Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.
Parallel Translations
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Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.
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Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.
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Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon; look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards.
Cross-references (15)
Passages linked to Song of Solomon 4:8 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Deuteronomy 3:9 (The Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir.)
- Song of Solomon 2:13 The fig tree ripens her green figs. The vines are in blossom. They give out their fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.”
- 1 Chronicles 5:23 The children of the half-tribe of Manasseh lived in the land: they increased from Bashan to Baal Hermon, Senir, and Mount Hermon.
- Psalms 45:10 Listen, daughter, consider, and turn your ear. Forget your own people, and also your father’s house.
- Isaiah 62:5 For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons will marry you. As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you.
- Deuteronomy 3:25 Please let me go over and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that fine mountain, and Lebanon.”
- Joshua 12:1 Now these are the kings of the land, whom the children of Israel struck, and possessed their land beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon, and all the Arabah eastward:
- 1 Kings 4:33 He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows out of the wall; he also spoke of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish.
- Psalms 76:1 In Judah, God is known. His name is great in Israel.
- Psalms 76:4 Glorious are you, and excellent, more than mountains of game.
- Proverbs 9:6 Leave your simple ways, and live. Walk in the way of understanding.”
- Song of Solomon 5:1 I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride. I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, friends! Drink, yes, drink abundantly, beloved.
- Song of Solomon 7:11 Come, my beloved! Let’s go out into the field. Let’s lodge in the villages.
- John 12:26 If anyone serves me, let him follow me. Where I am, there my servant will also be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
- Colossians 3:1-2 If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (17 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Christ promiseth his Church to call his faithful from…
Christ promiseth his Church to call his faithful from all the corners of the world.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Son 4:8 Come with me from Lebanon, [my] spouse,…
Son 4:8 Come with me from Lebanon, [my] spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.
Ver. 8. Come with me from Lebanon, &c.] Or, Thou shalt come with me - by way of promise. And it is doubled for more certainty; q.d., Nothing shall hinder thee, but thou shalt indeed come with me, and enjoy my continual presence. This she had begged hard for in the former chapters, and this she is now sweetly assured of, with a new largesse of love sealed up in the kindest compellation, "spouse," which signifies the wife married and already joined to her husband. Yea, in the next verse he calleth her both "sister" and "spouse." The nearest affinity is spouse, and the nearest blood sister. Thus Christ is better to his people than their prayers - better than their hopes. Hezekiah asked one life; God gave him two, adding fifteen years to his days. David asked life, and God "gave him life for ever and ever." {Psa 21:4} "Hitherto ye have asked me nothing," {Joh 16:24} saith Christ; that is, nothing to what I am ready to give you. He stands disposed to his suitors, as Naaman did toward Gehazi. {2Ki 5:22-23} Gehazi asked but one talent. Nay, take two, saith Naaman; one is too little, take two. And he pressed him, and heaped them upon him. God deals with his servants as the prophet did with that widow, when he bade her borrow vessels, and the cruse never ceased running till there was no room. {2Ki 4:1-7} Or as he dealt with the Shunammite in the same chapter, when he bade her ask what she needed, and she found not anything to request at his hands; he sends for her again, and makes her a free promise of that which she most wanted and desired, and tells her that God would give her a son.
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From Lebanon, look from the top of Amana.] Or Abanah, as the river running under it was called. {2Ki 5:12} And Strabo saith, {a} that it was a mountain forcibly possessed by many tyrants. Of Shenir and Hermon, see Deu 3:9. These all were haunted with wild beasts, even Lebanon also, {2Ki 14:9} though otherwise a pleasant and plentiful place. {Deu 3:25} Hereby is signified, that the Lord Christ from all parts will call and collect unto himself a people; and although he find them lions and leopards, as here, untameable and untractable, he will soon subdue them to the obedience of the faith, so that "the lion shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard lie down with the kid." {Isa 11:6} All bloodiness and rapine shall be laid aside, as it was with the wild beasts in Noah’s ark. Thus Paul, that ravening wolf of the tribe of Benjamin, {Gen 49:27} is made to "preach the faith which once he destroyed." {Gal 1:23} Thus the ancient Britons, our forefathers, though like that demoniac in the Gospel, "fierce above measure," and inhospitable savages, so that the Romans could not come at them, Christo tamen subditi, saith Tertullian; yet they were easily subdued by Christ; and then sensim evanuit feritas indies, exulavit immanitas, corruit crudelitas, {b} saith one, they were suddenly and strangely altered - not civilised only, but sanctified. So was Justin Martyr, Cyprian, Augustine, Vergerius, Latimer, Julius Palmer, that Popish priest of Canterbury, who said mass on one day, and the next day after came into the pulpit and made a long sermon against it, desiring the people to forgive him, for he had betrayed Christ, &c. As long before him, in Wycliffe’s days, and by his means, one that was the Pope’s chaplain renounced him, professing that he came out of his order, as out of the devil’s nest, &c. And although not a scholar in Oxford would look upon the good Bishops Ridley and Cranmer, prisoners in Bocardo, but generally set against them, yet the whole body of that university gave a glorious testimony under their public seal of Wycliffe’s religious life, profound learning, orthodox opinions, exquisite writings, all furthest from any stain of heresy. {c} See what Christ can do where he pleaseth to come in by his mighty Spirit.
{a} Lib. xiv.
{b} Bond in Horat. Carm., lib. iii. od. 3.
{c} Acts and Mon., 924 and 1555. - Ibid., Anno 1755. - Speed, 761. - Acts and Mon., 1565. - Speed, ibid.
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 Come with me unto the mountains of myrrh, &c.,…
Come with me unto the mountains of myrrh, &c., mentioned Son 4:6,
from Lebanon, a known mountain in the north of Canaan, which is sometimes mentioned as a pleasant and glorious place, as Son 5:15; Isa 35:2; Hos 14:6, &c., in regard of its goodly cedars; and sometimes as a barren wilderness, as Isa 29:17, and seat of wild beasts, as 2Ki 14:9, &c. Which latter sense seems more agreeable, both to the opposition which is here tacitly made between this mountain and the mountain of myrrh, and to the quality of the other mountains here joined with Lebanon, and to the last clause of the verse. My spouse; this is the first time that Christ gives her this name, which he now doth, both to encourage and oblige her to go with him. Look to the place to which I invite thee to go, which from those high mountains thou mayst easily behold, the sight of which will certainly inflame thee with desire to go thither. He alludes to Moses’s beholding the Promised Land from Mount Pisgah.
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Amana; not that Amana which divided Syria from Cilicia, which was too remote from these parts, but another of that name, not far from Lebanon.
Shenir and
Hermon may be the names of two tops of the same mountain, as Horeb and Sinai seem to have been. Or, Shenir or (the copulative and being put disjunctively for or, as it is in many places, which have been observed before)
Hermon, for this mountain is called both Shenir and Hermon, Deu 3:9, and the latter name, Hermon, may be added to the former, as being better known to the Israelites.
From the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards; from these or other such-like mountains, which are inhabited by lions and leopards; which seems to be added as an argument to move the spouse to go with him, because the places where now she was were not only barren, but also dangerous, as being the habitations of tyrants and persecutors, and wild or savage people, who are oft described by the names of wild beasts, whose natures they have, and whose practices they imitate.
