The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping on the mountains, skipping on the hills.
Parallel Translations
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The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping on the mountains, skipping on the hills.
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The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.
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Hark! my beloved! behold, he cometh, leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.
Cross-references (18)
Passages linked to Song of Solomon 2:8 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
- Song of Solomon 2:17 Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a roe or a young deer on the mountains of Bether.
- Isaiah 52:7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
- John 3:29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. This, my joy, therefore is made full.
- Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me.
- 2 Samuel 6:16 As Yahweh’s ark came into David’s city, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out through the window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before Yahweh; and she despised him in her heart.
- Song of Solomon 5:2 I was asleep, but my heart was awake. It is the voice of my beloved who knocks: “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled; for my head is filled with dew, and my hair with the dampness of the night.”
- Isaiah 35:6 Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.
- Isaiah 40:3-4 The voice of one who calls out, “Prepare the way of Yahweh in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain.
- Isaiah 44:23 Sing, you heavens, for Yahweh has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth! Break out into singing, you mountains, O forest, all of your trees, for Yahweh has redeemed Jacob, and will glorify himself in Israel.
- Isaiah 49:11-13 I will make all my mountains a road, and my highways shall be exalted. Behold, these shall come from afar, and behold, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.” Sing, heavens, and be joyful, earth! Break out into singing, mountains, for Yahweh has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted.
- Isaiah 55:12-13 For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace. The mountains and the hills will break out before you into singing; and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn the cypress tree will come up; and instead of the brier the myrtle tree will come up. It will make a name for Yahweh, for an everlasting sign that will not be cut off.”
- Jeremiah 48:27 For wasn’t Israel a derision to you? Was he found among thieves? For as often as you speak of him, you shake your head.
- Luke 3:4-6 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight. Every valley will be filled. Every mountain and hill will be brought low. The crooked will become straight, and the rough ways smooth. All flesh will see God’s salvation.’ ”
- John 10:4-5 Whenever he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. They will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him; for they don’t know the voice of strangers.”
- Acts 3:8 Leaping up, he stood and began to walk. He entered with them into the temple, walking, leaping, and praising God.
- Acts 14:10 said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet!” He leaped up and walked.
- Luke 6:23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for their fathers did the same thing to the prophets.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (19 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain This is spoken of Christ, who took upon his…
This is spoken of Christ, who took upon his our nature to come to help his Church.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Son 2:8 The voice of my beloved! behold, he…
Son 2:8 The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.
Ver. 8. The voice of my beloved! behold!] An abrupt passage, proceeding from a pang of love, whereof she was even sick, and now lay languishing, as it were, at Hope’s Hospital, lingering and listening, hankering and hearkening after her beloved. Of the ear we use to say that it is first awake in a morning. Call one that is asleep by his name, and he will soon hear and start up. Christ "calls all his sheep by their name," {Joh 10:3} and they "know his voice," {Joh 10:4} so well are they versed in his Word, and so habitually are their senses exercised, {Heb 5:14} yea, they know his pace. For -
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Behold he cometh,] viz., To "make his abode with me," according to his promise; {Joh 14:23} to fulfil with his hand what he had spoken with his mouth, as Solomon phraseth it in his prayer. {1Ki 8:15} Christ sends his voice as another John Baptist, a forerunner, and this no sooner sounds in the ear, and sinks into the heart, than himself is at hand to speak comfort to the conscience. {Psa 51:8} He thinks long of the time till it were done, as the mother’s breast aches when it is time the child had suck.
He comes leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.] Look how the jealous eagle, when she flieth highest of all from her nest, and seems to seat herself among the clouds, yet still she casts an eye to her nest where are her young ones; and if she see any come near to offend, presently she speeds to their help and rescue. So doth the Lord Christ deal by his beloved spouse. Neither mountains nor hills shall hinder his coming; neither the sins of his people nor the world’s opposition. As for the former, Christ blots out the "thick cloud," as well as the "cloud"; {Isa 44:22} that is, enormities as well as infirmities. He casts all the sins of his saints into the bottom of the sea, which can as easily cover mountains as mole hills. And for the second, "Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey," meaning, than all the Church’s enemies, called, for their ravenousness, mountains of lions and leopards. {Son 4:8} The stout hearted are spoiled, &c. {Psa 76:4-5} And "who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain." {Zec 4:7} And whereas man’s soul hath naturally many mountains of pride and profaneness in it - "there is that leviathan, and creeping things innumerable," {Psa 104:26} as the Psalmist saith of the sea - and for his body there is not a vein in it that would not swell to the height of the highest hill to make resistance to the work of grace; every such "mountain and hill is made low before the Lord Christ"; {Isa 40:4} and "every high thing cast down that exalts itself against the knowledge of God." {2Co 10:5} He coaxes with authority, and reigns over all impediments.
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 The voice of my Beloved! methinks I hear his…
The voice of my Beloved! methinks I hear his voice. The spouse being now refreshed and revived with Christ’s presence, awakes out of sleep, and breaks forth into this joyful exclamation. Christ’s voice is nothing else but the word of grace revealed outwardly in the gospel, or the evangelical passages of the Old Testament, and inwardly to the heart of the spouse by the Spirit of God.
Behold, he cometh; either,
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1. He is coming, or will shortly come, into the world; which Solomon and the rest of the Old Testament prophets and saints did earnestly desire and confidently expect. Or,
2. He is coming to me for my support and comfort.
Leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills; he saith leaping and skipping, to note that Christ came readily and swiftly, with great desire and pleasure; and he adds,
upon the mountains and hills, either with respect to Mount Zion or Jerusalem, in and from which Christ first discovered himself; or to signify Christ’s fixed resolution to come, in spite of all discouragements and difficulties which stood in his way; or to show that his coming was manifest and visible to the eye of her faith. Or in this phrase he may have a respect to the roes and harts here following.
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 The voice - Christ's voice, the word of grace…
The voice - Christ's voice, the word of grace revealed outwardly in the gospel, and inwardly by the Spirit of God. Leaping - He saith, leaping and skipping, to denote that Christ came readily, and swiftly, with great desire and pleasure and adds, upon the mountains and hills, to signify Christ's resolution to come in spite of all difficulties.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 8. Behold, he cometh leaping] This appears to…
Verse 8. Behold, he cometh leaping] This appears to be highly characteristic of the gambols of the shepherds, and points out the ecstasy with which those who were enamoured ran to their mates. It is supposed that the second day's eclogue begins at this verse. The author of what was then called A New Translation of Solomon's Song, observes,
1. The bride relates how the bridegroom, attended by his companions, had come under her window, and called upon her to come forth and enjoy the beauties of the spring, So 2:9-11, c.
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2. She then returns to her narration, So 3:1. The bridegroom did not come according to her wishes. Night came on she did not find him in her bed; she went out to seek him; found him, and brought him to her mother's pavilion, So 3:4; and then, as before, conjures the virgins not to disturb his repose, So 3:5.
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 2:8. The voice of my beloved — Christ’s…
Son 2:8. The voice of my beloved — Christ’s voice, the word of grace revealed outwardly in the gospel, and inwardly by the Spirit of God. Behold, he cometh leaping — She saith, leaping and skipping, to denote that Christ came readily and swiftly, with great desire and pleasure; and adds, upon the mountains and hills, to signify Christ’s resolution to come in spite of all difficulties.
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 bride relates to the chorus a visit which…
The bride relates to the chorus a visit which the beloved had paid her some time previously in her native home. He on a fair spring morning solicits her company. The bride, immersed in rustic toils, refuses for the present, but confessing her love, bids him return at the cool of day. It is a spring-time of affection which is here described, still earlier than that of the former chapter, a day of pure first-love, in which, on either side, all royal state and circumstance is forgotten or concealed. Hence, perhaps, the annual recitation of the Song of Songs by the synagogue with each return of spring, at the Feast of Passover, and special interpretations of this passage by Hebrew doctors, as referring to the paschal call of Israel out of Egypt, and by Christian fathers, as foreshadowing the evangelic mysteries of Easter - Resurrection and Regeneration. The whole scene has also been thought to represent the communion of a newly-awakened soul with Christ, lie gradually revealing Himself to her, and bidding her come forth into fuller communion.
Son 2:8
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Voice - Better, “sound.” Not a voice, but the sound of approaching footsteps is meant (compare “noise,” Isa 13:4).
Son 2:9
Like a roe - Gazelle (compare Pro 5:19 note). The points of comparison here are beauty of form, grace, and speed of movement. In 2Sa 2:18; 1Ch 12:8, princes are compared to “gazelles.”
Wall - The clay-built wall of the house or vineyard of the bride’s family, different from the strong wall of a city or fortress Son 5:7; Son 8:9-10.
Looketh forth at the windows - The meaning evidently is, that he is looking in at, or through, the window from the outside. Compare Son 5:4 note.
Shewing himself - Or, peering. Some, taking the marginal rendering, imagine that the radiant face of the beloved is thus compared to some beautiful flower entangled in the lattice-work which protects the opening of the window, from where he gazes down upon the bride.
Son 2:10-13
Arise, my friend, my beautiful one, and come away - The stanza begins and ends with this refrain, in which the bride reports the invitation of the beloved that she should come forth with him into the open champaign, now a scene of verdure and beauty, and at a time of mirth and mutual affection. The season indicated by six signs Son 2:11-13 is that of spring after the cessation of the latter rain in the first or paschal month Joe 2:23, i. e., Nisan or Abib, corresponding to the latter part of March and early part of April. Cyril interpreted Son 2:11-12 of our Lord’s Resurrection in the spring.
Son 2:12
The time of the singing ... - i. e., The song of pairing birds. This is better than the rendering of the ancient versions, “the pruning time is come.”
Son 2:13
The vines ... - The vines in blossom give forth fragrance. The fragrance of the vine blossom (“semadar”), which precedes the appearance of “the tender grape,” is very sweet but transient.
Son 2:14
The secret places of the stairs - A hidden nook approached by a zig-zag path. The beloved urges the bride to come forth from her rock-girt home.
Son 2:15
The bride answers by singing what appears to be a fragment of a vine-dresser’s ballad, insinuating the vineyard duties imposed on her by her brethren Son 1:6, which prevent her from joining him. The destructive propensities of foxes or jackals in general are referred to, no grapes existing at the season indicated. Allegorical interpretations make these foxes symbolize “false teachers” (compare Eze 13:4).
Son 2:16
Feedeth among the lilies - Pursues his occupation as a shepherd among congenial scenes and objects of gentleness and beauty.
Son 2:17
Until the day break - Or, rather, until the day breathe, i. e., until the fresh evening breeze spring up in what is called Gen 3:8 “the cool” or breathing time of the day.
And the shadows flee - i. e., Lengthen out, and finally lose their outlines with the sinking and departure of the sun (compare Jer 6:4). As the visit of the beloved is most naturally conceived of as taking place in the early morning, and the bride is evidently dismissing him until a later time of day, it seems almost certain that this interpretation is the correct one which makes that time to be evening after sunset. The phrase recurs in Son 4:6.
Mountains of Bether - If a definite locality, identical with Bithron, a hilly district on the east side of the Jordan valley 2Sa 2:29, not far from Mahanaim (Son 6:13 margin). If used in a symbolic sense, mountains of “separation,” dividing for a time the beloved from the bride. This interpretation seems to be the better, though the local reference need not be abandoned.
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 The. Feeling the protection of Christ, the Church preacheth…
The. Feeling the protection of Christ, the Church preacheth boldly the truth against pagans and heretics. (Worthington) --- She knows the voice of the shepherd, (John viii. 47., and x. 2.) and keeps at a distance the wolves in sheep’s clothing, or pretended reformers, who would scatter the flock. --- Hills. She sees him returning in the evening with the utmost speed of a stag, as the Hebrew implies, chap. ii. 9., and viii. 14.
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 meeting of the lovers, related by Shulamith…
SECOND SONG
The first meeting of the lovers, related by Shulamith who has returned to her home.
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Son_2:8 to Son_3:5
FIRST (AND ONLY) SCENE:
SHULAMITH (ALONE).
8 Hark!14 my beloved; lo! here he comes,
leaping15 over the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
9 My beloved is like a gazelle
or a young hart.16
Lo! here he stands behind our wall,17
looking through18 the windows,
glancing through the lattices.19
10 Answered my beloved and said to me:
“Up,20 my dear, my fair one and go forth!
11 For, lo! the winter is past,
the rain is over, is gone.
12 The flowers appear in the land,
the time for song21 has arrived,
and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land.
13 The fig-tree spices22 its green figs
and the vines are in bloom,23 they yield fragrance,
24 up! my dear, my fair one and go forth!
14 My dove, in the clefts25 of the rock,
in the recess of the cliffs,26
let me see thy form,27 let me hear thy voice,
for thy voice is sweet and thy form is comely.”—
15 Catch28 us foxes,
little foxes, spoiling vineyards;
for our vineyards are in bloom.
16 My beloved is mine, and I am his,
who feeds among the lilies.
17 Against29 the day cools, and the shadows flee
turn thee, my beloved, and be like
a gazelle or a young hart
on the cleft30 mountains.
(She sleeps and after some time awakes again:)
III. 1 31On my bed32 in the nights33
I sought him whom my soul loves;
I sought him but I found him not.
2 “I will rise now and go about in the city
in the markets and in the streets;34
I will seek him whom my soul loves.”—
I sought him but I found him not.
3 Found35 me the watchmen, who go about in the city;
“36Whom my soul loves, have ye seen?”37
4 Scarcely38 had I passed from them,
when I found him whom my soul loves.
I grasped him and would not let him go,
until I had brought39 him into my mother’s house,
and into the chamber of her that conceived40 me.—
5 I41 adjure you, ye daughters of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles or by the hinds of the field,
that ye wake not and that ye waken not
love until it please.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. It is the fixed opinion of almost all the more recent interpreters that this act contains two monologues or sonnets sung by Shulamith alone, and nothing more; and this is verified by all the particulars that it contains. The attempt of Magnus and Delitzsch to strike out as spurious the formula of citation Son_2:10אָמַר דִּוֹדִי וְאָמַר לִי and so to gain a dialogue form for the first and larger division (Son_2:8-17) is wrecked not only by the evidence of genuineness afforded by all MSS. and ancient versions in favor of these words, but also by the closing verses of the section (Son_2:15-17) which correctly interpreted represent her lover as present only to the imagination of Shulamith or to her memory, which vividly recalled him. Whether the two monologues are regarded as two distinct scenes, (as is commonly the case), or the scene is allowed to remain the same in both without change and only a pause of some length is interposed between them (Ewald, Hitz., Hahn,) is on the whole but an unessential difference. For a pause after Son_2:17 is as undeniable and as universally admitted as is the peculiar character of the second sonnet Son_3:1-5, which as the narration of a dream (with the apostrophizing of the daughters of Jerusalem therewith connected) is sharply and distinctly sundered from the preceding monologue, though this too is of a narrative character. As to what takes place between the two monologues or scenes, we may either suppose (with Ewald and others) a prolonged meditation and silence on the part of Shulamith, exhausted by the foregoing lively expression of her longing desire for her lover, or, as intimated in the above translation, that she sinks into a brief slumber, which brings before her in a dream the lover for whom she so ardently longs, and thus in the moment of her awaking recalls to her remembrance a like dream from the early days of her love, which she hereupon relates. No sufficient proof of this assumption can, it is true, be brought from the context. Yet it undoubtedly has more in its favor than, e.g., the hypothesis proposed by Umbreit, Rocke, Vaihinger, Renan and several of the older writers, that Shulamith utters the words Son_2:8-17 in a dream, and then, after awaking, she relates (to the women of the harem around her) a dream which she had previously had, Son_3:1 ff., in order to “prove her changeless love to the friend to whom her heart was given.” The language in Son_2:8-17 has, to be sure, a certain dreamlike vagueness, rather than the character of a strictly historical narration. But this is sufficiently explained by the highly excited fancy of the singer, which brings up the past before her, as though she were experiencing it anew, and which in this lyrical recital, that is any thing but dry narration, here and there springs over what intervenes between the separate particulars of the action, especially in Son_2:9 and between Son_2:14-15.
