are elevated and gladdened. The story of their experience inspires us for new endeavour; their triumphs awaken our most sacred ambitions. With Moses, we learn meekness; with Elijah, we learn how to pray; with Job, we learn endurance; with Martin Luther, we learn courage. The society of saints throws into the shade the society of sages or of kings.
5. Love treasures up the recollection of past favours. "We will remember thy love more than wine." What Jesus Christ has done for us in the past he will do again. Since his love is infinite, he has not exhausted his love tokens in the past; he has more costly things yet to give, richer dainties yet to place on his banquet table. Still, there are times when we cannot realize a present Saviour, when the conscious possession of his love is suspended, and at such times it is a cordial to our spirits to bring out the memorials and tokens of past affection. Our memory is a vast chamber, hung round with ten thousand mementoes of Immanuel"s love. Thus, in a dark hour of depression, King David sang, "Yet will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the hill Mizar." In winter"s dark days we will feast upon the fruits of well remembered summer.
6. Love creates the purest joy. "We will be glad and rejoice in thee." Joy arises when a felt want is satisfied; but so long as we are sensible of needs and cravings for which no supply is at hand we are miserable. A thirsty man upon a scorching desert, leagues removed from any well, is a stranger to gladness. The misery of lost spirits, doubtless, arises from passionate cravings for which there is no supply. On the other hand, when we can feel that Christ is ours ours in bonds which nothing can sever we feel that every want is met, every ambition is realized, every aspiration fulfilled. "Then shall I be satisfied, when I awake, in thy likeness." Therefore, although outward surroundings may tend to depress, we can always find in the fulness of Christ sources of hope and joy. "With him is the fountain of life. D.
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON Ver. 1. Holy lyrics.
There are many songs in Old Testament Scripture the song of deliverance from the Red Sea (Exodus 15); the song of the well; (Num_21:17, Num_21:18) the song of Moses; (De 32) the song of Deborah; (Jud_1:5) the song (pre-eminently such) of David, in Ps 18; and the song of Isaiah (5). But this of Solomon is described as the Song of Songs, i.e. of all the most excellent, as it is the richest in imagery, the intensest in feeling, the most complete in poetic form. Although there is something dramatic in the structure of this poem, inasmuch as several speakers are introduced, uttering varying moods of feeling, still the poem is mainly lyrical, inasmuch as its spirit is prevailingly sentiment. Song expresses
I FEELING GENERALLY; AND FEELING OCCUPIES A PREEMINENT PLACE IN RELIGIOUS LIFE. True religion has its root in knowledge and belief; a God not known cannot be truly worshipped, a religion not understood cannot be acceptably practised. Yet religion is not merely an exercise, a possession, of the intellect. Our strongest convictions are naturally accompanied by our deepest emotions. The measure of feeling will, indeed, vary with individual temperament, but a religion with no sentiment is mechanical and unlovely. Now, it is in accordance with human nature that feeling should break forth into song. Cheerfulness finds utterance as in the carol of the lark, and melancholy as in the plaintive warble of the nightingale. The Bible without the Canticles would not correspond with the whole constitution of man. "The Church delights to raise Psalms and hymns and songs of praise.
The words of inspiration, exact or paraphrased and adapted, have ever given shape and form and utterance to the profoundest emotions of God"s worshippers.
II LOVE, WHICH IS THE CHARACTERISTIC ELEMENT OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE. Human love is the copy, always faint and imperfect, yet not illusive, of love Divine. The love of the Hebrew king and his mountain bride figures forth, as does all true wedded affection the love which exists between the Eternal and his intelligent creatures, between the Church and the adorable Bridegroom who deigns to address her as his spouse. The language of the Canticles has often seemed to cold natures extravagant, and so unreal. "Love"s language is a foreign language to those who do not love." We have the foundation of the Song of Songs laid in the forty-fifth psalm the "song of love." Christianity is admitted to have introduced into religion an element of deeper personal feeling than was known before. The love of Christ is declared to "pass knowledge;" and love which passes knowledge, which cannot express itself in propositions, must pour itself forth in song. The nuptials of the soul, of the Church, with Christ, demand a poetic epithalamium. How thoroughly in place, so regarded, seems the "Song of Songs"!
III JOY, WHICH SPRINGS FROM LOVE FELT AND RETURNED. The history of love is not always one of uninterrupted prosperity and gladness. "Our sweetest songs are those which tell of saddest thought." And even in the Canticles we have varying moods; shadows lie upon the land for a season as clouds obscure the face of heaven. Yet the main current of feeling throughout this book is a current of gladness; the music is of the nature of a carol of spontaneous sweetness, a chorale of triumphant delight. The king and the bride alternately give utterance to their joyful emotions, for heart finds heart. So with the relations with the redeeming Lord and those whom he has saved. God rejoices over that which was lost but is found; and man rejoices in the great salvation. It is thus that the lyrics, though sacred, are glad, breathing a "joy unspeakable and full of glory. T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14 The Song of Songs, which is Solomons.
Son_1:1
The Song of Songs, which is Solomons.
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The Song of Solomon
The Song of Songs is Solomons, as composed by the wisest of men, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and Solomons also as composed concerning the true Solomon the Prince of Peace, of whom the son of David was an eminent type. It belongs to the earthly Solomon, as the skilful work of his hands; to the heavenly Solomon, as the utterance of his heart to the Church, and of the heart of the Church towards him. (A. Moody Stuart.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Song of Solomon 1:1 thru 5:1
TRUE LOVE TESTED
Song of Solomon 1:1 thru 5:1
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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.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 7, 9, 12, 15 Son_1:1 : The Song of Songs which is Solomon’s.…
Notes
Son_1:1 : The Song of Songs which is Solomon’s. ‘The Song of Songs,’ שִׁיר הַשִּׁירִים (shir hashshirim). שִׁיר (shir), a song or poem, as opposed to prose: but distinguished from מִזְמור (mizmor), a song with musical accompaniment, a psalm. EWALD, ZOCKLER in LANGE. According to some, a series. KLEUK. AUGUSTI. שירה in its original acceptation, a string or chain; Arab poets speaking of stringing their verses as pearls. GOOD. ‘Song of Songs,’ a Hebrew reduplication denoting excellency. An instance of the Hebrew superlative, like Eze_16:7; Dan_9:24; the finest or most beautiful of songs, the comparison however probably not with other poetry of Solomon. NOYES. Not, as GESENIUS, a song consisting of many songs. Nor, as KIMCHI and others, a song out of many Songs of Solomon. The High Song (das Hohelied). LUTHER. The excellent song. GENEVA BIBLE. Indicates emphatically the most excellent of its kind. EWALD. The noblest and sweetest song. SANCTIUS. The most excellent song, and made up many songs; or, comprehending all the songs, not only of Solomon but of the Prophets: the sum, kernel, and marrow of all sacred songs. COCCEIUS, MERCER. The most beautiful song. DE WETTE. A song consisting of many songs, or excelling other songs; indicating also the unity of its contents. DE-LITZSCH. So called either from the excellence of the composition or the subject. LOWTH. Most excellent song of all in the sacred books; in elegance of structure, fulness of mystery, and sublimity of meaning. CARPZOV. Most important, excellent and precious of songs; reference to the subject of it; to prophets and apostles, a reservoir of the treasures of Divine love existing between the Creator and His saved and sanctified creatures; the title claimed not by Solomon, but by the Holy Spirit. WEISS. Other songs celebrate the King’s victory and the deliverance wrought for His Church; this His marriage with her and His love to the Bride. THEODORET. Ten songs have been sung; but this excels them all. TARGUM. The song which is above all songs. RASHI. All the Scriptures are holy; the Song of songs, the Holy of holies. AKIBA. All the songs of Scripture are the Holy place; the Song of songs, the most holy. R. JOSHUA.