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 Come - Unto the mountains of myrrh. Look -…
Come - Unto the mountains of myrrh. Look - To the place to which I invite thee to go, which from those high mountains thou mayest easily behold. Of Leopards - From these or other mountains, which are inhabited by lions and leopards. This seems to be added as an argument to move the spouse to go with him, because the places where now she was, were not only barren, but also dangerous.
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. My spouse.] The כלה callah which we…
Verse 8. My spouse.] The כלה callah which we translate spouse, seems to have a peculiar meaning. Mr. Harmer thinks the Jewish princess is intended by it; and this seems to receive confirmation from the bridegroom calling her sister, So 4:9, that is, one of the same stock and country; and thus different from the Egyptian bride.
Mr. Harmer's opinion is very probable, that TWO queens are mentioned in this song: one Pharaoh's daughter, the other a Jewess. See his outlines. But I contend for no system relative to this song.
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Look from the top of Amana, c.] Solomon, says Calmet, by an admirable poetic fiction, represents his beloved as a mountain nymph, wholly occupied in hunting the lion and the leopard on the mountains of Lebanon, Amana, Shenir, and Hermon. As a bold and undisciplined virgin, who is unwilling to leave her wild and rural retreats, he invites her to come from those hills and promises to deck her with a crown and to make her his bride. Thus the poets represent their goddess Diana, and even Venus herself: -
Per juga, per sylvas, dumosaque saxa vagatur
Nuda genu, vestem ritu succincta Dianae;
Hortaturque canes; tutaeque animalia praedae,
Aut pronos lepores, aut celsum in cornua cervum,
Aut agitat damas: at fortibus abstinet apris.
MET. lib. x., ver. 535.
Now buskin'd like the virgin huntress goes
Through woods, and pathless wilds, and mountain snows.
With her own tuneful voice she joys to cheer
The panting hounds that chase the flying deer.
She runs the labyrinth of the fearful hares,
But fearless beasts and dangerous prey forbears.
Mount Libanus separates Phoenicia from Syria. Amanus is between Syria and Silicia. Shenir and Hermon are beyond Jordan, to the south of Damascus and Mount Libanus, and northward of the mountains of Gilead. Hermon and Shenir are but different parts of the same chain of mountains which separates Trachonitis, or the country of Manasses, from Arabia Deserta. For these places, see 2Kg 5:12, and De 3:9, where they are probably meant.
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 4:8. Come with me — Unto the mountain…
Son 4:8. Come with me — Unto the mountain of myrrh, mentioned Son 4:6. From Lebanon, my spouse — This is the first time that Christ gives her this name, which he does both to oblige and encourage her to go with him. Look from the top of Amana — To the place to which I invite thee to go, which from those high mountains thou mayest easily behold. From the mountains of the leopards — From these or other mountains, which are inhabited by lions and leopards. This seems to be added as an argument to move the spouse to go with him, because the places where now she was were not only barren, but also dangerous.
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 order and collocation of words in the Hebrew…
The order and collocation of words in the Hebrew is grand and significant. With me from Lebanon, O bride, with me from Lebanon thou shalt come, shalt look around (or wander forth) from the height (literally “head”) of Amana, from the height of Shenir and Hermon, from dens of lions, from mountain-haunts of leopards. It is evidently a solemn invitation from the king in the sense of Psa 45:10-11. Four peaks in the same mountain-system are here named as a poetical periphrasis for northern Palestine, the region in which is situated the native home of the bride.
(1) Amana (or Abana, 2Ki 5:12), that part of the Anti-libanus which overlooks Damascus.
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(2) Shenir or Senir, another peak of the same range (according to Deu 3:9, the Amorite name for Hermon, but spoken of here and in 1Ch 5:23 as distinct from it).
(3) Hermon, the celebrated mountain which forms the culminating point of the Anti-libanus, on the northeastern border of the holy land.
(4) Lebanon, properly the western range overlooking the Mediterranean, but here used as a common designation for the whole mountain system.
Leopards are still not unfrequently seen there, but the lion has long since disappeared.
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 Thou. Hebrew, "look from." --- Libanus. So Jerusalem is…
Thou. Hebrew, "look from." --- Libanus. So Jerusalem is called, Zacharias xi. 3. (Ribera) (Menochius) --- Amana. Septuagint, "faith." By it and charity, we must do good. (St. Augustine, Psalm lxvii.) Amanus separates Cilicia from Syria. --- Sanir is the name given by the Phenicians to Hermon, (Eusebius) beyond the Jordan, 1 Paralipomenon v. 23. --- Leopards. It is not fit for women to hunt such beasts. Ovid (Met. x. 10.) thus speaks of Venus: Nuda genu, vestemque ritu succincta Dianæ, &c. The Church leaves Jerusalem to preach the gospel without fear. (Menochius)
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).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 8. Lebanon… Hermon — The Beloved compares the king’s…
8. Lebanon… Hermon — The Beloved compares the king’s palace to the most magnificent objects of the land. “That goodly mountain… Lebanon.” “Hermon,” the most perfect mountain in Palestine, which was afterward made glorious by the transfiguration. Amana is a part of “Lebanon,” and Shenir of “Hermon.” But with all its grandeur it is, to the Enamoured, a place of danger. The hint is, that the eyes of the amorous monarch are upon her.
Look — Hebrew, Thou shall come.
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 order of the words in the Heb.…
8. The order of the words in the Heb. is specially, emphatic, With me from Lebanon, O bride, with me from Lebanon do thou come. Evidently a contrast between the speaker and some other is here intended. Come with me, do not remain with him. This strongly supports the view that Solomon is endeavouring to win the maiden’s love which has been given to another. Budde, finding the verse quite unintelligible on his hypothesis, excises it, but violence of that kind is not necessary. The Shulammite is at this point in some royal residence in the Lebanon, and her lover calls upon her to leave Solomon and come with him to her home. The reference to lions and leopards may be intended to indicate also her hostile surroundings in other respects. Cp. the Mo‘allaqa of Antar, Son_5:6, where the loved one among a hostile tribe is said to be “dwelling among the roaring ones,” i.e. the lions. Lions formerly inhabited Bashan at least, cp. Deu_33:22. Tristram, Nat. Hist. p. 116, says they lingered in Palestine till the time of the Crusades, and they are mentioned as living about Samaria by historians of the 12th century. Leopards are and always have been common in Palestine. They are a pest to herdsmen in Gilead even now. (Tristram, p. 113.)
look from the top of Amana] The verb shûr has generally in Heb. the meaning ‘to look round’; but in common with other verbs of looking in a direction, it also means ‘to go in a direction’ (Isa_57:9). Occurring as it does in this passage in parallelism with ‘come,’ it most probably has the latter meaning. Cp. R.V. marg. We should therefore translate depart from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, &c. In this way too the lions’ dens and the mountains of the leopards gain a significance which they have not if the word be translated look. He warns her to flee from Lebanon as being full of dangers. Amânâ is generally held to be the district in which the river Amânâh (2Ki_5:12, Qìrç for the Kìthîbh, Abânâh) rises. This is either the Barada which flows from Anti-Libanus, or the other river of Damascus, which flows from the slopes of Hermon. Others, as Budde, think of the Amanus of the ancients, i.e. the spur of the Taurus lying to the north of the Orontes. The former is much the more probable.
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Shenir] or Senir. Hermon is the highest peak of the Anti-Lebanon range. It is called Sion in Deu_4:48. By the Amorites it was called Sìnîr, and by the Sidonians Siryôn (Deu_3:9). It has three peaks, and the names Hermon and Sìnîr, distinguished in 1Ch_5:23, Son_4:8, may refer to two of the peaks. Cp. the Hermons of Psa_42:6 (Oxf. Lex. p. 356).
