Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; for your love is better than wine.
Parallel Translations
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Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; for your love is better than wine.
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Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.
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Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth — for thy love is better than wine.
Cross-references (16)
Passages linked to Song of Solomon 1:2 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Song of Solomon 4:10 How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine, the fragrance of your perfumes than all kinds of spices!
- Psalms 36:7 How precious is your loving kindness, God! The children of men take refuge under the shadow of your wings.
- Song of Solomon 1:4 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.
- Psalms 63:3-5 Because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you. So I will bless you while I live. I will lift up my hands in your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with the richest food. My mouth shall praise you with joyful lips,
- Isaiah 55:1-2 “Hey! Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which doesn’t satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in richness.
- Song of Solomon 7:9 Your mouth is like the best wine, that goes down smoothly for my beloved, gliding through the lips of those who are asleep.
- Matthew 26:26 As they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks for it, and broke it. He gave to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”
- Luke 15:20 “He arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
- Psalms 2:12 Give sincere homage to the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish on the way, for his wrath will soon be kindled. Blessed are all those who take refuge in him.
- Song of Solomon 2:4 He brought me to the banquet hall. His banner over me is love.
- Song of Solomon 7:12 Let’s go early up to the vineyards. Let’s see whether the vine has budded, its blossom is open, and the pomegranates are in flower. There I will give you my love.
- Song of Solomon 8:1-2 Oh that you were like my brother, who nursed from the breasts of my mother! If I found you outside, I would kiss you; yes, and no one would despise me. I would lead you, bringing you into the house of my mother, who would instruct me. I would have you drink spiced wine, of the juice of my pomegranate.
- Isaiah 25:6 In this mountain, Yahweh of Armies will make all peoples a feast of choice meat, a feast of choice wines, of choice meat full of marrow, of well refined choice wines.
- Song of Solomon 5:16 His mouth is sweetness; yes, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, daughters of Jerusalem.
- Song of Solomon 7:6 How beautiful and how pleasant you are, love, for delights!
- Acts 21:7 When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais. We greeted the brothers and stayed with them one day.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (17 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain They that are pure in heart and conversation.
They that are pure in heart and conversation.
The feeling of thy great benefits.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Son 1:2 Let him kiss me with the kisses…
Son 1:2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love [is] better than wine.
Ver. 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.] It must be premised and remembered that this book is penitus allegoricus et parabolicus, as one saith, allegorical throughout, and aboundeth all along with types and figures, with parables and similitudes. Quot verba, tot sacramenta, So many words, so many mysteries, saith Jerome of the Revelation, which made Cajetan not dare to comment upon it. {a} The like may be truly affirmed of the Canticles; nay, we may say of it in a special manner, as Possevinus doth of the whole Hebrew Bible, tot esse sacramenta, quot literae, tot mysteria, quot puncta, tot arcana, quot apices. so much is sacred, how many books, so much is mysterious, how many marked with vowel points, so much is secret, how many marked vowels. {b} Hence Psellus in Theodoret asketh pardon for presuming to expound it. But difficilium facilis est venia; et, in magnis voluisse sat est: In hard things the pardon is easy, and in high things let a man show his goodwill and it sufficeth. The matter of this book hath been pointed at already; as for the form of it, it is dramatic and dialogistical. The chief speakers are not Solomon and the Shulamite, as Castalio makes it, but Christ and his Church. Christ also hath his associates, those friends of the bridegroom, {Joh 3:29} viz., the prophets, apostles, pastors, and teachers, who put in a word sometimes; as likewise do the fellow friends of the bride - viz., whole churches, or particular Christians. The bride begins here abruptly, after the manner of a tragedy, through impatience of love, and a holy impotence of desire after, not a union only, but a unity also with him whom her soul loveth. "Let him kiss me," &c. Kissing is a token of love, {1Pe 5:14 Luk 7:45} and of reconciliation. {2Sa 14:33} And albeit καταφιλειν ουκ εστι φιλειν, as Philo observeth, love is not always in a kiss - Joab and Judas could kiss and kill, Caveatur osculum Iscarioticum, consign their treachery with so sweet a symbol of amity {1Pe 1:22} - yet those that "love out of a pure heart fervently," do therefore kiss, as desiring to transfuse, if it might be, the souls of either into other, and to become one with the party so beloved, and in the best sense suaviated. {kissed} That, therefore, which the Church here desireth, is not so much Christ’s coming in the flesh - that "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners had spoken in times past unto her by the prophets, would now speak unto her by his Son," {Heb 1:1-2} as some have sensed it - as that she may have utmost conjunction to him, and nearest communion with him, here as much as may be, and hereafter in all fulness of fruition. "Let him kiss me," and so seal up his hearty love unto me, even the "sure mercies of David." "With the kisses of his mouth"; not with one kiss only, with one pledge of his love, but with many - there is no satiety, no measure, no bounds or bottom of this holy love, as there is in carnal desires, ubi etiam vota post usum fastidio sunt. Neither covets she to kiss his hand, as they deal by kings, or his feet, as they do the pope’s, but his "mouth"; she would have true kisses, the basia, the busses of those lips, whereinto "grace is poured," {Psa 45:2 and wherehence those words of grace are uttered {Mat 5:2-12} "He openeth his mouth with wisdom, and in his lips is the law of kindness." {Pro 31:26} Hence her affectionate desires, her earnest pantings, inquietations, and unsatisfiablenesses. She must have Christ, or else she dies; she must have the "kisses of Christ’s mouth," even those sweet pledges of love in his Word, or she cannot be contented, but will complain, in the confluence of all other comforts, as Abraham did, "Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless?" {Gen 15:2} or as Artabazus in Xenophon did, when Cyrus had given him a cup of gold and Chrysantas a kiss in token of his special favour, saying that the cup that he gave him was nothing so good gold as the kiss that he gave Chrysantas. The poet’s fable, that the moon was wont to come down from her orb to kiss Endymion. It is a certain truth that Christ came down from heaven to reconcile us to his Father, to unite us to himself, and still to communicate unto our souls the sense of his love, the feeling of his favour, the sweet breath of his Holy Spirit.
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For thy love is better than wine.] Heb., Loves. The Septuagint and Vulgate render it ubera, thy breasts; but that is not so proper, since it is the Church that here speaks to Christ, and by the sudden change of person shows the strength and liveliness of her affection, as by the plural "loves," she means all fruits of his love, righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Ghost, assurance of heaven, which Mr Latimer calls the deserts of the feast of a good conscience. There are other dainty dishes at that feast, but this is the banquet, this is "better than wine," which yet is a very comfortable creature, {Psa 104:15} and highly set by. {Psa 4:7} Plato calls wine a music, miseriarum humanarum μαλακτικα, the chief allayments of men’s miseries.
{a} Apocalypsin fateor me nescire exponere, &c., exponat cui Deus concesserit. - Cajet.
{b} Possev. in Biblioth. Select.
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 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his…
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. The beginning of this book is abrupt, and may seem disorderly; but is very suitable to and usual in writings of this nature, wherein things are not related in an historical and exquisite order, but that which was first done is brought in as it were accidentally after many other passages; as we see in Homer, and Virgil, and in the Greek and Latin comedians. These are the words of the spouse, as all acknowledge, wherein she breatheth forth her passionate love to the Bridegroom, whom she doth not name, but only intimate by the pronoun relative him, which is here put without and for the antecedent, as Psa 87:1; 114:2; Joh 20:15; which manner of expression she useth, because it was needless to name him, as being so well known to the person or persons to whom site speaks, and being the only person who was continually in her thoughts and speeches. By kisses, which were the usual tokens of love and good will, she means nothing else but the communications and manifestations of his love and favour to her, as the following clause explains this; his graces and comforts breathed into her from the mouth and Spirit of Christ.
Thy love: this sudden change of the person is frequent, especially in such pathetical discourses. First she speaks of him as absent, and at a distance, but speedily grows into more acquaintance with him, and by ardent desire in faith embraceth him as present.
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Than wine; than the most delicious meats or drinks, or than all sensual delights, this one kind being synecdochically put for all the rest, as it is Est 5:6; Job 1:13; Pro 9:2; Ecc 2:3.
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 Let him - The beginning is abrupt; but is…
Let him - The beginning is abrupt; but is suitable to, and usual in writing of this nature, wherein things are not related in an historical and exquisite order, but that which was first done is brought in, as it were accidentally, after many other passages: as we see in Homer, and Virgil, and others. These are the words of the spouse, wherein she breathes forth her passionate love to the bridegroom, whom she does not name; because it was needless, as being so well known to the persons, to whom she speaks, and being the only person who was continually in her thoughts. By kisses, the usual tokens of love and goodwill, she means the communications of his love and favour, his graces and comforts breathed into her from the Spirit of Christ. Thy love - This sudden change of the person is frequent, in pathetic discourses. First she speaks of him as absent, but speedily grows into more acquaintance with him, and by ardent desire and faith, embraces him as present. Wine - Than the most delicious meat or drink, or than all sensible delights, one kind being put for all.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 2. Let him kiss me, c.] She speaks…
Verse 2. Let him kiss me, c.] She speaks of the bridegroom in the third person, to testify her own modesty, and to show him the greater respect.
Thy love is better than wine.] The versions in general translate דדיך dodeyca, thy breasts and they are said to represent, spiritually, the Old and New Testaments.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Son 1:2. Let him kiss me — The beginning…
Son 1:2. Let him kiss me — The beginning is abrupt; but is suitable to, and usual in, writings of this nature, wherein things are not related in a historical and exquisite order, but that which was first done is brought in, as it were, accidentally, after many other passages; as we see in Homer, and Virgil, and others. These are the words of the spouse, wherein she breathes forth her passionate love to the bridegroom, whom she does not name; because it was needless, as being so well known to the persons to whom she speaks, and being the only person who was continually in her thoughts. By kisses, the usual tokens of love and good-will, she means the communications of his love and favour, his graces and comforts breathed into her from the Spirit of Christ. Thy love — This sudden change of the person is frequent in pathetic discourses. First she speaks of him as absent, but speedily grows into more acquaintance with him, and by ardent desire and faith, embraces him as present. Is better than wine — Than the most delicious meat or drink, or than all sensual delights, one kind being put for all.
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 the prologue. - The Song commences with two stanzas…
the prologue. - The Song commences with two stanzas in praise of the king (now absent) by a chorus of virgins belonging to the royal household. Expositors, Jewish and Christian, interpret the whole as spoken by the Church of the heavenly Bridegroom.
Son 1:2
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Let him kiss me - Christian expositors have regarded this as a prayer of the Church under the old covenant for closer communion with the Godhead through the Incarnation. Thus, Gregory: “Every precept of Christ received by the Church is as one of His kisses.”
Thy love - Better as margin, i. e., thy endearments or tokens of affection are more desired than any other delights.
Son 1:3
Because ... - Better, For fragrance are thine ointments good, making with the clause that follows two steps of a climax: “thy perfumes are good, thy name the best of all perfumes.” “Ointments” here are unguents or fragrant oils largely used for anointing at entertainments (compare Psa 23:5; Luk 7:46; Joh 12:3).
Thy name ... poured forth - As unguents are the sweeter for diffusion, so the king’s name the wider it is known.
Son 1:4
The king hath brought me - Made me a member of his household. This is true of every member of the chorus as well as of the bride.
The upright love thee - Better as in the margin: uprightly do they (i. e., “the virgins” of Son 1:3) love thee. Compare the use of the same word in Psa 58:1; Pro 23:31.