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‘Which is Solomon’s’ (אֲשָׁר לִשְׁלֹמֹה asher li-Shelomoh). The relative probably not, as GESENIUS thinks, added here on account of the article in הַשִּׁירַים as if—‘the songs which are Solomon’s. The antecedent either שִׁיר or הַשִׁירִים; most likely שִׁיר, הַשִׁירִים being added as a Hebrew form of the superlative. EWALD, HITZIG, BLEEK. So the SEPTUAGINT, ὅ ἑστι, ‘which is.’ לִשְׁלֹמֹה to or of Solomon.’ שְׁלֹמֹה (Shelomo) from שָׁלם (shalom) peace, with the termination הֹ or וֹ, identical with וֹן, and forming the concrete from the abstract. Meaning alluded to in 1Ch_22:2. GESENIUS. DAVIDSON fancifully suggests הֹ as the representative of הוּא ‘he’; as if, ‘He is the peace’ like Mic_5:5 and Eph_2:14. The ALEX. SEPTUAGINT has—to, for, or of Solomon (τῷ Σ.). The VULGATE: Solomon’s. As referring to Solomon or ascribed to him. VATABLUS. Both by and concerning Solomon, i.e., Christ. COCCEIUS. Solomon as a type of Christ, both the author and the subject. AINSWORTH. Words so contrived as to mean either. PATRICK. Concerning Solomon, that is, the Messiah. MIDRASH. לְ not used here merely to indicate the authorship: = ‘devoted or delivered to;’ as Psa_7:2; Jer_15:2; 1Ch_29:2. WEISS. Of Solomon as the author. MERCER, &c. As the author inspired by the Holy Ghost. CARPZOV. Belonging to Solomon, and so placed among the sacred books. ABEN EZRA. Solomon as the author: Amplifies what David his father had begun in the 45th and 68th Psalms: the Bridegroom in the song called Solomon, either from the dignity of the name (Peaceful), or as suiting the circumstances, or because Solomon was a type of Christ, which was probably known to Solomon himself. SANCTIUS. According to EWALD, the title ascribes the poem to Solomon, but was given at a later period, probably after the exile. DELITZSCH: Indicates unity of authorship. ZÖCKLER: Which is by Solomon. His title of ‘King,’ assumed in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, here laid aside in contemplating the celestial person of whom he speaks. PATRICK. Also, lest Solomon should be thought the King here intended, the book being a ‘Song of Loves.’ GILL. Concerning Solomon: hence not a book of King Solomon’s, but of some other inspired author. HARMER. Concerning Solomon—the true Solomon, the Lord Jesus Christ; no reference being made to King Solomon in any part of the book. HAWKER. Solomon the inspired author, yet not speaking in his own person. FRY.
THE SONG OF SOLOMON
Title of the Book
CHAPTER 1. Son_1:1
“The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s.”
It is well, with Dr. Chalmers, to begin the study of this sacred book with the prayer: “My God, spiritualize my affections; give me intense love to Christ.”
Two parts in the Title of the book as here given:—
1. Its name and character—“the Song of Songs.”
2. Its ascription—“which is Solomon’s.” The First part of the Title,
“The Song of Songs,”
Indicates—
I. The NATURE of the Book. A Song. Hence—
1. Pleasant and joyous. Song the language of joy. Indicates joy in those who sing, and aims at awakening joy in those who hear. This one of the ‘songs in the night’ given by our Maker and Saviour (Job_35:10). The Holy Spirit the author of joy, and therefore the author of songs. This book all the more attractive from its being a song. Both old and young love songs, and are attracted by them. The subject of this book of a pleasing nature, and fit to be treated in a song. Marriage a joyful event, celebrated with festivity and music. The subject of this song a Divine and heavenly union. The song a spiritual Epithalamium, or Nuptial Ode. A song of the bride-chamber (Mat_9:15). A Gospel song, and one for Gospel times; the whole subject being the love of Jesus Christ to sinners and the salvation He brings to them. Gospel grace puts a new song in the mouth (Psa_40:3; Psa_98:1). The Gospel began with songs and ends with them. This book one of the ‘spiritual songs,’ in which believers are to ‘speak one to another’ (Eph_5:19; Col_3:16). A large part of the Bible taken up with songs. The Word of God intended to be attractive. The Lord’s ransomed ones to ‘return and come to Zion with songs’ (Isa_35:10).
2. Profitable. A song, like poetry in general, fitted to stir and move the affections. Songs found to have the most powerful influence on the minds and morals of a people. “Give me the making of the songs and ballads of a nation, and I will leave the laws to others.” By the Jews the poetical parts of Scripture were especially esteemed, and often learned by heart.
