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.
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.”
I have taken off my robe. Indeed, must I put it on? I have washed my feet. Indeed, must I soil them?
My beloved thrust his hand in through the latch opening. My heart pounded for him.
I rose up to open for my beloved. My hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the handles of the lock.
I opened to my beloved; but my beloved left, and had gone away. My heart went out when he spoke. I looked for him, but I didn’t find him. I called him, but he didn’t answer.
The watchmen who go about the city found me. They beat me. They bruised me. The keepers of the walls took my cloak away from me.
I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, If you find my beloved, that you tell him that I am faint with love.
How is your beloved better than another beloved, you fairest among women? How is your beloved better than another beloved, that you do so adjure us?
My beloved is white and ruddy. The best among ten thousand.
His head is like the purest gold. His hair is bushy, black as a raven.
His eyes are like doves beside the water brooks, washed with milk, mounted like jewels.
His cheeks are like a bed of spices with towers of perfumes. His lips are like lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.
His hands are like rings of gold set with beryl. His body is like ivory work overlaid with sapphires.
His legs are like pillars of marble set on sockets of fine gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.
His mouth is sweetness; yes, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, daughters of Jerusalem.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 14 The garden signifieth the kingdom of Christ, where he…
The garden signifieth the kingdom of Christ, where he prepareth the banquet for his elect.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–16 Son 5:1 I am come into my garden, my…
Son 5:1 I am come into my garden, my sister, [my] spouse: 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, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.
Ver. 1. I am come into my garden.] So ready is the Lord Christ to fulfil the desires of them that fear him. {Psa 145:19} Sometimes he not only grants their prayer, but fulfils their counsel, {Psa 20:4} fits his mercy ad cardinero desiderii, as Augustine {a} hath it, lets it be to his, even as they will. Or if he cross them in the very thing they crave, they are sure of a better; their prayers they shall have out either in money or money’s worth. Christ, though he be a God that hideth himself, yet he scorns to say unto the seed of Jacob, "Seek ye me in vain"; {Isa 45:15; Isa 45:19} that is enough for the heathen idols. {Isa 45:16; Isa 45:18} He is not like Baal, who, pursuing his enemies, couId not hear his friends; or as Diana, that being present at Alexander’s birth, could not at the same time rescue her Ephesian temple from the fire. He is not like Jupiter, whom the Cretans painted without ears, as not being at leisure to attend small matters; {b} and whom Lucian the atheist feigneth to look down from heaven through certain crevices or chinks at certain times; at which time, if petitioners chance to pray unto him, they may have audience, otherwise not. No, no; "the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are always open to their prayers." {Psa 34:15} Flectitur iratus voce rogante Deus. Basil compares prayer to a chain, the one end whereof is linked to God’s ear, and the other to man’s tongue. Sozomen saith of Apollonius, that he never asked anything of God in all his life that he obtained not. And another saith of Luther, Iste vir potuit apud Deum quod voluit. That man could do what he would with God; it was but ask and have with him.
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I have gathered my myrrh with my spice,] i.e., I have highly accepted thy graces and good works: these are to be gathered only in Christ’s garden. Hedge fruits and wild herbs, or rather weeds, are everywhere almost to be had. Moral virtues may be found in a Cato, who was homo virtuti similimus, a man as like virtue as may be, saith Velleius. {c} And he adds, but I am not bound to believe him, Qui nunquam recte fecit, ut facere videretur, sed quia aliter facere non poterat, that Cato never did well that he might seem to do so, but because he could not do otherwise than well. But why then, might a man have asked the historian, did your so highly extolled Cato take up the trade of griping usury? Why did he so shamefully prostitute his wife, so cowardly kill himself? Was it not because he lived in the wild world’s waste, and grew not in the Church’s garden, hence his fruits were not genuine? His moral virtues are but shining sins, beautiful abominations, a smoother way to hell. Civil honest men are but wolves chained up, tame devils, swine in a fair meadow, &c. Operam praestant, natura fera est, as the civil law saith of those mixed beasts, elephants and camels, they do the work of tame beasts, yet have the nature of wild ones. They are cried up for singularly honest as ever lived by such as are strangers to the power of godliness, and aliens from the commonwealth of Israel; like as in Samaria’s famine, a cab of doves’ dung was sold at a great rate, and an ass’s head at four pound. But Christ, and such as have the mind of Christ, are otherwise minded: they look upon an unregenerate man, though sober, just, chaste, liberal, &c., as a "vile person," and upon all their specious works as "dead works"; whenas contrarily they "honour them that fear the Lord," {Psa 15:4} and set a high price, as Christ here doth, upon their good parts and practices. Myrrh and spices, or aromatic fruits, are but dark shadows and representations of them.
I have eaten mine honeycomb with mine honey.] As it were crust and crumb together: not rejecting my people’s services for the infirmities I find cleaving unto them, but accepting what is good therein, and bearing with the rest, I take all well aworth, and am as much delighted therewith as any man is in eating of honey, whereof he is so greedy that withal he devours the comb too sometimes. Christ feedeth, saith an expositor {d} here, upon all the fruits of his garden; he so much delighteth in it as he eateth not only the honey, as it were the most excellent duties or works of the Church, {Heb 13:15-16; Heb 13:21} but also the "honeycomb," as it were the baser services and fruits of his Spirit, of least account: that he receiveth of all sorts most sweetly mingled together, both the common and daily fruits of godliness, understood in "milk," and the more rare of greater price, as solemn fasts and feasts, signified by "wine"; both which he drinketh together, that is, accepteth of them all.