2. It is, however, far more difficult to determine the scene or the situation, and the external-surroundings of the speaker during this act, than to decide upon the form and style of the discourse. The adherents of the shepherd-hypothesis, who here conceive of Shulamith as continuing at Jerusalem in the royal harem, and expressing her longing for her distant lover, can urge, it is true, in favor of this the repetition of the address to the “daughters of Jerusalem” at the close of the section (Son_3:5), but are not able to explain why the description in Son_2:8-17 presupposes an undoubted country scene, with mountains, hills, vineyards, flowery fields, etc., or why it is a simple monologue of the beloved, and neither Solomon nor the daughters of Jerusalem utter a word. Böttcher’s view, therefore, seems to have something in its favor, that the locality of the action was a royal country house not far from Jerusalem, where Shulamith was detained a solitary prisoner. And the one circumstance at least that according to Son_2:8 ff. the scene appears to be in the country, might be conveniently combined with the assumption that Shulamith here continues to stay in the royal pleasure-grounds south of the capital, and that Solomon has only left her again for a while for some unknown reasons. But Shulamith’s place of abode plainly appears to be one further removed from Jerusalem, and in fact to be located in the region of her home. For 1) the mention of her mother’s house, with its wall and its latticed window (Son_3:4; Son_2:9) makes it probable that she is there. 2) We are also led to the very same result by בְּאַרְצֵנוּ, “in our land,” Son_2:12, the mention of the “vineyards in bloom,” Son_2:13; Son_2:15, as well as the הָרֵי בֶתֶר, Son_2:17, whether this difficult expression be rendered “separating mountains,” or “cleft mountains,” or “spice mountains” (see in loc.). 3) Shulamith brought in solemn pomp to the wedding by her royal bridegroom, as described for the first time in the following act, Son_3:6-11, presupposes that she had before been staying again in her parents’ house; for it is from thence that according to the custom of the ancient Hebrews, the bride must always be brought (comp. 1Ma_9:37; 1Ma_9:39; Mat_25:1, etc.). 4) That Shulamith came from northern Palestine to Jerusalem for her marriage with Solomon, is also rendered highly probable by the mention of Lebanon in what her newly espoused says to her, Son_4:8; and further, the “coming up of the bride out of the wilderness,” as described in Son_3:6, in her entry into the capital, might point to a coming from the north, and not out of the wilderness of Judah, which lay south of Jerusalem (comp. in loc.). Accordingly the parental residence of the bride, or its vicinity is, with Döpke, Heiligstedt and Delitzsch, to be regarded as the scene of this passage—that is to say, Shunem or some neighboring locality in the tribe of Issachar north of Mount Gilboa, or on the south side of “Little Hermon.” How Shulamith came thither again from the royal residence, whether peaceably dismissed to her home by agreement with her bridegroom, or conducted thither by himself in order to be subsequently brought with solemn pomp to the wedding, is not clearly explained in the piece. Only every thought must be excluded of a possible flight of the virgin from the royal harem to her home, for she exhibits her longing for her royal lover in undiminished strength, and this too not as though it had arisen from regret at her too hasty flight from him (comp. Delitzsch, p. 99 f.).—As regards the time of the action, it appears to follow from the way that, Son_2:11-13, the winter is described as past, and the fair spring-time as come, that an interval of some months had elapsed between the summer or autumn scene of the preceding act (Son_1:14; Son_1:16 f.; Son_2:3 ff.) and the present, or more briefly, that “the entire rainy season lies between Son_2:7 and Son_2:8” (Hitz.). But as that charming description of opening spring belongs to a narration, and furthermore to a poetic and ideal narration of what Solomon said to his beloved on his first meeting with her, no conclusion can be drawn from it in respect to the time of this action. And neither the “winter” in Son_2:11 nor the “nights” in Son_3:1 (according to Hitzig the “long winter nights!”) afford any support for that opinion, which would charge upon the poet too great a violation of the Aristotelian demand of the unity of time. On the contrary, there is nothing in the way of assuming with Ewald, Böttcher, Del. and most of the later interpreters, an interval of but a few days between Acts 1, 2 (which certainly need not be narrowed down to the space of a few hours, as, e.g., Vaihinger assumes), nor of regarding the entire action of the piece generally as taking place in the course of a single spring, and occupying, at the utmost, a few weeks.42 Comp. on Son_7:13.
3. Ch.2, Son_2:8-9.
Son_2:8. Hark! my beloved.—Literally, “the voice [or sound] of my beloved,”—קוֹל דּוֹדִי, to which abrupt expression הָיָהit is or נִשְׁמַעis heard is to be supplied as in Isa_40:3; Isa_40:6 (Mat_3:3); 2Ki_6:32. [It is rather an exclamation, to which no verb need be supplied, see Green’sHeb. Chres. on Isa_40:3; Isa_40:6]. And the following expression, “lo! there he comes,” etc., shows that it is not the words of the bridegroom (Hengstenberg, after Michaelis and many of the older writers), but his coming itself or the sound of his coming and bounding over the mountains and the hills, in short his steps, which are indicated by קוֹל, comp. Son_5:2; Gen_3:8; 1Ki_14:6. That Shulamith was shortly expecting her lover, may be probably inferred from this exclamation of hers which may be supposed to have been occasioned by some noise in which she thought she heard the steps of him for whom she longed. But that which further follows is not a description of his arrival, which now actually ensues (Magn., Del.), nor a mere airy fancy sketch or dreaming description of what her friend would say and do, if he were now actually to come (Umbr., Hitz., Vaih., etc.—see No. 1, above), but a vivid reminiscence of the way that he had actually come to her the first time and of the loving conversation which had then taken place between him and her by the wall of her parental home. It was the more natural for the bride to be thus vividly transported to the past, as she was hourly expecting her bridegroom back again at the very spot where he had then met with her for the first time.43—Leaping—bounding (מְקַפֵּץ—מְדַלֵּג). From this description of her lover’s first coming to Shulamith, which is further illustrated by the following figures of the gazelle and the young hart, we may perhaps conclude that Solomon while hunting on Mount Gilboa, or in its vicinity, saw his beloved there for the first time, and formed a connection with her in the manner ideally described in what follows.
Son_2:9. My beloved is like a gazelle or a young hart.Hitzig calls in question the genuineness of these words, with no other grounds of suspicion than such as are purely subjective. They are designed more particularly to illustrate and justify in their application to her lover the somewhat bold and in themselves not very intelligible terms דלג “leaping,” and קפץ “bounding.” And this they manifestly do in so far as they call attention to the fact that he resembles those fair and noble animals not in his speed and agility merely, but generally in the charming grace and loftiness of his whole bearing. Comp. passages like 2Sa_2:18; 1Ch_12:8; Pro_6:5, where speed alone is the tert. comp. in this figure, with Psa_18:34; Hab_3:19; Pro_5:19, where the other qualities of these animals are also taken into the account.—Lo here he is, standing behind our wall. Judged by the analogy of other passages, in which it is found, the word here used does not mean the wall about the vineyard but the wall of the house, to which the mention of the window immediately after also points.44 “Our wall,” because Shulamith means the house belonging to her family, in or near which she now is again [or which she so well remembers—Tr.]; comp. Son_8:8 “our sister,” and “our vineyards” Son_2:15.—Looking through the windows, glancing through the lattices—literally, “from the windows, from the lattices.” It is a matter of indifference from which window he looks into the interior; it was only worth while to affirm in the general that he looked in from the region of the windows, that is from without. “Window” (חַלּוֹן), and “lattice” (חֲרַכָּא—according to the Targ. Jos_2:15; Jos_2:18 equivalent to חַלּוֹן, of the same meaning also with אֶשְׁנָבJdg_5:28; Pro_7:6, as well as with אֲרֻבָּהHos_13:3; Ecc_7:3) are plainly only different names for the same thing, of which however the latter expression is the more special or precise; for the lattice properly closed the aperture of the window and consequently was that through which he must have looked, comp. 2Ki_13:17.—מֵצִיץ literally, “blooming” (comp. Isa_27:6; Psa_132:18 and especially Psa_72:16, where מֵצִיץ occurs of men blooming out of the earth) does not express a “transient appearing” or a “quick and stolen glance,” but evidently describes the blooming and radiant appearance of her lover, who is also called “white and red,” Son_5:10. “He blooms in through the window” (comp. Michaelis: “roseum suum vultum instar floris jucundissimi per retia cancellorum ostendens”) is a pregnant expression, and reminds one of Gen_49:22, where Joseph is described as a young fruit tree of luxuriant growth, whose “daughters” run over the wall.45
4. Solomon’s first greeting to Shulamith, Son_2:10-14.
Son_2:10. My beloved answered and said to me. In opposition to the doubts of Magnus and Delitzsch regarding the genuineness of these words, see above No. 1. In respect to ענה in the opening of a discourse and consequently in the sense of “beginning to speak” (not “answering” Hengstenberg), comp. Deu_21:7; Deu_26:5; 2Ch_29:31; Isa_14:10; Job_3:2, and ἀποκρίνεσθαι, which is frequently so used in the New Testament.46 Arise, my dear, my fair one, and go forth,viz., out of the house—not “out of the city into the country,” as the adherents of the shepherd-hypothesis suppose, who think the shepherd utters these words to Shulamith in her captive condition (similarly also Weissbach).47
Son_2:11. For lo, the winter is past.סְתָו (for which the K’ri סְתָיו to fix the correct pronunciation instead of סְתוֹ as it might possibly be read) denotes, as also in Aram., the winter and that on the side of its cold, as the parallel expression גֶּשֶׁם (comp. Ecc_12:2; Job_37:6) denotes the same on the side of its moisture, that is to say, as the rainy season (עֵת גְשָׁמִיםtime of rain, Ezr_10:9; Ezr_10:13). The winter as the cold season of the year necessarily keeps people in the house; whence the allusion to its being past adds force to the solicitation to come out of the house.
Son_2:12. The flowers appear in the land, literally, “are seen (נִרְאוּ) in the land.” On the rapidity with which the spring with its new verdure and its blooming attire usually follows the winter in the East, comp. Hasselquist, Reisen, p. 261.—The time of singing has arrived.עֵת הַזָּמִיר is not the “time for pruning vines,” as the old translators explained it, after the analogy of Lev_25:3 f.; Isa_5:6; for in Son_2:13; Son_2:15 the vines are represented as already in blossom, the time for pruning them was therefore long since past; but it is the “time of singing, of merry songs.” By this, however, we are not to understand the singing of birds (Ibn Ezra, Rashi, E. Meier), but conformably to Isa_25:5 (זְמִיר), Isa_24:16; Job_35:10; Psa_119:54; 2Sa_23:1, etc. (זְמִירוֹת), the glad songs of men, such as spring usually awakens, especially in the life of shepherds and country people (comp. Jdg_21:20 f.).—And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land,viz. in Palestine, the land of Solomon and and Shulamith. This בְּאַרְצֵנוּ does not by any means require us to regard Shulamith’s country lover as the speaker, although it favors the assumption that the scene of the narrative lay in the country rather than in the city. The “turtle-dove” (תּוֹר) as a bird of passage (Jer_8:7) is a fit representative of spring, and it need not therefore symbolize the Holy Spirit (Targ.), nor the meek (Hengstenb.), nor Israel in general (Hahn).
Son_2:13. The fig tree spices its fruit. As פַּגִּים means not the early figs but the late figs, i.e. the small fruit of the fig tree which continues to grow during the winter, and does not ripen until spring (Septuag. ὄλυνθοι, Vulgate, grossi), and as חָנַט signifies, Gen_1:2; Gen_1:26, “to spice, to perfume,” this verb must here too have the sense of spicing and denote that “aromatic sweetness” which figs attain about the time of their ripening (comp. Schubert, Reise III. p. 113). We must reject, therefore, both the “putting forth” of the ancient versions (Sept., Aq., Vulg., Syr.), and the signification of “reddening” or “browning,” preferred by Ewald, Hitzig, Renan, etc.; for the late figs are of a violet color even during the winter, when they are still unfit to eat (comp. Meier and Weissbachin loc.).—And the vines are in blossom, literally, “are blossom.” סְמָדַר a substantive, which occurs again Son_2:15; Son_7:13, and whose etymology is very obscure (comp. Velth., Ewald and Hitzigin loc.), can mean nothing but “blossom, vine blossom” either here or in the other two passages; and this is confirmed by the ancient versions (Sept.κυπρίζειν, Vulg. florere, Symm.οἰνάνθη; also the Syr. on Isa_17:11). It plainly makes no difference in the sense whether we translate “the vines are blossom (comp. e.g.Exo_9:31), give fragrance” (as is commonly done) or “the vines in blossom, i.e. since they are blossoming, yield their fragrance” (see e.g.Weissb. comp. Delitzsch). With regard to the fine delicious fragrance of the vine blossom comp. also Sir_24:23.