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 Ointments. The bosom used to be perfumed. (Atheneus xv.…
Ointments. The bosom used to be perfumed. (Atheneus xv. 5., and xv. 14.) --- Thy name. Thou thyself. The preaching of the gospel produced a wonderful change in the world, 2 Corinthians ii. 15. (Calmet) --- The Church honours the name of Jesus on the second Sunday after the Epiphany. (A. Butler, p. 130.) (Haydock) --- Thee. The martyrs and Christian virgins are inflamed with divine love.
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 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 2. Let him kiss me — No Greek drama…
2. Let him kiss me — No Greek drama opens with truer words of an enamoured woman, the passionate outbreak of love, devotion, and confidence. No wonder that these warm movings of a human heart affected tenderly even that stern rabbi who daily thanked God that he was not a woman.
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 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of…
2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth] It may be doubted whether this is spoken by the Shulammite of her absent lover, or by one of the ladies of the court, of Solomon, In favour of the former view, there is the likelihood that the heroine would first speak, and the change of pronoun in Son_1:3, if there be no change in the persons speaking, is abrupt. But the change of pronoun would not be altogether unnatural in any language if the person spoken of were suddenly seen approaching after the first clause had been uttered. Nor even if he were not present at all would the change be impossible; for in passionate poetry the imagination continually vivifies and gives life to its conceptions by representing the object of affection as present, though actually absent. Perhaps the view that the king is seen approaching and that one of the court ladies speaks is preferable. In that case it would be his kisses that would be referred to.
for thy love is better than wine] i.e. thy caresses are better than wine. The word dôdhîm is properly ‘manifestations of kindness and love,’ but it also means love. Here the former is the better translation.
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 (2) Love.—Marg., loves, i.e., caresses or kisses, as the…
(2) Love.—Marg., loves, i.e., caresses or kisses, as the parallelism shows. The LXX., followed by the Vulg., read breasts (probably dadaï instead of dôdaï), the origin of many fanciful interpretations: e.g., the two breasts = the two Testaments which breathe love, the first promising, the second revealing Christ. The reading is condemned by the obvious fact that the words are not spoken to but by a woman, the change of persons, from second to third, not implying a change of reference or speaker, but being an enallage frequent in sacred poetry. (Comp. Deu_32:15; Isa_1:29, &c) Instead of “let him kiss me,” many prefer the reading “let him give me to drink,” which certainly preserves the metaphor (comp. Son_7:9), which is exactly that of Ben Jonson’s:—
“Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
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And I’ll not ask for wine.”
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 Ver. 2-ch. Job_31:27, "My mouth hath kissed my hand;"…
Ver. 2-ch. Job_31:27, "My mouth hath kissed my hand;" but the meaning is simply that of affection. The great majority of Christian commentators have regarded the words as expressive of desire towards God. Origen said, the Church of the old dispensation longing after higher revelations, as through the Incarnation, "How long shall he send me kisses by Moses and the prophets? I desire the touch of his own lips." It is dangerous to attempt specific applications of a metaphor. The general truth of it is all that need be admitted. If the relation between God and his people is one that can be set forth under the image of human affection, then there is no impropriety in the language of Solomon"s Song. "To kiss a kiss" (hqvin qvn) is the ordinary Hebraic form (cf. "to counsel a counsel"). Thy love is better than wine. The plural is used, "loves," as in the word "life" ( the abstract for the concrete, perhaps in order to indicate the manifestation of love in many caresses. The change from the third person to the second is common in poetry. The comparison with wine may be taken either as denoting sweetness or exhilarating effects. The intoxicating power of wine is but rarely referred to in Scripture, as the ordinary wine was distinguished from strong drink. Some, as Hitzig and Bottcher, would read yniqevy, changing the pointing, and translating, "Let him give me to drink;" but there is no necessity for a reading so forced and vulgar. The Septuagint, altering the vowels of the word "love," turn it into "breasts," and must therefore have supposed it addressed to the bride. The word is connected with the Arabic, and runs through the languages, dodh (cf. Dada, Dido, David). Perhaps the reference to wine, as subsequently to the ointments, may be explained by the fact that the song is supposed to be sung while wine is presented in the chamber, and while the perfumes are poured out in preparation for the entrance of the royal bridegroom. We can scarcely doubt that the opening words are intended to be the utterance of loving desire on the part of the bride in the presence of the daughters of Jerusalem. Some have suggested that vers. 1-8 are from a kind of responsive dialogue, but the view of the older interpreters and of Ewald, Hengstenberg, Weissbach, and others of the moderns, seems more correct, that all the first seven verses are in the mouth of Shulamith, and then ver. 8 comes in naturally as a chorus in reply to the song of the bride. The use of the plural, "We will run after thee," etc., is easily explicable. The bride is surrounded by her admiring companions and attendants. They are congratulating her on the king"s love. She speaks as from the midst of the company of ladies.
Vers. 2-4. Desire after God.
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Translated into language more congenial to our ordinary Christian thought, these verses may be taken as a parabolic setting forth of the blessed truth contained in the well known words of the psalm, "My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?" It surely would be speaking blasphemy, and an abasement of the Bible, if we were to look on the sensuous words with which these verses begin as meaning nothing more than they say in their ordinary plain and literal meaning. We, therefore, feel bound to lift them up from such low level, and to look upon them as telling no doubt in a vivid, Oriental way of the soul"s desire after God, the holy thirst of which the verse from the psalm is the expression. And we observe
I THAT THE CONSCIOUS POSSESSION OF THE LOVE OF GOD IS THE SOUL"S DEEP NEED AND DESIRE. Men try all manner of other delights, but they turn out mere apples of Sodom. He who wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes had left untried no single source of earthly joy. All were within his power, and he did his best to get their best out of them. And no doubt he succeeded. But what then? Was he satisfied? did they content him? "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity! that is his verdict upon them all. And his experience is that of myriads more, all which goes to prove that the love of God alone can satisfy. "Nostrum cor inquietum est donec requiescat in te." This saying of St. Augustine"s is the sober truth, which finds such impassioned expression in our text. And the soul"s desire for that love is the fruit of that love. "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me," said our Lord; and it is because of his gracious drawings, the mighty lure with which he attracts our wills, that we are possessed by this desire.
II THE DIVINE LOVE IS THE EXHILARATION OF THE SOUL. "Thy love is better than wine." "Be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit," says St. Paul; and he thereby teaches us, as does the text, that there is a likeness between the two wine and the Spirit of God. And the resemblance lies here in the stir and joy of heart which wine for a while causes; and this, though in no mere physical sense, is the blessed effect of the Spirit of God. For his office it is to shed abroad the love of God in our hearts, and that causes joy indeed.
III AND IT IS FRAGRANT WHEREVER IT DWELLS. It is likened to "perfume poured forth" and it fills "all the house.
IV THE PURE IN HEART LOVE IT. "Therefore do the virgins love thee." The desire for the Divine love is not universal far from it. But "the pure in heart" "see God," and hence their desire. S.C.
Love better than wine.
The desire of the soul awakened to the higher life is a desire which earth cannot satisfy; it is a desire for God, for the manifestations of Divine favour, the proofs of Divine affection. As one has said, "The Christian is not satisfied, like Mary, to kiss the Master"s feet; he would kiss the Master"s face." The enjoyment of God"s kindness enkindles a desire for more knowledge of God, a closer intercourse with God. This is the result of a sense an imperfect but genuine sense of the incomparable preciousness of Divine friendship and favour. "Thy love is better than wine.
I GOD"S GIFTS ARE GOOD. He is good unto all. Every good gift and every perfect boon must be traced to his bounty. Wine is used here poetically as one of the evidences of Divine provision for man"s needs. Wine maketh glad the heart of man, oil maketh his face to shine, bread strengtheneth his heart. Heaven bestows in abundance gifts which men often accept with ingratitude or misuse to their own detriment.
II GOD"S LOVE IS BETTER. Material possessions, temporal enjoyments, the pleasures of sense, are contrasted with what enriches, purifies, and rejoices the spirit. To the spiritual man the favour of Heaven yields more true joy than he experiences in the time when corn and wine increase.
1. This follows from the very nature of man, who is a being made originally in the Divine image, endowed with an immortal nature. Such a being cannot find satisfaction in any lower source of happiness.
2. It follows especially from the fact of man"s sin and salvation. As a dependent being, man is a recipient of Divine bounty; but, as a being who has departed from God, and has been restored by forgiving mercy to favour and fellowship, he is especially in need of constant revelations of Divine love. And as Christians we gratefully recognize that, in bestowing upon us his own Son, God has given unto us that love which is better than wine.
3. In partaking of Divine love we are in no danger of excess. It had been better for many a professing Christian had God"s providence withheld the gifts which have by the abuse of worldliness been prized above the Giver himself. Not wine only, but the wealth and luxuries of life generally, have too often been the occasion of forgetting and departing from God. But Divine love is a draught of which none can drink in excess.
4. The love of God is a lasting blessing, a perennial joy. The gifts of Divine bounty perish, for they are of the earth. The love of God is imperishable as God himself. 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 Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His…
Son_1:2
Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth: for Thy love is better than wine.
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Communion with Christ
1. Such as have the least taste of Christs love, are impatient and restless in their desires after the nearest fellowship and communion with Him. The Church here desires Christs manifestation in the flesh, that she might enjoy him in a Gospel-dispensation, and have sweeter discoveries of His favour: so in like manner the Church of the New Testament, who did enjoy all the privileges of the Gospel; yet she goes higher in her affections, and desires Christs last coming, that so she might enjoy Him in that heavenly and everlasting communion, which the saints shall enjoy hereafter.
2. Christ hath given more sweet and comfortable pledges of love and reconciliation to His people under the Gospel, than He did under the Law (Luk_10:24; Heb_12:18-20; Heb_12:22; Eph_4:8).
3. The doctrine of the Gospel is very sweet and desirable (Heb_6:5; 1Ti_4:6; 2Co_5:19; Eph_1:13; Eph_2:17).
4. Those strong desires and earnest longings of the faithful after Christ, flow from a principle of love (2Co_5:15; Jer_31:3; Hos_11:4). Christ is the ocean of spiritual love, from whence we derive, and into which we return our love: so that our love proceeds from Christs love; His love is as a loadstone, attractive, drawing our affections to Him; our love is as the reflecting back to Him again the beams of His own love.
5. The love of God in Christ is an infinite and a manifold love.
(1) His electing love (Eph_1:4-6; Eph_1:11).
(2) His redeeming love, whereby He hath brought His from the bondage of sin into glorious liberty and freedom (Gal_4:4; Act_20:28; 1Ti_2:6).
(3) Gods love of calling; the outward is a bare propounding of the Gospel; but the inward call is a spiritual enlightening, to know the hope of His calling (Eph_1:17). And that whereby the soul is made able to apprehend Him, of whom it is apprehended (Php_3:12).
(4) Gods justifying love, whereby He doth free and discharge His people from sin and death, and accounts them righteous in Christ.
(5) His adopting love, whereby He accepts the faithful, unto the dignity of sons (Joh_1:12; Rom_8:17).
(6) His sanctifying love, whereby He doth free believers from the filthiness of sin, and restore in them again the image of God, which consisteth of righteousness and holiness (Eph_4:24).
(7) His glorifying love, whereby He lifts up His people unto that state of life and glory, and gives them an immortal inheritance, where all comfort, peace, and joy shall abound, and where they shall have the communion of the chiefest good, the love of God shining forth immediately upon their hearts. (John Robotham.)
Thy love is better than wine.
Better than wine
I. Christs love is better than wine because of what it is not.
1. It may be taken without question. Many delightsome things, manor of the pleasures of this world, are very questionable enjoyments. Christians had better keep away from everything about which their consciences are not perfectly clear; but all our consciences are clear concerning the Lord Jesus, and our hearts love to Him; so that, in this respect, His love is better than wine.