Chap. Son_4:8–Chap. Son_5:1. A true Lover’s Pleading
With Son_4:8 a new song, representing another scene, begins. In it the peasant lover of the Shulammite comes to beseech her to flee from the mountain region where she is detained, the home of wild beasts and the scene of other dangers. In Son_4:9-15 he breaks forth into a passionate lyric, expressive of his love for her, and in Son_4:16 she replies, yielding to his love and his entreaties. Ch. Son_5:1 contains his reply.
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) Come with me.—Better, to me. LXX., hither; so…
(8) Come with me.—Better, to me. LXX., hither; so Vulg. and Luther, reading athî, imperative of athah, instead of ittî = with me, or more properly, as regards me. The reading involved only a difference of vowel points, and is to be preferred. We have here another reminiscence of the obstacles which had attended the union of the pair under another figure. The course of true love, which never yet, in East or West, ran smooth, is beset here by tremendous difficulties, symbolised by the rocks and snows of the range of Lebanon, which shut in the poet’s northern home, and the wild beasts that haunted these regions. Like Tennyson’s shepherd, he believes that “love is of the valleys,” and calls to her to come down to him from her inaccessible heights. The word Shûr translated in English Version look, has properly in the LXX. its primitive meaning, come. To suppose a literal journey, as some do, to these peaks of the mountain chain one after another, is absurd. They are named as emblems of height and difficulty. Shenîr (Senir, 1Ch_5:23) is one of the peaks of Hermon. Amana has been conjectured to be a name for the district of Anti-Libanus in which the Abana (Barada) has its source, but nothing is certain about it. The appellative spouse first occurs in this verse. In Hebrew it is khallah, and is translated in the Authorised Version either “daughter-in-law,” or “bride,” or “spouse,” according as the relationship, now made complete by marriage, is regarded from the point of view of the parents of the bridegroom or of himself (e.g., daughter-in-law, Gen_11:31; Gen_38:11; Lev_20:22; Mic_7:6, &c. bride, Isa_49:18; Isa_61:10; Isa_62:5, &c.). Its use does not by itself prove that the pair were united in wedlock, because in the next verse the word sister is joined to spouse, and it may, therefore, be only a stronger term of endearment, and in any case, when put into the lover’s mouth while describing the difficulties in the way of union, it is proleptic; but its presence strongly confirms the impression produced by the whole poem, that it describes over and over again the courtship and marriage of the same couple. For lion see Gen_49:9. The leopard was formerly very common in Palestine, as the name Bethnimrah, i.e., house of leopards (Num_32:36) shows. (Comp. Jer_5:6, Hos_13:7.) Nor is it rare now. “In the forest of Gilead it is still so numerous as to be a pest to the herdsmen” (Tristram, Nat. Hist. of Bibl., p. 113).
The LXX. translate amana by πίστις, and this has been turned into an argument for the allegorical treatment of the book. But it is a very common error of the LXX. to translate proper names. (Comp. Son_6:4.)
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 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me…
Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions" dens, from the mountains of the leopards. This seems to be simply the bridegroom rejoicing over the bride, the meaning being, "Give thyself up to me thou art mine; look away from the past, and delight thyself in the future. Delitzsch, however, thinks that the bridegroom seeks the bride to go with him up the steep heights of Lebanon, and to descend with him from thence; for while ascending the mountain one has no view before him, but when descending he has the whole panorama of the surrounding region lying at his feet. It is stretching poetical language too far to take it so literally and topically; there is no necessity to think of either the lover or his beloved as actually on the mountains, the idea is simply that of the mountainous region Turn thy back upon it, look away from it. This is clearly seen from the fact that the names connected with Lebanon Amana, Senir, Hermon could have no reference to the bride"s being in them. as they represent Anti-Libanus, separated from Lebanon by the Coelo-Syrian valley, stretching from the Banias northwards to the plain of Hamath. (see 2Ki_5:12, where Amana is Abana, overlooking Damascus, now the Basadia) Shenir, or Senir, and Hermon are neighbouring peaks or mountains, or possibly different names for the same. (see Deu_3:9) In 1Ch_5:23 they are mentioned as districts. Hermon is the chief mountain of the range of Anti-Libanus on the northeast border of Palestine. (Psa_89:12) The wild beasts abounded in that district, especially lions and panthers. They were found in the clefts and defiles of the rocks. Lions, however, have now altogether disappeared. In the name Amana some think there is an allusion to truth (amen); (see Hos_2:22) but that would be too obscure. The general intention of the passage is simple and plain Leave the rough places, and come to my palace. The words "with me" (yTiai) are taken by the LXX and Vulgate as though written ytia, the imperative of hta, "to come," as a word of invitation, deuro . The use of the verb yaiwObT, "thou shalt come," i.e. thou hast come and be content, renders it improbable that such should be the reading, whereas the preposition with the pronoun is quite in place. The spiritual meaning is not far to seek. The life that we live without Christ is at best a life among the wild, untamed impulses of nature, and in the rough and dangerous places of the world. He invites us to go with him to the place which he has prepared for us. And so the Church will leave its crude thoughts and undeveloped life, and seek, in the love of Christ and in the gifts of his Spirit, a truer reflection of his nature and will. (see Eph_4:14-16) The Apocalypse is based upon the same idea, the advancement of the kingdom of Christ from the place of lions and panthers to the new Jerusalem, with its perfection of beauty and its eternal peace.
The beautiful but dangerous world.
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For once the literal and allegorical interpretation largely agree. For both represent the places spoken of here as full of peril, and both desire the beloved one to "come away" from them, and promise deliverance if she will come. Let the peril of delivering her be what it may as dens of lions and leopards yet will he accomplish it. Allegorically we may read here
I CHRIST"S DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD. It is:
1. Beautiful to look upon. Some of the finest scenes, the most glorious landscapes the world can show, are to be seen from the mountain summits named here. The view is entrancing, so travellers say. And the world is to the young soul fair indeed. But:
2. It is full of peril also. The dizzy heights, the steep cliffs, the lofty crags of mountainous regions, demand a steady head, well balanced nerves, a sure foothold. The inexperienced may not venture there. Death and destruction track the footsteps of the traveller on such heights, and if he be not wed trained, they have him for their prey. The spiritual analogy is illustrated by only too many sad experiences. To preserve the soul"s balance on the heights of the world"s prosperity, how difficult for all! how impossible for most! "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of heaven!" "Man, vain man, dressed in a little brief authority," etc. But the special perils named here are the beasts of prey. These have their haunts in these mountains (cf. Exposition). In all languages and literatures the designation of evil men by the name of some noxious beast is common (cf. Psalms; also our Lord"s word, "Go, tell that fox;" and in the Scriptures passim). And the world is full of such creatures pitiless, cruel, fierce, ravenous, terrible. Smooth and soft and sleek as a leopard, so long as you are able to defy them; but fall down, be at their mercy, and what mercy will you get? "The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel;" yes, cruel as lion, leopard, or any beast of prey. Ask the world"s victims what mercy they have received. Let the soul once give the world a chance, and the world will drive it hellward with relentless cruelty. There is no mercy there. What a contrast to "the mountains of myrrh" (ver. 6)! "No ravenous beast shall be there;" "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain". (Isa_35:9)
II CHRIST"S PROMISE OF HELP. "Come with me." His Word is full of such promises and of the records of their fulfilment (cf. histories of Joseph, Moses, Nehemiah, Daniel, etc.). And it is the experience of every Christian soul. Christ does not take us out of the world, but he keeps us from the evil. He keeps us "as the apple of his eye;" hides us "under the shadow" of his wing. (cf. Ps 91) He knows what he will do, therefore he says, "Come with me.