Son_2:14. My dove in the clefts of the rock.—No pause is observable between Son_2:13-14 (Hitzig; comp. Weissbach). The tenderly caressing and alluring language continues without change. Solomon here entitles his beloved a “dove in the clefts of the rock,” because, as appears from Son_2:9, the bars of the latticed window still separate him from her. The allusion to her dove-like innocence and her lovely form is altogether subordinate, but must nevertheless not be left wholly out of the account as e.g.Weissbach insists; for “dove” is undoubtedly a tender pet-name, comp. Son_6:9, and even Son_1:15. The allegorical interpretation, which sees in the dove “persecuted innocence” (Hengsten.), or even the righteous hiding himself in the gaping wounds of Christ (Theodoret, Greg. the great, J. Gerh.) has clearly no exegetical justification.48In the secret of the cliffs, literally “in the hiding-place of the ladder of rock, of the steep rocky precipices,” for this appears to be the meaning of the word here used. The expression evidently serves only to finish out the figure employed immediately before of the clefts of the rock concealing the dove. No conclusion can be based upon it respecting Shulamith’s place of residence, as though it actually were a rock-bound castle (Böttcher), or were in Solomon’s lofty palace upon Zion (Ewald, Hitzig, Vaih., etc.)49 The present description would rather appear to indicate (comp. above No. 2) that Shulamith’s country home was surrounded by a mountainous and rocky region (Delitzsch).—Let me see thy form,מַרְאֶה denotes in this poem not barely the face (this Solomon already saw through the lattice) but the entire form, comp. Son_5:15, also Gen_12:11; Gen_24:17; Gen_39:6.—Let me hear thy voice. Evidently an invitation to sing, with which Shulamith complies in Son_2:15.—The following fortifying clause reminds of the similar one in Son_2:9, a.
5. Shulamith’s answer.
Son_2:15. That this verse is a little vintagers’ song or at least the fragment of one, and that Shulamith sings it in answer to the request of her lover in Son_2:10-14 is regarded as settled by most of the recent interpreters since Herder. Only the allegorists, as Hengstenberg, Hahn, etc. see expressed in it Shulamith’s fear of the foes of God’s vineyard (i.e. heretics according to Hengstenberg, [so Cov., Patr., Poole and the generality of English Commentators], pagan Hamites according to Hahn.); and Ewald inappropriately puts the words into the mouth of the lover, who thus makes the connection again with what he had said in Son_2:13. That we rather have here a separate ditty or fragment of a song, is shown not only by the plural form of address, but also by the accumulation of rhymes (,שעלים כרמים ,מחבלים ,קטנים). And that this ditty is sung by the bride, not by the bridegroom, appears from its contents, which seem perfectly suitable for the keeper of a vineyard (see Son_1:6), but not for her lover, be he king or shepherd.50 It is, however, arbitrary and preposterous to assume with Hitzig and Renan, that Shulamith sings this sonnet at one of the windows in the harem at Jerusalem in order to inform her lover from her old home, who was in the vicinity of the place of her abode, in nearly the same way that Richard Cœur de Lion betrayed the place of his captivity to Blondel, his faithful minstrel, by singing the refrain of a song familiar to them both. The whole situation too is not in the remotest manner adapted to such a romantic and sentimental meaning and design of the sonnet. Its context rather indicates plainly enough that it still belongs to Shulamith’s narrative of her first meeting with her lover, and consequently is neither more nor less than her answer to his request to come out to him and to sing to him,—an answer, which whether actually given by her in just these words or not, at all events concealed a delicate allusion to her lover under a popular veil artlessly employed and half in jest, and intimated to him that she was not disinclined to let him take part henceforth in her care for the security of her vineyard. If she really sang these words, she did so while opening or the doors of her house to admit her lover who stood without before the wall, or while she stepped out to him singing and smiling (comp. Delitzschin loc.)—Catch us foxes, little foxes, spoiling vineyards. The foxes deserve this name, not because they attack the ripe grapes themselves (Theocr. Id. I. 46, ff; V. 112), but because by their passages and holes they undermine the walls of the vineyards and injure the roots of the vines; and they also gnaw the stems and young shoots.51 It was important, therefore, in the spring when the vines were blossoming, to protect the vineyards from these uninvited guests; and the more so, since the spring is the very time of the coming forth of the young foxes from their kennels. The predicate קְטַנִּיםlittle refers to young foxes (comp. Gen_9:24; Gen_27:15; 1Ki_3:7), not to the diminutive size of the animals which nevertheless do so much damage [so Harmer, Good, Williams]; in that case the smaller variety of the jackal, which is known by the name of adive, would be specially intended by שֻׁעָלְים (Hitzig). But as the jackal is always called אִי or תַּן (Job_30:29, Mic_1:8) in every other passage in which it is mentioned in the Old Testament, whilst שׁוּעָלis the constant designation of the fox proper, we are not justified here in departing from this usual meaning of the expression, comp. Oedmann, Sammlungen II. 38; Winer, Real-Wörterbuch, Art. Füchse, also P. Cassel on Jdg_15:4. Moreover the expressions “little foxes” and “destroying vineyards” are simply related as in apposition to the principal object שֻׁעָלִים; and both this and the words named as in apposition are without the article, because it is not the foxes universally, but just foxes, vineyard-destroying foxes that are to be taken. Hitzig seeks without necessity to base upon this absence of the article before שֻׁעָלִים his translation “hold for us, ye foxes,” etc., which he makes equivalent to “wait, ye foxes, I’ll give it to you!”—For our vineyards are in bloom, literally “and our vineyards are in bloom;” comp. in respect to this specifying “and, and in fact,” which here has a specially motive character, Ecc_1:15; Ecc_8:2; Jdg_6:25; Jdg_7:22; Mal_1:11, and in general Ewald, § 340, b. By the expression סְמָדַר the singer takes up again what had been said, by her lover, Son_2:13, a, whether she altered her ditty in conformity with it, or that expression in the mouth of Solomon recalled to her mind this vernal song with the like-sounding refrain; this latter view is evidently the more natural.
6. Conclusion of the first monologue. Son_2:16-17.
Son_2:16. My beloved is mine and I am his.—This declaration that she has become the property of her beloved and he hers, that they have mutually surrendered themselves to one another (comp. Son_6:3; Son_7:11), does not continue Shulamith’s answer to the greeting of Solomon, Son_2:10 b–14 (Delitzsch, Weissbach, etc.), but after her account of her first meeting with him, which terminates with Son_2:15, she takes up again the expression of her desire for her absent lover uttered in Son_2:8-9, by asserting in the first instance that though still absent, he was inseparably bound to her.52—Who feeds among the lilies.—Manifestly a figurative expression for “who, wherever he abides, spreads radiance, joy and loveliness about him,” or “in whose footsteps roses and lilies ever bloom.”53 With reference to the figurative nature of this form of speech as a fixed and favorite poetical phrase, comp. its recurrence with two different applications, Son_4:5 and Son_6:3. Shulamith had already represented her royal lover as feeding his flock, Son_1:7.
Son_2:17. Against the day cools and the shadows flee.—Contrary to the division of the verses, as well as to the analogy of Son_6:3, Herder, Amm., Kleuker, Döpke [so Coverdale, Doway] connect these words with the participial clause at the close of the preceding verse. “Feeding among the lilies till the day grows cool” would yield a very tame and trivial thought, whilst, on the other hand, the following solicitation, “turn thee,” etc., can scarcely dispense with some more particular statement of the time up to which or about which it should be complied with. Upon עַד שֶׁי (literally, “enduring till,” “waiting till”)=“until,” “whilst,” by the time that, comp. the like forms of expression, Gen_24:33; Gen_27:45; Exo_22:26; 1Sa_1:22; 1Sa_14:19, etc.; also Son_1:12 above, where, it is true, the connection demands a somewhat different translation. Shulamith evidently begs her lover to return to her before the coming on of the shades of evening (before the day wholly cools, and the ever lengthening shadows melt quite away in the darkness—comp. Job_14:2). By evening, at the latest, and before night, he should come over the mountains to her swift as a gazelle, as at that first time when she had seen him bounding over the summits and the hills (Son_2:8).54—Turn thee and be like,etc.—סֹב neither qualifies דְּמֵה adverbially, “resemble hereabouts a gazelle,” etc. (Weissbach); nor is it an invitation to her friend already present to ramble with her upon the mountains in the neighborhood” (Delitzsch); nor equivalent to “turn back again,” as though it were intended to call back one who had shortly before been near her and who was going away (Böttcher); but simply=“turn thyself hither, direct thy steps hither” (comp. 1Sa_22:18; 2Sa_18:30). The Vulgate quite correctly, therefore, as regards the sense, revertere; so also the Syr., Luth., etc.—The call upon him to “resemble the gazelle” is evidently connected with the description given of her lover in Son_2:8. She wishes that her lover would now soon return, as she saw him then, swiftly and gracefully, like the sudden appearing of a noble deer on the mountain height.—On cleft mountains.—This translation of the difficult עַל־הָרֵי בֶתֶר is especially favored by the ἐπὶ ὄρη κοιλωμάτων of the Sept. The usual signification of בֶּתֶר, “piece,” “severed portion” (Gen_15:10; Jer_34:18-19, etc.) lies at the basis of it; and both the name of the place, בִּתְרוֹן, Bithron, the designation of a mountain ravine east of the Jordan, 2Sa_2:29, and the Greek ῥαγάς, “fissure, cleft,” offer themselves at once as confirmatory analogies (comp. Gesen., Lex., also Vaih., Renan and Delitzschin loc., “riven mountains”). Commonly, “on mountains of separation,” i.e., on the mountains that separate us (comp. Luther, “auf den Scheidebergen;” Merc., Ewald, Hitzig, also the Targ., Ibn Ezra and Jarchi) [so Ginsburg]. Peculiarly Weissbach “on the spice-mountains” (or “Bathrum heights,” comp. Vulg., “super montes Bother,” and Theodoret, who, as well as the Syr., translates similarly “ἐπὶ τὰ ὄρη θυμιαμάτων”); by this he supposes to be meant Shulamith’s breasts perfumed with aromatic betel-leaves, i.e., with μαλοβάθρον, malabathrum=Syr., bathrum. But such an adducing of the הָרֵי בְשָׂמִים, mountains of spices mentioned in Son_8:14, and that as identical in signification with the “mountain of myrrh” and “hill of frankincense” mentioned in Son_4:6, i.e., with the fragrant breasts of his beloved (?), is in the present instance manifestly destructive of the sense and repugnant to the connection, and would besides yield an absolutely lascivious sense, which the expressions in question do not have in the two passages alleged.
Footnotes:
[14][Wic. heading: The voice of the church of Christ. Mat.: The voice of the church. Cov.: Methink I hear the voice of my beloved. So Cran., Bish.]
[15]“Whilst the verb דלג suggests his long leaps, as he springs, comp. Isa_35:6; Psa_18:30; Zep_1:9, the verb קפץ (an older form for קפז and related to the קמץ to press together, as well as to קבץ to gather; in the Piel “to cause to draw together”) lets us, as it were, see the gazelles, with which the lover is compared, as in galloping they draw their feet together again, after being stretched so wide apart.” Weissb.
[16][Ains.: a fawn of the hinds]
[17] כֹּתֶל according to the Targ. on Jos_2:15 equivalent to קִיר “wall” occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament except in the Chaldee forms כְּתַל Dan_5:5, and (plur.) כֻּתְלַיָּא Ezr_5:8.
[18][E. Ver.: “forth at.” Cov.: better “in at.” Words.: “spying in at the windows.”]
[19][Cov.: peepeth through the grate. Ains.: flourishing through the lattices.]
[20]The two-fold לָךְ to thee after קוּמִי arise and after לְכִי go, throws back the action, as it were, upon its subject and thus serves to impart to the language an easy, colloquial and kindly character, comp. Son_1:8, also Son_2:11; Son_2:13; Son_2:17; Son_4:6; Son_8:14. Weissbach correctly remarks that it is chiefly verbs of motion to which this kindly לָךְ or לִי or לָמוֹ is added. [Mat.: The voice of Christ.]
[21][E. Ver.: “singing of birds,” which Harmer refers especially to the nightingale. Wic.: “cutting.” Cov.: the twisting time. Doway: “pruning,” so Thrupp and Weiss. Poole: cutting or cropping for nosegays.]
[22][So Noyes. Cov.: bringeth forth. E. Ver.: putteth forth. Good, Ginsb.: sweeten. Williams: ripen. Fry: embalm. Weiss: perfume. Thrupp: mature.]
[23][Wic.: flowering. Cov.: blossoms, so Fry, Noyes, Thrupp. Doway: flower. E. Ver.: tender grapes; so Good, Weiss, Ginsb. Williams: tender buds.]
[24][Wic.: The voice of Christ to the church.]
[25] חַגְוֵי הַסֶּלַע appears here as well as in Obad. Son_2:3; Jer_49:16, which are probably derived from the passage before us, to be not rocky heights, lofty refuges on top of the rocks, (Schult., Gesen., Hengstenb., Weissb., etc.,) but rather “fissures, clefts in the rocks” (comp. Ewald and Hitzig in loc.) For the latter figure manifestly agrees better with the present situation, (see Son_2:9) and may also have a better etymological basis (comp. Arab. ־ּََّ to split.)
[26] מַדְרגֵוֹת (from דרג kindred to. דרך) comp. Ezek. 38:29, the only other passage in which the word occurs.
[27]On the form מַרְאַיִךְ as a singular, comp. Ewald, § 256 b, [Green’s Heb. Gramm. § 221, 7 a.]
[28][Wic.: The voice of Christ to the church against heretics. Mat.: The voice against the heretics.]
[29][Adopted from Thrupp.]
[30][E. Ver. marg: division, but in the text: Bether, as though it were a proper name which Patrick identifies with Bethel; Ainsworth and Poole with Bithron; and Clarke with Beth-horon. Cov.: simply; “mountains” omitting Bether. Bish., Cran.: wide mountains. Parkhurst, Williams: craggy mountains. Burrowes: a region cut up or divided by mountains and valleys, rough, craggy and difficult to cross. With.: our secluded hills.]
[31][Wicliffe’s heading: The voice of the church gathered together of Gentiles. Mat.: The voice of the church which is chosen out of the heathen.]
[32][Wic.: little bed.]
[33][So Ains., Wic., by nights. Mat., E. Ver., by night.]
[34] שְׁוָקִים plur. of שׁוּק, as דְּוָרִים from דּוּד [Green’s Heb. Gramm. § 207, 1. f.] related to שָׁקַק to run (whence also שׁוֹק leg) denotes “places where people run,” bustling public places, hence the Sept. correctly έν αγοραῖς. Comp. Ecc_12:4-5; and Pro_7:8.—For רְחֹבוֹת streets (πλατεῖαι) comp. Pro_1:20; Pro_7:12. Without sufficient proof from the language Weissbach claims for this latter expression the meaning “markets, open squares,” and for the former the meaning “streets.” [Wic.: by towns and streets. Cov.: upon the market and in all the streets. Genev.: by the streets and by the open places. E. Ver. in the streets and in the broad ways. Patrick: שְׁוָקִים are the lesser thoroughfares in the city or the streets of lesser cities; as רְחֹבוֹת are the greater, wider streets, or rather the streets of the royal capital city.]
[35]On מצא “to strike upon any one, find, meet him,” 1Sa_10:3; Song Son_5:7.
[36][Wic. The church saith of Christ to the apostles. Mat.: The church speaking of Christ.]
[37]The interrogative particle הֲ is omitted before the verb רְאִיתֶם, because it is at so great a remove from the beginning of the clause. Comp. Ewald, Lehrbuch, § 314 a, b.