2. It is to be had without money. Many a man has beggared himself, and squandered his estate, through his love of worldly pleasure, and especially through his fondness for wine; but the love of Christ is to be had without money. The love of Christ is unpurchased; and I may add that it is unpurchasable. Christs love is the freest thing in the world,--free as the sunbeam, free as the mountain torrent, free as the air.
3. It is to be enjoyed without cloying. If ever there was a man on earth who had Christs love in him to the full, it was holy Samuel Rutherford; yet you can see in his letters how he laboured for suitable expressions while trying to set forth his hungering and thirsting after the love of Christ. He says he floated upon Christs love like a ship upon a river, and then he quaintly asks that his vessel may founder, and go to the bottom, till that blessed stream shall flow right over the masthead of his ship. He wanted to be baptized into the love of Christ, to be flung into the ocean of his Saviours love; and this is what the true Christian ever longs for.
4. It is without lees. There is nothing in the Lord Jesus Christ that we could wish to have taken away from Him; there is nothing in His love that is impure, nothing that is unsatisfactory. Our precious Lord is comparable to the most fine gold; there is no alloy in Him,; nay, there is nothing that can be compared with Him, for He is altogether lovely, all perfections melted into one perfection, and all beauties combined into one inconceivable beauty.
5. It will never, as wine will, turn sour. He is the same loving Saviour now as ever He was, and such He always will be, and He will bring us to the rest which remaineth for the people of God.
6. It produces no ill effects. Many are the mighty men who have fallen down slain by wine. But who was ever slain by the love of Christ? Who was ever made wretched by this love?
II. Christs love is better than wine because of what it is. Let me remind you of some of the uses of wine in the East.
1. Often, it was employed as a medicine, for it had certain healing properties. The good Samaritan, when he found the wounded man, poured into his wounds oil and wine. But the love of Christ is better than wine; it may not heal the wounds of the flesh, but it does heal the wounds of the spirit.
2. Wine, again, was often associated by men with the giving of strength. Now, whatever strength wine may give or may not give, certainly the love of Jesus gives strength mightier than the mightiest earthly force, for when the love of Jesus Christ is shed abroad in a mans heart, he can bear a heavy burden of sorrow.
3. Wine was also frequently used as the symbol of joy; and certainly, in this respect, Christs love is better than wine. Whatever joy there may be in the world (and it would be folly to deny that there is some sort of joy which even the basest of men know), yet the love of Christ is far superior to it.
4. It is better than wine, once more, for the sacred exhilaration which it gives. The love of Christ is the grandest stimulant of the renewed nature that can be known. It enables the fainting man to revive from his swooning; it causes the feeble man to leap up from his bed of languishing; and it makes the weary man strong again.
III. The marginal reading of our text is in the plural: Thy loves are better than wine, and this teaches us that Christs love may be spoken of in the plural, because it manifests itself in so many ways.
1. Think of Christs covenant love, the love He had to us before the world was.
2. Think next of Christs forbearing love.
3. Aye! but the sweetness to us was when we realized Christs personal love, when at last we were brought to the foot of His cross, humbly confessing our sins.
4. When you first felt Christs forgiving love, I will not insult you by asking whether it was not better than wine. That was a love that was inconceivably precious; at the very recollection, our heart leaps within us, and our soul doth magnify the Lord.
5. Since that glad hour, we have been the subjects of Christs accepting love, for we have been accepted in the Beloved.
6. We have also had Christs guiding love, and providing love, and instructing love: His love in all manner of ways has come to us, and benefited and enriched us.
7. And we have had sanctifying love; we have been helped to fight this sin and that, and to overcome them by the blood of the Lamb.
8. The Lord has also given us sustaining love under very sharp troubles. Some of us could tell many a story about the sweet upholding love of Christ,--in poverty, or in bodily pain, or in deep depression of spirits, or under cruel slander, or reproach. His left hand has been under our head while His right hand has embraced us.
9. Then let us reflect with shame upon Christs enduring love to us. Why, even since we have been converted, we have grieved Him times without number! Yet He uses the most kind and endearing terms towards us to show that His love will never die away. Glory be to His holy name for this! Is not His love better than wine?
10. There is one word I must not leave out, and that is, Christs chastening love. I know that many of you who belong to Him have often smarted under His chastening hand, but Christ never smote you in anger yet. Whenever He has laid the cross on your back, it has been because He loved you so much that He could not keep it off.
11. There are other forms of Christs love yet to be manifested to you. Do you not sometimes tremble at the thought of dying? Oh, you shall have--and you ought to think of it now,--you shall have special revelations of Christs love in your dying moments. Then shall you say, like the governor of the marriage feast at Cana, Thou hast kept the good wine until now.
12. And then--but perhaps I had better be silent upon such a theme,--when the veil is drawn, and the spirit has left the body, what will be the bliss of Christs love to the spirits gathered with Him in glory?
13. Then think of the love of the day of our resurrection, for Christ loves. Our bodies as well as our souls; and, arrayed in glory, these mortal bodies shall rise from the tomb. With a life coeval with the life of God, and an immortality divinely given, we shall outlast the sun; and when the moon grows pale, and wanes for ever, and this old earth and all that is therein shall be burned up, yet still shall we be for ever with Him. Truly, His love is better than wine, it is the very essence of Heaven, it is better than anything that we can conceive.
IV. Christs love in the singular.--Look at the text as it stands: Thy love is better than wine.
1. Think first, of the love of Christ in the cluster. That is where the wine is first. We talk of the grapes of Eshcol; but these are not worthy to be mentioned in comparison with the love of Jesus Christ as it is seen, in old eternity, in the purpose of God, in the covenant of grace, and afterwards, in the promises of the Word, and in the various revelations of Christ in the types and symbols of the ceremonial law. There I see the love of Christ in the cluster.
2. Next, look at the love of Christ in the basket, for the grapes must be gathered, and cast into the basket, before the wine can be made. Oh, the love of Jesus Christ in the manger of Bethlehem, the love of Jesus in the workshop of Nazareth, the love of Jesus in His holy ministry, the love of Jesus in the temptation in the wilderness, the love of Jesus in His miracles, the love of Jesus in His communion with His disciples, the love of Jesus in bearing shame and reproach for our sakes, the love of Jesus in bring so poor that He had not where to lay His head, the love of Jesus in enduring such contradiction of sinners against Himself!
3. But oh! if your hearts have any tenderness towards Him, think of the love of Christ in the wine-press. What a crushing was that under the foot of the treader of grapes when Christ sweat as it were great drops of blood, and how terribly did the great press come down again and again when He gave His back to the smiters, and Sis cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, and hid not His face from shame and spitting! But oh! how the red wine flowed from the wine-press, what fountains there were of this precious sweetness, when Jesus was nailed to the cross, suffering in body, depressed in spirit, and forsaken of His God! Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? These are the sounds that issue from the wine-press, and how terrible and yet how sweet they are!
4. Now I want you to think of the love of Christ in the flagon, where His precious love is stored up for His people;--the love of His promises, given to you; the love of His providence, for He rules for you; the love of His intercession, for He pleads for you; the love of His representation, for He stands at the right hand of the Father as the Representative of His people; the love of His union with His people, for you are one with Him, He is the Head, and you are the members of His Body; the love of all that He is, and all that He was, and all that He ever shall be, for in every capacity and under all circumstances He loves you, and will love you without end.
5. And then not only think of, but enjoy the love of Christ in the cup, by which I mean His love to you. For this we have the declaration of inspiration; nay, we have more even than that to confirm it beyond all question, for we have His own death upon the cross. He signed this document with His own blood, in order that no believer might ever doubt its authenticity. Herein is love. Behold what manner of love there is in the cross! What wondrous love is there! (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christs love is better than wine
I. For its antiquity. Good old wine is accounted the best (Luk_5:39). Now no wine is comparable to this of Christs love, for its antiquity; for it is a love which commences from everlasting; it does not bear date with time, but was before time was.
II. For its purity. It is wine on the lees well refined, free from all dregs of deceit, hypocrisy, and dissimulation; it is a love unfeigned, a pure river of water of life.
III. For its freeness and cheapness.
IV. For the plenty of it. In the marriage at Cana of Galilee, there was want of wine; but there is no want thereof in this feast of love: this is a river, nay, an ocean of love, which flows forth in plentiful streams to poor sinners.
V. In the effects of it.
1. Wine will revive and cheer a man that is of a heavy heart (Pro_31:6).
2. Wine may remove a worldly heaviness, or a sorrow on the account of worldly things, the things of time; but not a spiritual heaviness, or a sorrow on the account of the things of another world, the things of eternity; but the manifestation of Christs love to the soul, can remove this sorrow and heaviness, and fill it with a joy unspeakable and full of glory, and give him that ease, and comfort, and satisfaction of mind, he is wishing for.
3. If a man drinks never such large draughts of the wine of Christs love, it will never hurt him; when other wine, with excessive drinking of it, not only wastes the estates, but consumes the bodies, and destroys the health of men; but of this a man may drink freely and plentifully, without doing himself any hurt; nay, it will be of considerable advantage to him, and therefore says Christ (Son_5:1). (John Gill, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain The Meeting of the Betrothed
PART FIRST
The Meeting of the Betrothed
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CHAPTER Son_1:2, TO CHAPTER Son_2:7
SCENE FIRST. Place: The Palace of Jerusalem. Speakers: Shulamite, or the Bride; and the Daughters of Jerusalem, or the Ladies of Solomon’s Court.—CHAP. Son_1:2-8.
SHULAMITE
Addressing the King in his Absence
Bride’s Longing after the Beloved.
Son_1:2-4
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!
For thy love is better than wine.
Because of the savour of thy good ointments,
(Thy name is as ointment poured forth),
Therefore do the virgins love thee.
Draw me:
We will run after thee.
The King hath brought me into his chambers:
We will be glad and rejoice in thee;
We will remember thy love more than wine:
The upright love thee.
Spiritually, the believer’s longing for the sensible presence of Christ and the manifestation of His love. Probably the cry of the Ancient Church for the coming of the Lord’s Anointed. According to the Jews, Israel’s longing for the Divine reconciliation after the sin of the Golden Calf.
Bride’s First Desire.
“Let him kiss me with the kisses (or, with kisses) of his mouth” (Son_1:2). Shulamite speaks in soliloquy. Speaks of her Beloved as absent. Observe—
I. The PERSON intended. “Let him;” namely, the Beloved. No name mentioned. The language abrupt but natural, as spoken under strong emotion. Expressive of reverence. So the disciples of Pythagoras Spoke of their master,—“He said.” More especially, of impassioned affection. The Bride’s thoughts full of her Beloved, as though there were but one object she cared for (Psa_73:25). Christ to the believer the One Pearl of great price (Mat_13:46). The language of a soul wearying of all but Christ. Bride speaks of her Beloved as if all must know whom she meant. So Mary to the supposed gardener: “If thou have borne Him hence” (Joh_20:15).
Christ continually promised to the fathers through the prophets (Act_26:6; 1Pe_1:11). The hope and expectation of Old Testament saints (Gen_49:18; Isa_26:8; Mat_13:17; Joh_8:56; Act_26:7). Exemplified in Simeon, Anna, and others (Luk_2:25-26; Luk_2:36-38; Luk_3:15). Christ promised and expected as the Bridegroom of the Church (Hos_2:19; Hos_3:3; Isa_54:5; Isa_62:5; Joh_3:29).