Eat, O friends.] That is, O you holy angels (saith the former interpreter), which as my nobles, accompany me, the King of glory, in heaven, and have some communion with me in the gifts I bestow on you. Mr Diodate also thinks the same: but I rather incline to those that by Christ’s friends here understand those earthly angels, the saints, {Joh 15:14 Isa 41:8 Jas 2:23} whom he cheereth up and encourageth to fall to it lustily, and by a sancta crapula, as Luther calls a holy gluttony, to lay on, to feed hard, and to fetch hearty draughts, till they be even drunk with loves, as the Hebrew here hath it, being ravished in the love of God, where they are sure to find it, as in honey pots, the deeper, the sweeter. Such as so eat, are called Christ’s friends, by a specialty, and such as so drink, his beloved, as Gregory here well observeth; and they only do thus that hear the Word with delight, turn it in succum et sanguinem, concoct it, incorporate it, as it were, into their souls, and are so deeply affected with it, that like drunken men, they forget and let go all things else, that they may retain and practise it. These are "not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but filled with the Holy Ghost." {Eph 5:18}
{a} Confess., lib. v. c. 1,
{b} Non vacat exiguis, &c.
{c} Lib. ii.
{d} Mr Dudley Fenner.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–16 I am come into my garden: this is the…
I am come into my garden: this is the Bridegroom’s answer to her request, delivered in the next foregoing words.
I have eaten my honey-comb with my honey; I have drunk my wine, with my milk; I have eaten of my pleasant fruits, as thou didst desire. I have taken notice of, and delight in, the service and obedience of my people.
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Friends; the friends of the Bridegroom; whereby he understands either,
1. The holy angels and glorified saints, who in a sublime and spiritual sense may be said to eat and drink in heaven, the happiness whereof is frequently represented under the name and notion of a feast. Or rather,
2. Believers or members of the church militant upon earth, who by the argument of Christ’s gracious presence with them, and acceptation of their works signified in the last words, are here invited and encouraged with great freedom and cheerfulness to eat and drink their spiritual food, to feed upon God’s holy word and sacraments, to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God, who here gives them a hearty welcome to this feast.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–16 Christ answers the church's invitation, and shews her the…
Christ answers the church's invitation, and shews her the delight he took in her fruit, ver. 1. She acknowledges her negligence to Christ in not opening the door, ver. 2-6. Of the harsh usage she met with, ver. 7. She tells the daughters of Jerusalem she is sick of love to Christ, ver. 8. Their question concerning him, ver. 9. A description of Christ by his graces, ver. 10-15. In whom she boasteth, ver. 16
I come - This is the bridegroom's answer. I have - I have eaten of my pleasant fruits, I have taken notice of, and delight in the service and obedience of my people. O friends - Believers are here encouraged with freedom and chearfulness to eat and drink their spiritual food.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 The bridegroom calls on his spouse to admit him,…
CHAPTER V
The bridegroom calls on his spouse to admit him, 1-3.
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She hesitates; but arising finds him gone, seeks him, and
is treated unworthily by the city watch, 4-7.
Inquires of the daughters of Jerusalem, who question her
concerning her beloved, 8, 9.
This gives her occasion to enter into a fine description of
his person and accomplishments, 10-16.
NOTES ON CHAP. V
Verse 1. I am come into my garden] באתי bathi, I came, or have come; this should be translated in the past tense, as the other preterite verbs in this clause. I think the latter clause of the preceding verse should come in here: "Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits. I have come into my garden, my sister, callah, or spouse; I have gathered my myrrh," c. I have taken thee for my spouse, and am perfectly satisfied that thou art pure and immaculate.
Eat, O friends-drink abundantly] These are generally supposed to be the words of the bridegroom, after he returned from the nuptial chamber, and exhibited those signs of his wife's purity which the customs of those times required. This being a cause of universal joy, the entertainment is served up and he invites his companions, and the friends of both parties, to eat and drink abundantly, as there was such a universal cause of rejoicing. Others think that these are the words of the bride to her spouse: but the original will not bear this meaning; the verbs are all plural.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 14 Son 5:1. I am come into my garden —…
Son 5:1. I am come into my garden — This is the bridegroom’s answer. I have gathered my myrrh, &c. — I have eaten of my pleasant fruits; I have taken notice of, and delight in, the service and obedience of my people. Eat, O friends — Believers are here encouraged with freedom and cheerfulness to eat and drink their spiritual food.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 My honeycomb - literally, “my reed” or “my wood,”…
My honeycomb - literally, “my reed” or “my wood,” i. e., the substance itself, or portions of it in which the comb is formed. The bees in Palestine form their combs not only in the hollows of trees and rocks, but also in reeds by the river-banks. The king’s meaning appears to be: “All pleases me in thee, there is nothing to despise or cast away.”