[38]On כִּמְעַט (מִעַט with כְ veritatis) “as much as a little.” Comp. Isa_1:9.
[39]On the form שֶׁהֲבֵיאתִיו for שֶׁהֲבִיאֹתִיו see Hitzig in loc. [Green’s Heb. Gram., § 160, 2.]
[40] הוֹרָתִי synonym of אֵם as Hos_2:5.
[41][Wic.: The voice of Christ to the church. Mat.: The voice of Christ.]
[42] [If Shulamith is here describing her first meeting with her royal lover, there is no reason why she might not remember and relate it as fully as is here done, without the necessity of being transported for the purpose from Jerusalem to Shunem, even supposing that to have been her original home. Especially as her adjuration of the “daughters of Jerusalem,” Son_3:5, is a more evident proof of her still being in the royal capital, than any which Zöckler has been able to bring to the contrary. He seems to have made the mistake of confounding the locality of a past event narrated with the place of the narrator. It may be a necessity to the dramatic hypothesis to get her back again to Shunem, after her residence with the king in his palace, in order that she may come thence in solemn pomp to her marriage at a subsequent period. But this scarcely warrants the drawing of so large a conclusion from so slender a premise.
The advocates of the idyllic hypothesis find here a distinct song, describing a visit paid by the lover to the fair object of his affections, without being at any pains to trace a connection between it and what had preceded. Taylor thinks that this belongs to the second day of the marriage feast; the bride from her window in the palace is attracted by the sound of a hunting party (Son_2:15); the bridegroom, who is one of the party, looks up and addresses her. Withington supposes some time to have elapsed since the preceding scene. “The bride had gone up to Jerusalem, and after a stay there had gone back to the country, and was to remain there until the season came of her husband’s rustication, which would naturally be in the spring.” Burrowes: “The beloved had left the spouse; these words describe his return.” Wordsworth connects this scene directly with the immediately preceding verse, the slumber of the bridegroom there described being equivalent to his absence or withdrawal: “The patience of the bride, after long waiting, is rewarded by the joyful sight of the bridegroom bounding over the hills.” Ginsburg, with his peculiar modification of the shepherd-hypothesis, describes the situation as follows: “The Shulamite, to account for the severity of her brothers, mentioned in Son_2:6, relates that her beloved shepherd came one charming morning in the spring to invite her to the fields (8–14); that her brothers, in order to prevent her from going, gave her employment in the gardens (15); that she consoled herself with the assurance that her beloved, though separated from her at that time, would come again in the evening (16, 17); that seeing he did not come, she, under difficult circumstances, ventured to seek him and found him (Son_3:1-4).”—Tr.]
[43][There is no propriety in sundering this from what follows. The succeeding verses evidently continue or explain this opening exclamation. If it belongs to the present, so does the entire description which it introduces. If the coming of the beloved here narrated is past, her exclamation on hearing the sound of his approach is past also.—Tr.]
[44][Harmer supposes the reference is to a kiosk or eastern arbor, and quotes the Letters of Lady Montague, who speaks of them II. p. 74 as “enclosed with gilded lattices, round which vines, jessamines and honeysuckles make a sort of green wall.”]
[45][Wordsw.: Literally, sprouting and blooming like a flowering shrub or creeper, whose blossoms peep and glance through the trellis or lattice work of a window, and giving brightness and loveliness to the apartment.]
[46][Wordsw.: Here is an anticipation of the phrase so often applied in the gospels to Christ, who answered even the thoughts of His hearers.]
[47][It can scarcely be anything but a slip when Withington puts these words into the mouth of the bride: “He hears her distant voice: Rise up, my love,” etc.—Tr.]
[48] Harmer says, on the authority of Dr. Shaw: “Doves in those countries, it seems, take up their abodes in the hollow places of rocks and cliffs.” Wordsw. suggests that the comparison is “to a dove fleeing to the clefts of the rock for refuge from the storm.” Good quotes as parallel the following simile from Homer’s description of the wounded Diana, Il. xxi. 493.
“As when the falcon wings her way above,
To the cleft cavern speeds the affrighted dove,
Straight to her shelter thus the goddess flew.”]
[49][So Harmer, who supposes an allusion to “her apartments in a lofty palace of stone.” Good: “The common version, ‘secret places of the stairs’ is erroneous. The mistake has obviously originated from a wish in the translators to give a literal interpretation to this highly figurative phraseology. Stairs may well enough apply to the royal fair-one as a bride, but not as a dove.”]
[50] [Good, Burrowes, Noyes, Adelaide Newton, Withington, Thrupp, make this the language of the bride; Patrick, Poole, Ainsworth, Henry, Scott, Taylor, Fry, Clarke, Wordsworth the language of the bridegroom. Ginsburg puts it in the mouth of Shulamith’s brothers. Williams is led by the plural form of the pronouns both of the first and second persons to suppose that the chorus of virgins is here addressing the companions of the bridegroom. The ingenious suggestion that these words may be borrowed from a popular song, which here receive a new meaning from their connection, agrees well with this peculiarity in the form of expression and also with the intimation in the preceding verse.
Wordsw.: “He commands her to look well to her vineyard. He calls it our vineyard; it is his as well as hers.” Withington, (after Taylor, who thinks this verse a summons to a chase) sees in it an allusion to the “sports and employments of the care-worn king” in his seasons of relaxation.]
[51][Patrick: Aristophanes in his Equites, compares soldiers to foxes; spoiling whole countries as they do vineyards.]
[52][Williams: “These verses stand perfectly distinct from the preceding.” Others endeavor to establish a direct connection with the foregoing verses. Thus Taylor paraphrases: “I am all obedience to his requests; it shall be my happiness to accomplish his desires.” And Wordsworth in its spiritual application: “The Church thankfully catches up the expression ‘our vineyard;’ and rejoices that not only have they one vineyard, but that He is hers and she is His.”]
[53][Good, with an entire misapprehension of the figure intended: “So sweet is his breath, that surely he feedeth among the lilies.” Ginsb.: “Who tends his flock in the meadows abounding with flowers.” A figure for “the best pastures,” according to Williams, “for in such lilies appear to have grown spontaneously;” or for “sweet and lovely pastures,” according to Poole, “where there is not only herbage to feed them, but lilies to delight them.” Fry suggests as the connection between the clauses of the verse: “let him drive his flock to pasture in the flowery meads and I will accompany him.” Ainsworth, Henry, Words. and others find in the lilies a figurative reference to the bride herself as the object of his fond attachment, and one who had been compared to a lily among thorns, Son_2:2.]
[54][Good: “Till the day breathe. The expression is truly elegant and poetical. At midnight all nature lies dead and lifeless. The shadows, however, at length fly; the morning breathes and nature revivifies. The intrinsic excellence of the metaphor has seldom been understood by our commentators, who have almost all of them referred it to the day breeze of the country, or at least to that peculiar current of air which is often found existing in most climates at the dawn.” Williams: “Return, my beloved, and remain with me until the day breathe.” Noyes: “This is understood by many of the morning. But the more recent commentators refer it to sunset or the evening.” Wordsw.: “Before the first cool gales of the evening.”]
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 8. The voice of my beloved — Better, A…
8. The voice of my beloved — Better, A voice! It is my beloved! The word rendered “voice” sometimes serves as an interjection, like “Hark!” It is also used of the sound of the feet in running.
He cometh — Properly, He came. She saw him at a distance and knew him by his brisk gait and graceful bearing.
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 8. The voice of my beloved] This is the…
8. The voice of my beloved] This is the literal rendering of the Hebrew, but the word qôl, ‘sound’ or ‘voice,’ is often used with a following genitive as an interjection, and then ‘Hark!’ is the best equivalent. (See Ges. Gramm. § 146 b.) Thus in Gen_4:10, “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground,” should be, “Hark! thy brother’s blood crieth,” &c. Cp. Isa_40:3. So here, Hark! my beloved, behold he cometh leaping over the mountains, &c.; i.e. it is not his voice, but the sound of his feet that she hears in imagination. (Cp. Oettli.) The mountains might be those round about Jerusalem, but more probably they are the Northern hills amidst which they now are.
Chap. Son_2:8-17. The Beloved comes
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The scene is evidently changed from Jerusalem to some royal residence in the country. The lover, like the Shulammite herself, belongs to the northern hills; and as he appears here, it is more natural to suppose that the scene has been transferred thither than that he has come to Jerusalem. Moreover the later references to Lebanon imply this change of scene, and it is most suitable to suppose that the change takes place here. The indirect way in which this is hinted is entirely congruous with the kind of poems we have taken these to be. The Shulammite starts up in uncontrollable agitation, imagining she hears her lover’s footsteps as he hastens to her over the hills, and she addresses her companions, the court ladies, tracing his approach until he reaches the lattices in the wall, Son_2:8-9. Her lover speaks to her through these, and she, hearing him, repeats what he says, Son_2:10-14. In reply to his desire to see her and hear her voice, as she cannot make herself visible, she sings a little vineyard song, Son_2:15. In Son_2:16 she gives herself up to a loving rapture, and then, Son_2:17, fearing for her lover’s safety she exhorts him to depart till the evening. Some think the bride speaks here of some past scene when her lover came to meet her, over which she is now brooding. That is possible, but the view expressed above seems preferable. In any case these verses are among the most beautiful in the book, and take their place among the perfect love verses of the world. A modern parallel may be found in Tennyson’s lines,
“And all my heart went out to meet him
Coming, ere he came.”
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 (8) The voice of my beloved.—So here there is…
(8) The voice of my beloved.—So here there is no need of the clumsy device of supposing the heroine in a dream. This most exquisite morsel of the whole poem falls quite naturally into its place if we regard it as a sweet recollection of the poet’s, put into the mouth of the object of his affections. “The voice” (Heb., kôl), used to arrest attention = Hark! (Comp. Psalms 29) The quick sense of love discerns his approach a long way off. (Compare—
“Before he mounts the hill, I know
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He cometh quickly.”—Tennyson’s Fatima.)
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. 8-ch. Gen_4:10, where the voice of the blood…
Ver. 8-ch. Gen_4:10, where the voice of the blood crying merely means, "Hark how thy brother"s blood cries;" that is, "Believe that it does so cry So here, "I seem to hear the voice of my beloved; hark, he is coming!" It is a great delight to the soul to go back in thought over the memories of its first experience of the Saviour"s presence. The Church is edified by the records of grace in the histories of Divine dealings.
Vers. 8-17. The visit of the beloved.
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I THE BRIDE"S NARRATIVE.
1. The description of his first coming. The bride seems to be relating to the chorus the circumstances of her first meeting with the bridegroom. The King of Israel sought her in her humble home among the mountains of Lebanon; there he wooed and won her to be his bride. So the heavenly Bridegroom, the true Solomon who built the spiritual temple of living stones, came from his glory throne to seek his bride, the Church; so he cometh now to seek and to save that which was lost. The bride hears the voice of the beloved; "my beloved," she says. In that little pronoun lies a great meaning. If we can only say in sincerity "my Saviour," my Lord and my God," my King," my Beloved," then we can realize more or less the language of this holy Song of Songs, and see the spiritual meaning which underlies its touching parable of love; then we shall often look back with wondering gratitude and tender joy to the days of our first conversion, when we first heard the Saviour"s voice calling us to himself; when we first felt that "he loved me, and gave himself for me;" when we first tried to give him that poor love of ours, which in his blessed condescension he sought in return for his own exceeding great love. The beloved is seen bounding over the mountains; he is like a gazelle or a young hart, fair to look upon and graceful, fleet of foot; he stands by the clay-built wall of the humble cottage; he looks in at the windows. So the Lord came to this poor earth of ours to seek the Church, his bride; he despised not the stable or the manger. So now he seeketh his chosen often in the lowliest homes; he looks for them shining (such is one possible interpretation of the word) through the lattice, bringing brightness into the poorest abode; the true Light "lighteth every man". (Joh_1:9)
2. The call. Those first words of love are treasured up in the memory of the bride; she remembers every tone of the bridegroom"s voice, the place, the time, all the surroundings. The Hebrew word is that which the Lord used when he called the little daughter of Jairus from the sleep of death: "Talitha, cumi." So now he calls his chosen one by one: "Rise up." They that have ears to hear listen to the gracious voice, and, like Matthew the publican, rise and follow Christ. The soul must sleep no longer when that call is heard; it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation near at hand. When he bids us rise, we must be up and doing; we must ask, "Lord, what wouldest thou have me to do?" we must follow whither he is leading, and give him the love which in his love he desireth. His call is sweet, exceedingly full of gracious love: "My love, my fair one." "My love," perhaps better, "my friend". (see Son_1:9) The Lord would have his Church "a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." The Church, alas! is not without spot; it is stained with many sins; it numbers many evil men within its fold. But the Lord said of the twelve, the first germ of the Church, "Ye are the light of the world," "Ye are the salt of the earth," though there was a Judas among them; and so now his great love for the Church makes the Church with all her faults fair in the Bridegroom"s eyes. Whatever beauty of holiness she possesses comes only from his beauty, who in his love has chosen her, and brought her near to himself, making her shine with the reflection of his light, who is the true Light. But the call comes, not only to the Church in the aggregate, but in God"s good time to each elect soul. The Lord knows his own; he calls them by their name. "Jesus said unto her, Mary." And they who answer, "Rabboni, my Master," are fair in the Bridegroom"s sight. Each awakened soul, as it rises and comes to Christ, and sees something of his heavenly beauty, and of its own deformity and unworthiness, is filled with thankful wonder. There are, alas! so many stains of sin, and yet he says, "My fair one;" so much weakness and unbelief and selfishness, and yet, "My fair one;" so much ingratitude and hardness of heart, and yet, "My fair one." It is the Saviour"s great love which makes our sinful souls fair in his sight. If there is any answering love in our hearts; if we rise when he bids us and come to him; if we can say in any sincerity, though, alas! It must be with trembling and a deep sense of sin, "Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee; then the soul that gives its love to Christ, though feebly and imperfectly, is fair in the sight of the Bridegroom. For it is our love that he seeketh. Love covereth a multitude of sins: "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much." The soul that hears the Bridegroom"s call must rise and come away; it must give the whole heart to Christ, and come away from other masters, saying, "Rabboni, my Master," and giving itself wholly to the one Master"s love; it must come away daily from every little thing which tends to impede its communion with the Lord, or to deaden its sense of his love and presence; it must part with lower ambitions, lower desires, if it is to win the pearl of great price, the hidden treasure. So we are told in Ps 45, which is so like the Song of Songs, "Hearken, O daughter, and consider: incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father"s house; so shall the King have pleasure in thy beauty." The soul comes; for the Lord"s call is very sacred, and touches the heart with thrilling power. The soul comes; for the joys to which he invites us are beyond all comparison more blessed and holy than all besides. The winter is past when the Lord"s voice is heard the winter of coldness and indifference and unbelief; the spring of hope and holy joy begins; the heart singeth unto the Lord, making in itself a melody which is the foretaste of the new song which only the redeemed of the Lord can learn; the voice of the holy Dove is heard in the heart, which then becomes "our land the kingdom of God. "And his that gentle voice we hear, Soft as the breath of even, That checks each fault, that calms each fear, And speaks of heaven.