III THE CONDITION OF THAT HELP. We must "come with" him. Some wonder that he invites us at all; that, loving the soul as he does, he should leave it any choice as to whether it will or will not come; that he does not deal with us as a father who would compel, not merely invite, his child to come out of the burning house. So some wonder that Christ does not compel the soul, carry it off by force. No doubt, in the literal story of this song, he who spoke was prepared to do this by her whom he appeals to. But Christ says, "Come with me." He solicits, entreats, invites. For there can be no deliverance of the soul unless there be the response of its own will. Even Christ cannot save without that. If, as is the case so sadly often, men "will not come unto" him that they "might have life," they have it not. And that response of the will is from faith in Christ"s Word as to our peril and his loving power. Then ponder that Word; pray to know the truth; the Divine Spirit shall teach you, and soon the response Christ desires will be given. S.C.
Vers. 8-11. Heart calls to heart.
The richness of imagination for which the Song of Songs is justly renowned is especially remarkable in this passage. All the senses are summoned to deepen the impression. The sight is charmed by visible beauty, by the glances of "eyes darting love," by the necklace lying on the fair white neck. Perfumes and unguents, spices, and cedars of Lebanon, address the sense of smell. The taste is appealed to by the pleasant wine, the honey of exceeding sweetness. And what is the emotion which links itself with beauty, sweetness, and fragrance? It is love, with which all this opulence of poetry seems most harmonious. Beneath all this vesture of splendour are certain principles which may well be brought into clearness of knowledge.
I ALL LOVE INVOLVES LEAVING. The bride is invited to quit her mountain home, the scenes of grandeur with which she was familiar, the lonely sources of historic rivers, the romantic home of the lion and the leopard. No power but love could have made her think with acquiescence of such a change as that to which she was now urged. Ever must love come down from its proud heights, from its vaulted splendours, from its ancient scenes. It is so with human love; and how willingly is the call obeyed which bids to forsake the surroundings, the very joys and excitements, of the past! It is so with Divine love; and no soul that recognizes the sweet authority of the Saviour"s voice will hesitate to quit the scenes and the society which may previously have afforded pleasure, and like the bride to forget her father"s house. It is a sound test, and a fair: "Come with me from Lebanon.
II ALL LOVE INVOLVES HEART LOSING. "The heart is where it loves, and not where it lives." The lover here avers, "Thou hast ravished my heart with a look from thine eyes." Common language recognizes the distinction between him who is "heart whole" and him who has "lost his heart." If nothing is lost, nothing is gained. It is the same in the spiritual life. Christ gives his very heart to his people, and he expects and receives from them their hearts in return. As he has loved us with an everlasting love, no wonder that his appeal is, "Give me thy heart.
III ALL LOVE INVOLVES PREFERENCE. The language of love is the language of comparison. No similitudes are ample or rich enough to set forth the surpassing charm and attractiveness of the bride. Better than all glories and all gifts, better than all rivals, is the chosen of the heart. Certainly in the religious life this is a noticeable characteristic. The Saviour prefers the soul of man to all that ease and pleasure and worldly dignity can offer. Such is the teaching of his humiliation and obedience on earth. And the soul that knows Christ"s love deems him chief among ten thousand and fairer than the sons of men. None can compete, none can compare, with him.
IV ALL LOVE INVOLVES DELIGHT IN MUTUAL SOCIETY. It does not matter whether life be passed in the cottage on the mountain side, in the tent on the plain, or in the palace in the metropolis, if only it be passed in that companionship which is congenial, in uninterrupted fellowship with the chosen of the heart. However imperfect in its character is this fellowship, however it be suspended in its enjoyment, the communion of the soul with Christ is subject to no such drawback. "They who once his kindness prove, Find it everlasting love.
Nothing in Christ can mar the perfection of spiritual intimacy, or can bring that intimacy to a close. The love of Christ is the purest possession, and the one unfailing source of strength and joy. 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 Come with Me from Lebanon, My spouse, with Me…
Son_4:8
Come with Me from Lebanon, My spouse, with Me from Lebanon.
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The invitations of Christ
The whole idea is that the Shulamite Virgin who is sought as a bride lives in high, craggy, cavernous regions--amid inhospitable scenes--and close to the mountain haunts of beasts of prey. Such words as Amana, Shenir, Hermon, and Lebanon are used to typify a region of mountain, rock, fastness, forest, and jungle. There the fair Shulamite has her native home, That is one side of the picture. On the other side is the King, who lives in Jerusalem, the royal city, the city of peace, far away from the haunts of leopards; and He goes forth to invite the bride to leave the crag and the den, the forest and the danger, saying, Come to Jerusalem, to the centre of civilization, to the home of beauty, to the Kings palace, to the splendid and inviolable home,--no lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast go up thereon,--come, O My dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, whose lips drop as the honeycomb, and the smell of whose garments is as the smell of Lebanon, come! How is all this sustained by collateral Scripture, and made to apply to the Son of God? Christ calls men away from what may be regarded as the nativities of the present scene. There must be no division, no holding on with both hands: the attitude must not be that of one who has the right foot in the caverns and the left foot in the metropolis: there must be a complete detachment from all that is native and original, and a clear coming away with all trust and love and hope to the new abode. Christ is calling us away from our animalism--the first condition of our birth. He will not have it that the body is the man, that the flesh is the immortal part of humanity. So Christ calls the Church, which is His Bride, the Lambs Wife,--He calls her away from stony places, and from low associations, and from connections with lions dens and mountain haunts of leopards,--calls humanity away from flesh, and earth, and time, and sense, and prison, into all the upper spaces, where the blue sky is unclouded, and where the infinite liberty never degenerates into licence. What does Christ call us from? Precisely what the Shulamite was called from--from stony places and desert lands and mountain fastnesses--from desolation desolate. When does Christ ever call men from knowledge to ignorance? from abundance of spiritual realization to poverty and leanness of soul? When does Jesus Christ ever offer men an inhospitable welcome? The great offers of the Gospel are in such terms as these: Eat and drink abundantly, O beloved! He, every one that thirsteth, Come! We are called not only from desolateness, but from danger. If we have not entered into the spirit-life, the faith-life, that higher life which sees the invisible and realizes the eternal, then we are simply walking through perils without number, and as for seductiveness or subtlety or power of involving us in mischief and in suffering, no language can express the reality of the situation. We are called not only from desolateness and from danger, but from incongruity. What a background was the mountain region to the fair and lovely Shulamite! Surely that fair dove was made for Jerusalem, and not for some region of caverns or mountain haunts of leopards. Save her! This sense of incongruity afflicts men who profess to be under the spell of refined and elevating taste. What shocks do men receive who profess to be refined and large in their culture! A musician feels as if he were staggering under a blow of insult when he hears a false note. Is there no law of incongruity in morals, in spiritual relation? What doest thou here, Elijah?--why wanderest thou in these desert places, O thou child of the king, meant to adorn a palace? Why estranged and ragged and humiliated and debased, thou child of fortune? Explain the ghastly incongruity! Christ ever calls men to home, to security, to honour. Herein he is like the man who seeks the Shulamite for his bride: he calls her to the palace, to Jerusalem, to all beauty and comfort and security. Jesus Christ says, I go to prepare a place for you. When Jesus Christ prepares a place, who can describe its largeness, its beauty, its completeness? Where I am, there ye shall be also; and where He is, heaven is. But, there is on the road a cross? We cannot enter into the city unless we understand the cross, and die upon it. The cross is not an intellectual puzzle; it is a cross on which every man must be himself crucified with the Son of God. After the cross the crown--the pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. After the cross, the city in the midst of whose street, and on either side of the river, is the Tree of Life. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Christs invitation to His bride
This world was never designed to be the fixed abode of the children of men, and therefore there was a restraint laid upon our first parents in paradise, as to the forbidden tree, showing that they behoved to look to another world for their happiness. Man was once set fair on the way to the land where glory dwells, but he lost his way, and now poor sinners are found wandering on the mountains of vanity. The first Adam managed ill, and brought us into this condition. But behold, the second Adam came to gather the dispersed of Israel, and to lead them on their way to the better country. Hear His voice in the text, calling His people to leave the weary world and go homeward with Himself.