Eat, O friends - A salutation from the king to his assembled guests, or to the chorus of young men his companions, bidding them in the gladness of his heart Son 3:11 partake of the banquet. So ends this day of outward festivity and supreme heart-joy. The first half of the Song of Songs is fitly closed. The second half of the poem commences Son 5:2 with a change of tone and reaction of feeling similar to that of Son 3:1. It terminates with the sealing Son 8:6-7 of yet deeper love.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16 Apple-trees. The spouse, submitting to God’s will, is content…
Apple-trees. The spouse, submitting to God’s will, is content to suffer. (Worthington) --- She addresses her beloved, and as he had praised her, under the similitude of a delightful garden, she invites him into it. (Calmet) --- I, &c. Christ again approves of her patience, and invites the saints to congratulate with her. (Worthington) --- He always hears his Church, Matthew xxviii. 20., and Mark xi. 24. (Calmet) --- The saints had prayed for Christ’s coming; and, accordingly, (Isaias lviii. 9.) he takes flesh of the most pure virgin. (St. Athanasius, Synop.) --- Comb. Septuagint, "bread." --- Milk. Chaldean, "white wine." But (Calmet) mile and wine may be taken together. (Clem. Pæd. i. 6.) --- The chaste delights of retired and penitent souls are thus described: (Calmet) Dulciores sunt lacrymæ orantium quam gaudia theatrorum. (St. Augustine, Psalm cxxviii." "The tears of penitents are the wine of angels, because in them is the odour of life." (St. Bernard, ser. 30.) --- Inebriated. Not so as to lose reason, Genesis xliii. 34. (Calmet) --- Protestants marginal note, "be drunk with loves." (Haydock) (Proverbs v. 19., and vii. 18. This wine of love, is the blessed Eucharist, which maketh virgins to spring forth, (Zacharias ix. 17.) and is a foretaste of heaven, Psalm xxxv. 9. It makes us forget the old man, (Calmet) and raise the mind to God. (St. Cyprian, ep. 63.) --- To this feast Christ invites his disciples, Matthew xxvi., and 1 Corinthians xi. (Menochius) --- Myrrh. Implies that they must be mortified. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Shulamith’s longing for her home again awakened.
FOURTH SONG
Shulamith’s longing for her home again awakened.
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Son_5:2 to Son_8:4
FIRST SCENE:
Shulamith and the Daughters of Jerusalem
(Son_5:2 to Son_6:3)
Shulamith (relating a dream).
2 I1 was sleeping, but my heart was waking2—
Hark!3 my beloved is knocking:
‘Open4 to me, my sister,
my dear, my dove, my perfect;5
for6 my head is filled with dew,
my locks with drops of the night!’
3 “I7 have taken off my dress,
how shall I put it on?
I have washed my feet,
how8 shall I soil them?”—
4 My9 beloved extended his hand through the window,10
and I was inwardly excited11 for him.
5 Up I rose to open to my beloved,
and my hands dropped with myrrh,
and my fingers with liquid myrrh,
upon the handle of the bolt.
6 I opened to my beloved,
and my beloved had turned12 away, was gone;
my soul failed,13 when he spoke;14
I sought him but I did not find him,
I called him but he answered me not.
7 Found15 me then the watchmen, who go around in the city;
they struck me, wounded me,
took my veil16 off from me,
the watchmen of the walls.
8 I17 adjure you, ye daughters of Jerusalem,
if ye find my beloved—
what shall ye tell him?
“that I am sick of love.”
Daughters of Jerusalem
9 What18 is thy beloved more than (any other) beloved,19
thou fairest among women?
What is thy beloved more than (any other) beloved,
that thou dost adjure us thus?
Shulamith
10 My20 beloved is white and ruddy,
distinguished above ten thousand.
11 His head is pure gold,
his locks are hill upon hill,21
black as a raven.22
12 His eyes like doves by brooks of water,
bathing in milk, sitting on fulness.23
13 His cheeks like a bed of balm,
towers of spice plants;24
his lips lilies,
dropping liquid myrrh.
14 His hands golden rods,
encased in turquoises;25
his body a figure of ivory,
veiled with sapphires.
15 His legs columns of white marble
set on bases of pure gold;
his aspect like Lebanon,
choice26 as the cedars.
16 His palate27 is sweets,28
and he is altogether precious.29
This is my beloved, and this30 my friend,
ye daughters of Jerusalem.
Daughters of Jerusalem
VI. 1 Whither31 has thy beloved gone,
thou fairest among women?
whither has thy beloved turned,
that we may seek him with thee?
Shulamith
2 My32 beloved has gone down to his garden,
to the beds of balm33,
to feed34 in the gardens
and to gather lilies.35
3 I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine,
who feeds among the lilies.
SECOND SCENE:
solomon to the same as before
(Son_6:4 to Son_7:6)
Solomon
4 Fair36 art thou, my dear, as Tirzah,
comely as Jerusalem, terrible37 as bannered38 hosts,
5 Turn away thine eyes from39 me,
for they have taken me by storm.40
Thy hair is as a flock of goats,
reposing on Gilead.
6 Thy teeth as a flock of sheep,41
that go up from the washing,
all of which have twins,
and there is not a bereaved one among them.
7 Like a piece of pomegranate thy cheek
from behind thy veil.—
8 There are sixty queens
and eighty concubines
and virgins without number.
9 My dove, my perfect is one,42
the only one43 of her mother,
the choice44 one of her that bare her.
Daughters saw her and called her blessed,
queens and concubines and they praised her:
10 “Who45 is this, that looks forth like the dawn,
fair as the moon, pure as the sun,
terrible as bannered hosts?”46
Shulamith
11 To47 the nut48 garden I went down,
to look at the shrubs of the valley,
to see whether the vine sprouted,
the pomegranates blossomed.
12 I49 knew it not, my desire brought me
to the chariots of my people, the noble.
Daughters of Jerusalem
VII. 1 Come50 back, come back, Shulamith,
Come back, come back, that we may look upon thee.
Shulamith
What51 do you see in Shulamith?
Daughters of Jerusalem
As the dance of Mahanaim.
Solomon
2 How52 beautiful are thy steps in the shoes, O prince’s daughter,
thy rounded53 thighs are like jewels,
the work of an artist’s hands.
3 Thy navel is a round bowl,54
let not mixed wine be lacking!55
thy body is a heap of wheat,
set56 around with lilies.