When the Holy Spirit dwelleth in the heart, the fig tree is no longer barren, the Lord"s vineyard no longer bringeth forth wild grapes; there is promise of the fruits of the Spirit in ever fuller abundance. Again the Bridegroom calls in the earnestness of his blessed love, "Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away." It may be that in that second call we may discern an anticipation of the midnight cry, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye forth to meet him." Then he will call his chosen into that blessed Paradise, the true garden of the Lord, into which he led one forgiving soul on the day of his own most precious death. Then the winter will be past indeed; the eternal spring will begin to shine; angel voices will welcome the redeemed into that blessed rest which remaineth for the people of God. They that are ready shall enter in; and they will be ready who have listened to the first call of the heavenly Bridegroom, who have arisen in answer to his bidding and come to him, giving him their heart"s best affections, and forsaking for his dear love"s sake earthly desires and earthly ambitions.
II THE BRIDEGROOM AND THE BRIDE.
1. The voice of the bridegroom. He has climbed the steep rock by the ladder-like path, he has found the secluded cottage; he calls the bride his dove; he desires to see her and to hear her voice. The King of Israel climbed the rocks of Lebanon in search of the malden whom he loved. The heavenly Bridegroom climbed the steep ascent of the awful cross that he might draw to himself the love of the Church, his bride.The (Joh_12:32) bridegroom had already compared the eyes of the bride to doves; (Son_1:15) now he says, "O my dove." It tells us how dear the Christian soul is to the Lord; it tells us what that soul ought to be as doves." The rock dove lives in clefts of the rocks. The soul which the Lord in his holy love condescends to call his dove, must dwell in the clefts of that true Rock which is Christ. The Rock of ages was cleft for us; the Christian soul must hide itself therein; there only are we safe. The dove is in the secret place, which can be reached only by climbing up the precipitous path. There is a steep ascent to be climbed before we can be hidden in the clefts of the Rock, before we can live that hidden life which is hid with Christ in God, before we can be safe, hidden in the wounded side of our dear Lord. That ascent is the path of self-denial, leading ever upward, ever closer to him who trod the way of the cross for our salvation. That life is hidden. "In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock". (Psa_27:5) The saint-like character is like the dove, retiring, shrinking from observation; some of God"s holiest saints live silent, humble lives, in lowly circumstances, unseen of men. But our Father which seeth in secret knows their prayers, their charity, their self-denials; he will reward them openly. The heavenly Bridegroom deigns to see a sweetness and a beauty in a lowly Christian life; such a life is comely in his eyes, for it hath the beauty of holiness a beauty derived only from communion with him who is the eternal Beauty. The voice of hymn and psalm ascending from that lowly dwelling is sweet in the Saviour"s ear. The loftiest melodies of choir and organ, if love and faith and reverence are absent, cannot reach to heaven; but the heart that is practising the new song in thankfulness and adoration maketh a melody which causeth joy in the presence of the angels of God.
2. The song of the bride. "Take us the foxes, the little foxes." Some scholars regard this as a fragment of a vintage song. The bride sings it in order to intimate to the bridegroom, as she does more plainly in ver. 17, that the care of the vineyards (see Son_1:6) must prevent her from joining him till the shadows lengthen in the evening. The foxes waste the vineyards, and the vines are in blossom; therefore the little foxes must be caught. The little sins as they sometimes seem to us, the small neglects, the prayer carelessly said, the worldly thought, the idle word, these things spoil the vineyard of the Lord, which is the Christian soul; they check its blossoming, and so prevent the fruit from being formed. The believer must watch, for these things are enemies of his soul; they may seem to be like little foxes, small and of no strength, but they mar the beauty of the Christian character, and tend to check the promise of the fruit of the Spirit. Therefore they must be caught and destroyed by diligent watchfulness, by earnest persevering prayer. The little foxes do not, indeed, root up and devour the vineyard like the wild beasts of Psalm 80, but they check its fruitfulness. And the small transgressions, if they do no worse, at least prevent the Christian from attaining that saintliness to which we are called. The little foxes hide and skulk about; the small sins are apt to escape detection. Therefore there is need of constant watchfulness and of very careful and diligent self-examination. For we are "called to be saints"; (1Co_1:2 Rom_1:7) we are bidden to follow after holiness, to aim at perfection, to walk in the light. The little hindrances must be overcome, the little shadows must be driven away.
3. The happy union of love. "My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth his flock among the lilies." The favoured maiden, it may be, could not at the moment join her royal lover; but her heart was wholly his, and she knew that his love was fixed upon her. She describes him as a shepherd, but her words are figurative; he feedeth his flock, not in common pastures, but among the lilies of his garden, the garden of spices mentioned again in Son_6:2. She delights in dwelling on the union of their hearts; three times she repeats the happy words. (ver. 16; Son_6:3 Son_7:10) The Church is the Lord"s. He loved her, and gave himself for her, and presenteth her to himself as his bride; (Eph_5:25, Eph_5:27) and he is hers, her Bridegroom, her King, her Lord. The Christian soul is the Lord"s. "Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord"s". (Rom_14:8) He gave himself to each one of us individually when he called us to be his own; we give ourselves to him at the moment of our first spiritual awakening; we renew the gift continually in the hour of prayer, in the holy communion: "We offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to he a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto thee." "My Beloved is mine, and I am his to know that with the knowledge of personal experience is the highest of spiritual blessings. He gives himself first to us, and by that gift he enables us, cold and selfish as we are, to give ourselves to him. None can tell the blessedness of that inner spiritual union with the Lord save those happy souls to whom it is given; and they to whom he has manifested himself must very jealously keep their souls from any unfaithful leaning to other masters, that they may be wholly his, that no unfaithfulness may mar the pure clear truth of their heart"s love for him who loved them even unto death, and deigns now to irradiate their hearts with his most sacred presence. He is their Lord, and he is their good Shepherd; he knoweth his own, and his own know him. Once he gave his life for the sheep; now he feeds them, and leads them on their way, tilt they come to the lilies of Paradise, the garden of the Lord.
4. The adieus of the bride. She has expressed her confidence in her lover"s affection and her own devotion to him; but now, apparently, she repeats the intimation of ver. 15 in plainer words: her duties in the vineyard will occupy her time till the evening. She wishes her lover to continue his hunting excursion on the mountains of Bether, or, it may be, "of separation the mountains which for the time separate the lovers. She invites him to return when the day is cool, when the day breathes; that is, when the breeze comes in the evening, and the shadows lengthen and flee away. (see Jer_6:4) The Christian must not neglect the ordinary commonplace duties of life; he must not allow himself, like the Thessalonians, to be so distracted with spiritual excitement as to be unable to attend to the pursuits of his calling. The bride tends the vineyards which have been committed to her charge; the Christian must do with his might whatever his hand findeth to do. He must not neglect his duties even for the sake of giving all his time to religious exercises. Laborare est orare. If, whatever he does, he does all to the glory of God, Christ is his, and he is Christ"s, as fully in the midst of daily work as in the hour of prayer. Daniel, who kneeled upon his knees, and prayed and gave thanks three times a day, was faithful in all things to the king his master; no error or fault could be found in the administration of his arduous office. The bride will welcome her lover back in the cool of the evening, when she has finished her work; the Christian will take delight in his evening prayers when the tasks of the day have been performed.
Vers. 8-17. The soul wooed and won.
In this lovely pastoral the literal meaning is, we think, as stated in introduction to homily on ver. 15. But it may be taken as setting forth how Christ woes and wins the souls he loves. The various stages are shown.
I THE SOUL HEARS HIS VOICE. "The voice of my Beloved" (ver. 8). It is as said in John 10, "My sheep hear my voice." They hear it in the loving exhortations of those who would win them for Christ; in his Word; in the silent pleadings of his Spirit; in his providence. And it is gladly heard. The tone of this ver. 8 shows that she who hears is pleased to hear. There is the response of her heart; cf. "My sheep hear... and follow me;" "Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth.
II THEN THE SOUL SEES HIM COMING. "Behold, he cometh leaping upon," etc. Christ says to his Church, "Behold, I come quickly." There, as here, his coming is:
1. Swiftly. Conversions to Christ very rarely are sudden, but they often seem so (cf. those of penitent thief, Paul, Philippian gaoler). The conviction that Christ alone can save us, and that he will, is borne in upon our souls all in a moment, as it were; the truth rushes in upon us.
2. No distance can keep him back. The soul has been distant enough from him; "over the hills, and far away." How we have kept aloof from him! What space we have put between him and ourselves! Gone, maybe, into some "far country.
3. Difficulties do not daunt him. Mountains and hills he leapeth upon them. What impossibilities have sometimes seemed to stand in the way of a soul"s salvation! Take the instances above named. What human probability was there that they should be won for Christ? But he makes nothing of them; they cannot hinder him. "Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel," etc. (Zec_4:7)
4. Very near. "He standeth behind our wall." Just outside (cf. "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock"). Often the soul when sought by the Saviour is conscious of his nearness, and that he is seeking her. Sometimes when we are alone and in serious thought; sometimes in sacred services, when his Word has been preached with power.
III KNOWS THAT HE IS SEARCHING FOR HER. "He looketh in at the windows" (ver. 9). He will find her if she is to be found, and so his eyes search for her. This, too, the soul often knows. "Thou God seest me". (cf. Psa_139:1-12, "O Lord, thou hast searched me," etc.) Our hearts" inmost secrets, unknown to our nearest and dearest earthly friend, are known to him; for all our hearts have windows through which his eyes often keenly glance. Conscience shows us those "eyes of the Lord which are in every place." (For illustration of this loving search, cf. parables in Luke 15)
IV IS AFFECTIONATELY ENTREATED BY HIM. He:
1. Addresses her as his much-loved one. "My fair one." Such name of endearment tells the truth as to what our souls are to him. So also "my dove" (ver. 16). We should not call them fair no, indeed! But love invests all it loves with beauty. What mother does not think her child lovelier than everybody else"s? Other people do not see it; she does. And so Christ sees in our souls what we certainly cannot see.
2. Bids her rise up and come away. " (Cf. "He arose and came to his father.") How many would be saved willingly if only they could stay where they are in self-indulgence, in gainful trade, in worldly conformity, in allowed sin! But it may not be. The soul must "rise up," etc. We must leave our sins behind us when we come to Christ.
3. He encourages her by telling of the pleasure he desires for her. He would have her go forth with him in delightful walk amid the flowers and fragrance, the sunshine and song, of a lovely spring morning. No more exquisite description of such a morning was ever penned. And so the Divine wisdom moves us, saying, "Her ways are ways of pleasantness," etc. And we are taught that the course of the soul should be as a going forth amid the loveliness of such a morning in spring. It is not through a vale of tears, but amid what is here told of. Joy should be a chief element in the soul"s life in Christ.
4. He bids her cast away her fear. (Cf. as to her fearfulness, on ver. 15) Young souls are often fearful of themselves, of the world, of the cress. Christ would dispel such fears.
5. He asks for response. He would hear her voice. The voice of the soul in prayer, in praise, in self-surrender, that is the voice Christ loves to hear.
V IS FINALLY AND FULLY WON. (Cf. ver. 16) See how gladly:
1. She confesses him, openly avowing that he is the Beloved of her heart, and that she is altogether his (cf. "She fell down before him, and told him all the truth"). Confession is the law of love.
2. She declares that he dwells in her heart. Those pure graces, the lilies of his creating, are those amongst which he takes delight. Christ dwells in our hearts through faith.
3. She desires that whilst her life lasts he may come to her as he has done. (Ver. 17) So long as the night of life lasts, and until the eternal dawn breaks, will she welcome his presence and rejoice in his coming.
CONCLUSION. Christ does so woo our souls, especially those who, as the one told of here, are young. May he win them as he won this! S.C.
Vers. 8-13. Christ"s coming makes a new epoch in our history.
Nature is a mirror in which God is seen, and all the processes of nature are samples of God"s works in us. Such analogies we ought to expect, because all the forces in nature are the projections of God"s thoughts and purposes. The same God who works so mightily in the material world works with mighty grace in us. If, in the visible creation, he gives life to dead matter, so does he likewise give life to dead souls. The sun which rides in royal majesty across the heavens is a picture of the great Sun of Righteousness, who arises on the soul "with healing in his beams." As the coming of spring makes a new epoch in the material world, so the coming of Immanuel is the opening of a new era to the soul. It is nothing short of a spiritual evolution. We pass out of winter into spring; out of death into life.
I THIS LANGUAGE IS A PICTURE OF CHRIST"S INCARNATION. "The voice of my Beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains," etc.
1. He overleaps all difficulty. Principles of eternal righteousness stood in the way of man"s redemption. The interests of Divine government stood in the way. The peace and welfare of the heavenly hosts seemed to be obstacles. Man"s enmity was a tremendous barrier. But the Son of God was deterred by no obstacle. Although the temporary renunciation of his glory and dignity was required, he did not hold back. Immeasurable condescension was demanded; yet to this he cordially submitted. In view of the splendid result, he triumphed over every hindrance.
2. His coming was a joyful act. "Leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills." With the affectionate purpose to save men strong in his breast, he felt a joy in self-humiliation; a delicious pleasure in self-sacrifice. "His delights were already with the sons of men." "Lo!" said he I come to do thy will, O God; yea, thy Law is within my heart." When our globe was fashioned, there was new gladness in heaven; "the sons of God shouted for joy." And when the Son of God appeared on earth as its Redeemer, a multitude of the heavenly host broke upon the midnight silence of Bethlehem with the song, "Glory to God in the highest!" Although to execute his task he was "the Man of sorrows," nevertheless in his heart there glowed the fire of sacred rapture. "For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, and despised the shame." As a noble Bridegroom "he rejoices over his bride." In his completed work "he shall be satisfied.
3. His coming was discerned only by his chosen. The bulk of men knew nothing about his coming; eared nothing about it. To Herod it was a perplexity and a terror. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not." Yet a few chosen ones "waited for the hope and consolation of Israel." Andrew and Simon Peter and Nathanael had been pondering the old prophecies, and were looking hither and thither for signs of fulfilment. Old Simeon"s heart overflowed with gratitude when, embracing the holy Child, he said, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace." Not to the eye of man was he revealed. Outwardly, "there was no beauty in him that men should desire him." To many he was known through his voice of wisdom through his voice of tender invitation and generous love. "The voice of my Beloved." "Faith cometh by hearing." To the heart Jesus Christ still speaks. The sweet tones of his love win us to obedience. "Tis not only a voice, but "the voice of my Beloved.