I. Take notice of some things supposed in this kind call and invitation.
1. It supposeth that Christs bride is yet in the world. Though brought out of Egypt, yet not come to Canaan, but still in the wilderness.
2. Though she be there, and perhaps has been there many years since she was united to Christ, yet He has not forgot her, but kindly remembers, her still, whatever she may think otherwise.
3. The world is not a place for Christs spouse to rest in, she is in great danger there.
4. Yet sometimes the foolish creature lies down even among the lions dens, and being charmed with the deceitful mountains is averse to come away.
5. Our Lord takes notice of and is concerned for the souls danger from the deceitful world. And therefore He cries with earnestness to come away.
II. Explain this coming from the world, or show what is implied in it. There is a twofold coming away from the world,
1. There is a natural coming out of it. By the course of nature, we are all on our way out of it.
2. There is a spiritual coming out of it, namely, in heart and affection. This is what Christ is calling you to this day.
(1) Take your last look, the parting look of the world by faith even as Moses did of the profits and pleasures of Egypt.
(2) Turn your backs, then, upon the things of the world. Be mortified to them.
(3) Give up this day with the men of the world, never more to mix with the natives of the weary land; who labour for nothing but the entertainment of Lebanon, and who have taken up their home among the lions dens.
III. Show the import of coming away with Christ from the world.
1. Our Lord has a better place for your reception, than the world can be in its best dress. This is the new Jerusalem. There His Fathers house stands. And in that house are many mansions. The society of saints, angels, and to be ever with the Lord constitute the felicity of the place.
2. Our Lord can assuredly bring you into this glorious and happy place. But oh! will I obtain admission? Why, come with Me, says Christ, there will be no hindrance if you enter along with Me.
3. That place is His own choice.
4. Christ is in His way thither, out of the world to His Fathers house, the better country. What, is not Christ there already? True, Christ personal is there, but Christ mystical is not there yet.
5. Our Lord is very desirous of your company by the way, yes, and to have you away with Him for altogether.
6. Our Lord displays His glory to you in the Gospel, to win your hearts and get you away with Him.
7. Our Lord offers you, not only better in hope, but better in hand than the world can give you.
8. If you will come away, you shall go as He goes, you shall go together. Go as He goes in point of duty. Esteem all things as He does. Let His choice be your choice. Rejoice in those things in which He rejoices; and be grieved for what grieves His Spirit. Love what He loves, and hate what He hates.
9. He will lead you and support you through the whole of the way. You are now in the fields of the world, and there will be difficult steps in your way to the city; these will not be easily discerned, but come with Him, He will keep you from stumbling on the dark mountains.
10. He will be all to you in all. Leave all the world and come with Me, for all, as the espoused bride goes with her husband. Whatever comfort, pleasure and delight you drew out of the muddy streams, you may now draw in a far superior manner from the fountain. Thus it shall be your duty and privilege too, to live as people of another world. For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. (T. Boston, 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_4:8. Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with…
Notes
Son_4:8. Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon; look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards
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‘Come with me’ (תָּבוֹאִי אִתִּי tabhoi itti). אִתִּי sometimes read as the imperative of אָתָה ‘to come.’ So the SEPTUAGINT and VULGATE, followed by COVERDALE and LUTHER. Viewed by most as from אֵֽת ‘with’ and י ‘me.’ So the TARGUM, DIODATI and MARTIN. By others as denoting ‘to me.’ Solomon invites the Bride to his arms as a place of safety. PERCY, WILLIAMS, BOOTHROYD. EWALD strangely supposes the words put by Shulamite into her absent lover’s mouth. Bridegroom invites the spouse to come into more pleasant and secure places. PATRICK. To make an excursion with him to admire together the grand and beautiful scenery. DÖDERLEIN. To see the mountains mentioned, and to be crowned with their flowers. DEL RIO. Bride, after last meeting, had returned home, and, being a shepherdess, had been feeding her flocks as far as Lebanon, &c. “Bride of Christ.” Solomon meets his betrothed on the summits of Lebanon, and invites her to leave it along with him. M. STUART, DELITZSCH. Announces to her that her home should henceforth be with him in the royal palace. ZÖCKLER. ‘Lebanon’ (לְבָנוֹן from לָבַן laban, ‘to be white,’ the ‘white mountain, the Mont Blanc of Palestine’), the magnificent range of mountains, so-called, situated between Phœnicia and Syria, with a double line, called the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. Remarkable for the grandeur of its appearance, its silvery aspect, its fertility and beauty. The abode of wild beasts (2Ki_14:9). A forest or wilderness in comparison with other places (Isa_29:17). Place of the Bride’s nativity and upbringing. SANCTIUS. Bride exhorted to leave her paternal abode with the Bridegroom. THEODORET. Solomon recalls her descent from a simple shepherd’s family in the mountain region of Northern Palestine. ZÖCKLER. The Bride’s seven-fold beauty the ground on which she comes down with the King from Lebanon and its mountain peaks, and from the haunts of lions and panthers, where she had dwelt on the other side of Lebanon. HAHN. Allegorically: The congregation of Israel invited to come to the Temple, and dwell with the Lord there. TARGUM. The divine presence promised to Israel when they should be carried captive from Lebanon, and should return thither. RASHI. From the Temple, or the city and land where it is situated. ROSENMÜLLER. Israel to leave the temporary sanctuary and follow the Bridegroom in the spiritual way of perfection, being assured of His presence with her in the path of suffering. WEISS; Lebanon the Temple from which Christ calls His people to remove (Zec_2:1, compare Mat_21:13). M. STUART. The Church called to forsake idols, and to leave all and follow Christ, her Bridegroom; like Psa_45:10. THEODORET, DAVIDSON. Called from the splendour of worldly glory. HONORIUS. From some situation of danger. BUSH. From false Churches and societies of wicked people, to walk with him in newness of life. AINSWORTH. The Church invited to heaven. PISCATOR.