II. Its EXCELLENCE. A ‘Song of songs A Hebrew expression denoting excellence as king of kings, heaven of heavens, &c. This not only excels all human, but all Divine songs. The Jews called other Scripture songs ‘holy,’ but this the ‘holy of holies.” The book worthy of this title on account of—
1. Its Character at a Composition. The most “beautiful example of Hebrew poetry in its highest style of metaphor and arrangement.” More especially, however, on account of—
2. Its Subject. The bridal relation between the Son of God and His saved people. Christ’s excellence and beauty, and His love to the Church as His bride. The Church’s excellence and beauty as a reflection of His, and her happiness and honour in consequence of her bridal relation to Him. This song has the Holy Ghost for its author; the union and communion between Christ and believers for its matter; and the glory of God and the comfort of His people for its end. Here are prophecy, history, and the spiritual life, divinely woven into one symbolical robe of matchless beauty. The song a many-sided mirror reflecting the Lord’s dealings with His Church, viewed both collectively and individually, as well in the Old Testament as in the New. Reveals mysteries of Divine love into which the angels desire to look. This book, next to the Gospels, the fullest of Christ, and therefore the sweetest to the Christian who is enlightened enough to understand it. A fountain at which prophets and apostles and the Lord Jesus Himself refreshed their spirits. Next to David’s Psalms, the favourite book of the Bible with the Fathers of the Church. Its foundation laid in the Psalms; especially in that gem of Psalms, the forty-fifth. David sung the Bridegroom’s future appearing, His conflicts, his sorrows, and his triumphs: Solomon sung His alliance and fellowship with His blood-bought bride. The song a labyrinth of exquisite flowers transplanted from heaven to earth. Wafts a perfumed breath of celestial spring from paradise to this world. The song “a maze of sweets, and a lovely obscurity.” A heaven-given riddle in connection with the marriage of the Lamb, the true Samson; and only to be ploughed with His own heifer. Requires ‘the mind that hath,’ not earthly but, heavenly ‘wisdom.’ A mine of precious diamonds, demanding patient and prayerful labour and the Spirit’s light to explore it and discover them.
The Second part of the Title—
“Which is Solomon’s,”
Ambiguous. Probably indicates—
I. The AUTHOR of the Book. The literal Solomon, King of Israel and wisest of men. Best proof of wisdom, to celebrate the love of God is Christ, and to stir up ourselves and others to love Him in return. Gradation in Solomon’s writings: the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, or the Song. In proverbs, Solomon sings of moral virtues and their benefits; in Ecclesiastes, of the vanity of earthly things; in Canticles, of Divine love and fellowship. Canticles a striking contrast to Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes, a mournful complaint of the disappointment found in the creature; Canticles a joyous song of the infinite satisfaction found in the Creator. Ecclesiastes points to earthly pleasure, and says: ‘Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again’; Canticles points to God as revealed in Jesus Christ, and says: ‘Whosoever drinketh of this water shall never thirst.’—Solomon, with his hands full of state affairs, yet found time for spiritual meditation and the celebration of Divine love. Worldly business, and diligence in it, no hindrance to love to Christ, and due concern for the spiritual interests of ourselves and others.
II. The SUBJECT of the Book. The spiritual Solomon, the true Prince of Peace and King of Israel,—Solomon’s great antitype. The true Solomon and his love to the Church the great subject of the Song. Solomon exhibited in the Bible as one of the types of the Messiah. Is so—
1. In his Names: ‘Jedidiah,’ Beloved of the Lord: ‘Solomon.’ the Peaceful.
2. In his Wisdom.
3. In his Riches and Magnificence.
4. In the wide extent of his Dominions.
5. In the peaceful character of his Reign.
6. In the prosperous and happy condition of his Kingdom.
7. In the erection of the Temple of God at Jerusalem.
Christ prefigured by Aaron as a priest; by Moses as a prophet; by David and Solomon as a King,—by the one in his conquests and by the other in his peaceful enjoyment of them. Solomon not called here, as in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, the King of Israel. His personality here lost sight of in his typical character. The type overshadowed by the antitype. Christ, in one aspect or another, the central figure in all the Books of Scripture. “Search the Scriptures; for they testify of Me.” This said even of Old Testament Scripture. “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” “He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Joh_5:39; Rev_19:10; Luk_24:27). The Scriptures all testify of Jesus. The Song testifies of Him as the King and Bridegroom of His Church, stooping to win and wed poor fallen humanity for His Bride. By the Jews, the Song understood of their Divine King to be manifested in the Messiah, and the Israelitish nation as the Bride whom He was pleased to espouse to Himself.
III. The DESIGN of the Book. For the true Solomon.
1. For his Glory. The glory of Christ, and of God in Him, the end of all Scripture as of all creation (Col_1:16). Especially true of this portion of it, so full of Himself, of His excellencies, His joys, and His love.
2. For hit Use. All Old Testament intended for his use as the perfect man (Psa_1:1-3; 2Ti_3:15-16). Probably this portion of it especially, which speaks most about him. Reason to believe that the Psalms of David and the Song of Solomon formed the principal devotional books of our Lord (Davidson). As a child, Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature. In both respects, doubtless, through ordinary means. The sincere milk of the Word his daily food. What was designed for the Head, designed also for the members. What was used by the man Christ Jesus as His spiritual aliment and refreshment, to be used also by ourselves for ours. The Rabbinical rule that this Book was only to be read by those who had reached their thirtieth year, a mere human invention,—like others, rejected by Christ and to be rejected by us. 2Ti_3:15-16, and Rom_15:4 clean against any such limitation. This Book, like the rest of Scripture, to be read with seriousness and expounded with discretion; but no argument against reading and preaching from it in the fact that evil men may abuse it. Ignorant men wrest also other Scriptures to their own destruction. “To the pure all things are pure.” The holiest and most spiritually-minded have naturally delighted most in this Book, in which they find most of their Beloved and their Friend. Witness Bernard of Clairvoix, Samuel Rutherford, and Robert McCheyne. In Scotland’s best times, the song of Solomon the chosen field of meditation at Sacramental seasons.
Two things needful for the profitable reading of this remarkable book:—
(1) A Christian experience. The song a mirror of the believer’s heart. Only taught by a Divine anointing, and only learned by a spiritual experience” (Bernard). Only to be properly understood by our becoming part of the Bride whose experience it portrays.
(2) A loving heart. Like the forty-fifth Psalm, which it greatly resembles, the Song of Solomon a ‘Song of loves’ (Psalms 45 title). The mystery of the song a mystery of love. Words of earthly love employed to elevate the soul to a heavenly one. A ‘song of loves’ requires a loving heart to understand, realize, and appreciate it. “Love’s language a foreign tongue to one who does not love.” Hence the song of Solomon pre-eminently a test for the state of the heart.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Song of Solomon 1
Song of Solomon 1
I. Though written very possibly by Solomon with reference to the daughter of Pharaoh, this Song seems evidently to have had a deep symbolical meaning from the very beginning. All things in Scripture are for Christ’s sake from the beginning of the world. The forms which, floating by, cast their shadows on the elder world were shades of that greater Figure which was to absorb the attention of mankind and of the Church for ever and ever. Such is the power which underlies the Song of Solomon. The Church has ever in her days of earnestness and special devotion used the Song of Solomon. It has been the thermometer of her condition; when and where her energy and love were strong, then and there the Song of songs became the mode and form of her expression.