4 Thy two breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle.
5 Thy neck like a tower of ivory,
thy eyes like pools in Heshbon
at the gate of the daughter of multitudes;
thy nose like the tower of Lebanon
which looks toward Damascus.
6 Thy head upon thee like Carmel,57
and thy flowing locks like purple—
a king fettered by curls !58
THIRD SCENE:
Solomon and Shulamith (alone)
(Son_7:7 to Son_8:4)
Solomon
7 How fair art thou and how comely,
O love,59 among delights!60
8 This thy stature resembles a palm tree,
and thy breasts clusters.61
9 I62 resolve: I will climb the palm,
will grasp its branches,63
and64 be thy breasts, please, like clusters of the vine,
and the breath of thy nose65 like apples,
10 And thy palate66 like the best wine.….
Shulamith (interrupting him)
—going67 down for my beloved smoothly,68
gliding over the lips of sleepers.
11 I am my beloved’s,
and for69 me is his desire.——
12 Come,70 my beloved, let us go out to the country,71
lodge in the villages,
13 Start early72 for the vineyards;
we shall see whether the vine has sprouted,
its blossoms opened,73
the pomegranates flowered. …
there will I give thee my love.74
14 The mandrakes75 give forth their odor,
and over our doors are all sorts of excellent fruit,76
new as well as old,
(which), my beloved, I have laid up for thee.77—
VIII. 1 O78 that thou wert as a brother of mine,
who sucked the breasts of my mother!
should I find79 thee without I would kiss thee,
yet80 none would despise81 me.
2 I would lead thee, bring thee to my mother’s house,
thou82 wouldst instruct me;
I would give thee to drink of the spiced wine,
of my pomegranate juice.
3 His left hand is under my head,
and his right embraces me.83—
4 I84 adjure you, ye daughters of Jerusalem,
that ye wake not, and that ye waken not
love; till it please.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The place of the action in this new section is without doubt the same as in the foregoing act. The dialogue with the daughters of Jerusalem (Son_5:8-9; Son_5:16; Son_6:1-3; Son_7:1); the mention of the “city” and the “keepers of its walls” in this fresh recital of a dream (Son_5:2-7) which reminds one of its predecessor (Son_3:1-5); the “garden” of Solomon, to which he has gone down, Son_6:2; finally and above all her appeal to her lover to go out with her “to the country” (Son_7:12) and to the house of his chosen one’s mother (Son_8:2), and there in the enjoyment of simple country pleasures to become to her “as a brother who had sucked the breasts of her mother” (Son_8:1); all this points to the king’s palace at Jerusalem as the scene, and more probably to some room in this palace, than to “contiguous grounds” or “the royal gardens,” as is thought by Delitzsch. The room in the Palace on Zion, which, according to scene 2 of the foregoing act, was used for the marriage feast, may very well be the one in which the whole of the present act was performed; for there is no indication any where of a change of scene, not even between Son_7:1-2, or between Son_5:6-7 of the same chapter (vs. Del.).—The time of the action is determined by its characteristic contents to have been some days or weeks later than the wedding festivities described in act third. For the relation of love so pure and happy at the beginning has since suffered certain checks and interruptions, which reveal themselves on the part of Shulamith at least by various symptoms of uneasiness, nay, of sadness and dejection, without her betraying, however, that she has been at all wounded or actually injured by her husband. The dream, which she tells her companions at the beginning of the section that she has very recently had in the night, begins exactly like the preceding, and runs on partly in the same way. It does not, however, end as that does in a bright and joyous manner, but with pain and fright. Seeking her beloved by night, she not only fails to find him—she is beaten and robbed by the watchmen! Her gloomy misgiving in respect to the unfaithfulness of her lover, expressed in her apprehension that she might soil her feet again, which had just been washed (Son_5:3, see in loc.), proves to be only too correct, and drives her therefore with an anxious and troubled heart to have it said to her lover, who has actually forsaken her for a time, “that she is sick of love”—of loving solicitude about his heart partially averted and alienated from her (Son_5:8)! She expresses this solicitude, it is true, not by open complaint; on the contrary, in what follows she sedulously avoids dropping any thing to the disadvantage of her husband in the hearing of the ladies of the court (Son_5:10-16), she apologizes for his leaving her by the harmless assumption that he may have gone “to feed in the gardens and to gather lilies,” Son_6:2, and only inserts in her exclamation at the close an allusion indicative of painful longing in respect to the way that she wishes to be and to remain her beloved’s, viz., that he should now as formerly “feed among the lilies,” that he should be and remain a guileless, pure and simple-hearted country lover (Son_6:3)!—When, therefore, Solomon himself returns to her after a considerable absence, the manifestations of her partial dissatisfaction with him assume a somewhat altered form. She regards him gravely and sternly, and thus leads him in the picture of her beauty and loveliness, which, full of ecstacy, he again begins to sketch (Son_6:4 ff.; comp. Son_4:1 ff.) to introduce some allusions to her “terribleness” (Son_6:4; Son_6:10), as well as to the effect of the glance of her eyes (Son_6:5 a), which “overcome” or “dismay” him. The spirited statement of the prior rank accorded to her above all his wives and virgins, into which this description finally passes (Son_6:8-10), she leaves wholly unnoticed; nay, she answers it with a description of what she once did and was engaged in, when a simple country maid in happier circumstances, and with more agreeable surroundings (Son_6:11), and thereupon she gives him plainly enough to understand that the elevation bestowed upon her in consequence of her love “to the state-carriages of her people, the noble,” i.e. to the highest rank among the nobles of her people, had also led to her being painfully undeceived (Son_6:12). She even wishes to escape from the society of the voluptuous ladies of the court, which has become irksome to her, and she is induced to return and remain, not so much by their urgent entreaties and representations (Son_7:1) as simply and alone by her unconquerable love to Solomon, whom she hopes finally to free from his corrupt surroundings and to gain wholly for herself and for the purer pleasures of her life at home.