II. The THING desired. Let him “kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” Personal and sensible manifestation of Christ and His love to the soul. The love itself not doubted: the expression, proof, and enjoyment of it desired. Christ’s kiss is Christ Himself sensibly giving Himself in tenderest affection to the soul, and assuring it of His cordial love. The subject of the Song not the coming to the Saviour, but communion with Him: not the coming of the soul to Christ, but the coming of Christ to the soul. The language of the soul in the Song not that of the Publican: ‘God be merciful to me a sinner’; but that of the Psalmist: ‘My soul cleaveth to the dust: quicken thou me according to Thy word’ (Psa_119:25). The language of the text expressive of—
1. Strong desire and eager longing. ‘Let him.’ (or, O that he would) ‘kiss me.’ Such longings a natural part of a healthy Christian experience. Feeble health little accustomed to fervent longing. A Christ loved will be a Christ longed for. Absence illbrooked by ardent affection. Love yearns for the fellowship and enjoyed love of its object.
2. Intimate acquaintance. Familiar acquaintance with Christ begets not contempt, but reverence and love.
3. Consciousness of union with and interest in the Beloved. Kisses not for strangers, still less for enemies. Expected only by a friend, and most of all by a Bride or wife.
4. Mutual affection. Kisses desired only from one who loves us and whom we ourselves love. An aggravation of Judas’s sin that he betrayed his Master with a kiss. A true kiss the ‘kiss of charity’ or love (1Pe_5:14).
5. Absence and delay. Sensible tokens of Divine love not always vouchsafed to believers. Christ’s kisses not things of every day. At times wisely withheld. ‘A time for embracing, and a time to refrain from embracing.’ Patience required in respect to spiritual joys. The time coming when delay and withdrawal will be no more.
6. Desire for manifested reconciliation. So Israel longed after the Lord after the sin of the golden calf (Exo_33:1-4; Exo_33:7-11); and in the time of Samuel (1Sa_7:2). A kiss the token of reconciliation given by David to his son Absalom, and by the forgiving father to the prodigal and penitent son (2Sa_14:33; Luk_15:20).
The desire expressed by each believing soul for itself: ‘Let him kiss me.’ The living soul desires personal enjoyment of Christ’s love and the personal application of it. Christ’s kisses for His Church universal, and for each true member of it in particular. Each believing soul the Church in miniature. The features, experience, and glory of the Church those of each individual member.
The thing desired—
(1) ‘Kisses.’ Implies coldness of faith and affection. To receive even a kind word from Christ an unspeakable favour and happiness. Christ able and willing to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think (Eph_3:20). Grants not only the adoption of a son, but the espousals of a bride (Theodoret). The Bride appears to desire not only one kiss but many. Even one not to be purchased with a thousand worlds. How rich the believer in receiving many! Even one a thing never to be forgotten. One of Christ’s kisses carries heaven in its bosom. Kisses of different kinds and for different occasions: the kiss of favour, of friendship, of affection, of reconciliation, of relationship, of nuptial contract, and of marriage. The marriage-covenant between Christ and His people permits and grants the renewal of its seals and pledges.
(2) ‘Kisses of his mouth.’ These reserved more especially for his personal appearing. ‘Let him kiss me, not by the mouth of the prophets, but with his own mouth’ (Rabbins). The desire a prophetical intimation of His coming in the flesh. Realized when men wondered at “the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luk_4:18-22). “Be of good comfort, thy sins are forgiven thee;” “Thy faith hath saved thee: go in peace”—some of these kisses. Such also every Gospel promise and gracious consolation uttered and applied by Jesus to the penitent believing soul. ‘The lip of promise meeting the lip of prayer.’ Christ’s office to “Preach glad tidings to the meek; to bind up the broken hearted; to comfort them that mourn; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Isa_61:1-3; Luk_4:18-19). His mouth most sweet (chap. Son_5:16). ‘His mouth,’ as marking the tenderest affection. Amazing condescension that the King of glory can stoop from His throne to kiss a beggar taken from the dunghill. Ample compensation for the loss of idols in the kisses of the King’s mouth. The soul that gives up all for Him, sooner or later filled and overpowered with His love. The ‘kisses of his mouth’ not only the communications of His love but of His spirit. According to the Jews, a man’s loving kiss is accompanied with an infusion of his spirit. So Jesus, after saying: Peace be unto you,—breathed on His disciples, and said: Receive ye the Holy Ghost (Joh_20:21-22). Christ’s kisses given in the reading and hearing of His word; in secret and social prayer; and in the ordinance of the Supper. The consolations of His Word personally applied by Himself to the heart through His Spirit. The kisses to be given by His own mouth. All Gospel duty summed up in our kissing the Son; all Gospel comfort summed up in the Son kissing us. Christ’s kisses in the Gospel intended to heal the wounds of the Law. The kisses of His mouth in the highest sense still kept in reserve. Jerusalem above the place where the Lord mainly comforts His people (Isa_66:13). There they see His face. His hand wipes away their tears. He Himself feeds them and leads them to living fountains of waters. Hence His second appearing the desire of believers in the New Testament, as His first appearing was that of those in the Old (Tit_2:13; 1Co_1:7; Php_3:20; 2Pe_3:12). The last promise of Christ in the Bible: Surely I come quickly. The last prayer of His Church: Even so, come, Lord Jesus (Rev_22:20).
Reason of Bride’s First Desire.
“For thy love (Heb. loves) is better than wine.”—Son_1:1.
With the next breath Shulamite turns to her Beloved and addresses himself, though still absent and invisible. A believer’s communion with Christ on earth rather that with an invisible friend. Want of bodily sight no hindrance to spiritual fellowship. Christ, though invisible to the eye of flesh, yet visible to the eye of faith. Common, under strong feeling, to address a friend though distant and unseen. The living and loving soul not satisfied with speaking of Christ, but must speak to Him. ‘He’ to be exchanged for ‘Thou.’ The reason for the soul desiring the kisses of Christ’s mouth is the excellence and sweetness of His love and the manifestations of it. An object desired in proportion to the sense of its worth. Observe in regard to the—
Excellence of Christ’s Love.
1. The LOVE itself. ‘Thy love,’ or as margin, ‘thy loves’—not only the love itself, but the manifestations of it. Christ’s love always one and the same; the expressions and manifestations of it many and various. His love well represented in the plural form, from its riches, abundance, and extent. Paul’s prayer that believers might be strengthened with might by the Holy Spirit, so as to comprehend with all saints what is its length, and breadth, and depth, and height, and to know it though really passing all knowledge (Eph_3:16-19. Observe—
1. The character of Christ’s love. Like the love of the Father it is—
(1) Everlasting (Jer_31:3).
(2) Unchanging (Joh_13:1).
(3) Spontaneous and free (Eze_16:5-6; Eze_16:8; 1Jn_4:10; 1Jn_4:19).
(4) Sovereign and distinguishing (Joh_6:70; Joh_13:18; Joh_15:16).
(5) Costly and self-sacrificing (Eph_5:25; Rev_1:5).
(6) Enriching in its effects (Eph_5:26-27; Rev_1:5-6).
2. The manifestations of it. These both in word and deed. Made in—
(1) His engaging for us in the everlasting covenant (Psa_40:7; Eph_5:25).
(2) The revelation of His love in the first promise in Eden (Gen_3:15).
(3) The successive communications of it through the prophets.
(4) His gracious dealings with His people in the Old Testament.
(5) The personal manifestations of Himself to the patriarchs and Old Testament saints.
(6) His INCARNATION.
(7). His acts, words, and teachings when on earth.
(8). His sufferings and death.
(9). The bestowment of His Spirit on and after Pentecost.
(10) His promises to His Church made before and after His ascension into heaven.
(11) The ordinances which He instituted, especially that of the Supper.
(12) The ingathering of His Redeemed by the preaching of the Word.
(13) The personal communications of His love to the souls of His people.
(14) His gracious providential dealings with His Church, both as a whole and in its individual members.
II. The EXCELLENCE of the love. ‘Thy love is better than wine.’ Wine put for what is most grateful to the taste, refreshing to the body, and exhilarating to the spirits. Wine among the chief luxuries of life. The ‘banquet of wine’ (Est_5:6) put for the most joyous of feasts. Yet Christ’s love ‘better than wine.’
(1) From the nature of love itself. Love and the expression of it among the sweetest of human enjoyments. Hence the ‘comfort of love’ (Php_2:1).
(2) From the person whose love it is. A sinful and imperfect creature’s love often the sweetest of earthly enjoyments. What the love of Him who is the ‘Chief among ten thousand,’ ‘fairer than the children of men,’ ‘altogether lovely, the sum, source, and centre of all loveliness and excellence! Christ’s love better than wine, as—
1. More sweet, gladdening, and refreshing. (Psa_4:7-8). ‘Sweet is the King’s wine, but sweeter is his love’ (Delitzsch). The sense of Christ’s love the true cordial of the soul.
2. More satisfying. The old wine, after which none desires new. Takes from creature enjoyments much of their attraction. The world crucified to us by the cross of Christ,—the highest expression of this love.
3. More beneficial. Exhilarates the soul; and through that, influential on the whole man. Purifies while it gladdens. No danger of excess or of hurtful consequences. Wine a mocker. At last bites like a serpent and stings like an adder (Pro_20:1; Pro_23:32). Christ’s love leaves no sting behind it. Betrays none into sin. Exhilarates without inebriating.
4. More lasting in its effects. Wine perishable, and soon ceases even to exhilarate and refresh. Christ’s love eternal and unchanging in its effects as well as in itself. That only strictly true of Christ’s love which is said of wine: ‘Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more’ (Pro_31:6).
The excellence of Christ’s love not to be described (Psa_36:7-10). To be tasted in order to be known (Psa_34:8; 1Pe_2:3). Able to fill the soul with joy in the absence of all earthly comforts, and the loss of all earthly possessions (Hab_3:17-18). The Holy Spirit’s office to reveal it and shed it abroad in the heart (Rom_5:5). Hence the exhortation: ‘Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be ye filled with the Spirit’ (Eph_5:18). Joy in the experience of Christ’s love the characteristic of the New Testament dispensation. Symbolized in His first miracle. The water of the Old Testament economy turned into the wine of the New. The consecration of wine as the symbol of His shed blood, and so of His dying love, among the last acts of the Saviour’s love. Hence the Lord’s Supper made the sweetest and most reviving of all Divine ordinances. Christ’s love the joy of the Redeemed in heaven. The new wine of the kingdom. The song of the Beloved Disciple’s old age, seventy years after tasting of it as he lay on Jesus’s breast. The ever new song of the saints around the throne (Rev_1:5; Rev_5:9-12).
The Bride Justifies her Desire.
‘Because of the savour of thy good ointments (thy name is as ointment poured forth), therefore do the virgins love thee’—Son_1:3.
Her desire justified on two grounds:
(1) The excellence and sweetness in the Beloved himself;
(2) The fact that on that account virgins loved him.