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II. The Song of Solomon is peculiarly suited to form a manual of devotion for those who, as penitents or saints, are seeking after Jesus, (1) Its images are the images natural to the earnest-minded. (2) Its expressions of penitence, humility, and self-condemnation make it beautifully fitted to the life of those who "mourn after a godly sort," and to become a manual of expression for the returning sinner. (3) The yearnings of love are among the most striking parts of the Song. The language is that of the deepest affection; and no expressions seem so natural a channel through which the stream of love may flow as those we find here. (4) The Song is typical of the acts of our Lord’s life. His passion and resurrection are unmistakably shadowed forth in it; so much so, that the natural illustration of the Song would be the scenes of the Gospel.
E. Monro, Practical Sermons, vol. iii., p. 355.
References: Son 1:2.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 92. Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 8; J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 5. Son 1:3.—J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 2nd series, p. 235; A. Fletcher, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 317.
Son 1:4
This passage is most appropriate in the mouth of the Church, considered as of Gentile origin, eager to be drawn after Christ; afraid of contempt from the people of Jerusalem, as being of another race, and anxiously inquiring of the Bridegroom where He keepeth His flock—ignorant, up to that moment, of God’s manner of dealing with His chosen.
I. The text brings us across the great mystery of God’s predestination. The cry of man to God is, "Draw me, and I will follow Thee." In the New Testament we have our blessed Lord declaring, "No man cometh unto Me, except the Father draw him." In some sense or other, predestination is the eternal truth of God. Wherever predestination is spoken of, it is a predestination which concerns, not our final salvation or condemnation, but simply our call to the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Thousands of years ago it was predestined that we should be blessed with the knowledge of Christ, but it was not predestined whether we should be saved thereby. What the Bible teaches is, that God has predestined some to a knowledge of the truth of Christ, and shut it up from others; not that He has predestined some to heaven and some to hell.
II. Consider these words as the utterance of the bride after her union with Christ. (1) The entire life of man is a period during which there is perpetually being exerted upon the soul a gentle violence, alluring, tempting it to follow the footsteps of Christ. The details of our existence are so planned as to lead us unto heaven. If we would surrender ourselves into God’s hands unreservedly, He would bring us safe to the eternal city. (2) The text implies that the course of the servant of God is one of constant progress and active advance. Christ is ever, as it were, moving onward; He leads us from one height of moral excellence to another.
Bishop Woodford, Occasional Sermons, vol. i., p. 178.
I. The spiritual life has three states through which all who attain to the love of Christ seem to pass; and these states are so marked that we may take them one by one. (1) I suppose that most can remember a time when we were drawn so strongly to the world that the drawing of Christ’s love and spirit was overbalanced by a more powerful attraction. Sin is sweet, and it draws steadily and smoothly, as the shoal water of a whirlpool, with an imperceptible and resistless attraction. One sin will overbear the meek and gentle drawing of Christ. It is not only the greater sin, or the worship of the world, which holds us back against the drawing of Christ, but the soft, pure happiness of home, the easy round of kindly offices, the calm and blameless toil of a literary life, the gentler and more peaceful influences of earthly cheerfulness;—all these, too, with the lights and shades, the anxieties and joys, which fall across an even path, steal away the heart, and wind all its affections about a thousand moorings. (2) Let us take the next state. It may be that by sorrow or chastisement, or by some other of His manifold strokes of love, it has pleased God to break or to relax these bonds, and to dispel the vain show in which they walked. The world draws them less, and the presence of Christ attracts them more. Such persons are in a balanced state, between two attractions, of which, if the one be weaker, it is the nearer and the more sensibly perceived. This condition is at times dreary and overcast, and cannot last long. It must incline one way or the other. (3) And this leads on into the third and last state, in which the balance is so turned against this world, that it can allure no longer; and the hope of God and His kingdom attracts alone. In some special way God is often pleased to break the bonds of this world, and to draw His servants once for all under the abiding attractions of the world to come. Perhaps nothing does this so surely as a realisation of death.
II. Let us suppose that God has, in love, broken your bonds asunder and drawn you unto Himself. How will you answer to this mercy? (1) It would be the plain will of God that you should strive with all your soul and strength to follow whither He is drawing you: that is, to prepare yourselves to dwell with Him for ever. (2) Give your whole heart and strength to perpetuate and perfect what you have learned to the very end of life.
H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. iii., p. 388.
There is one point on the very face of the text which it is important to notice. We may come to God collectively, but we are drawn to God each one individually. Draw me: we will run after Thee. Notice how this effectual drawing will begin to show itself in those who have been, indeed, the subjects of it.
I. Obedience to an impulse of God will be instant. A "drawing" never takes effect tomorrow. Real religion is always in the present tense. It is Abraham’s "Here am I!" It is Isaiah’s "Send me!" It is Christ’s "Lo, I come!"
II. A person who is under the drawing of God will be sure to begin to make conscience of little things. Things which were to him as nothing he will consider all-important, because they give him the opportunity of pleasing or displeasing God.
III. Another step—a very early step in the road—is a desire for the salvation of somebody else. Be very suspicious about your religion if you are not anxious about anybody’s soul.
IV. The man who is really drawn so loves the drawing that he always wants to be drawn more and more. He finds that it is so pleasant. He is always trying to get nearer. Therefore he is a man of much prayer—because he is nearer at such times. He wants oneness, closeness, and identity with Christ.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 8th series, p. 141.
References: Son 1:4.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 220; Ibid., Evening by Evening, pp. 1, 23; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. v., p. 196; J. Keble, Sermons from Ascension Day to Trinity Sunday, p. 34; J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 19.
Son 1:4-6
I. Note (1) what it is that the Church desires from Christ—what every pious soul must desire who would make prayer to Christ at all. "Draw me," allure me, bring my soul under the power of a love-captivity. (2) "And we will run after Thee." This seems to denote the alacrity with which, after experimental acquaintance with Christ and the power of His grace, we shall persevere in our Christian course. This speed comes of Christ’s drawing, and, as it is in material bodies, the velocity increases as we get nearer to the centre of the attracting influence. (3) Remark next the grounds on which the Church presumes to hope for these glorious manifestations of Christ’s love to her. A large suit should be endorsed by a strong plea, nor could we walk so boldly unless there had been first the extending towards us of the golden sceptre. "The King hath brought me into His chambers;" He hath recognised the rightfulness of my espousals; He hath initiated for me this covenant relation of protection and peace and mercy, and therefore by Him, by the King Himself, we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand.