—To the new and exaggerated laudation of her charms, in which her lover hereupon indulges (Son_7:2 ff.) she listens in silence; as in one place at least they offend against the rules of modesty (Son_7:3), she deigns not to answer. Not until the other ladies had left her alone with Solomon, does she venture to open her heart to him and to give free expression to her longing desire, which has been most strongly aroused, to return to her home and to have her lover changed from a voluptuous servant of sin to an innocent child of nature like herself. She does this by interrupting (Son_7:10) the fond language of her husband just where it had become most urgent and tender, and chiming in with what had been begun by him. With extraordinary address and delicacy she first, as it were, disarms and fetters him (Son_7:10-11) and then brings her desire before him with such overpowering force and urgency that refusal is impossible, and he is borne along as on the wings of the wind by her pure love, which triumphs thus over the enticements and temptations of his court (Son_7:12 ff.). He need not utter a word of express consent to her request; she has him completely in her power, and as he has just called himself “a king fettered by her locks” (Son_7:6), she but briefly refers to the fact, that his whole desire is toward her (Son_7:11 b), that “his left arm is under her head, and his right embraces her” (Son_8:3), and then leaves the scene on the arm of her beloved with that exclamation twice before uttered to the daughters of Jerusalem (Son_8:4), and which this time has the force of farewell advice.85
2. The sketch here given of the inner progress of the action in the course of this act departs in several important particulars from the view of the later interpreters; but it appears to us to be the only one which corresponds with the language and the design of the poet. It is principally distinguished from the view of Delitzsch, which approaches it most nearly, by its taking the “little disturbances” and troubles in the life of the newly married pair, which this scholar also affirms, to be more serious and real, and not restricting them for instance barely to the tragic contents of that story of her dream (Son_5:2-7) but letting the dissatisfaction of the chaste bride with the voluptuous conduct of the king and his court come properly forward as the actual cause of the clouded horizon of their married state. Our view too repels the assumption shared by Delitzsch with several recent commentators, but destitute of proof, that the description of Shulamith’s charms contained in Son_7:2 ff. was occasioned by a “country-dance” which she was executing before him and the ladies of the court,—a hypothesis dubious in every point of view, and upon which Shulamith’s character could scarcely be freed from moral taint (for the dance in question, the “dance of Mahanaim” can scarcely be conceived of as other than an unchaste pantomime); and from this it would be but a single step to the notion of Renan that Solomon in this passage describes the charms of a danseuse of the harem, or to the similar one of Hitzig, that the king is here “cooing round a concubine.” Finally our view differs in one point at least from that of Delitzsch in respect to the division into scenes, inasmuch as it rejects the opening of a new scene or even act after Son_6:9 (comp. in loc., as well as the Introduction, § 2, Rem. 2), and consequently takes the whole to be one act with three scenes, of which the first extends to Son_6:3; the second to Son_7:6; and the third from that to Son_8:4. Against the assumption of a point of division after Son_7:6 it has often indeed been urged (see e.g.Ew., Hitz., Weissb., and Hengstenb. too) that the passage Son_7:2-10 forms a continuous description of the beauties of the beloved, beginning with her feet and ending with her nose and palate. But with the more general exclamation Son_7:7, “How fair and how delightful art thou, O Love, among the joys!” this description evidently assumes an entirely different character from that it had before in Son_5:2-6, where the individual members are enumerated very much as had been done previously (Son_4:1-3 and Son_6:5-7) only in inverted order, and certain comparisons are instituted with them. And what Shulamith says to her lover (Son_7:10 ff.) in the closest connection with the second description (or rather interrupting it and proceeding of her own motion), is of such a nature that it can scarcely be conceived of as spoken in the presence of the “daughters of Jerusalem,” who had been present before. On which account Delitzsch’s assumption that a new scene begins with Son_7:7, does not in fact deserve so unceremonious an epithet as that of “purely gratuitous,” which Hitzig bestows upon it. The assumption of Hitz., Böttcher, Ren. and Hengstenberg that a new scene does not begin until Son_7:12, might with equal propriety be denominated gratuitous; and so might many other modes of division which differ from ours, e.g., that followed by Ewald, Döpke, Böttcher, Hitz., Hengstenb., etc., and in general by most of the recent writers according to which a new scene opens with Son_7:2; that of Vaih. and others (particularly the older writers) which begins this new scene with Son_7:1; the assertion of Ewald that Son_6:10 to Son_7:1 is a dialogue between the ladies of the court and Shulamith which is repeated by Solomon, etc. The question as to the beginning and end of the scenes in this act moreover appears to be of little consequence, inasmuch as the locality of the action, as has been before shown, does not change.86 The only matters involved are 1) an entrance at Son_6:4 of Solomon, who had not been present before and 2) an exit or retirement of the chorus in the neighborhood of Son_7:6, or Son_7:11. And this retirement of the chorus is furthermore, as is shown by the epiphonema Son_8:4, probably not to be conceived of as a total disappearance but simply as a withdrawal to the background, as toward the end of Act first (see above, p. 62).