FIRST GROUND: ‘Because of the savour of thy good ointments,—thy name it as ointment poured forth;’ or, ‘ointment poured forth is thy name.’ The first clause the formal reason for the virgins’ love to the King; the second, a parenthetical amplification and explanation of the former, his name being itself those good ointments (Ecc_7:1). ‘The savour of thy good ointments’ or perfumes, suggests—
The Excellence and Sweetness of Christ
I. Christ has ‘ointments’ or perfumes. The king’s ointments sweetly scented oils sprinkled on the garments, poured on the head, or carried about the person. Christ’s ointments the graces of the soul and life, shed on Him and produced in Him by the Holy Spirit. The existence of such ointments indicated in His official name, ‘Christ,’ or ‘the Christ.’ This the Greek rendering of the Hebrew term Messiah; both meaning ‘the Anointed One.’ Christ, as God’s appointed Saviour, anointed with the Holy Ghost, and that without measure (Joh_3:34 : Act_4:8; Luk_4:18). This anointing that which fitted Him for His office (Isa_61:1-3). Anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows (Heb_1:9). All His mediatorial garments thus made to ‘smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia,’ by which He was made glad (Psa_45:8). His human nature thus made full of all excellence and sweetness. Christ fully endowed with all the virtues that can either adorn the character, or that can render a man lovely and attractive in himself, and a benefactor and blessing to his fellow men (Isa_11:2-5). All the excellences and charms that can either beautify or exalt humanity found in Him in their combination and perfection. Graces and virtues apparently contradictory and exclusive of each other, found beautifully harmonized in His character. Symbolized by the ‘holy anointing oil,’ composed of various ingredients (Exo_30:23-25; Exo_30:34-35). Loftiest wisdom combined in Jesus with child like simplicity; awe-inspiring dignity with meekest humility; inflexible justice with tenderest compassion; spotless holiness with sweetest affability; abhorrence of sin with pity and love to the sinner. The Gospels an exhibition of the ‘good ointments’ of Christ. His life, as written by the four Evangelists, the best commentary on this verse.
II. Christ’s ointments are ‘good.’ They are so—
1. In themselves. The graces and virtues of His character, of the purest and choicest kind, and existing in Him in the highest degree. All Divine, as the product of the Holy Ghost which filled Him. God well pleased for His righteousness’ sake (Isa_42:21). The testimony twice repeated from heaven: ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’ (Mat_3:17; Luk_9:35). The goodness or excellence of Christ’s ‘ointments’ discovered—
(1) In His spirit and disposition. ‘Meek and lowly in heart.’ Gentle and compassionate, not breaking the bruised reed nor quenching the smoking flax. ‘Holy, harmless, undesled, and separate from sinners.’
(2) In His words. Gracious words proceeded out of His mouth. ‘Never man spake like this man.’ The Gospels a repertory of such golden sayings as never before had fallen from human lips.
(3) In His actions. ‘He went about doing good.’ Even in His outward actions, acknowledged to have been the greatest benefactor the earth had ever seen before or has ever beheld since. His earthly ministry one continued display of self-denying beneficence to the poor, the suffering, and the distressed.
(4) In His sufferings and death. In these, peculiarly distressing as they were, a picture displayed of the most perfect patience and submission. His dying breath a prayer on behalf of His persecutors and murderers, while His only complaint was that poured forth to His Father in the words of the Psalmist: My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? (Psa_22:1; Mat_27:46).
2. In their effects. Ointments or perfumes valued for their refreshing fragrance. Hence poured on the head of guests at table. The graces and virtues of Christ’s character all such as rendered Him a Benefactor and Saviour to mankind. Fitted by the Holy Spirit’s anointing to preach glad tidings to the poor, bind up the broken hearted, &c. (Isa_61:1-2.) The poorest, lowest, and guiltiest attracted to Him by His gracious and loving spirit, as well as by His heavenly and healing words (Luk_15:1). Even little children drawn to Him by the savour of His ‘good ointments.’ In the graces and virtues of His character, as well as the sacrificial surrender of His life, Christ a sweet-smelling savour to God. His words quickening, reviving, comforting and gladdening as well to sinners as to saints.
In the view of Shulamite, the King’s name, including in it the report of his graces and excellencies (1Ki_10:1; 1Ki_10:6-9), constituted in itself a rich perfume. ‘Thy name is as ointment poured forth;’ or, ‘ointment poured forth is Thy name’ (Ecc_7:1). Sweetly true in regard to Solomon’s Antitype. Observe, in reference to the
Name of Christ—
I. The NAME itself. The name of a person often put simply for the person himself. All that is in Jesus, and that is known of Him, renders Him ‘as ointment poured forth.’ The chief among ten thousand. Precious to them that believe. In Him is all that sinners need and that is suited to their case and condition. His character and worth that which renders Him to believers the object of their warmest affection and their most entire confidence. The name or names by which He is known indicative of what He is in Himself, and what He is and becomes to us. His names all significant and suggestive of His character and work. Their meaning such as to commend Him to sinners, and to endear Him to saints. Each name an exhibition of Him in some special aspect of loveliness and preciousness. Examples:—
1. EMMANUEL. His name in prophecy (Isa_7:14). Its meaning, ‘God with us’ (Mat_1:23). Full of sweetness. God for our salvation become one of us—a partaker of flesh and blood—in order to be our Redeemer. God manifest in the flesh. The Eternal Word made flesh and dwelling among us. The name a reviving revelation of boundless love, pity, and condescension on the part of our Maker. The Beloved of the Church one who is both God and Man. ‘The man that is My fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts’ (Zec_13:7). One with the Father, and yet one with us. The bright reflection of the Divine glory, and yet bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. Possessed of all the attributes of the God head, and all the sympathies of humanity. Sustains the glory of Deity, and is touched with the feeling of all our infirmities. The Creator and Upholder of the universe, and yet tempted in all points like as we are (Heb_1:2-3; Heb_4:15). Hence
(1) His infinite power as a Saviour. Able to save to the uttermost. Mighty to save. Able to raise both the dead soul and the dead body to life.
(2) The infinite efficacy belonging to His sacrificial undertaking. His suffering and death that of ‘God manifest in the flesh.’ God purchased the Church with His own blood—a sufficient price for the ransom of countless worlds (Act_20:28). The blood of Jesus Christ, because the blood of God’s Son, able to cleanse from all sin (1Jn_1:7).
2. JESUS. Given, at the direction of as angel, as the equivalent of ‘Emmanuel’ (Mat_1:21-23). A name full of exquisite sweetness. Denotes—‘Jehovah the Saviour;’ or, ‘the Lord will save.’ God Himself becomes our Salvation. ‘Jesus,’ a Divine Saviour; hence equivalent to ‘Emmanuel.’ A Saviour needed by man, and a great one Such found in Jesus. Hence His name. Saves, as was necessary, both from sin and sin’s consequences; not only from its guilt and punishment, but from its power, pollution, and presence; saves from a blinded understanding, a depraved will, and a corrupt heart. Saves from sin and Satan, from death and hell, and from the power and influence of a present evil world Saves at once, and saves for ever. Saves now by the invisible operation of His Spirit; saves hereafter by His visible and glorious appearing (Heb_9:14; Heb_9:28). Able to save even the chief of sinners (1Ti_1:15). To save the lost the object of His coming into the world (Luk_19:10; 1Ti_1:15).
3. CHRIST, or THE CHRIST. His official name. Both a name and a title. Like the Hebrew term ‘Messiah,’ denotes ‘the Anointed.’ A name also full of sweetness. Marks Him out as anointed by the Holy Ghost as the Prophet, Priest, and King of His Church. Anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows (Psa_45:7). Anointed by the Spirit to preach glad tidings to the meek, &c (Isa_61:1). Jesus the Christ, as filled with the Holy Spirit, and so fitted for man’s salvation.
His ‘name’ may include
(1) His Titles: as; Son of God, Son of Man, King of Kings, Prince of Peace, Lamb of God, Prince of Life, Lord of Glory, Plant of Renown, the Word, the Word of God, our Hope, our Peace, our Life.
(2) His Offices: as; Prophet, Priest, King, Mediator, Redeemer, Captain, Physician, Teacher, Witness-bearer, SAVIOUR.
(3) His Relations: as; Husband, Brother, Father, Friend, Shepherd, Surety, Master.
(4) His Attributes: as; Merciful, Faithful, True, Almighty, Everlasting, Unchanging, the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last.
(5) His Character: as; meek, lowly, loving, holy, just, wise, and good.
No name mentioned in the text. The name deep in the heart. No name like His in a believer’s ear. Remembered when every other name is forgotten. The name which is above every name. Known truly to none but Himself and those to whom He reveals it. Wherever known, accompanied with love and trust (Psa_91:14; Psa_9:10).
II. The COMPARISON. ‘As ointment poured forth.’
1. As ‘ointment’ or perfume. Indicates its sweet and reviving nature. To a believer the very mention of Jesus accompanied with joy and comfort. Every name of Jesus fragrant to the spiritual senses. The name of a loved one sweet because calling up the person himself. The name of Jesus makes the sad heart it enters leap with joy. Is honey to the mouth, music to the ear, and comfort to the soul. Everything insipid to a believer that carries not the savour of that name in it. “All spiritual food dry, if not pervaded with this oil; and tasteless, if not seasoned with this salt.” What is written has no relish to a believer, if he reads not there the name of Jesus. Conversation has no pleasure if the name of Jesus is excluded. Nature with all its loveliness only pleases when associated with the name of Jesus. His name suggestive of all that is most beautiful, lovely, and excellent. “Contains in it all the excellence scattered throughout creation.” The best, sweetest, purest, noblest things associated with it. Embraces whatever is noblest in truth, honour, faith, love, meekness, humility, self-denial, generosity. All tenderness, sweetness, benevolence, centred in the name of Jesus. Gentleness, moral courage, disinterested love, identified with it. In His name, more sweetness, beauty, love, than ever human heart conceived To a renewed and spiritual mind, the most joyous and exhilarating name on earth. “Touches all the chords of gratitude, enthusiasm, and devotion.” Under the Holy Spirit’s revelation, fills every avenue of the soul with joy, wonder, and adoration. A day coming, when it will fill heaven and earth with its sweetness and fragrance.
2. As ‘ointment poured forth.’ Indicates—
(1) Abundance, as well of the ointment itself as of its fragrance. The perfume abundantly diffused. An infinite fulness in Jesus, and an infinite sweetness in His name. ‘It hath pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell.’ ‘God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him.’ His glory that of the only begotten of the Father, ‘full of grace and truth’ (Joh_1:14; Joh_3:34; Col_1:19). Christ a full Saviour for empty sinners. A fountain ever full and ever flowing. His riches without a bottom. A mine never exhausted.
Enough for each, enough for all,
Enough for evermore.
(2) Impartation. A perfume poured forth yields up all its fragrance for enjoyment. Enclosed and sealed up in the vessel, it affords little sweetness. Mary broke her alabaster box, or its seal, and the whole house was filled with the odour of the ointment. Christ’s name not only ointment but ointment ‘poured forth,’ for the benefit and enjoyment of others. Christ to be manifested—
Externally. Christ and His name was a perfume in heaven while shut up ‘in the bosom of the Father.’ A perfume to God and angels before man was created. Shut up as to men till the day of the fall. The first promise of a Saviour made in Eden broke the seal (Gen_3:15). The seal more and more removed, and the fragrance made more and more to flow forth, as time rolled on. The promised Saviour more and more plainly and fully revealed through the prophets, till He Himself appeared. The ointment then poured forth—
(1) By Christ Himself: (a) in His life; (b) in His preaching; (c) in His miracles; (d) in His death. The seal of the casket containing the perfume that was to fill heaven and earth with its fragrance fully broken on Calvary when Jesus said: ‘It is finished,’ bowed His head, and died; (e) in His effusion of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
(2) By the Apostles and the Church after Pentecost. Till then the ‘name’ shut up among the Jews: after that, to be carried by the Apostles to all nations. The ointment streaming forth more or less over the world during the last eighteen centuries The calling and commission of the Church at large, as well as of Apostles, ministers, and missionaries, to make manifest the savour of his knowledge in every place (2Co_2:14). ‘Ye are My witnesses.’ Every believer, by his lips and his life, to be a bearer of the fragrance of Christ’s name in the neighbourhood where he dwells.