II. "I am black, but comely." The words may be taken in reference to the triumphs and sorrows of earth. (1) The first reason assigned for the Church’s uncomely visage, for some of her dark spots and blemishes, is persecution. "The sun hath looked upon me." (2) Opposition, disagreement, strifes, and feuds, among her own children. (3) The winter of her own religious spirit, the fear of loss to her personal spiritual devotion on account of over-zeal to discharge faithfully a public trust. "They made me keeper of the vineyards, but mine own vineyard have I not kept."
D. Moore, Penny Pulpit, No. 3512.
Son 1:5
The whole volume of spiritual truth lies rolled up in these few words. You might expand them into both the Testaments. Penitence and faith—all the heart knows of itself and all it knows of Jesus—nature and grace—condemnation and peace. God’s great method with man in His everlasting covenant—it is all here, "Black, but comely." The contrast matches with the experience of every child of God; the contradiction lies in the double being of a renewed man; the solution of the paradox is the gospel of Christ.
I. What is "blackness?" Properly, it is no colour at all. It is that which reflects no tint of all the sun’s prismatic rays. It is not one of the hues of the rainbow. It is the absence of colour. It is a simple negative. Remember, this is blackness,—a negative life. The absence of love and energy, and work for Christ is the great crime in God’s calendar. Nothing more was wanted to place those who were on the left hand on the day of judgment. You are black, because heaven does not reflect itself in you. It is your colourless life.
II. How can the black be comely? There must be something introduced from without. There must be a new nature. David expressed it all in those few words, "Blessed is the man whose sin is covered." It is the covering which is the comeliness. Jesus lived to make a man’s righteousness which He could give to a man. When a man puts it on, it not only hides all that is underneath it, but it decks that man in more than celestial loveliness. He wears a robe, which is woven of all the tissues of the holiness of Jesus—dipped in the dies of heaven—sparkling in all its splendours. This is the wedding garment which gives to our dull souls their festive sweetness.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 9th series, p. 45.
Son 1:5, Son 1:15; Son 5:16
I. Look first at the saint’s "I am." It is a sad one. "I am black—black as the tents of Kedar." Every saint is conscious of innumerable sins, blemishes, and imperfections. The more spiritually-minded the Christian is, the more conscious is he of his blackness; and the nearer a man lives to God, the more intense is his abhorrence of himself.
II. Listen next to Christ’s response: "Behold, thou art fair, My love; behold, thou art fair." This is not the language of exaggeration. Although the Lord loves His Church intensely He does not love it unreasonably; His love does not blind His eyes to His people’s defects. And yet He says, "Behold, thou art fair." Though He sees faults and failings in me, He does not see me in my faults and failings, but views me as I am in Himself. When He looks upon us, He sees His own loveliness, and His own righteousness, and so He may well say, "Thou art fair."
III. Lastly, you have the Church’s "He is." "Yea, he is altogether lovely." That Christ is altogether lovely is the united testimony of all saints in every age. In Him all the colours of beauty combine—all the harmonies that can be conceived blend in one ravishing strain. There is no one drawback in Him. He is lovely to my mind’s judgment; lovely to my heart’s affection; lovely to my will’s surrender; lovely in my memory’s treasure-house. He is all beauty, and beauty all round, and the Church gives this as her united testimony concerning Him.
A. G. Brown, Penny Pulpit, No. 1090.
Reference: Son 1:5.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 30.
Son 1:6
I. What is this complaint? "Mine own vineyard have I not kept." The spiritual nature of a godly man is here supposed to be likened to a vineyard. (1) It is a soil in which things are planted and sown. (2). It is a sphere affording full scope for exertion, vigilance and zeal. (3) Judicious labour secures profit and reward. (4) Neglect makes evil fertile and brings miserable barrenness of good.
II. Look at the cause and the occasion of the evil complained of. (1) The cause of self-neglect is not in the vineyard-keeping for others; it must be in the character of the individual concerned. We are all of us apt to charge our faults and failings upon God’s providence, or upon God’s arrangements. The cause may be: (a) False views of a state of salvation, and of our personal obligations; (b) Excess of zeal for the welfare of others; (c) False amiability and accessibility to others; (d) A strong taste for the excitement of caring for others, and the vanity which prefers the position of keeper of the vineyard to the quiet condition of attending to one’s own vineyard. (2) The occasion—"They made me." A great deal of religious and benevolent work is done evidently as unto man, and not as unto God. We neglect our own vineyards because others call us away, and we obey. We become engrossed. We become too ardent. We are keeping the vineyards of others, just, perhaps, that it may be said that we are keeping their vineyards, and that we may have the praise of the fruit of the vineyard, or that we may please those who are connected with the vineyard. The occasion of self-neglect is suggested in these words:—"They made me keeper of the vineyards."
S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit, 4th series, No. 14.
Not merely made keeper; you may be put into an office, yet fail to do its duties faithfully and well. But the suggestion here plainly is, that the vineyards of others were diligently kept, while by a fatality which might be thought unparalleled, if it were not one of the commonest of things, the vineyard at home was neglected.
I. Probably there are few who have reached middle age, and have incurred the responsibilities of domestic life, who can think of the text without some inward self-reproach. The matter is one of wide concern when we remember that every Sunday-school teacher, every visitor of the sick or the poor, every human being who is called to say a word of warning to an erring creature, or a word of encouragement to a weary one; every father and mother whose example and conversation and entire life, to its least detail, may affect the impressionable nature of their child; is called to keep the vineyard at home, if they would not have it scatter the slight seeds of mighty evil wide and far. We are all of us watched by far more eyes than we think of; and spiritual characteristics in us may reappear in those who have no intention of imitating us, but who insensibly fall into ways which they continually see.
II. The great lesson of the text is, care for your own soul; care for the souls of your children; care for the souls of your friends; care for the souls of all you know and do not know. Every vineyard under the wide skies, where you can pull up a weed or cast one good seed, the smallest—of that vineyard God has made you keeper.
So much the more diligently see that you keep your own; so much the more earnestly, as you would successfully mind the things of others, look to yourself. If we would do anything in this world, we with our little strength, we must begin with what lies to our hand; we must begin with the nearest. When things are right at home, we shall be abler to meddle with good result in things far away.
A. K. H. B., Towards the Sunset, p. 25.
References: Son 1:6.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii., No. 990; A. K. H. B., Sunday Magazine, 1881, p. 28; J. Vaughan, Children’s Sermons, 3rd series, p. 111. Son 1:7.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 40; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi., No. 338, and vol. xi., No. 636; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 34. Son 1:7, Son 1:8.—Ibid., vol. xix., No. 1115; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 247; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 324.