‘My spouse.’ כַּלָּה (callah) a bride; according to GESENIUS, from כָּלל calal, to crown, ‘the crowned one;’ but according to others, from כָּלַל to perfect; a term of affection and esteem, used to express the relation of a son’s wife to his father and mother—a ‘perfect one.’ PARKHURST, WILLIAMS, SIMON. Never used with my. The Bride so called in direct relation to her husband’s parents rather than to the husband himself; equivalent to ‘daughter-in-law;’ the title being retained as long as her husband’s parents were living (Gen_38:11; Gen_38:16; Gen_38:24; Rth_1:6-8). FRY. More directly applied in reference to the Bridegroom or husband (1Sa_3:10): the idea of the word being completion, totality; a family being only complete upon a son’s marriage, and the prospect of issue in the male line; the Bride, or daughter-in-law, being the person through whom the name, honours, and inheritance were to be continued. ‘Three-fold mystery.’ Shulamite here, for the first time called the Bride: hitherto only ‘love’ or ‘friend; this section immediately following the consummation of the marriage. PERCY. So-called on account of the day being appointed for the marriage. JUNIUS.
‘Look from the top of Amana,’ &c תָּשׁוּרִי (tashuri) susceptible of two meanings—to ‘look’ and to set out on a journey.’ The latter preferred by ZÖCKLER and others as parallel with תָבוֹאִי. Thus understood by the SEPTUAGINT (διαλεύοῃ.) So LUTHER. The VULGATE: Thou shalt be crowned; either from שׁוּר to rule (SANCTIUS), or from אָשַׁר to be happy (DEL RIO). So CALMET: The Bridegroom promises to deck her with a crown, and make her his Bride. TARGUM: Thou shalt see persons coming i.e., with presents. So ROSEMULLER. GROTIUS: I will conduct thee through the most pleasant parts of my kingdom. COCCEIUS: Come and enter into possession: look forth on the inheritance. PERCY: She may now look down in security amidst any dangers of which she was apprehensive. FRY: The Bride, in passing from her home to her husband’s abode, would obtain from the heights of these mountains a gratifying prospect of the land of promise. DELITZSCH: Solomon would conduct her from one summit of Lebanon to another and give her to see and enjoy the prospect of his wide dominions. ‘Amana’ (אֲמָנָה), the name of a mountain in the north of Palestine. RASHI At present not precisely known: probably belonging to the same range of mountains in Antilibanus as Shenir and Hermon. WEISS. Not likely, as A. CLARKE, the mountains dividing Cilicia and Assyria. WILLIAMS: A mountain in Syria; the valley and the river called by the same name, Amana and Abana (2Ki_5:12; Keri אמנה Amana). GESENIUS: The name of a river rising in Antilibanus and watering Damascus, and giving its name to that part of the Lebanon. According to later Jews, only the name of a river. EWALD: Amana, some part of Lebanon not far from Damascus, whence a small river of similar name had its rise, called Abana. MICHAELIS: Abana probably the river now called Fiji. ZÖCKLER: Amana, the peak lying farthest to the east and north-east of the Anlitibanus range. ‘Shenir’ (שְׁנִיר, better read שְׂנִיר Senir), the name of Mount Hermon with the Amonites (Deu_3:9); as Sirion (שִׂרְיוֹן) was with the Sidonians. In a stricter sense, a part of Hermon or Antilibanus lying to the north, and now called by the Arabs, Jebel Senir; Hermon being distinguished from Shenir both here and in 1Ch_5:23. GESENIUS. Shenir the more northern, Hermon the more southern, of the principal peaks in the Hermon or Antilibanus range. ZÖCKLER. Sirion identical with Shenir, meaning a breastplate; referring probably to its glittering breastplate of ice. STANLEY. ‘Hermon’ (חֶרְמוֹן). A high mountain of Antilibanus covered with snow, now called Jebel Sheikh. Sometimes as here, and in 1Ch_5:23, distinguished from Shenir, the common usage apparently fluctuating. Hermon consisted of more mountains than one (Psa_42:7), these mountains being called also Zion (Deu_3:9; Deu_4:48). GESENIUS. The poet here only varies the names, because one meant the same as another to him. HITZIG, ZÖCKLER. Amana, Shenir, and Hermon, all different mountains of the Lebanon chain. COBBIN. The SEPTUAGINT, strangely translating the first name, Amana, has: ‘From the beginning of the faith.’ In the second clause, however: ‘From the top,’ &c.; as the VULGATE in both clauses. The passage thus allegorized. THEODORET: Shenir and Hermon the law or legal life. WEISS: Wild mountains of Israel’s captivity. DAVIDSON: The whole land of Gentile ESAU—the Gentile and estranged wilderness. PATRICK: From the horrid mountains, where thou wast exposed to the rage and cruelty of furious and troublesome men, look down and behold the goodly heritage I have purchased for thee. PISCATOR: Heaven to be beheld by faith. DURHAM: Elevate the heart to heaven; look, at least. FRY: The believer, like Moses on Pisgah, obtains a prospect of the promised rest. GILL: The Church called to look down and see how the Gospel was received by the nations: or, Christ’s call to His Church to leave the society of the wicked men of the world, and go along with Him (2Co_6:17; Rev_18:4). ‘Lion’s dens and mountains of leopards.’ A poetical exaggeration of the mountains around Shunem, as if to be compared with Lebanon; alluding, in a general way, to the wild beasts and inhospitable character of the region of Shulamite’s home (Zec_2:3; Jer_12:5; Deu_33:22). ZÖCKLER, Allegorically, the inhabitants of strong towns, who are strong as lions. TARGUM. Furious Jews and crafty Gentile philosophers. THEODORET. Malicious, cruel, and hypocritical men. JEROME, GREGORY. Heretics. PHILO, ANSELM. False brethren. HONORIUS. Persecuting tyrants. PISCATOR, DURHAM. Regions of idolatry, of which Egypt whence the Bride came (?) was one of the most remarkable HARMER. Babylonian lions and Chaldean panthers. WEISS. Savage, beastly, and idolatrous people. AINSWORTH. These mountains, thus beautiful but dangerous, put in contrast with the mountain of myrrh and hill of frankincense. BURROUGHS.
THE BRIDEGROOM’S INVITATION
(Son_4:8)
Come with me from Lebanon,
My spouse, with me from Lebanon;
Look from the top of Amana,
From the top of Shenir and Hermon,
From the lions’ dens,
From the mountains of leopards.
The King intimates to his beloved that he has a better place of residence prepared for her than that which had hitherto been her home; that it was his desire that she should soon accompany him to it; and that in the meantime she should withdraw her affections from her former abode. Her previous home is represented as being in Mount Lebanon with its snow-capped heights, either really, or in a locality thus poetically named. Lebanon, in its higher regions, with its adjacent peaks of Amana, Shenir or Sirion, and Hermon, mentioned as a place both of danger and discomfort, notwithstanding the pleasant spots found in its valleys and lower slopes. The text the language of tenderest affection. For the first time Shulamite called by the King ‘my spouse.’ The marriage viewed as now having taken place. The Bridegroom’s earnest desire to have his Bride always with him. His care that she should be with him in a place of comfort and security. Wishes her to leave those cold bleak mountains, the haunts of the lion and the panther; but to do so with the aid and protection of his arm and the solace of his company.
The text may be viewed as corresponding with the words of Jesus at the Last Supper: ‘In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you; I go to prepare a place for you: and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (Joh_14:2-3). Observe, in reference to the Bridegroom’s.