3. Scene first. a.Shulamith’s story of her dream,Son_5:2-8.—This like the similar passage Son_3:1-5 must be a dream, which Shulamith had had shortly before, and which she now relates as indicative of the state of her mind. In opposition to the opinion that Shulamith is relating a real outward occurrence (Döpke, Hahn, Weissb., etc.) may be urged both the analogy of that prior passage and that such an affair is inconceivable in the history of Solomon’s love to Shulamith. It would have conflicted with decorum for that, which is narrated in vs. 2–5, to have actually taken place; and for the favorite of the king to have been beaten and robbed by the city night watch as is related Son_5:7, would form the non plus ultra of historical improbability. Besides the visionary character of the experience described is indicated not only by the introductory words, when correctly explained, “I was sleeping but my heart was waking,” but also by several characteristic particulars, as Son_5:3; Son_5:6.
Son_5:2. I was sleeping but my heart was waking.—Hitzig adduces a striking parallel to the thought that in a dream the heart or spirit is awake, while the rest of the person sleeps, from Cic. de divin. I. Song 30: “jacet corpus dormientis ut mortui, viget antem et vivit animus.”Weissbagh’s objections (p. 211) to this parallel as inadmissible amount to nothing. Comp. F. Splittgerber, Schlaf und Tod, nebst den damit zusammenhängenden Erscheinungen des Seelenlebens (Halle, 1866), p. 37 ff., espec. p. Song 43: “The soul is still in the body during sleep, though freer from it than in the state of wakefulness. It is in a condition of inner self-collection and concentration in order that it may afterwards operate with the greater force upon the course of things around it in its particular sphere of life.” And p. 71, “The soul sinks down in sleep to its innermost life-hearth, and loses itself there in that potential self-consciousness, which forms the proper essential quality of our spirits;—whilst in dreams it lifts itself to a comparatively higher region, that of the dawning consciousness, as it were, a region which stands considerably nearer the surface of the outward life and the daily consciousness, which moves upon it, and whose images therefore leave behind more impressive traces in our memory, which extend into our waking moments.” Hence Göschel not incorrectly remarks: “If sleep is to be conceived of as depression, (καταφορά), dreaming is elevation (αναφορά).” From this statement also it further appears why the view maintained by Grot. and Döpke, that אני ישׁנה ולבי ער denotes a condition midway between sleep and wakefulness, a semi-sleep, is superfluous; an opinion by the way, which has the meaning of the words against it, for “I slept” is not the same thing as “I was half asleep.” The heart stands here in its customary O. Test. sense of the centre and organ of the entire life of the soul, not barely for the intellectual faculties of the soul, the region of thought, as Hitzig maintains. Comp. further on Pro_2:10 (in this commentary.)—Hark, my beloved is knocking: Open to me, my sister, my dear, my dove, my perfect. Compared with the similar passage Son_2:8 this fond quadruple address shows a considerable advance in the relation between the loving pair. The predicate “my fair one,” which there stands with “my dear” is here wholly wanting, and is supplied by the more intimate “my sister,” which since Shulamith’s marriage had become the common pet name, by which Solomon called her (see Son_4:9-10; Son_4:12, Son_5:1). He had it is true already said “my dove” to her before their nuptials (Son_2:14, comp. again Son_6:9); but “my perfect” is an entirely new appellation (comp. likewise again Son_6:9), which it is likely was first adopted after their marriage, and by which Solomon probably designed to express her innocence and purity (תַמָּה perfect, integra) in contrast with the character of his other wives, who were not so perfect and pure. For he can scarcely have employed this appellation unmeaningly, as “my angel” among us (vs.Döpke and Hitz.), [nor can it mean as Thrupp alleges “mine perfectly or entirely.”]—For my head is filled with dew, my locks with drops of the night. The copiousness of the nightly fall of dew in Palestine is attested also by the well-known history of Gideon’s fleece, Jdg_6:38; comp. also Psa_110:3; 2Sa_17:12; Mic_5:6; Bar_2:25. That Shulamith sees her lover come to her window dripping with the dew of the night, and chilly too in consequence, might seem to imply that she thought of him as a shepherd, who as ἀγραυλῶν “abiding in the field” (Luk_2:8) had had to endure wet and cold, and hence had sought shelter in her dwelling. But to explain that representation it is sufficient to assume that the first half of her dream (Son_5:2-4) transports her back to her home, or in other words that now in her dream, as she had done before when awake (see Son_1:7; Son_2:16; Son_4:6) she transfers her lover without more ado from the sphere of royalty to that of a shepherd’s life. That in the latter half of her dream (Son_5:6-7) she thinks of him again as living in the city, and herself too as wandering about in the city looking for him, is a feature of the most delicate psychological truth, which has its analogue in the story of her previous dream, Son_3:1-4.