Internally. This ointment to be poured forth in the soul in order to the perception of its sweetness. Mere external diffusion not sufficient. A spiritual fragrance to be spiritually perceived. A spiritual power of perception needed; or, what is equivalent, an inward spiritual revelation of Christ by the Holy Ghost. ‘It pleased God to reveal His Son in me.’ ‘Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven.’ ‘Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes.’ God ‘hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’ (2Co_4:6; Gal_1:16; Mat_16:17; Mat_11:25). Without the inward diffusion of the fragrance by the Holy Ghost (Joh_16:14-15), Christ ‘a root out of dry ground, without form or comeliness’ (Isa_53:2). A man’s greatest blessedness in having this precious ointment poured forth in his heart (Rom_5:5). The perfume of Christ’s name to be poured forth externally by the church, through the lips and lives of its members to the world at large; internally by the Holy Ghost to the individual soul. The Word and Sacraments the instituted means through which the Spirit pours forth the ointment, both externally and internally. Sinners saved and believers refreshed, revived, and sanctified only as Christ’s name is thus revealed and the ointment poured forth. The Scriptures, a preached Gospel, the Bread and Wine in the Supper,—these the casket containing the perfume; the Holy Ghost the agent who breaks the seal and pours forth the fragrance.
Important questions for each: Have I known this precious name? Is the name of Jesus to me ‘as ointment poured forth?’ If so, what am I doing to diffuse its fragrance for the benefit of others? If not, why so? Have I given proper attention to that name? Have I seriously thought of Christ? ‘The whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick:’ have I realized my spiritual sickness? Have I seriously considered and really known what it is to be a sinner, and so realized my need of a Saviour? If not, how can I expect the name of Jesus to be sweet and precious to me? Lord, let me not rest till I have done so. Give me now, by Thy Holy Spirit, to realize my need of Christ, and to see His preciousness.
The Effect of Solomon’s Excellencies.
“Therefore do the virgins love thee.”
The report of the king’s excellencies and attractions had reached Shulamite, as it had done the Queen of Sheba (1Ki_10:1) The effect of these excellencies was that the virgins loved him; among the rest Shulamite herself. So the excellencies of Christ render Him, as they may well do, the object of love to all sincere and rightly disposed persons who came to hear of them. In reference to—
Love to Christ,
the text suggests—
I. The PERSONS who love Him. The ‘virgins’ representatives of—
1. Believers, or renewed persons in general. Virgin-souls—those whose hearts are given entirely to God and Jesus Christ. Those who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth (Rev_14:4). Believers to be presented to Christ as a chaste virgin (2Co_11:3). The true members of the Jewish Church so called (Jer_31:4; Jer_31:21). Believe ‘virgins’—
(1) From their pure and undivided affection to Christ;
(2) From their chaste and faithful adherence to Him and His cause;
(3) From their true and Scriptural views of Him and His religion;
(4) From the purity of their worship and general conversation;
(5) From their meekness, modesty, and tenderness of conscience;
(6) From their moral beauty and comeliness of spirit. Observe—
(1) Christ only loved by virgin-souls, whose hearts are detached from the world. Men cannot serve God and mammon, or love Christ and the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father and of Christ is not in him. A divided heart cannot love Christ. Those only His true lovers who are willing to leave all and follow Him. Hence—
(2) Only renewed and regenerate persons love Christ. The carnal mind enmity against God, and so against Christ. The heart renewed and circumcised in order to love God and His Son (Deu_30:6). The stony heart taken away and a heart of flesh given instead (Eze_36:26).
(3) All renewed souls love Christ. Christ the magnet that attracts renewed hearts. A natural affinity between Christ and renewed souls. Such able both to see and appreciate His excellence, both in Himself and in relation to sinners. The language of renewed and enlightened souls: ‘The love of Christ constraineth us’ (2Co_5:14).
(4) The glory and honour of Jesus, that He is loved only by pure and sincere souls, and by all such.
2. Young converts, more particularly. First love of believers often warmest. The kindness of Israel’s youth tenderly remembered by the Lord (Jer_2:2). The believer’s young love often damped by the power of corruption within, and the influence of the world without. The main charge which the Lord Jesus brought against the Church of Ephesus, that it had left its ‘first love’ (Rev_2:4).
3. Men in general,—especially, men of single and sincere hearts. Christ the suitable object of human love, both as a perfect man and as a loving Saviour. Men of honest and sincere hearts the most likely to love Christ. Hence the attachment of a Nathanael and a Cornelius, of a Nicodemus and a Joseph of Arimathæa. Men who are ‘Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile,’ readily drawn to Christ. Christ the ‘Desire of all nations,’ fitted to be such, and actually to become such. Men only prevented from loving Christ by the blindness of their minds and the depravity of their hearts. Love to Christ the test of a man’s character. Men worthy to be ‘accursed’ who do not love the Lord Jesus Christ (1Co_16:22).
4. Angels, who have never sinned. Christ the object of angelic love. His sufferings on earth and His glory in heaven lovingly contemplated by angels (1Pe_1:11-12). Angels rejoiced to minister to Him, and still minister to His members for His sake. The first to announce His birth, and the companions of the redeemed in celebrating His praise.
II. The LOVE itself. Christ the object first of a sinner’s faith, then of his love. True faith in Christ, a ‘faith which worketh by love.’ Men’s love desired by Christ: ‘My son, give Me thine heart.’ The love of the woman of Sychar refreshes Him more than meat and drink. Nothing without men’s love satisfied Christ. ‘If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be utterly contemned’ (chap. Son_8:7). Christ infinitely worthy of men’s love—
(1) For what He is in Himself;
(2) For what He has done for them. Observe—
1. The character of a believer’s love to Christ. It is—
(1) Natural and reasonable.
(2) Ardent and sincere.
(3) Paramount and supreme.
(4) Undivided and admitting no rival.
(5) Active and practical.
(6) Self-denying.
(7) Pure and holy.
(8) Permanent and abiding.
(9) Unconquerable and unquenchable.
(10) Divine in its origin.
(11) Self-evidencing.
2. The evidence of this love. Shews itself—
(1) In obedience to His will.
(2) In devotedness to His service.
(3) In love to His fellowship.
(4) In imitation of His spirit and conduct.
(5) In affection to His people, His cause, and all that belongs to Him.
Bride’s Second Desire.
‘Draw me, we will run after thee.’—Son_1:4.
Shulamite’s first desire for the bridegroom’s kisses; her second desire for the bridegroom himself. Spiritual desire grows and enlarges itself. Christ better than even His kisses. The text contains—I. A Request: II. A Resolution.
I. The REQUEST. ‘Draw me.’ Christ the magnet of renewed souls. The desire of all such to be drawn to Him. The request the result—
(1) Of acquaintance with Him;
(2) Of love to Him;
(3) Of desire to enjoy and follow Him. Implies—
(1) Perception of Him, as the One Pearl of great price; the Treasure hid in the Field; the chief among ten thousand; the Altogether Lovely.
(2) Desire after Him. Renewed and saved souls not content to be at a distance from Christ, or to sit still in such a condition. Their desire to be near Him, lean on His bosom, rest in His arms, sit at His feet, hear His voice, look on His pierced hands and side.
(3) Conscious inability. The soul unable of itself to come to Christ, run after Him, or follow Him. The renewed soul conscious of that inability. Hence the prayer: ‘Quicken us, and we will call upon Thy name.’ ‘My soul cleaveth to the dust; quicken me according to Thy word.’ ‘Turn me and I shall be turned.’ The soul conscious of Divine help in following hard after God (Psa_63:8; Psa_119:32). Grace, leaches us both Christ’s worth and our own weakness. Christ the Author as well as the Object of our faith. The soul kept from Christ, and from following after Him, by a three-fold hindrance—
(1) The flesh;
(2) The world;
(3) The Devil. Christ first draws souls to Him, and then after Him. Observe in regard to—
The Saviour’s Drawing.
1. The MEANING AND IMPORT of it. A threefold drawing of the soul by Christ—
(1) In conversion to Him;
(2) In following after Him;
(3) In communion with Him. The last here especially intended. The desire in Son_1:2, followed by that in Son_1:4 as a means towards it. To enjoy Christ’s kisses we have to be drawn to Christ Himself. Christ draws—
(1) Our attention, keeping it fixed on Himself;
(2) Our desire and longing, as in the case of the woman of Sidon (Mat_15:21-28);
(3) Our affection;
(4) Our resolution;
(5) Our self-surrender;
(6) Our confidence and faith. Implies not only faith, but perseverance in it (1Pe_1:5).
2. The MEANS by which He draws. Christ draws by showing—
(1) His own love, loveliness, and preciousness;
(2) Our entire and absolute need of Him. The Holy Ghost the effectual agent employed. The instrumental means, the Word, however communicated, which reveals Him in what He is in Himself, and what He is to us and has done for us (Joh_12:32). Christ draws—
(1) By the Doctrines He teaches;
(2) By the Promises He makes;
(3) By the Providences He employs (Hos_2:14; Hos_11:4; Rom_2:4).
3. The MOTIVE AND GROUND of the drawing. His own free love. He draws with loving-kindness because He has loved with an everlasting love (Jer_31:3). The bands with which He draws, “the bands of love” (Hos_11:4). His love to and choice of us before ours to Him (Joh_15:16; 1Jn_4:19).
The personality of the request to be noticed. ‘Draw me.’ Salvation and true religion,—the possession and enjoyment of Christ,—a personal thing. The believer’s first desire is to be drawn himself. ‘Remember me, O Lord, with the favour that Thou bearest to Thy people; visit me with Thy salvation’ (Psa_106:4). We can only be the means of drawing others to Christ when we have been drawn ourselves.
II. The RESOLUTION. ‘We will run after thee.’ The words may indicate;—
(1) The object of the request;
(2) The argument used to enforce it: nothing sweeter to Christ, than a soul ardently following Him;
(3) A purpose formed;
(4) A hope entertained. Viewed as referring to the speaker, a purpose or resolution; as referring to others, a hope and expectation. Notice—
1. The Action. ‘Run after thee.’ Implies eagerness, earnestness, and haste; rapidity, perseverance, and strength (Isa_40:31; Dan_8:6). Opposed to former deadness and sluggishness, whether absolute or comparative. Believers, when it in well with them, not content with mere walking after Christ. Good to walk, better to run. The Psalmist’s resolution (Psa_119:32). The promise of the Father to Christ in regard to the nations (Isa_55:5). Not only walking but running promised as the result of waiting upon the Lord (Isa_40:31). Running, rather than mere walking, pleasing to Christ. Luke warmness his great dislike (Rev_3:15). Christ worthy not only of being followed, but run after—followed and sought with the energy of the whole soul. A blind world run after the creature; enlightened believers run after Christ. Christ first run to, then run after. Run to as a Saviour; run after as a Friend and Beloved. We run to Him as sinners; after Him as saints. The believer’s duty and privilege not to run before, but after Christ; not to make a way for himself but to tread in His steps (Joh_10:4-5; Joh_10:27). The running ours; the power to run, Christ’s. Effectual grace consistent with personal diligence, and a strong encouragement to it (Php_2:12-13; Psa_110:3). The request to be drawn not made from indolence but from helplessness. Believers to be not slothful in business—least of all in the business of religion—but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord (Rom_12:11). Progress always to be made towards Christ and in the Divine life. The Christian life a running (1Co_9:24-25; Gal_2:2; Gal_4:7; Heb_12:1-2; Php_3:13-14). The believer’s let made like find’s feet. The Word of God made plain, that those that read may run (Hab_2:2). Christ to be run after—
(1) As our Chief Joy and Highest Good. Christ the Desire of all nations, and worthy to be the Desire of all hearts. All in Him that is lovely and desirable; and all lovely and desirable that is in Him. Christ the Fountain of living waters. All else broken cisterns. The language of the soul running alter Christ, ‘Whom have in heaven but Thee? and there is none on the earth that I desire besides Thee.’ ‘There be many that say: who will shew us any good: Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us’ (Psa_73:25; Psa_4:6).