II THIS LANGUAGE IS A PICTURE OF CHRIST"S COMING AT OUR CONVERSION. In the day of our personal regeneration, Immanuel came into our heart to dwell. Then all the mountains of opposition were levelled, and all the abysses of degradation were filled up. We straightway passed out of darkness into light, out of bondage into liberty, out of banishment into sonship. If it were not a time of harvest, when men gather up the ripe sheaves of plenty, it was a spring time, when young life appears, and gives fair promise of growth and fruitfulness. So we could sing, "For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is ever and gone.
1. A surprising change. If ever a miracle has been wrought On earth, our regeneration is a miracle. It is a new departure in life. We, who once loved sin, now hate the abominable thing. We had "sold ourselves for nought;" now we are redeemed with priceless blood. We were righteously condemned; now we are righteously accepted. We are brought into covenant relationship with God. In that day hell was exchanged for heaven. It was a day of jubilee. Through all the ranks in heaven a thrill of gladness ran. The barrenness and death of winter were gone, and spring, fresh with life and hope, filled the soul. The heavenly Bridegroom had arrived.
2. Varied beauty is here represented. "The flowers appear on the earth." Bright and fragrant flowers are fit emblems of Christian virtues. The early flowers of meekness and penitence send forth a goodly smell, and the spicy beds of obedience produce a rich aroma. Some Christians are like violets, unconscious of their sweetness; some are like snowdrops, lacking character; some are full of sacred enthusiasm, rare roses, like Augustines and Ambroses and Luthers. The brightest and noblest specimens of men are found in the Church.
3. And fruitfulness is also foreseen. "The fig tree putteth forth her green figs." True religion is not mere sentiment; it is practical; it is beneficial to mankind. Whence sprang our hospitals, our asylums, our penitentiaries, our almshouses? They have all sprung from Christ, as the Root. When the Spirit of the Lord anointed Jesus, he preached good tidings to the poor; he announced "liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison to those who were hound." No life has been so fruitful in good results as the life of Jesus Christ, and every true disciple aspires to be fruitful too. In the first age of Christianity, Paul saw many excellent fruits joy, peace, long suffering, meekness," etc. And the catalogue has been growing from that day to this.
4. Gladness is another feature in the coming of the Bridegroom. "The time of the singing of birds is come." If any event on earth can awaken joy, surely this must in a superlative degree. If, on the return of spring, lark and linnet and thrush trill their notes afresh, and fill the woods with music, can we restrain our joy when the spring is within us a new incoming of heavenly life? This joy is joy of the richest quality. It is the cream of all joy. It is joy akin to that which floods the heart of God. We did not know what joy was until Christ visited the heart. Said Rutherford, "Hold, Lord! it is enough. The vessel cannot contain more." "It is meet that we should make merry and be glad." Let nature share in the gladness! It is the birthday and bridal of the soul in one!
5. This new love is held precious by Christ. "Sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is lovely." We cannot understand why our attachment and our loyalty should be so highly esteemed by Jesus; yet so it is. He "rests in our love." He "rejoices over us with singing." He calls us "his jewels his treasures." He has his "inheritance in the saints." Where the disciples meet, he delights to come. "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth" him. And such complacent joy does he find in his consecrated servants, that he says, "I am glorified in them." In the visions of heaven vouchsafed to St. John, the redeemed of earth occupied a place nearer to the throne than the unfallen angels. They are styled "messengers," "servants;" but consecrated men are designated "brethren.
III THIS LANGUAGE IS DESCRIPTIVE OF REVIVAL AFTER TEMPORARY DEADNESS. The coming of Christ to the soul is like a restoration to life after fainting, or like new life after sleep.
1. The novelty of spiritual life, arising from contrast, does not abide. The joy that springs from pardon does not remain, just as the freshness of spring does not continue all the year. When the new experience becomes a settled thing, the gladness that could not at first but break into a song subsides into a calmer delight. At conversion the change was so great, the contrast with the former state so striking, the deliverance so welcome, we could not restrain our joy. But the festivities of marriage do not remain perpetual. The rosy hues of dawn do not continue all the day. So the rapture of the new birth does not remain all through the pilgrimage.
2. The Christian, too, has seasons of dark desertion. There are seasons when dark clouds gather round him, and the face of his best friend is hidden. Doubts, like malignant spirits, haunt his mind, and rob him of his peace. Satan entangles him in his enchantments, and lures him into the thickets around Doubting Castle. They "cannot read their titles clear to mansions in the skies." They miss the warm sunshine of Immanuel"s face. And they are perplexed. If they are the Lord"s, why this painful discipline? Why this loss of conscious favour? And in sad despondency they ask, "Will God cast off forever? Will he be favourable no more?
3. Then the return of the Bridegroom brings new life and joy. "He restoreth my soul." Possibly there was some fault in us that required chastisement, or some rival to our best Beloved may have appeared in the heart not to be tolerated. Whatever was the cause of this temporary eclipse, certain it is that the reappearance of the sun will be a festive day a jubilee, a resurrection morn. While under that dark cloud, there may have been some needed preparation of the soul for higher service, as with the fields of earth under wintry skies. Larger fruitfulness may result. The friendship of Jesus will be more prized. "Absence makes the heart grow fonder." Where silence and sadness just now reigned, mirth and music have stirred the echoes. Despondency has given place to hope. The dark shadows of night have fled before a new dawn; and again we can sing, "For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. D.
Vers. 8-10. The approach of the beloved.
How poetically does this language picture the rural maiden m her mountain home the lover climbing the hill like a young hart for strength and swiftness, looking in through the lattice window, calling to his beloved, and inviting her to join him amidst the beauty, the fragrance, and the freshness of the spring! So comes Christ unto the soul.
I THE VOICE OF THE BELOVED. Jesus speaks in his Word and gospel, and his utterance is
(1) Divine;
(2) authoritative;
(3) gracious;
(4) encouraging; and
(5) welcome.
There is no voice like his; he "spake as never man spake.
II THE GLANCE AND GAZE OF THE BELOVED.
1. Our Saviour"s regard is one of interest. Never is his Church forgotten or neglected by him; never does he withdraw his attention or treat with indifference and neglect those for whom he died.
2. He makes himself acquainted with our state and our wants.
3. He looks with affectionate kindness upon those who are dependent upon his favour and bounty.
4. Christ"s gracious regard awakens in the minds of his people a desire to know him more intimately. To see him once is to wish to see him again; to see him now and here is to hope for the nearer and perfect vision hereafter.
III THE INVITATION OF THE BELOVED. We may notice in the tenth verse:
1. The address remarkably kind, familiar, and affectionate.
2. The appeal: "Rise up!" Is there slothfulness and inactivity? The summons of the Lord is enough to rouse to earnestness and animation.
3. The entreaty: "Come away!" Thus Christ calls his people to himself, and bids them seek his society, accept that spiritual companionship, desire that affectionate intercourse, which are the prerogative of those whom he loves. Even if to act upon this invitation be to leave all that earth can offer, still there is more than compensation for such loss in the joy and privilege of the peerless friendship of the Son of God. 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 The voice of my Beloved.
Son_2:8-17
The voice of my Beloved.
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The voice of the Beloved
I. When Christ is away from the soul of the believer, he sits alone. Whatever he the mountains of Bether that have come between his soul and Christ--whether he hath been seduced into his old sins that his iniquities have separated again between him and his God, and his sins have hid his face from Him, that He will not hear for whether the Saviour hath withdrawn for a season the comfortable light of His presence for the mere trial of His servants faith, to see if, when he walketh in darkness and hath no light, he will still trust in the name of the Lord, and stay himself upon his God--whatever the mountains of separation be, it is the sure mark of the believer that he sits desolate and alone. He cannot laugh away his heavy care, as worldly men can do. He cannot drown it in the bowl of intemperance, as poor blinded men can do. Even the innocent intercourse of human friendship brings no balm to his wound--nay, even fellowship with the children of God is now distasteful to his soul.
II. Christs coming to the desolate believer is often sudden and wonderful. Some text of the Word, or some word from a Christian friend, or some part of a sermon, again reveals Jesus in all His fulness--the Saviour of sinners, even the chief. Or it may be that He makes Himself known to the disconsolate soul in the breaking of bread, and when He speaks the gentle words--This is My body broken for you; this cup is the New Testament in My blood shed for the remission of the sins of many; drink ye all of it--then he cannot but cry out, The voice of my Beloved! behold, He cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.
III. Christs coming changes all things to the believer, and His love is more tender than ever. The world of nature is all changed. Instead of the thorn comes up the fir tree, and instead of the brier comes up the myrtle tree. Every tree and field possesses a new beauty to the happy soul. The world of grace is all changed. The Bible was all dry and meaningless before; now, what a flood of light is poured over its pages! how full, how fresh, how rich in meaning, how its simplest phrases touch the heart! The house of prayer was all sad and dreary before--its services were dry and unsatisfactory; but now, when the believer sees the Saviour, as he hath seen Him heretofore within His holy place, his cry is,-How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts, etc. The garden of the Lord was all sad and cheerless before; now tenderness towards the unconverted springs up afresh, and love to the people of God burns in the bosom--then they that fear the Lord speak often one to another. The time of singing the praises of Jesus is come, and the turtle voice of love to Jesus is once more heard in the land; the Lords vine flourishes, and the pomegranate buds, and Christs voice to the soul is, Arise, My love, My fair one, and come away.
IV. Observe the threefold disposition of fear, love, and hope, which this visit of the Saviour stirs up in the believers bosom. These three form, as it were, a cord in the restored believers bosom, and a threefold cord is not easily broken. (R. M. McCheyne.)
Behold, He cometh, leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.
The mountains of Judah
One of the most striking features of this book of Solomons Song is that of liveliness. We find the Church here represented in the liveliness of her affections to Christ, to God; we here see the Saviour in the liveliness of His love, and of His activities towards the Church; and so He is represented as a roe, or as a young hart, expressive of freedom and activity.
I. The mountains, the hills of impediment which the saviour overcomes. I will here take the Saviour leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills, to denote with what triumph and with what certainty He enables all His people to overcome all their troubles.
II. Take the mountains and the hills to denote the eternal truths of the Gospel, as spoken of in this book,--the mountains of eternity. The voice of my Beloved! behold, He cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills, of division. There is Gods everlasting love to Jacob in contradistinction to Esau; Gods everlasting love to His own, in contradistinction to the others; and Christ glorified in that mountain of division. There is Gods eternal election, and Christ gloried in the same, and commands His disciples to rejoice that their names are written in heaven. There is His eternal achievement by which He hath redeemed His people, and distinguished them from all others by that eternal redemption, for none but the redeemed can learn that song that the redeemed sing. The mountains of division. Then comes regeneration; that brings His people up to Mount Zion--mountain of division. Then comes resurrection to life; then comes glorification. Here is a range of mountains ranging from eternity to eternity. (J. Wells.)
An absent Christ yet beloved
1. An absent Christ is yet a beloved Christ to His true Church, and to the truly believing soul.
2. The spouse of Christ will know her Beloveds voice, though He hath a while been absent.
3. The spouse of Christ will greatly rejoice to hear her Beloveds voice, especially after a time of absenting Himself.
4. Though Christ may withdraw, and absent Himself from His Church, and from the souls of His people, yet He will come.
5. When He comes, He will come skipping upon the mountains and leaping upon the hills, openly and hastily, and trampling all difficulties and impediments under His feet.
6. The Church, and the true members of it, will by the eye of faith discern Christ coming, skipping upon the mountains. (John Collinges, D. D.)
Christs coming to His spouse to be beheld
Believing souls in the time of His withdrawing from them may and ought to behold Him again returning to them.
I. Christs return to His spouse after an absence may be beheld by a believer.
(1) He came by His Incarnation.
(2) He cometh to His people in the influences of His grace, to comfort, quicken, strengthen them.
(3) He cometh in the influences of His providence, to protect, save, rescue and deliver His people.
(4) He cometh to judgment, and His reward is with Him to render to every one according to his work.
II. A believer may behold Christs coming, in many sure and faithful promises.
III. The believer sees Him coming in the sure words of prophecy.
IV. His coming may be beheld in the steps of His providence.
(1) To a particular soul in the influences of His grace.
(2) To the public assemblies of His people in the influences of His common providences.
(3) To the universal judgment. Signs of this are:--
(a) Plenty of seducers (Mat_24:4).
(b) Great commotions in the world, and other judgments of God.
(c) Abounding of iniquity and decay of religion.
(d) Great security of sinners.
(e) Alterations in the course of nature. (John Collinges, D. D.)
Lessons of the Spring
Whatever these words may or may not mean in any deep, spiritual sense, they may at least be applied to the Spring-time and the Summer.
I. As we feel the influences of the growing spring, they suggest to us the idea of order. By the end of the Winter we are apt to feel as if we had the end of all inanimate nature. But the first buds of Spring bring to mind the order of nature more vividly than such frequent changes as the succession of day and night, which become so familiar that we fail to mark their lessons.
II. Spring impresses us with the manifestation of power. It returns with a great manifestation of force. Who can compute the aggregate weight now lifting in the vegetable creation all over this land, in ten thousand times ten thousand billions and billions of plants, from the tiny grass-blade to the giant oak? There is a moral aspect here also. The power which wields this force is on the side of righteousness. It is the same as that which rules the hearts of men, and makes their lives and actions to praise God, and bring about His will on earth.
III. The incoming spring delights us with its exhibition of progressiveness. I watch a tree opposite my dwelling with ever-increasing interest. This tree in Winter seemed dead, until as Spring approached a single bud peeped forth. After neglecting to look for a few days I was yesterday surprised to see it clothed in every branch with leaves. Ah, what progressiveness! The kingdom of Spring cometh not by observation. So with the kingdom of God--the kingdom of goodness in the earth. Has Christianity made no advance? Compare to-day with yesterday, and, as in a tree, we see but little change. But think of the treatment of the insane, or of prisoners, now, and even so lately as only fifty years ago! Is there no advance there? Compare the pictures drawn by writers of the former day with what we now take as a matter of course, and we seem to be living in almost a new world. The function of Christianity in the world is the bettering of men in physical, moral, and spiritual progress; and the work, though gradual, is sure. Therefore learn this lesson: Be patient! You cannot take the bellows of the sky and blow the heat of heaven into greater intensity, to hasten Gods work in nature or in grace. Be patient, as God is patient. His policy is broadly progressive. In means of Gospel privilege Gods kingdom grows as under glass; but in heathen lands the progress is more slow--yet none the less sure. Gods will shall triumph in the end. He can afford to wait, and we should follow His example.
IV. We learn from the spring the hope of recovery. The Springtime is a recovering. So with grace. Salvation is a recovering--not only a setting up of something new. There was once a golden age for the race, but we have descended to an iron age; nay, even to an age of clay, and broken, clay at that. But there is a good day coming, when the earth shall be filled with more than its original blessedness. This blessedness is through Christ, in whom alone trusting you may surely find eternal life. (L. D. Bevan, 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 Son_2:12 : The time of the singing of birds…
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Son_2:12 : The time of the singing of birds iS come.