Son_5:3. I have taken off my dress.כֻּתָּנְתִּי lit., “my tunic, my under garment.” She here too thinks herself back again in her former humble circumstances, where she commonly wore nothing but a tunic, χιτών (comp. Exo_22:25 f.; 2Sa_13:18, also Mar_6:9,) and consequently in the night was entirely unclothed with the exception of the warm covering or upper garment (שִׂמְלָה, Ex. ibid., Gen_9:23; Deu_22:17) under which she slept.—I have washed my feet: how shall I soil them? This is again another particular referring back to her former scanty mode of life in the country. She did not then wear the shoes, which since her elevation to be a prince’s daughter (Son_7:2) she was now obliged to wear: on the contrary she ordinarily went barefoot in the house and in its immediate vicinity, except in long walks in the country when she wore sandals, (comp. Amo_2:6; Amo_8:6; Deu_29:4; Jos_9:5). Hence the feet washed before going to bed might easily get dirty again on the floor of the house. The soiling of the feet is in the religious and ethical region a symbol of moral contamination from the petty transgressions of every-day life (Joh_13:10); and in the figurative language of dreams it is a well-known symbol of moral defilement reproved by the conscience and accompanied with shame, comp. (Schubert, Symbolik des Traums, 3d edit. p. 13, Splittberger, ibid. p. 128 ff.87). It is therefore from going out to her lover, this symbol of more intimate and enduring intercourse with him, that she apprehends the soiling of her feet. Hence the objections which she makes to complying with his request, and the cold, almost indifferent, if not exactly “rude” (Del.) tone of her answer.88
Son_5:4. My beloved extended his hand through the window.מִן־הַחוֹר lit., from the hole,89i.e., through the latticed window (for that is certainly what is intended here, as appears from Son_2:9, not a mere opening in the wall as Hitz. supposes) and from it toward me.90This gesture of extending (שׁלח) the hand in does not signify his intention to climb in through the window (Hitz.), nor his desire to gain access by forcibly breaking a hole through the wall (Hengstenberg after Eze_8:7-8) [so Wordsworth], but is rather the expression of an urgent request to be admitted. The customary gesture of a petitioner is, it is true that of spreading forth his hands פָּרַשׂ כַּפָּיו (Exo_9:29-31, etc.) But this could not be done in the present instance on account of the smallness of the window and the darkness of the night, and would besides have been unsuitable in relation to his beloved, for everywhere else it appears only as a usage in prayer. He must here, therefore, in craving admission adopt a gesture, which would at the same time express his longing to be united with his beloved (comp. Del. and Weissb. in loc.)—And I was inwardly excited over him; lit., “my bowels91 were agitated, sounded over him”—which according to Jer_31:20; Isa_16:11; Isa_63:15 is equivalent to “I felt a painful sympathy for him.” This was of course because she had let him stand out in the wet and cold. According to the reading עָלַי (so the so-called Erfurt Ms., see de Rossiin loc.) the feeling expressed would be regret instead of pity: “my bowels were agitated on me” (i.e. in me, or over me, on my account—comp. Hitz. and Ew. in loc.) But this slenderly attested reading appears to have crept into the text from Ps. 42:6, 12, and for this reason to deserve no attention.
Son_5:5. Up I rose to open to my beloved.אֲנִי stands after קַמְתִּי without special emphasis, according to the more diffuse style of speaking among the people. So Hitz. no doubt correctly, whilst Weissb., is certainly far astray in asserting that Shulamith means by this אֲנִי to emphasize “her entire person in contrast with any particular parts.”92And my hands dropped with myrrh and my fingers with liquid myrrh upon the handle of the bolt. That is to say, as my hands touched the handle of the bolt (or lock on the door of the house) in order to shove it back and open it, they dropped, etc.עַל כַּפּוֹת הַמַּנְעוּל, whose genuineness Meier suspects without any reason, plainly shows that the dropping of myrrh did not proceed from Shulamith’s anointing herself, as she rose and dressed, (as Magn. and Weissb. imagine) [so too Burrowes], but from the fact that her lover had taken hold of the door on the outside with profusely anointed hands, and so had communicated the fluid unguent of myrrh to the bolt inside likewise.93 This might have resulted from the unguent flowing in from the outer lock through the keyhole (Hitz.), or some drops of myrrh from the hand of her lover inserted through the hole above the door, might have trickled down upon the inner lock, which was directly beneath (Del). Too accurate an explanation of the affair seems inadmissible from the indefinite dreamlike character of the whole narrative. But at any rate an anointing of the outer lock of the door by the lover on purpose is not to be thought of (with Less., Döpke, Ew., Vaih., etc.) because though classic parallels94 may be adduced for this “silent homage of love,” none can be brought from oriental antiquity.—מוֹר עוֹבֵר is not “overflowing myrrh,”95i.e., dealt out in copious abundance (Ew.), but myrrh exuding or flowing out of itself in contrast with that which is solidified and gum-like, σμύρνα στακτή in contrast with σμ. πλαστή (Theophr. Hist. Plant. 9, 4); comp. מרֹ דְּרוֹרExo_30:23, as well as above on Son_1:13.
Son_5:6. I opened to my beloved, comp. on 5a.—And my beloved had turned away, was gone. My soul failed when he spoke. That is, before, when he was speaking to me through the window (Son_5:2; Son_5:4), my breath for-sook me, my soul almost went out of me.96 It is consequently a supplementary remark, whose principal verb, however, is not necessarily to be taken as a pluperfect (vs. Döpke).—I sought him but I did not find him; I called him but he did not answer me. With the first of these lines comp. Son_3:2 b; with both together Pro_1:28; Pro_8:17.
Son_5:7. Found me then the watchmen,etc. Comp. Son_3:3, Hitz. correctly: “In her previous dream the watchmen make no reply to her question; here without being questioned they reply by deeds.”—Took my veil off from me.רָדִיד (from רָדַד spread out, disperse, make thin) is according to Isa_3:23 a fine light material thrown over the person like a veil, such as was worn by noble ladies in Jerusalem; comp. Targ. on Gen_24:65; Gen_38:14 where רדידא represents the Heb. צָנִיף.97נָֽשְׂאוּ מֵעָלַי certainly means not a bare “lifting” (Meier), but a forcible tearing off and taking away of this article of dress; else this expression would not form with the preceding “they struck me, wounded me,” the climax, which the poet evidently intends.—The watchmen of the walls; not the subject of the immediately preceding clause (Weissb.), but a repetition of the principal subject which stands at the beginning of the verse. In her complaint she naturally comes back to the ruffians who had done all this to her, the villainous watchmen.—“Watchmen of the walls,” whose functions relate as in this instance to the interior of the city, and who, therefore, were not appointed principally with a view to the exterior circuit walls, occur also Isa_62:6.