“Thou. O Christ art all I want;
More than all in Thee I find.”
(2) As our Pattern and Example. He hath left us an example that we should follow His steps. ‘I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you’ (Joh_13:14-15; 1Pe_2:21). The same mind to be in us that was in Him. The believer to be as He was in the world (Php_2:5; 1Jn_4:17; 1Jn_2:6; 1Jn_3:3). To run his race, looking unto Jesus (Heb_12:3).
(3). Our Leader and Commander. Christ given for this purpose (Isa_55:4). The Captain of our salvation. Believers to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ. The picture of Christ and His saints on the day of His appearing to have its special verification now,—Christ as King and General on His white horse, followed by the armies of His people also on white horses (Rev_19:12-14). Fulfilled in the calling of the Apostles (Mat_4:18-22; Luk_5:27-28; Joh_1:43). And of every believer (Mat_16:24). ‘The sacramental host of God’s elect.’
2. The persons. ‘We will run after Thee.’ The singular changed for the plural. Draw me: we will run. We,—I and others with me. Me, the individual believer; we, he and others influenced by him. Or; me, the single believer; we, the Church of which he forms a part. Both individuality and plurality in the Bride. The Bride both an individual and a community. The Church one and many. The drawing of one member followed by the running of others; so the Primitive Church at and after Pentecost. The drawing of the woman of Sychar followed by the running of many of the inhabitants (John 4). The language of a lively believer that of Moses to his father-in-law: ‘We are journeying to the place of which the Lord hath said, I will give it you; come thou with us and we will do thee good’ (Num_10:29). The believer not content to enjoy or follow Christ alone. Andrew finds his brother Simon and brings him to Jesus. Philip, after finding the Saviour himself, does the same with Nathaniel (Joh_1:40-45). None drawn to follow Christ alone. One drawn by means of another. The believer’s duty and privilege to be instrumental in drawing others to Christ; and his great joy to see others running after Him along with himself. The lively Christian a missionary everywhere. The love and life of one believer the means of quickening and stirring up others. On the other hand, one dead Christian often the means of deadening others. One lively member of a Church a blessing to the whole.
Bride’s Recorded Experience.
‘The King hath brought me into His chambers.’
Shulamite recalls and records her experience of the King’s kindness and her own happiness. Good to remember and thankfully to record the manifestations of Christ’s favour. The Lord’s will concerning His people. He hath made His works to be remembered. The believer’s duty,—Bless the Lord, O my soul and forget not all His benefits. A gain to ourselves as well as to others, to remember and ‘mention the loving kindness of the Lord’ (Isa_63:7). The favour in the text recorded apparently as an answer to the prayer: ‘Draw me.’ Answers to prayer to be especially remembered and mentioned for the Lord’s honour, and for the encouragement of others as well as ourselves. Earnest longings and entreaties for spiritual blessings never disregarded. ‘The vision is for an appointed time; though it tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, and will not tarry’ (Hab_2:3).—Observe, in regard to the favour in the text,—introduction into
The King’s Chambers.
I. THE CHAMBERS themselves. The King’s chambers his more private apartments. Admission only for favoured persons, those nearest and dearest to the King. The especial privilege of the King’s Betrothed. Shulamite rejoices in being admitted to this high honour. Christ not only makes believers His Bride, but admits them to the privileges of such a relation. Admission into Christ’s chambers implies—more than ordinary manifestations of Himself; personal nearness; intimate fellowship; sensible enjoyment; confidential communication. The fulfilment of the promise: ‘I will manifest myself to him’ (Joh_14:21). The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant (Psa_25:14). The privilege of believers to enter into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus (Heb_10:19), and to sit with Christ in the heavenly places (Eph_2:6). Special nearness to Christ and sense of His love at times realized by the believer. Such realisations not confined to time or place; but more usually enjoyed in secret prayer and public ordinances, more especially in the Lord’s Supper. Such experiences the believer’s high festival days, and foretastes of heaven. Ordinarily for but a short time together. At present, the believer’s place in general only the antechamber. Permanent abiding in the King’s chambers reserved for a higher and better state. Meantime, the happy privilege of believers to be at times admitted into the King’s chambers. No place on earth so honourable and so blessed. No place so humble and unattractive to the eye of sense but grace can convert it into the King’s chambers. Jacob’s experience on the stony plain at Bethel not confined to local habitation: ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not: This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven’ (Gen_28:16-17). Such Divine manifestations enjoyed in the humblest dwelling, and even in the chamber of sickness. The field, the wood, the highway, the open sea, capable of being made the King’s chambers. John’s blessed experience in the lonely rocky isle of Patmos. Samuel Rutherford in exile dated his letters from ‘the King’s palace at Aberdeen.’ John Bunyan wrote his “Pilgrim’s Progress” in Bedford Jail. The moors and mosses, caves and mountain sides, often made to His persecuted followers the King’s chambers. Admission into these chambers the special privilege of New Testament times. Moses spoke to the Church at the door of the tabernacle; the Apostles speak from the Holy of Holies. Those now waiting at Wisdom’s gates admitted into Wisdom’s chambers. The three great blessings enjoyed in those chambers,—Comfort, Enlightenment, and Security (Psa_25:13-14; Psa_27:4-6; Isa_26:20-21). The King’s chambers on earth so blessed, what the chambers in heaven!
II. ADMISSION into the chamber. ‘The King hath brought me’ (Heb., ‘made me come’). Admission into them both the King’s favour and the King’s doing. An enhancement of the happiness. Believers conscious of their own unworthiness and inability to enter the chambers of Divine communion, and of the Saviour’s grace in introducing them. The King brings them—
(1) By procuring access through His own merits (Rom_5:2; Eph_2:13; Eph_2:18; Heb_10:19).
(2) By giving the desire to enter them—‘Why was I made to hear thy voice,’ &c. (Eph_4:18).
(3) By encouraging them with His gracious invitations and promises.
(4) By imparting faith and inward light (Psa_43:3).
(5) By subduing and keeping down corruption,—like Abraham fraying away the fowls from the sacrifice (Gen_15:11). Obstacles and hindrances to be overcome in order to our entrance into the King’s chambers. Some outside of us: Divine justice that, forbids it to transgressors; Satan who resists it; the world with its influences against it. Others within us: conscious guilt; spiritual blindness; carnality; unbelief; sloth; natural disinclination. These to be overcome and removed by the Saviour’s grace.—‘The King hath brought me.’ Marks the forth-putting of especial grace and power. Christ brings sinners into the enjoyment of Divine favour and fellowship as a King. The title indicative of His power and right. To introduce sinners into the enjoyment of the blessings He has purchased, one of His kingly acts. As King, He has the keys of His own chambers as well as those of death and hell. The impression of Christ’s kingliness left on the heart of the believer admitted into His fellowship. A few hours’ converse with Jesus in a humble dwelling left John and Andrew with the conviction they had been with Messiah the King (Joh_1:41). Communion with Christ gives lofty thoughts of Him. Only ‘He’ before; now, ‘the King.’ Christ all the more kingly in a believer’s eyes the nearer he gets to Him. So Isaiah: ‘Mine eyes have seen the King’ (Isa_6:5). Divine familiarity the opposite of bleeding contempt. Reverence, humility, and obedience, the result of admission into the King’s chambers. The experience in those chambers: ‘I am a man of unclean lips’ (Isa_6:5). Believers go forth from them more devoted to the service of the King: ‘Here am I, send me’ (Isa_6:8). Divine power and sovereignty manifest in everything connected with salvation. Christ a King, both in His own right as God, and by Divine appointment as Mediator (Psa_2:6). Saves not only as a Priest and a Prophet, but also as a King. Believers, when it is best with them, love most to acknowledge Christ’s supremacy and right over all they are and have and do. Christ not only a King, but the King,—chief of all who ever bore the title; the only one with absolute right to it; ‘the blessed and only Potentate, King of Kings and Lord of Lords’ (1Ti_6:15).—Observe the personality of the experience: ‘Hath brought me.’ Each believer to be able to say this for himself. The language—
(1) Of joy and thankfulness. What was matter of prayer, now made matter of praise.
(2) Of wonder and surprise. Shulamite dwells on the King’s condescension. Like Mephibosheth when admitted to the King’s table,—‘such a dead dog as I.’ ‘Hath brought me,’—me so black and unworthy of such an honour and happiness! Amazing condescension and love on the part of the King to admit worms and rebels into His chambers. Every believer a beggar raised by the King from the dunghill, to be made His Bride and the partner of His throne. The believer never to lose sight of what he was, and still is, in himself.
(3) Of consciousness and certainty. Shulamite certain the King has bestowed on her this privilege. Enjoyment of Christ’s presence and fellowship a matter about which there should be no mistake or doubt. Christ’s object to make it certain; Satan’s, to tempt the believer to question its reality and think it a delusion.
Bride’s Joy in the King.
We will be glad and rejoice in Thee.’
Language expressive of Shulamite’s happy experience of the King’s chambers, and her high esteem of the King himself. Implies both anticipation and resolution. Observe on the words thus viewed, in regard to the
Believer’s Joy in Christ.
I. The JOY itself. Intense joy. The language emphatic: ‘We will be glad and rejoice.’ Two words employed for emphasis. Not mere joy, but exultation. Not a mere rejoicing, but a shouting for joy. An inward joy outwardly expressed. A believer’s joy in Christ a joy unspeakable and full of glory (1Pe_1:8). Believers at times in heaviness through manifold temptations; but their experience anything but a gloomy one. The ransomed of the Lord enabled to return to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads (Isa_35:10). Have joy here, and the hope of more hereafter. ‘They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.’ Cheerfulness and joy disposing to praise, both the privilege and duty of believers. Sadness in the presence of an Oriental monarch an offence to the sovereign and a peril to the subject (Neh_2:1-2). God graciously meets those that rejoice while they remember Him in His ways (Isa_66:5).
II. The OBJECT of the joy. Christ himself. We will be glad and rejoice in Thee. Not in the creature and its attractions; not in the world and its pleasures; not in self and its doings or feelings. Christ and God in him the object of truest and highest joy. The duty and privilege of believers, both in the Old and New Testament, to rejoice in the Lord (Psa_33:1; Php_3:1). Enough in God to fill a universe of intelligent creatures, and enough in Christ to fill a world of believing sinners, with joy unspeakable. Christ opens up sources of joy outside of Himself; but the deep and living fountain is in Himself. The Psalmist’s words especially true of Christ: ‘All my springs are in Thee’ (Psa_87:7). In Him are both ‘the upper and the nether springs,’—the joy of the Church triumphant in heaven, and of the Church militant on earth. All the attractions and charms in the creature concentrated and summed up in Him, the Creator and Saviour. In Him all love and loveliness, all sweetness and excellence, in their perfection and without alloy. Believers able to rejoice in Christ not only as their Redeemer and Saviour, but as their Beloved and Bridegroom (Mat_9:15). To a renewed soul, everything in Jesus such as to afford matter of joy,—His person, names, titles, offices, relations, work: His birth, life, sufferings, death resurrection, ascension, second coming; His miracles, discourses, doctrines, promises, precepts, warnings; His word, worship, day, table, people, cause; His salvation, grace, kingdom, fellowship, love; His blood that washes them, His righteousness that clothes them, His spirit that anoints and sanctifies them, and His ordinances that comfort and strengthen them. In His present salvation they rejoice; still more in that which is to be revealed at His coming. In His salvation they rejoice; still more in Himself. Good to have and enjoy the King’s gifts; still better to have and enjoy the King himself. Thy gifts precious; but ‘We will be glad and rejoice in Thee.’ Joy in an unseen Christ unspeakable; what then in a seen one?