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‘The time of the singing,’ עֵת הַזָּמִיר (eth ha-zamir). Two meanings given to זָמִיר (zamir). GESENIUS and others derive it from זָמַר (zamar), ‘to prune,’ as in Lev_25:3; and so understand the expression as the ‘time of pruning the vines,’ or spring. So the Septuagint, Vulgate, and the ancients generally. RASHI, KIMCHI, ABEN EZRA, and most of the modern interpreters, understand the word rather as denoting ‘singing,’ from זָמַר, ‘to sing.’ So EWALD, who observes that vineyards are not mentioned till Son_2:13, and that the Greek ψάλλειν (psallein), equivalent to זָמַר is used of the singing of birds. ZÖCKLER understands the word of singing, but rather the ‘merry songs as of shepherds and country people.’ Some understand it of the ‘plucking and gathering of flowers.’ So GREGORY OF NYSSA, DU VEIL, TIRINUS, and POOLE. HARMER and KITTO think allusion is made to the nightingale, which is heard in Palestine during the greater part of the garden season, singing delightfully in the day time among the pomegranate groves, and from trees of loftier growth in the night season. The time of singing, as more agreeing with that of the turtle’s cooing. FAUSSET. SANCTIUS observes that vines are not pruned in spring, and prefers—‘the time of cutting the Cyprus in order to obtain its balsam in the gardens of Egedi.’ LUTHER simply translates: The time of spring. Variously allegorized. TARGUM: Time of cutting off the first born in Egypt. RABBINS: Time of Israel’s redemption, cutting off of the first born, and rooting up of idolatry. WEISS: Cutting off of the idolatrous nations of Canaan. ORIGEN: Pruning at the end of the world, when the axe of judgment is laid to the root of the trees. GREGORY: Removing the reprobate from the Church, that the end of the world may come. DEL RIO: A spiritual pruning in baptism and repentance for the remission of sins. FOLIOT: In sacred confession. WILLERAMUS: By the preaching of the Word. CASSIODORUS: The pruning of the saints in and by Christ. PHILO: A daily pruning from all sin necessary to those who wish to be Christ’s spouse. HONORIUS: Pruning the Church of its rebellious members. FROMONDI: Putting off of the old man and cutting away of the old shoots of vices. WICKLIFF: By the preaching of the Gospel. THREEFOLD MYSTERY: Pruning of the Gentiles after Christ’s coming. ABEN EZRA. Time of singing the song by the Red Sea. BROUGHTON: Time of the Jew’s return from the Babylonian captivity. FAUSSET: Time of rejoicing at the advent of Jesus.
PART SECOND
The Huptials
CHAPTER Son_2:8, TO CHAPTER Son_3:11
SCENE FIRST. Place: Shulamite’s home in the country. Speaker: Shulamite alone with the Daughters of Jerusalem, or Ladies of the Court.
NARRATIVE OF THE BRIDEGROOM’S VISIT
Son_2:8-13
The voice of my Beloved!
Behold, he cometh,
Leaping upon the mountains,
Skipping upon the hills.
My Beloved is like a roe or a young hart:
Behold, he standeth behind our wall;
He looketh forth at the windows,
Shewing himself (glancing, like a rose bud) through the lattice.
My beloved spake and said unto me
Rise up, my love, my fair one,
And come away.
For lo! the winter is past;
The rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth:
The time of singing is come;
And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.
The fig tree putteth forth her green figs;
And the vines, with the tender grape, (or, now in blossom), give a good smell.
Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
Shulamite relates the visit of her Beloved when he came to take her to the nuptials. The visit probably made in spring. The bridegroom’s invitation, from its pleasant nature, poetically represented as a call to come forth and enjoy the beauties of that delightful season. The language implies a previous absence of the bridegroom. The believers most comfortable state on earth not abiding. Its interruption, however, subservient to higher advancement.—The parts of which the Song is composed appear to shift and melt into each other like the dissolving views of a diorama.
The text a poetical and allegorical representation of what takes place in the history of the Church as a whole, and in the experience of believers individually. Historically, the Church’s experience—
(1) At the return of the Jews from the captivity in Babylon;
(2) At the time of the Saviour’s incarnation and earthly ministry;
(3) At any time of great revival in the Church—pre-eminently, at the commencement of the Gospel Dispensation on the Day of Pentecost, and at the Reformation in the sixteenth century. A time of the Church’s
Revival,
a time of Spring. The voice of the heavenly Turtle-dove, like the harbinger of an oriental Spring, then heard in the land. The Gospel,—the voice and dispensation of the Spirit—then clearly and earnestly preached, and accompanied with the Spirit’s own power. Sleepers awakened and the dead made alive. The anxious inquiry heard: What must I do to be saved? Sanctuaries thronged with thirsting hearers. Converts multiplied. Believers quickened—made holy, happy, and useful; bold in testifying for Christ, and their testimony blessed. The spirit of prayer—the voice of the Turtle-dove in the believer’s heart—eminently poured out. Gatherings for prayer, numerous, lively, and largely attended. The fruits of the Spirit conspicuous. Love, peace, and goodwill prevailing in the Church and in the neighbourhood. Satan may rage, and some may persecute; but the believers are unmoved, rejoicing to walk ‘in the footsteps of the flock,’ and to be counted worthy to suffer shame for their Master’s sake. Observe—A necessity laid on believers to pray for such a Spring-time to the Church and the world (Zec_10:1).—The Church’s experience farther indicated in the text—
(4) At the time of the Saviour’s second coming. The new heavens and the new earth then created. The whole creation, now groaning and travailing in pain together, then ‘delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.’ No more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, nor any more pain; ‘for the former things are passed away’ (2Pe_3:13; Rom_8:21; Rev_21:4).
The experience of individual believers exhibited—
(1) At the time of their first enjoyment of Christ’s manifested love;
(2) At subsequent repetitions of the same;
(3) In revived spiritual life and joy after a season of deadness and discomfort;
(4) At their departure to the ‘better country.’
There everlasting spring abides,
And never withering flowers.
The passage includes a lively and beautiful description of
Spring.
Spring the emblem of all that is sweet and lovely, joyous and refreshing. The spring in nature only a picture of the spring in grace, and still more of the spring in glory. Its lessons manifold:—
1. That God is love. This proclained in the months of spring from every wood and hedge-row, every field and garden. Sung by the lark as it soars in the air; hummed by the insect as it flits from flower to flower; whispered by the daisy that shows its smiling face again after the snows and storms of winter. Spring a continually recurring testimony that God delights in the happiness of His creatures.
2. That He rules by His providence. By His care, the creatures he has made are again provided with the means of support and comfort which seemed for a time to be suspended. Life bursts forth out of death, and plenty out of want. His hand looses the bands of winter by preserving the earth in its motion, and the sun in its power. He brings back the sweet influences of the Pleiades, and looses the bands of Orion (Job_38:31).
3. That God is faithful to his promises. The time of the singing of birds comes, however long it seemed to be deferred. The voice of the turtle or cuckoo is again heard in the land, proclaiming that God is mindful of His promise that, while the world remains, seed-time and harvest, summer and winter, shall not cease (Gen_8:22). Weeping may endure for a night; joy, according to His promise, comes in the morning. ‘They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.’ (Psa_30:5; Psa_126:5). The fulness of the time arrives, and the Saviour appears.
4. That God is the author of beauty. Himself the perfection of beauty, He delights in imparting it to His creatures. Beauty the robe of Spring. Conspicuous everywhere,—in “the blue sky, green earth, and gleaming sea.” The world not a mere granary. The hand that fills the ear with the full corn for man’s food, clothes the grass of the field with beautiful flowers for man’s enjoyment. The voice of spring: “How great is His goodness, and how great is His beauty!” (Zec_9:17).
An interesting feature of Spring is the return of the migratory inhabitants of the woods. More especially that of the herald of Spring—with us the cuckoo,—in Palestine,
The Turtle Dove.
‘The voice of the turtle is heard in our land.’
The turtle-dove in the natural, an emblem of the Holy Ghost in spiritual, world His chosen form, in descending on the Saviour at His baptism. Probable allusion to the figure in the account of the Creator (Gen_1:2): ‘The Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters.’ Literally, ‘brooded,’ as a bird over its young. ‘Dove-like, sat’st brooding’ (Milton). The dove an emblem of the Holy Spirit, as—
(1) Distinguished for its faithful love. In love, the Spirit visits loathsome hearts, which He renews for His abode, and then never entirely leaves.
(2) The cleanest and most delicate of birds. The least sin hateful and grieving to the Holy Spirit. Creates, in the soul He dwells in, the same holy hatred.
(3) A very timid creature. A hawk’s feather said to be sufficient to make it tremble. The Holy Spirit easily grieved, and creates in us a holy fear in regard to sin and spiritual danger.
(4) A gentle bird. The gentleness of the Spirit seen in the gentleness of Christ, in whom He dwelt in His fulness. ‘I am meek and lowly in heart.’ ‘He shall not strive nor cry. A bruised reed He shall not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench’ (Mat_11:29; Mat_12:20). Among the fruits of the Spirit are—long-suffering, gentleness, and meekness (Gal_5:22-23).
(5) The turtle takes up its abode in the land renewed under the genial breath of Spring. The Holy Spirit loves to dwell in the heart He renews by His own gracious influence. The believer’s body as well as His soul the temple of the Holy Ghost (1Co_3:16; 1Co_6:19). Care to be taken by the believer to cherish so blessed a guest.
The ‘voice’ of the Holy Spirit ‘heard in the land’—
(1) When the Gospel is preached in its purity. The Gospel the Dispensation of the Spirit. ‘The Spirit and the Bride say: Come.’ ‘As the Holy Ghost saith, Today, if ye will hear His voice.’ ‘He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches’ (Rev_2:11; Rev_21:17; Heb_3:7).
(2) When the Gospel is preached with power. The Gospel to be preached ‘with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.’ ‘Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me’ (1Pe_1:12; Act_1:8).
(3) When the fruits of the Gospel appear in the lives of those who hear it These fruits—love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (or self control). Exemplified in the first hearers of the Gospel at Jerusalem, at Samaria, Philippi, Corinth, &c. (Act_2:44-47; Act_8:8; Act_16:15; Act_16:33-34; Php_1:3-7; 1Co_6:11). The voice of the turtle-dove never entirely silent in the earth since the first promise of a Saviour. Heard in the preaching of Enoch and Noah, in the Psalms of David, in the Proverbs and Song of Solomon, and in the strains of all the prophets. Carries in the Gospel the olive leaf of peace to a perishing but pitied world.
From the language of Shulamite in reference to her Beloved, observe—
1. The warm affection of a believer’s heart towards the Saviour. ‘The voice of my Beloved!’ The first faint sound of His voice eagerly caught as it falls on the ear. Shulamite speaks as if her heart leaped within her at the sound. ‘As soon as the voice of Thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy’ (Luk_1:44).
(2) The waiting and expectant state of the believer in regard to Christ. For His first Advent in the case of the Old Testament Church; His second Advent in that of the New; and His spiritual visits and appearances in the case of believers in general. Shulamite on the eager look out for her Beloved. The proper posture of believers in regard to Christ. His second and glorious Appearing the Church’s ‘blessed hope’ (Tit_2:13; Luk_12:36)
(3) The love of Christ to His Church. Shulamite’s Beloved represented as coming to her, in the eagerness of his desire, like a swift and sprightly gazelle or young antelope, bounding over mountain and hill. No obstacle too great for Christ to overcome in redeeming and blessing His Church. ‘He loved the Church and gave Himself for it.’ Jacob’s love to Rachael shewn by a hard service of fourteen years in keeping Laban’s flocks. A human life of thirty-three years to fulfil the precepts of the law; and a painful, ignominious, and accursed death, with the added misery of the hiding of His Father’s face, to satisfy its penalty—not too much for the love of Christ to His Church. ‘Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldst not: then said I, lo, I come to do Thy will, O God; a body hast Thou prepared for me’ (Psa_40:6, &c.; Heb_10:5-9).
3. The Saviour’s desire for the believer’s love and fellowship. Shulamite’s Beloved having reached her dwelling, waits outside till he obtains her consent to follow him. ‘He standeth behind our wall,’ &c. He addresses her by the most endearing titles, and employs arguments taken from the removal of every obstacle—‘the winter is past,’ &c.—and from the most attractive features of the country in the lovely season of an oriental Spring, as expressive of the sweetness enjoyed in the fellowship of love. Souls invited to receive and follow Christ by the blessedness imparted by His presence and love. ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in unto him, and will sup with him, and he with me’ (Rev_3:20).
4. The natural backwardness of the heart to the blessedness to which Christ invites His people. Shulamite’s backwardness indicated by the arguments employed by her waiting Beloved to overcome it. The believer’s spirit willing, while the flesh is weak. Weights hanging on the soul which have to be laid aside. The natural tendency, through the remains of the carnal mind, to settle down in a state of sloth and indolence, satisfied with little of spiritual life and communion with the Saviour. ‘My soul cleaveth to the dust; quicken Thou me according to Thy word’ (Psa_119:25).
6. The necessity of leaving everything for Christ. Shulamite twice entreated ‘to rise up and come away.’ Like the exhortation addressed to the same Bride in the forty-fifth Psalm: ‘Harken, O daughter, and consider: forget also thine own people and thy father’s house’ (Psa_45:10-11). The Saviour’s call: ‘Follow Me’—to be answered by a rising up, leaving all, and following Him (Mat_4:19-22; Luk_5:27-28). ‘Whosoever he be that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple’ (Luk_14:33).
7. The whole passage descriptive of
The Saviour’s Call
I. What it COST to make it. Shulamite’s Beloved required to come from a distance, overcoming every obstacle, ‘like a roe or a young hind’ bounding over one mountain peak after another. The Son of God required to leave His Father’s house, assume our nature, empty Himself of His glory, take the form of a servant, be born of a humble woman, be brought forth in a stable, work as a carpenter, become a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, be for a time with nowhere to lay his head, endure the contradiction, reproach, and opposition of sinners, and at last the hiding of His Father’s face amid the agony and shame of an accursed death. One mountain of suffering and one valley of humiliation after another, to be passed before He could call sinners to the enjoyment of salvation,—His chosen bride to the celebration of the marriage. Many also the provocations to be come over in His saving call to sinners, and His sanctifying call to believers, before He obtains their full consent to ‘rise up and come away.’ Jesus more eager to save and bless, than the sinner or the saint to experience His salvation and blessing (Psa_81:10-16).