Call from Lebanon,
I. The CALL itself. ‘Come with me,’ &c. To be viewed as a Call—
1. To leave the world in heart and affection. The world, in its present state of apostasy and rebellion, here represented by Lebanon and its snowy peaks. This the believer’s native home. The place where he is born and brought up. Christ’s Bride originally of the world as well as in it. ‘Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past’ (Eph_2:3; Tit_3:3). This world, in its present state, however, not to be the home of Christ’s Bride. A place prepared for her in His Father’s house. The world is to believers—
(1) A place of discomfort. Like Lebanon with its bleak and barren rocks, and its cold snowy heights. ‘In the world ye shall have tribulation.’
(2) A place of danger. Lebanon a place of lions’ dens. ‘Your adversary, the devil, goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.’ ‘My soul is among lions—the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows’ (1Pe_5:8; Psa_57:4).
(3) Yet a place not without attractions. Lebanon adorned with some of the loveliest spots in nature. The world, even in its fallen state, possessed of many attractions which might entangle the affections of Christ’s Bride—‘the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life’ (1Jn_2:16). The call in the text, not to leave the world as to bodily presence, but in heart and affection. This, perhaps, indicated in the parallel clause: ‘Look from the top of Amana,’ &c. Withdraw your thoughts and affections from those rugged heights to your better home. ‘Arise ye and depart, for this is not your rest.’ ‘Seek those things that are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.’ ‘Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world’ (Mic_2:10; Col_3:1-2; 1Jn_2:15). The Bride to forget her own people and her father’s house (Psa_45:11). Believers to look not at the things which are seen and temporal; but at those which are unseen and eternal (2Co_4:18). This world not be viewed as our home, but as an inn where we tarry for a night. Believers, while here, only strangers and pilgrims, journeying to their own country. Their home in the better land, the heavenly Canaan, the new Jerusalem, the city that hath foundations. Their language to be that of the pilgrim in reference to the cities which he passed on his way to Jerusalem—“very beautiful; but this is not Jerusalem.”
2. To leave it in life and practice. Believers not to be ‘conformed to this world, but transformed,’ by the renewing of their mind. Though in the world, not to be of it. ‘Be ye not, therefore, like unto them.’ Believers to be as strangers in this world in life and practice, as well as in heart and affection. Christian and Faithful represented as passing through Vanity Fair without buying any of its wares, or even so much as pricing them. Gazed at in the Fair as ‘outlandish men.’ Their only answer: ‘We buy the truth.’ Paul’s testimony, in the name of believers—‘Our conversation (life or citizenship) is in heaven.’ Believers to act and comport themselves in this world as citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, to which they belong (Php_3:20).
3. To leave it as to its friendship and society. Too great a difference between believers and the men of the world to admit of cordial friendship and society. ‘We are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness’ (or ‘in the Wicked One’) (1Jn_5:19). ‘How can two walk together except they be agreed?’ ‘Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers; for what fellowship hath light with darkness? Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate’ (2Co_6:14-17). ‘The friendship of this world is enmity with God: whosoever will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God’ (Jas_4:4). The believer’s proper language: ‘I am a companion of all them that fear thee.’ ‘My goodness extendeth not unto thee; but unto the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.’ ‘I have not sat with vain persons: I have hated the congregation of evil doers, and will not sit with the wicked.’ ‘Depart from me, ye evil-doers, for I will keep the commandments of my God’ (Psa_16:2; Psa_26:4-5; Psa_119:115). Men known by the company they keep. Peter and John, ‘being let go, went unto their own company.’ ‘Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another’ (Mal_3:16; Act_4:23).
The believer’s life a daily coming ‘from Lebanon.’ ‘If any man will be My disciple, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.’ Believers, being redeemed from this present evil world, to take heed lest they be ‘again entangled in the yoke of bondage.’ Need the daily prayer: ‘Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity.’ Their standing caution: ‘Remember Lot’s wife.’
4. To leave the world at death. The comfort of believers that they have to leave this world, not merely in heart and affection, in life and practice, and in respect to its friendship and society, but also, in due time, in actual bodily presence. A better home provided for them. Their happiness in being where their Husband is. The death-call to them only their Bridegroom’s voice: ‘Arise, my Love, my Fair One, and come away.’ To the believer, the passage to the tomb no Dolorous Way. Sense sings a dirge at the grave; faith, a Hallelujah. A believer enters his sepulchre through pearly gates. Not deadly nightshade, but roses and lilies line the path to it. It is the last step in the journey home, or rather the actual arrival at it. The funeral bell may toll its slow and solemn strokes on earth, but cheerful peals are rung in heaven. The pardoned soul’s desire now granted: ‘I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. To me to die is gain.’ ‘I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord.’ ‘Now, Lord, lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.’
5. To leave the world at the Lord’s Second Coming. Till then, a part of the Bride always still in Lebanon. The bodies also of those whose spirits are with Christ in Paradise still in the earth. The final call to come from Lebanon given at last. ‘Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust,’ uttered by the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God. The Lord Himself descends from heaven with a shout that echoes through the mansions of the dead. They that sleep in Jesus, joining the living and now glorified saints, ascend to meet Him in the air. The Church’s blessed hope at last accomplished. The Bride’s last recorded prayer on earth now answered. The Bridegroom’s last loving promise now fulfilled—‘Surely I come quickly.’
II. The character of the JOURNEY. ‘Come with me from Lebanon.’ The journey from Lebanon and its snow-capped heights neither easy nor safe. Its rugged paths, steep precipices, and ferocious animals, sufficient to render the descent both painful and perilous to the bride. A picture of the believer’s passage from this world, the place of his nativity, to the home prepared for him in the Father’s house. Manifold temptations often mingling heaviness with our joy. Much tribulation the way to the kingdom. Persecution promised to all who will live godly in Christ Jesus. The world’s hatred in proportion to their faithfulness to their Master and to their character as the Bride of Christ. Their adversary, the devil, like a roaring lion, going about and seeking whom he may devour. Principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, leagued to obstruct or annoy their passage. A carnal mind and evil heart of unbelief still lingering within themselves. The flesh lusting against the spirit, and its lusts warring in their members. The flesh weak to what is good, even when the spirit is willing. Need for constant watchfulness and prayer. The foot easily slipping, and the consequence a bruising fall. Broken bones not unfrequent in the descent from Lebanon. Noah, David, and Peter, humbling examples. No easy matter to walk safely down the rugged steeps. Difficult so to keep ourselves that that Wicked One touch us not. Not easy to break with a world lying in wickedness, and to pass through it unscathed. Faithful made a victim in Vanity Fair, and Christian well high the same. Not easy to pass through pollution without being soiled; to travel through an enemy’s country without getting into trouble; or to walk among gins and pits without making a fall. Constant need for the prayer: ‘Hold thou me up, that my footsteps slip not. Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put my trust.’ Death, too, in the journey from Lebanon. A passage from which poor human nature instinctively recoils. To us an unknown and naturally a formidable road. Beset also with spiritual adversaries. Not unfrequently accompanied with acute and prolonged suffering. The taking down of the tabernacle not always a smooth or easy process. The presence of earthly friends often of little avail. The roughest and dreariest part of the passage, perhaps, to be travelled alone. Sometimes the pathway tracked with blood. Lies at times through torture, the scaffold, and the stake. The path at first too rugged even for a Cranmer. The prayer in the Burnal Service not entirely needless: ‘Suffer us not, in our last hour, for any pains of death to had from thee.’