The text the language of resolution. ‘We will be glad.’ The duty of believers to rejoice in Christ, and to resolve by Divine grace to do so. Especially on any fresh enjoyment of His presence and love. Holy resolution the fruit of Divine grace, and to be freely made in dependance on it. Need of resolution. Much to oppose such rejoicing: remembered sin; inward corruption; buffetings of Satan; outward trials. These not to hinder rejoicing in the Lord. ‘Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, &c., yet will I rejoice in the Lord,’ &c. (Hab_3:17-18). Joy in Christ often greatest when joy from the creature is least (Hos_2:14;’ 2Co_1:5).
The language of faith and hope. The same ground of rejoicing in the future as in the past. Christ a well that never runs dry. The same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. ‘Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver; in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us’ (2Co_1:10). ‘Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice’ (Psa_63:7).
Observe the party who shall rejoice. ‘We will be glad and rejoice in Thee.’ Another change from the singular to the plural. ‘The King hath brought me, &c.; we will be glad, &c. The Bride herself, and others along with her. The believer speaks for himself and his fellow-believers. The joy of one to become the joy of many. The part of believers to rejoice with them that rejoice. The body of Christ one with many members. ‘If one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it’ (1Co_12:26). One believer rejoicing in the presence and love of Jesus, the means of influencing others to seek and obtain the same happiness. Man a social being. Inclined to act in numbers. One constantly influenced by another. Sympathy a powerful principle in man’s nature. Its operation in revivals of religion. Employed by the Spirit in the great advancement of Christ’s Kingdom (Zec_8:20-23; Isa_2:3; Mic_4:1-2).
Bride’s Gratitude to the King.
‘We will remember Thy love more than wine.’
Shulamite resolves not only to rejoice in the King himself, but to cherish a grateful remembrance of his love. “We will remember (or record) thy love (or loves—loving words and actions) more than wine.” Probably a double resolution—to remember inwardly for herself, and to record outwardly for others; both to the praise of her loving Bridegroom. One of the duties and delights of believers, the
Remembrance of Christ’s Love.
Observe in regard to it—
I. The LOVE remembered. Heb. ‘Loves,’—for the greatness of it, or the variety of its kinds, and the multiplicity of its manifestations. Christ’s love to His people that of a Saviour to the lost, a Redeemer to the captive, a Shepherd to his sheep, a Husband to his wife, a Brother to his brethren, a Father to his children, a Friend to his intimate acquaintances. Its various manifestations—
1. Offering Himself for our redemption in the everlasting covenant (Psa_40:7).
2. Revealing himself to the Old Testament Church in types and symbols, prophecies and promises.
3. Assuming our nature in the fulness of time.
4. His teachings and labours of love during His life on earth.
5. His sufferings and death as the atonement for our sins.
6. His return to heaven to carry forward the work of our salvation.
7. His subsequent bestowment of the Holy Spirit with all needful grace and blessing.
8. His gathering in lost sinners to Himself through His Word and Spirit.
9. His speaking peace and comfort to the awakened and troubled conscience.
10. His restoring the believer from his falls and backslidings.
11. His gladdening the soul with His manifested presence and love.
12. His gracious promises to come again and receive His people to Himself for ever.
Christ’s love infinitely worthy to be remembered and celebrated through time and eternity; on account of—
1. Its greatness. ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends’ (Joh_15:13). Christ’s love greater than this; as—
(1) He did more than lay down His life for us;
(2) He did it not for friends, but enemies. Jonathan’s love to David, ‘wonderful, passing the love of women’ (2Sa_1:26). Jonathan’s love only a faint picture of Christ’s.
2. Its costliness. ‘Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it’ (Eph_5:25). The love of Ahasuerus to Esther his queen extended to the gift of half his kingdom (Est_5:3). Christ’s love to His people extended not only to the gift of His whole kingdom, but of Himself (Mat_20:28).
3. Its fruits. Deliverance from sin, death, and hell, with perfection in holiness and the enjoyment of Himself in glory everlasting. ‘That He might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water, by the word; that He might present it unto Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish’ (Eph_5:26).
II. The REMEMBRANCE of it. The remembrance of Christ’s love on the part of believers:
(1) A Duty;
(2) A Delight;
(3) A Necessity. Proceeds—
(1) From a sense of duty;
(2) From the impression of its sweetness. Christ’s love remembered when all else is forgotten. Its remembrance brings—
(1) Glory to Christ;
(2) Benefit to our neighbour;
(3) Comfort and quickening to ourselves. Its remembrance our sweetest cordial in the time of trouble (Psa_42:6). Assures us afresh of our interest in Christ, and casts out slavish fear. Revives our love to Him, and stimulates to do and suffer for His sake. His love not remembered and recorded as a thing past and gone for ever; but one of unchanging continuance and ever fresh manifestation. An everlasting love. Helps to remembering it are—
1. Daily reading, of the Word, with meditation and prayer; especially such portions of it as bear expressly upon Christ and His love. For example: the Gospels and Canticles; Isaiah 53; Psalms 22 &c.
2. Careful observance of the Sabbath, with suitable meditation on His death and resurrection, which it was designed to commemorate.
3. Frequent celebration of the Lord’s Supper, designed for the express purpose of keeping Himself and His dying love in remembrance.
4. Fellowship with living and loving believers. ‘As iron sharpeneth iron, so doth a man the face of his friend.’ ‘Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another.’ ‘Provoke one another to love and good works.’
III. The DEGREE of Remembrance. ‘More than wine.’ The love better than wine (Son_1:2), and therefore more remembered. Wine mentioned as a natural means of gladness and refreshing (Jdg_9:13; Psa_104:15). Associated with festivity—‘banquet of wine.’ Here put for all earth’s choicest pleasures and sensuous enjoyments. To Shulamite, her bridegroom’s love more worthy to be remembered than everything besides. ‘Sweet is the King’s wine, but sweeter his love.’ All Christ’s gifts sweet, and all His benefits to be remembered; but sweeter and more to be remembered than all is His love. Its sweetness sufficient to obliterate the remembrance of all other joy. Christ’s love the absorbing subject as the believer approaches the confines of eternity. Earth’s lawful enjoyments perhaps not forgotten in heaven; but the love of Christ the chosen and overshadowing subject of ever-new songs (Rev_1:5; Rev_5:9; Rev_5:12-13; Rev_14:3).
The text the language of resolution. ‘We will remember,’ &c. Such resolution needed. The flesh adverse to such remembrance. Satan’s object to efface or weaken it. The tendency of earthly things to prevent or deaden it. David’s language in reference to Jerusalem applicable to Christ’s love: “If I forget thee, let my right hand forget her cunning: if I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not thee above my chiefest joy (Psa_137:5-6).
Bride Commends her Beloved and Justifies her Love.
‘The upright love thee.’
May be either read—‘Upright people love thee;’ or, ‘Rightly do people love thee.’ Mentioned by Shulamite as an enhancement of her Beloved’s excellence, and a justification of her own love. Similar to Son_1:3. Indicates the character both of Christ himself and
Christ’s Lovers.
I. THE CHARACTER OF THOSE WHO LOVE CHRIST. ‘The upright;’—sincere, true, just, pure in heart and life. Such as Simeon of Jerusalem; Joseph the carpenter; Joseph of Arimathæa; Nathaniel, ‘an Israelite indeed, in whom was no guile.’ Christ Himself, ‘that Just One;’ God’s ‘righteous servant;’ ‘Jesus Christ the Righteous,’ who loves righteousness and hates iniquity; ‘holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.’ Naturally loved by persons of a similar character, and only by such. A holy Christ capable of being loved only by holy persons, or such at least as, conscious of their sins, desire to be holy. Like naturally loves and draws to like. Hence Christ only loved by converted and renewed persons. Love to God’s Christ a holy and spiritual thing. A plant not spontaneously growing among the noxious weeds of Nature’s garden, but produced by the Holy Ghost in a renewed heart. Found only in those who have passed from death to life; who were afar off, but have been made high by the blood of Christ; who were lost, but are found; who as believing and pardoned sinners ‘have tasted that the Lord is gracious’ (1Pe_2:3; 1Jn_4:19). The forgiven woman that had been a sinner, loved Jesus, who had forgiven her sins, which were many, and for which she now lovingly weeps at His feet. The proud, self-righteous, merely outwardly religious Pharisee, incapable of such love. ‘He to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little’ (Luk_7:47). A sinner may love Christ, but not a Pharisee (Luk_15:1-2). Upright persons love Christ, because by His blood shed for them, and His spirit given to them, He has made them upright. When He forgives a sinner He makes him upright. The heart purified by faith. All upright who love Christ in sincerity. Others only pretenders. True love to Christ sufficient to prove a man upright. ‘By their fruits ye shall know them.’ On the other hand, a man’s love to Christ proved by his uprightness. ‘If ye love me keep my commandments. If a man love Me, he will keep My words’ (Joh_14:15; Joh_14:23). Hence those worthy to be ‘accursed ‘who do not love Christ. They are not upright, and they refuse Him who would make them so.
II. THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST HIMSELF. The text a commendation of the Beloved. He must be excellent and upright who is loved by upright persons. A man’s character indicated by the character of his friends. A high commendation of the character of Christ—
(1) That He is loved by all the honest and best in creation—by all holy angels and holy men;
(2) That He is loved only by the holy and upright
III. THE CHARACTER OF LOVE TO CHRIST. It is—
(1) A holy thing; only upright persons possess it;
(2) A right and reasonable thing. Upright persons only love uprightly—on just grounds and considerations. Just grounds for loving Christ—
(1) In what He is;
(2) In what He has done. Christ infinitely worthy of angelic, still more of human, love. Is infinitely excellent in Himself; has been infinitely kind to us. As God, possessed of all the infinite amiableness of the Divine perfections; and, as our Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor, has an infinite right to our love. That right enhanced by the fact that, as God-man for our sakes, He has become also our Redeemer. Robbery committed when Christ is not loved; idolatry, when others are loved in His place. ‘If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha,’—accursed [when] the Lord cometh (1Co_16:22).
The text a test of character. Do I love Christ? If not, then I am not upright. I do not love uprightness; for Christ is uprightness itself. I rob Him of what He has the most perfect right to, and of what He sets the highest value on—my love. Hence my need both of mercy and grace; of mercy to pardon, and of grace to renew me. Lord, grant both.
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.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain 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.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 1:2-14 The Song begins with the woman’s expression of…
1:2-14 The Song begins with the woman’s expression of desire for intimate union with the man she loves. In the Song, the woman is frequently the one who initiates relationship. The members of the chorus (identified in the NLT as “Young Women of Jerusalem”) affirm her choice of this man. • According to the three-character dramatic interpretation, the Song opens by explaining the woman’s predicament. The king is about to take her into his palace, but her true passions lie with her shepherd lover. The woman hopes that her lover will rescue her from the king’s presence (1:4).
1:2 Kiss me and kiss me again: The woman longs for the touch and taste of kisses from her true love. From the very start we find that the young woman and the man share a strong attraction. Their relationship is one of mutual respect and loving concern. • Love is a sensual experience in the Song. The taste of love is sweeter than wine, a rich and sensuous liquid; love, like wine, also leaves its partaker slightly light-headed.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.