II. The MEANS through which He addresses the call. “The voice of my Beloved. He standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, showing himself (margin, ‘flourishing’—glancing like an opening flower) through the lattice.” Through these openings in the wall he addressed his invitation: ‘My beloved spake and said unto me.’ Through the ordinances instituted by Himself in His Church, Christ wooes sinners to become His Bride, and invites His Bride to the full enjoyment of union and communion with Him. ‘We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you, in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled unto God.’ ‘I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin unto Christ’ (2Co_5:20; 2Co_11:2). The voice of Christ Himself in the word and ordinances the only effectual means of awakening and drawing the soul to Himself. ‘My sheep hear my voice and follow me.’ The quickened soul able to distinguish that voice as the voice of the beloved. “They know not the voice of strangers.” The voice known to be that of the Saviour from its inward power and sweetness, and from its conformity to the written Word. Known by believers as having heard and experienced it before. Observe—
(1) A wall found standing between Christ and the soul whom He seeks. Our fleshly nature, both in respect to body and mind, such a wall. The ‘law of commandments’ which we have broken, another. Visible nature at present a separating wall. Ordinances themselves a wall, but a wall with openings in it; or ordinances these openings themselves. Through these openings Christ shows Himself to the soul He seeks.
(2) To obtain glimpses of Christ and hear His voice, it is necessary to be at the lattice of ordinances. Divine ordinances the meeting-place between Christ and His people (Exo_25:22; Exo_29:42-43; Exo_30:6; Exo_30:36). ‘Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the ports of my doors.’ ‘One thing have I desired, and that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and inquire in His temple.’ ‘Wherever two or three are gathered together in My name there am I in the midst of them.’ ‘Wherever I record my name, I will come and bless you’ (Pro_8:34; Psa_27:4; Mat_18:20; Exo_20:24).
III. The ARGUMENTS employed in the call. Three arguments employed by Shulamite’s Beloved.
(1) His own love—expressed in the titles given her;
(2) The removal of hindrances: ‘The winter is past, the rain is over and gone;’
(3) The joyful prospect before her—‘The flowers appear on the earth,’ &c. Jesus invites sinners to become His Bride, and His Bride to come forth to the full enjoyment of His fellowship on the ground of—
1. His love to them. His great argument with Israel His argument with believers and with sinners still: I have loved Thee with an everlasting love; therefore, with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.’ ‘I have redeemed thee; thou art mine.’ ‘Turn, O backsliding children, for I am married unto you’ (Jer_31:3; Jer_3:14; Isa_43:1). ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him might not perish.’ ‘The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.’ ‘Came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many’ (Joh_3:16; Luk_19:10; Mat_20:28). Thus Jesus gained the woman at Jacob’s well, and the sinner that washed His feet with her tears. The sinner’s heart only thawed by a Saviour’s love. The cords that draw the soul to Christ ‘the cords of a man and the bands of love’ (Hos_11:4). Only the revelation of redeeming love able to break down the barriers and undo the bolts of a sinner’s heart. A loving voice heard outside before the door is opened within (Rev_3:20). None so fair in the eyes of Jesus as the penitent and believing soul (Luk_15:5-7).
2. The removal of hindrances. The winter of a Legal Dispensation now past. The covenant of works superseded by a covenant of grace. ‘Do this and live’ exchanged for ‘Believe and live.’ Fulfilment of moral precepts and observance of ceremonial ordinances no longer a term of union with the Beloved. The invitation: ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ ‘Ho, every one that thirsteth; come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money; Come, buy and eat; without money and without price.’ ‘Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely’ (Mat_11:28; Isa_55:1; Rev_22:17). Divine justice that demanded the sinner’s damnation now satisfied with the Surety’s blood. The sword that should have smitten the guilty sheep bathed in the blood of the Shepherd, and so put back into its scabbard. The way prepared on the cross for a righteous reconciliation with God, and the full forgiveness of the sinner. God now able to be just while justifying the ungodly. A just God now a Saviour. All things now ready for the salvation of the sinner, and his marriage with God’s own Son (Zec_13:7; Eph_2:13-16; Rom_3:21-26; Mat_22:2; Mat_22:4). Nothing wanting but the sinner’s consent. ‘Wilt thou go with this man?’ ‘To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God’ (Joh_1:12).
3. The joy and blessedness attending compliance. ‘The flowers appear on the earth, &c.’ The soul invited by Christ to the joy and blessedness of an eternal spring, in the enjoyment of His society and love—in the new heavens of the new earth ‘wherein dwelleth righteousness.’ A rest remaining for the people of God, of which Canaan, clad in all the beauties of a lovely spring, was only a type. A time in prospect for the sinner that accepts the Saviour, when all the chill and gloom, the clouds and storms, the darkness and discomfort of the present state, shall give place to the sweetness and sunshine, the brightness and beauty, the light and gladness, of a land where the sun shall no more go down; where flowers that never fade bloom under cloudless skies; where the harps of angels and the songs of the Redeemed fill the air with celestial music, and where the tree of life bears its perennial fruit on both banks of the river that waters the Paradise of God. A ‘better country’ in prospect to every believing soul, where purity and peace, and joy and love—the voice of the heavenly turtle—is everywhere heard, and where the true Vine diffuses its fragrance, and with its precious clusters fills the happy inhabitants with ‘a joy unspeakable and full of glory.’
III. The CALL itself. ‘Rise up and come away.’ The call addressed by the Saviour to His first disciples: ‘Follow me.’ In obedience to it, they ‘rose up, left all, and followed him’ (Mat_4:18-22; Luk_5:27-28). The general law: ‘Whosoever he be that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.’ ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.’ ‘Let us go forth unto Him, without the camp, bearing His reproach’ ‘Hearken, O daughter, and consider; forget all thine own people, and thy father’s house: so shall the King greatly desire thy beauty’ (Luk_14:33; Mat_16:24; Heb_13:13; Psa_45:10-11). The world to be given up in order to ‘come away’ with Christ. No man able to serve two masters of different interests and demands. ‘Ye cannot serve God and mammon.’ ‘If the Lord be God, serve Him; if Baal be God, serve him.’ A resolution and effort to be made to leave our present state in order to follow Christ. ‘Rise up.’ So the Prodigal Son: ‘I will arise and go to my father,’ &c. And he arose and went. The strength to arise is Christ’s: the act and effort our own. So with the Paralytic: ‘Take up thy bed, and go into thine house; and he arose and departed to his house’ (Luk_15:18; Luk_15:20; Mat_9:6). Christ’s call is—
(1) To come to him;
(2) To come after Him. We are to come to Him as sinners; to come after Him as disciples. The former verified by the latter. The blessing of coming to Christ realized in coming after Him. ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,’ followed by—‘take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; and ye shall find rest to your souls’ (Mat_11:28-29). Unspeakable gainers in giving up all for Christ. Christ the One Pearl of great price that makes a man up for time and eternity. Everything, therefore, wisely given up to obtain possession of it. The case of Paul that of all believers: ‘What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ; yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things,’ &c. (Php_3:7-8).
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 A Visit and an Invitation
A Visit and an Invitation
8-13 After an interval she relates one of his visits to her home. He comes swiftly and easily; hills and mountains are no obstacle. He stands behind the wall of her mother's house, and she gazes at him through the lattice, for she has seen his approach from afar. The unglazed, latticed windows of an Oriental house admits air and a softened light, allow those within to see out, and prevent their being observed from outside.
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10. He would have her accompany him to the open country.
11. It is the right season. The winter and the rains are over, for in that climate there is a cloudless sky from the beginning of May to the end of October.
12. It is the time of flowers: 'Everywhere this day the earth was beautifully green, and carpeted with flowers. The air was fresh and balmy and laden with the sweet scents of spring... The sky was so blue, the mountains and plains looked so beautiful, the birds, insects, the wild flowers, the fresh balmy breeze, the sweet smells, and gentle sun, the black tents, all combined to make one glad to be alive.' 'Come here in spring, O traveller!' Lady Butler says, 'and not in the arid, dusty, burnt-up autumn.'
13. The early figs are growing spicy; the vines are all blossom and fragrance. It is the season when a young man's mind turns lightly to thoughts of love. Even in our cold England the poet sings—
'Twas when the spousal time of May
Hangs all the hedge with bridal wreaths,
And air's so sweet the bosom gay
Gives thanks for every breath it breathes;
When like to like is gladly moved,
And each thing joins in Spring's refrain,
“Let those love now who never loved;
Let those who have loved love again.”'
14. 15. He begs her to lay aside her coyness, for she is concealing herself, like a dove in an inaccessible mountain gorge. Where there is no village pigeon-house the wild doves of Syria build in hollows of the steep rocks. At the monastery of St. Saba 'one sees, sailing on outstretched wings from out of those caverns, flights of the fair blue pigeons.'
15. She sings him the little ditty concerning the foxes that ruin the vineyards: any song, on any theme, would have pleased him, and short poems that seem to have no special relevance to the occasion are still in common use amongst the peasants and the Bedouin.
16, 17. She declares their unchangeable, mutual devotion, and bids the shepherd, who pastures his flock in the fields bright with lilies, come to her.
17. At midday the heat is overpowering—All round the coast the languid air did swoon, Breathing like one that hath a weary dream.' But at sunset the day 'breathes' (RM); a cool breeze blows, and the shadows gradually disappear (Gen_3:8; Job_14:2). The gazelles (RM) descend at night to the plains to feed; they leap and run safely on the mountains of Bether. The meaning of the last word is not clear: it may be the name of a locality not mentioned elsewhere in Scripture; it may signify 'the cloven mountains'; it may be the same as the besamim (= spices) of Son_8:14, or, as RM suggests, the spice malobathron.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Mutual Call of Love
The Mutual Call of Love
v. 8. The voice of my Beloved! So Shulamith calls out, anxiously awaiting the coming of the Bridegroom. Behold, He cometh, leaping upon the mountains, skipping, or bounding, upon the hills, in an excess of youthful vigor and strength.
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v. 9. My Beloved is like a roe, the Palestinian gazelle, or a young hart. Behold, He standeth behind our wall, that of her home; He looketh forth at the windows, that is, through the windows, showing Himself through the lattice, eagerly searching for His bride.
v. 10. My Beloved spake and said unto me, or, "speaks and says to me," Rise up, My love, My companion, My fair one, and come away, leaving the house.
v. 11. For, lo, the winter, the season of clouds, the time of rain, is past, the rain is over and gone, so that the in-clemencies of the season no longer keep people in the houses;
v. 12. the flowers appear on the earth, they are seen in the land with the coming of spring; the time of the singing of birds is come, for the mating songs of the various birds called for a similar response on the part of men, and the voice of the turtle, that is, the turtle-dove, the harbinger of spring, is heard in our land;
v. 13. the fig-tree putteth forth her green figs, rather, "spices its fruit," for the latent figs of autumn now matured, and the vines with the tender grape, being in blossom, give a good smell, fill the air with their rich fragrance. Arise, My love, My companion, My fair one, and come away.
v. 14. O My dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, secure and protected, in the secret places of the stairs, the ladders of rock or the cliffs, let Me see thy countenance, her entire form, let Me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. And the bride yields to His entreaties, saying,
v. 15. Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines, injuring the roots and gnawing the young shoots; for our vines have tender grapes, literally, "our vineyards are in bloom. "
v. 16. My Beloved is mine, the bride has the full right to Him and all His gifts and blessings, and I am His, in a happy surrender of faith; He feedeth among the lilies, wherever He abides, joy and loveliness are about Him.
v. 17. Until the day break, namely, that of eternity, and the shadows, those of this present world with its manifold troubles, flee away, turn, my Beloved, to visit and remain with the bride, and be Thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether, on cleft mountains, symbols of youthful vigor and strength.
The Church, having gained inner strength through the blessings of the Gospel, is now ready to heed the call of Christ. She sees Him approaching in the full vigor of His merciful power, He comes to visit her, to call her forth to enjoy the beauties which He has prepared, and to be active in His interest. He tells her that the period of afflictions is past for the time being, that a new and favorable time of grace has dawned. His invitation and appeal is clothed in the gentlest and most appealing words, irresistible to the heart filled with true faith. And the Church responds by calling upon its own members, especially its pastors and teachers, to stop the destructive work of false prophets, who make use of every new awakening in the Church to do damage to Christ’s vine. At the same time the Church affirms her loyalty to Christ and her trust in His love and power, knowing that His merciful presence is in the midst of His believers. And all this is done in the certainty of the Lord’s final return to lead His bride to the eternal marriage-feast in heaven.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Here begins Part Two of the book.
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General Information:
It is not clear whether the woman is speaking to herself or to the daughters of Jerusalem.
Listen
Possible meanings are 1) "Listen carefully to what I am about to say." You could use a word in your language that tells the hearer to listen carefully, or 2) "Listen so you can hear him coming."
my beloved
This phrase refers to the man whom the woman loves. In some languages it may be more natural for her to refer to him as "my lover." See how you translated this in Song of Songs 1:13. AT: "my dear one" or "my lover"
leaping ... jumping ... gazing ... peering
The woman shows that she is excited to see the man come by using as few words as possible to describe what he is doing. Your language may have a different way of showing that the speaker is excited about what is happening.
leaping over the mountains, jumping over the hills
"leaping on the mountains, running quickly on the hills." The woman speaks of the man as if he were "a gazelle or a young stag" (verse 9) coming quickly toward her over rough ground. (See: Metaphor)
like a gazelle or a young stag
Gazelles and young stags move quickly over rough ground. The woman imagines the man coming as fast as he can to be with her. You could translate using animals in your language that people think of as fast. (See: Simile)
a gazelle
This is an animal that looks like a deer and moves quickly. Translate as the singular of "the gazelles" as in Song of Songs 2:7.
a young stag
"a young male deer"
look
"listen carefully" or "what I am about to say is important." You could use a word in your language that tells the hearer to listen carefully.
behind our wall
"on the other side of our wall." The woman is in a house and the man is outside the house.
our wall
The word "our" refers to the woman and the other people in the house with her. If she is speaking to herself, it is inclusive, but if she is speaking to the daughters of Jerusalem, whether she is referring to herself and her companions or to herself only in plural, as in "We are glad ... We rejoice ... let us celebrate" (Song of Songs 1:4), it is exclusive. (See: Exclusive and Inclusive "We")
gazing through the window
"he stares in through the windows"
peering through the lattice
"he peeks through the lattice"
lattice
a cover for a window or some other entrance that someone has made by weaving long strips of wood together. Lattices have holes that people can look through.
translationWords
beloved
like
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 2:8-17 In this poem, the woman anticipates the arrival…
2:8-17 In this poem, the woman anticipates the arrival of her lover. She describes the passing of winter and the coming of spring, a time of floral fragrance and new beginnings. She and her lover are in their country garden, a place of intimacy, though even here there is a hint of threat (2:15).
2:8-10 The man ardently desires to be in the woman’s presence. He finally arrives at his lover’s home and takes her into the romantic countryside during the new, budding spring. • The woman compares the man to a gazelle, a fast, sleek animal that easily overcomes obstacles to reach its destination.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.