Son 1:8
I. Keep on familiar ground; do not stray away from the line of footsteps; be near where you can hear the pipe, or the flute, or the trumpet of the camp. Do not detach yourselves from the great company of the church, but wherever you are see that your method of communication is in good working order. This is not the exhortation of fear, it is the precept of sense, it is the dictate of reason, it is the calm, strong, solemn view of history and experience.
II. Loneliness has its perils in the religious life. When the devil gets a man absolutely alone, who will win? Not the man—in the vast proportion of cases. There was only one man that won in single fight, and that man was the Lord from heaven. The poor woman in the song had lost her loved one, and she was told that if she wanted to find him she would find him on accustomed beats and familiar paths. God leaves His footprints on the earth, and if we follow His footprints we shall find Himself.
III. Feed thy kids beside the shepherds’ tents. Then you will have communion. Christianity institutes a fellowship, a community of interest and spirit and purpose. We are the complement of one another. Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together; beware of the independence which is isolation; seek for communion, for music, for protection, for security, for all that comes of organised life, household delight, and trust; thus the enemy will never find you alone and at a disadvantage, but always surrounded by those who can recall the sweetest memories to your recollection, and enrich your hearts by reminders of the infinite promises of God, and thus a commonwealth shall be the basis of victory.
IV. Let us see that our footprints are all shaping towards home, that the foot is always set in the direction of home. Do not let us deceive and mislead anybody who may put their feet into our footprints under the impression that they are going home, when they are really going to their ruin.
Parker, Fountain, June 19th, 1879.
Son 1:9
It is thus that love multiplies itself by many images. Love sees the image of its dearest one everywhere, and claims it as its own. Look at the power of fancy, this creative and symbolising power, this power of reading the inner mysticism and ideality of things (1) as a joy, (2) as a danger, (3) as a responsibility.
I. A joy. In finding new symbols we find new pleasures, and in the inspiration of our love we turn all things visible to new and sacred uses. This is the joy of Christ Himself in the 13th chapter of the Gospel by Matthew. The object of His love was the kingdom of heaven, and day by day He compared it with new comparisons, and so gave His Church the treasure of His parables.
II. Not only is this power of fancy a keen and thrilling joy, but it is a positive and an immediate danger. The danger arises from the fact that we may consider our duty done when we have instituted a beautiful comparison. Our religion may perish in sentimental expressions; you may die in words. The danger is, that if we live the parabolical life we may never advance to Gethsemane and Golgotha. We may create a kind of artificial life, and thus miss the great utilities of our being. Not the heart that is swiftest and surest in the creation of symbols is always to be trusted in the hour of pain and distress.
III. A responsibility. We are to be transformed by the beauty that we admire. In comparing Christ with things beautiful, noble, grand, we are writing a heavy indictment against ourselves if we profess to be His followers, and do not rise to the grandeur of the occasion. As he who passes through a garden of roses brings with him part of the fragrance breathed from the beauteous flowers, so we who come forth from the fellowship of Christ are to show somewhat of the radiance of His countenance, and to speak somewhat with the eloquence of His accent.
Parker, Inner Life of Christ, vol. ii., p. 289.
References: Son 1:9.—Parker, Fountain, March 31st, 1881. Son 1:9-14.—D. Moore, Penny Pulpit, No. 3520. Son 1:12.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 49. Son 1:13.—Ibid., p. 58; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. x., No. 558. Son 1:16.—Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 143. Son 1:17.—Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 104. Son 2:1.—Ibid., Sermons, vol. xiii., No. 784; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 122; Ibid., My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 204. Son 2:2.—Ibid., Sermons, vol. xxvi., No. 1525. Son 2:3.—Ibid., vol. xix., No. 1120; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 238; J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 76. Son 2:3, Son 2:4.—F. Perry, Penny Pulpit, No. 388. Son 2:3, Son 2:5.—Expositor, 3rd series, vol. i., p. 160.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v2 The Ardent Affection of the Lovers
The Ardent Affection of the Lovers
2-7. Songs of the bride: her enquiry and his answers.
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2. Love] The original has 'loves,' i.e. expressions of love, repeated kisses and embraces.
3. Ointments] Orientals have always been passionately fond of perfumes. The literatures of Egypt, Greece, and Rome abound in references to them: in the Bible see Psa_23:5; Psa_45:7-8; Pro_7:17; Pro_27:9; Luk_7:46; Joh_12:3. A modern traveller writes: 'Arabs are delighted with perfumes; the nomad housewives make treasure of any they have, with their medicines; they often asked me, “Hast thou no perfumes to sell?” The 'poured-out' unguent gives forth its fragrance: even so is the beloved's name praised of many.
4. The king, i.e. the bridegroom, has brought the bride into his house, and she, freed from any taint of envy, nay, with an ingenuous pride, mentions the love with which others 'rightly' (RV) regard him. Some scholars prefer to read, 'Bring me, O king,' etSong of Solomon 5. In speaking of herself as black and 'swarthy' (RV), she is acknowledging herself to be a country girl: in the current songs of Palestine town-girls are called 'the white'; those of the country 'the black.' For Kedar see Gen_25:13; Isa_42:11; Isa_60:7; The Arab tents are often made of black goats' hair or black woven stuff. If our present text is correct the maiden claims a beauty of her own, comparable to that of the richly embroidered curtains in Solomon's palace. But possibly the reference may be to the Salamites, who followed the Kedarenes in occupying the territory S. of Palestine. Her face has been bronzed by the sun's 'looking upon her,' as the prince of Morocco, in the 'Merchant of Venice,' speaks of his complexion:
'The shadow'd livery of the burnish'd sun,
To whom I am a neighbour, and near bred.'
6. Her mother's sons have made it impossible for her to avoid this, treating her with that arbitrary tyranny which male relatives so often display in the East. 'I have known an ill-natured child,' says Doughty, 'lay a stick on the back of his good cherishing mother': cp. 1Sa_17:28. Her own vineyard, her complexion, she was forced to leave uncared, for.
7. Running to her lover, she would fain spend the siesta hour, the hot midday, with him. Failing to find him, she would have to wander aimlessly (RM) beside the other shepherds, in whom she took no interest.
8. With kindly banter he bids her lead out her little flock of female kids and take her chance of finding him.
9-11. It would not occur to us to compare a woman to a beautiful mare: but an Eastern at once appreciates the simile. In Damascus 'the mare comes before wife and child': she may be worth £40,000, and there really is no more beautiful creature. The Egyptian horse was once prized much as the Arab now is (2Ch_9:28).