III. The COMFORT and AID in the journey. Indicated in the two little words: ‘With me.’ These precious words repeated, to call special attention to what they imply, to confirm their truth, and to indicate their importance. An argument to induce compliance with the Call. The Bridegroom’s society preferable to the Bride beyond that of all others. Who would remain among lions and panthers when they can have the fellowship of the king? No great loss to leave the cold bleak heights of Lebanon to be with the heavenly Bridegroom. A twofold blessing implied in the words—
(1) The everlasting presence of Christ after the journey is over;
(2) His company and support all the way through. The descent from Lebanon made safe and comfortable to the Bride by the Bridegroom’s presence. Precious to believers to know that they are not called to leave the world, whether in heart and affection, or in life and practice, or in bodily presence, alone and unaided. The presence and aid of the Friend ‘that sticketh closer than a brother,’ promised in every trying, difficult, and dangerous passage of life, as well as in the last dark valley. ‘Fear not, for I am with thee.’ ‘I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.’ ‘When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the floods, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest in the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.’ Hence the triumphant language of faith: ‘The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war should rise up against me, in this will I be confident.’ ‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff comfort me’ (Psa_23:4; Psa_27:1-2).
“The soul that on Jesus hath lean’d for repose,
He will not, he cannot desert to its foes.
That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake,
He’ll never, no never, no NEVER, forsake.”
The presence of Jesus with the believer in his descent ‘from Lebanon’ on the way to his future home—
(1) For comfort. The company of a friend a solace in a difficult and dangerous journey.
(2) For aid and protection. The Bridegroom’s arm employed to support and defend, as well as His voice to solace and cheer. ‘Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning on her Beloved?’ The grace of Jesus sufficient for the most difficult duties, the strongest temptations, and the most painful trials. His strength made perfect in our weakness. Hence faith’s language: ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.’
(3) For example. The Bridegroom has descended from Lebanon before us. Points us to His steps as He came down its difficult and rugged steeps. ‘He hath left us an example that we should walk in His steps.’ ‘Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame.’ (1Pe_2:21; Heb_12:2).
The promise indicated in the words ‘with me,’ applicable to the believer’s death, as well as his life. His presence with them also in that final, solemn, and untried journey. Joseph sent his servants and waggons to convey his father to Egypt. Jesus not only sends His angelic servants to fetch His Bride and escort her through the darksome valley, but comes Himself. Not only makes a passage for them through the dark swelling waters of death, but, like the Ark in Jordan is with them Himself in the passage. Seen by Stephen on the eve of martyrdom, no sitting as usual, but standing at the right hand of God, as if risen up to be with His faithful servant in the last great conflict, and to give him a loving welcome when it was over. The footsteps of Jesus seen also in that last dark passage. The Bridegroom Himself trod the pathway to the tomb. Encountered death in its most formidable aspect. Passed through the valley in excruciating pain, amid jeers of men and assaults from Satan, and in a bath of blood. Travelled the last hours of His life in loneliness, darkness, and desertion of soul. Has lain in the tomb a lifeless corpse before us. The grave made by His presence there a perfumed bed to all His followers.
Important questions: Have I Jesus with me for my comfort and aid in going through this world? Shall I have His presence in death? Have I heard and obeyed His call to come with Him now? Am I taking up my cross daily, and following Him? Have I given up the world, or am I still making it my home? We come to Christ as sinners, before we come with Him as saints. Have I done this? Reader, if not, lose no time; but do it now.
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.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Ravishing Love of the Church
The Ravishing Love of the Church
v. 8. Come with Me from Lebanon, My spouse, His affianced bride, with Me from Lebanon, here representing a mountainous and inhospitable country. Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, all three peaks being in the Anti-Lebanon range, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards, or panthers, where beasts of prey proved a constant menace to the traveler.
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v. 9. Thou hast ravished My heart, robbing Him of His heart by the miracle of her beauty, My sister, as the adopted child of His heavenly Father, My spouse; thou hast ravished My heart with one of thine eyes, literally, with one from thy eyes, that is, with a glance of love, with one chain of thy neck, with the sparkle and charm of the necklace as she turned to look at Him.
v. 10. How fair is thy love, pleasant and acceptable, My sister, My spouse! How much better is thy love than wine, sweet to the taste and pleasant in every way, and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!
v. 11. Thy lips, O My spouse, drop as the honeycomb, distilling sweetness; honey and milk are under thy tongue, in the loveliness of her speech; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon, whose fragrance, the balsamic odor of cedars, was proverbial in Palestine.
v. 12. A garden enclosed is My sister, My spouse, one locked against intruders, open only to the owner; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed, the meaning being that the place where the sparkling water wells from the ground is inaccessible to all but the Bridegroom Himself.
v. 13. Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits, all her acts being charming and excellent; camphire, or cyprus flowers, with spikenard, from which precious perfume was made,
v. 14. spikenard and saffron, from which an agreeably pungent liquid perfume was made; calamus, used for similar purposes, and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, a fine aromatic balsam, with all the chief spices, all of these being important articles of trade, since they were used also for the holy anointing oil, Exo 30:23-31;
v. 15. a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, fed by inexhaustible springs, and streams from Lebanon, fed by its perpetual snows, cool and refreshing. The bride, wrought up to the highest pitch of excitement by this fulsome praise in the mouth of the Bridegroom, exclaims,
v. 16. Awake, O north wind, cool and refreshing, and come, thou south, warm and moist, but usually not boisterous; blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out, its perfume be wafted in every direction. Let my Beloved come into His garden and eat His pleasant fruits, enjoy the companionship and the charms of His bride.
This section contains both a warning and the highest praise. It is necessary for all believers to deny the world with all its blandishments and to be united with Christ alone, through the strength given in His Word. At the same time Christ openly states that the believers, looking upon Him with the eyes of faith, increase His love toward them. Therefore He praises the loveliness of the Church in extravagant terms, especially since the ointment of the Holy Spirit in the bosom of the Church fills the air with lovely fragrance, while her prayer drops from her lips like the most excellent honey, and her confession of Him is as pleasant as milk and honey. Moreover, the Church, in the midst of the world, is a closed garden, in which rich fruits ripen for the delectation of the heavenly Bridegroom, and where the refreshing waters of the Sacraments flow. The Church, in fact, is in every way full of spiritual power and fruitfulness, filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God, Php 1:11. Having heard the praise of Christ, the Church pleads for His gracious presence in her midst, for it is only when He Himself accepts the worship of His believers that the purpose of the Church can be realized; only then can she fulfill her duty in the right manner.
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:
The man continues to speak to the woman. He speaks of them not being free to make love as if they were in a wild, dangerous, foreign place. (See: Metaphor)
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from Lebanon
"away from Lebanon"
my bride
This Hebrew word can refer to a woman who is married or to one whom a man has arranged to become his son's wife. If your language has a polite word that a man would use to his wife and that has not been used yet in this book, you could use it here. Otherwise you could use any polite term a man would use with his wife.
Amana
the name of a mountain north of Israel (See: How to Translate Names)
Senir
the name of a mountain near Amana and Hermon. Some people think that this refers to the same mountain as Hermon. (See: How to Translate Names)
dens
places where lions and leopards live, like caves or holes in the ground
translationWords
Lebanon
bride
Mount Hermon
lions
leopard
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 4:8 Mount Amana, Senir, and Hermon are the three…
4:8 Mount Amana, Senir, and Hermon are the three northernmost peaks in Israel and the highest point on the border with Lebanon. They represent the height of the couple’s ecstasy, from which they must at times descend.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.