10. With the 'string of jewels' (RV) compare a song which may be heard now in Syria:
'From above, Abu Tabba, from above, Abu Tabba,
Put golden coins upon her, and under her neck a string of pearls.
The necklace usually worn consists of three rows of pearls. Lady Burton says of a Samaritan woman: 'Upon her head she wore a coat of mail of gold, and literally covered with gold coins, of which a very large one dangled on her forehead. She wore diamond and enamelled earrings, and a string of pearls coquettishly arranged on one side of her head in a festoon.'
12-14. The king, i.e. the bridegroom, is reclining on his divan or couch, and the bride's presence is as delightful to him as the scent of the costly oil of the Indian nard (Mar_14:3). The odoriferous myrrh is a gum, which exudes from the bark of a spiny shrub growing in Arabia and India. Women wore little flasks of this on, their breast.
14. The henna (RV 'the flower of paradise') has fragrant yellowish white flowers, growing in clusters like grapes. It is still found in the wadi of En-Gedi, the most delightful spot on the W. shore of the Dead Sea, an oasis of luxurious vegetation. The sentiment of these vv. is thus reproduced in a song still popular in Palestine:
'Make of me a silver necklace,
And toss me about on thy breast.
Make of me a golden earring,
And hang me in thine ear.'
15. He compares her eyes to doves. Eastern women spend much pains on their eyes, painting them round with kohl to add to their apparent size and increase their expressiveness. And the comparison of maidens to doves is exceedingly common in the popular poetry:
'Lovely girls are there, like a flock of doves.'
16, 17. She looks forward to their union in the sweet rural district, amongst the cedars and the firs. It is as in the bower which Milton found in the earthly Paradise:
'The roof
Of thickest covert was in woven shade,
Laurel and myrtle, and what higher grew
Of firm and fragrant leaf; on either side
Acanthus, and each odorous bushy shrub
Fenc'd up the verdant wall;......
Here in close recess,
With flowers, garlands, and sweet-smelling herbs,
Espoused Eve deckt first her nuptial bed.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 In studying this Love Song the primary application to…
Annotations
SONG OF SONGS
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In studying this Love Song the primary application to the remnant of Israel must not be lost sight of. It is to be kept in mind that we are on Jewish ground and that the perfect assurance of that perfect love, which we know as members of His body, is lacking. The deeper spiritual applications which the individual believer may make in heart communion with the Lord, must be left to each person. In a certain sense we are here in the “Holiest” of all, for love-communion with our Saviour-Lord is the most precious thing. It produces that worship and adoration which is so acceptable in His sight, the worship in the Spirit. Our annotations will therefore be more of a general nature, but, we trust, under God, helpful to a deeper study of the book.
CHAPTER 1
The bride speaks first. She is occupied with the Beloved One. What He is, and all His kindness and loveliness have produced in her heart the love and admiration she expresses. The first rapturous outburst is, “Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth; for Thy love is better than wine.” She does not mention the Beloved by name; for her there is but One, beautifully illustrated by Mary when she came to the sepulchre and seeking Him said to the one she supposed to be the gardener, “If thou has borne Him hence.” The kiss expresseth reconciliation Luk 15:20, it is the token of peace, and above all, of affection. Thus the remnant of Israel will long for Him, for reconciliation, peace, and His affections. But true believers, the members of Himself, know in fullest assurance their reconciliation in Him; that He is peace and enjoy His affection. His love is better than wine. Wine is the symbol of earthly joys and pleasures; far better than anything under the sun is His love.
In Son 1:3 His worthy Name is described as “ointment poured forth.” It is because of all He is and all He gives. Well do we sing, “How sweet the Name of Jesus sounds in a believer’s ear.” The passage reminds us of Mar 14:3. For all who know Him His Name is the Name above every other name. But while we know His Name in all its preciousness, His own people Israel, the godly among them, will know Him likewise in the future. The virgins mentioned here, loving Him, are those separated ones in Israel who refuse to fall in line with the antichristian delusion of the great tribulation. We find them mentioned in Rev 14:1-5.
The bride desires to be drawn by Him and knows that if He draws all will run after Him. Then the King appears and brings her into His chambers, typifying full communion of love. Joy and rejoicing are the results.
Son 1:5-6 are the bride’s confession. She confesseth she is black, which does not denote at all, as some have taken it, that she was an Ethiopian. It means sunburnt, as she declares, “Look not upon me because I am black, because the sun has looked upon me.” She passed through the scorching heat of affliction and sorrow, yet she is comely Eze 16:10; through His mercy and kindness not forsaken. The daughters of Jerusalem the bride addresses are those of the nation, who do not yet share her knowledge of the Beloved, the Messiah. Israel had been called to be “the keeper of the vineyards,” that is, the keeper of nations and to be a blessing to them; but she had failed; not even her own vineyard did she keep. It is her confession to Him whom she now knows and longs for.
And she wants to belong to Him only, and be with Him where He is. She seeks shelter in the place where He makes His flock to rest at noon; for her soul loves Him. For her He is become the shepherd of Israel, who has found His sheep Isa 49:10; Eze 34:13-31). And if the remnant of Israel thus longs for Him and His precious fellowship, how much more should we, His heavenly people, love Him and be attached to Him only! Then He speaks in verse 8. Because of her confession He calls her the fairest among women. She is to go forth “by the footsteps of the flock.” What He says of her, what she is, He Himself has produced in her and for her. The horses imply energy and swiftness (same as in the New Testament); the ornaments the gifts of His love Eze 16:11. Interesting is Son 1:11, “We will make beadrows of gold with studs of silver.” The Jews believe that both God and the Messiah are Kings. “We” denotes the Father and the Son; the beadrows of gold and studs of silver denote the joy and the nuptial crown for the bride Est 2:17; Eze 16:12. Thus Messiah will crown His faithful ones in Israel, while His church will be crowned in glory.
Then the bride speaks again of her affections in the rest of the chapter. While the bridegroom calls her fair, she in return cries out, Behold, Thou art fair, my Beloved, yea, pleasant.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 The Song of Solomon Chapter 1.
The Song of Solomon Chapter 1.
The Church’s Longing for Christ.
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v. 1. The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s. This superscription clearly names Solomon as the author of the prophetic poem contained in this book, and the many references throughout the book fully substantiate his authorship.
v. 2. Let Him kiss me with the kisses, with one of the kisses, of His mouth; for Thy love is better than wine, that is, sweeter and more pleasant in every way.
v. 3. Because of the savor of Thy good ointments, rather, "As to odor, Thy ointments are good," Thy name is as ointment poured forth, one taken from its box or vial; therefore do the virgins love Thee, their attention being arrested by His costly perfume’s diffusing a wide fragrance.
v. 4. Draw me, we will run after Thee, all the hearts devoted to the King hastening after Him with eager longing; the King hath brought me into His chambers, into the royal palace. We will be glad and rejoice in Thee, we will remember, and therefore duly praise, Thy love more than wine, for its pleasant, agreeable qualities. The upright love Thee, or, "they love Thee rightly," with the best of reasons.
v. 5. I am black, browned by exposure to the sun, but comely, still attractive and engaging, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, those of the Bedouins, darkened by the heat of the sun, yet, at the same time, as the curtains of Solomon, the precious hangings, the beautiful tapestry with which the wealthy king decorated his house.
v. 6. Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me, thereby causing her tanned appearance. My mother’s children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards, giving her the position of a servant; but mine own vineyard have I not kept, she had not been faithful to her chief charge.
v. 7. Tell me, O Thou whom my soul loveth, where Thou feedest, pasturing His sheep, where Thou makest Thy flock to rest at noon, the sheep being given an opportunity to rest during the heat of the day; for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of Thy companions? straying away from His presence in desolation, to be disgraced. The King’s answer to this question is immediately given:
v. 8. If thou know not, if she is really lacking in knowledge, as she states, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, following its tracks, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds’ tents, in the role of shepherdess.
v. 9. I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh’s chariots, which fitly represented his royal power.
v. 10. Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, with strings of pearls, thy neck with chains of gold, little disks of precious metal or corals pierced and strung together.
v. 11. We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver, golden chains studded with silver ornaments. The bride now answers upon the King’s praise:
v. 12. While the King sitteth at His table, while the meal was in progress, my spikenard, an aromatic perfume made from an Oriental herb, sendeth forth the smell thereof, a delightful and pleasant odor.
v. 13. A bundle of myrrh, which was kept in a small sack or receptacle and carried in the bosom, is my Well-beloved unto me; He shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.
v. 14. My Beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire, the cyprus-flower of India, cultivated for its strong perfume, in the vineyards of Engedi, where Solomon had probably brought some of the Indian plant.
v. 15. Behold, thou art fair, my love, or companion, friend; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes, or, "thine eyes are doves," as lustrous and shimmering as the iridescence on the plumage of doves. And the bride answers:
v. 16. Behold, Thou art fair, my Beloved, yea, pleasant, sweet and charming; also our bed is green, they were sitting on a couch in a shady grassplot or in a summer-bower.
v. 17. The beams of our house are cedar, rather, our houses, and our rafters of fir, rather, our wainscoting of cypress, which is of a reddish hue, hard, durable, and fragrant.
The interpretation of this chapter, at least in its general outlines, is not difficult in the light of clear passages of the Bible. The woman Shulamith, the Church, feels the need of her Bridegroom’s love, although she realizes that she is not worthy of His caresses, wherefore she pleads for but one kiss of His mouth. Her desire restores the relation of true faith, and therefore she praises the blessings of His companionship, especially the fact that His name, He Himself breathes a savor of life unto life, which causes all the members of the Church to be inflamed with love toward the heavenly Bridegroom. At the same time, the bride is fully conscious of her own weakness, which is shared by all the members of the Church. Therefore she pleads that Christ Himself would draw her by the power of Him love, for He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. She realizes and confesses her own lack of righteousness, so that her appearance is indeed like that of filthy rags. Moreover, men, her own relatives in this world, hate and despise her; they inveigle her into the business of this world, so that she neglects her own vineyard, the work in the Church. That is her guilt, by reason of which she feels forsaken and desolate in herself; she cries out for the love of Christ, unworthy in herself though she is. And the mercy of Christ answers her. Rebuking her for her lack of knowledge, He nevertheless gives her the advice she needs, He admonishes her to seek true rest and food on the green pastures of the Gospel. At the same time He acknowledges her as His bride, He praises her as His pride and His might, He wants to decorate her with the riches of His merciful blessings. The Church agrees to this promise, confessing, at the same time, that the perfume of His love delighted her as long as He was with her, but that without His presence the finest jewelry had no value. This confession having restored the proper relation between Christ and the Church, especially since she praised His gifts of grace only and not her own worthiness, He now praises her beauty, her holiness and purity, while she, in turn, points out the happiness of being united with Him in true bridal love, this fact holding true of all the members of Christ’s Church, no matter in which earthly homes they may be at the present time. Every Christian congregation, according to her true essence and nature, consists of elect, saints, beloved of Christ.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 5, 7, 8, 9, 12, 15, 16 General Information:
General Information:
See: Poetry and Parallelism
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General Information:
Part One of the book begins in Song of Songs 1:2.
The Song of Songs
"The Best Song" or "The Most Excellent Song"
which is Solomon's
Possible meanings are "which is about Solomon" or "which Solomon composed."
your love is better than wine
"I enjoy having you near me more than I enjoy drinking wine"
Your anointing oils
"The oils that you put on your body"
have a delightful fragrance
"smell wonderful"
your name is like flowing perfume
Perfume has a good smell that spreads as the air moves. The name is either a metonym for 1) the person's reputation, what other people think of him. Here the speaker says that people always think that the hearer is a good person, or 2) the person himself. (See: Simile and Metonymy)
with you
"The word "you" refers to the man and so is singular. (See: Forms of You)
Take
"Pull" or "Drag." Here the woman described as being like a captive who is willing to follow her captor. (See: Metaphor)
we will run
The word "we" refers to the young woman together with the man. (See: Inclusive "We")
We are glad ... We rejoice ... let us celebrate
The woman speaks of herself as if she were more than one person. Many versions change the pronoun to "I" as the UDB does. Other versions present these as the words of the woman's friends speaking about either the woman or the man. (See: Pronouns and Exclusive and Inclusive "We")
about you
"because of you"
let us celebrate
"let us praise"
It is natural for the other women to adore you
"Women who adore you are doing as they should do"
translationWords
Solomon
kiss
love
wine
anoint
oil
delight
name
king
joy
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 1:1 This verse is the source of the English…
1:1 This verse is the source of the English title of the book. Formally, it is a superscription that functions as the title page of the book, providing the genre (song) and a connection with the probable author of some or all of the book (see Song of Songs Book Introduction, “Authorship”). The NLT rightly understands song of songs as a Hebrew superlative, so this song is the highest, best, or most sublime, which probably means that it is more wonderful than any other of Solomon’s 1,005 songs (see 1 Kgs 4:32).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.