Son_5:8. I adjure you,etc. For this expression, as well as the masc. form of address, comp. on Son_2:7.—What shall ye tell him? So correctly Ew., Heiligstedt, Del., Hengstenb. etc.; for although מָה sometimes expresses an earnest negative or prohibition, and might therefore be synonymous with אִם in Son_2:7; Son_3:5, yet the translation “do not tell him that I am sick of love” (Weissb. and others) yields a less natural sense than the one given above, according to which Shulamith seeks to induce her lover to a speedy return by the intelligence of her being sick of love. And in fact she connects a charge of this purport to the daughters of Jerusalem immediately with the narrative of her dream, because this had already evidenced in various ways that she had an almost morbid longing for her lover (see especially Son_5:4, b; Son_5:6-7.)
4. Continuation. b. Shulamith’s description of her lover, Son_5:9-16
Son_5:9. What is thy beloved more than (any other) beloved, thou fairest among women? This question of the daughters of Jerusalem which serves in an admirable way to connect what precedes with the following description of the beauty of her lover, springs from the assumption readily suggested by Son_5:2-4, that Shulamith’s lover was some other than Solomon; an assumption admitted without scruple by the voluptuous ladies of the court, in spite of their knowledge of the fact that Shulamith had shortly before given her hand to the king as her lawful husband. It is therefore a question of real ignorance and curiosity,98 which they here address to Shulamith, not the mere show of a question with the view of leading her to the enthusiastic praise of the king who was well known to the ladies of the court and beloved by them likewise (Del.); and quite as little was it a scornful question (Döpke, Meier) or reproachful (Magn.) or one involving but a gentle reproof (Hitz.)—against these last opinions the words “fairest among women” are decisive.
Son_5:10. My beloved is white and ruddy, distinguished above ten thousand. This general statement precedes the more detailed description of the beauties of her lover, which then follows Son_5:11-15 in ten particulars, at the close of which (Son_5:16) stands another general eulogium.—The aim of the entire description is evidently to depict Solomon, as one who is without blemish from head to foot, as is done 2Sa_14:25-26 in the case of his brother Absalom. A commendation of his fair color, or his good looks in general fitly stands at the head of the description.—צַח lit., “dazzling white;” stronger than לָבָן; an expression which may be applied to a king’s son, but scarcely to a simple young shepherd from the country. His face might very well be called ruddy or brownish (as 1Sa_16:12) but scarcely dazzling white; and it is to the face that the predicate mainly refers, as a comparison with Son_5:14-15 shows.—To white as the fundamental color is added the blooming red. (אָדוֹם) of the cheeks and other parts of the face both here in the case of Solomon and Lam_4:7 in the description of the fair Nazarites of Jerusalem, which reminds one of the passage before us.—“Distinguished above ten thousand,” lit. “from ten thousand, or a myriad” (רְבָבָה), i.e., surpassing an immense number in beauty. Comp. Psa_91:7, as well as the plur. רבבות Psa_3:7; Deu_33:17.—דָּגוּל from דֶּגֶל “standard, banner,” as in Lat. insignis from signum, denotes one that is conspicuous as a standard amidst a host of other men, signalized, distinguished above others, and מִן is again comparative as in Son_5:9. The expression is evidently a military one like נִגְדָּלוֹת Son_6:4; Son_6:10.
Son_5:11. His head is pure gold. The comparison is not directed to the color of the face, as though this was to be represented as a reddish brown (Hitz.), but to the appearance of the head as a whole. From the combined radiance of his fresh and blooming countenance, and of his glossy black hair adorned with a golden crown, it presented to the beholder at a distance the appearance of a figure made of solid gold with a reddish lustre. כֶּתֶם. according to Gesen., Hengstenb., and others, equivalent to that which is hidden, concealed = gold that is treasured up; according to Dietrich and others from כתם “to be solid, dense,” hence massive gold; according to Hitz., Weissb., etc., equivalent to that which is reddish, of red lustre, which latter explanation is favored by Arabic parallels and by the expression נכתם Jer_2:22. The adjective פָּז connected with it designates this gold as carefully refined and purified (comp. the Hoph. part. מוּפָּז with the like sense 1Ki_10:18).—His locks are hill upon hill. תַּלְתַּלִּים may be thus explained with Del., Weissb., etc., by deriving it from תָּלַל to raise, heap up (whence תֵּלִ a hill and תָּלוּל high, Eze_17:22). Commonly “palm branches,” (“flexible or curling palm branches” from תלל in the sense of “wavering or swaying to and fro”); or “pendent, hanging locks” (from תלהsuspendit—so Hengstenb.); or “pendulous clusters of grapes” (as though תלתלּים = זַלְזַלִּיםIsa_18:5—so Hitz.). The comparison reminds us somewhat of that with the flock of goats on Mount Gilead (Son_4:2; Son_6:5); which was also designed to set forth his long curling locks piled one on another.—Black as a raven. Parallels to this simile from Arab, poets, see in Hartmann, Ideal weibl. Schönheit, I. 45 f., comp. Magnus on Son_4:1 (p. 85) and Döpkein loc. The latter adduces particularly two verses of Motanebbi (from J. v. Hammer, p. 11):
“Black as a raven and thick as midnight gloom,
Which of itself, with no hairdresser, curls.”
Son_5:12. His eyes like doves by brooks of water. On the comparison of the eyes with doves comp. Son_1:15. In this case it is not doves in general, but particularly doves sitting “by brooks of water” (lit. water-channels or beds) to which the eyes are likened doubtless in order to represent the lustrous brightness and the moisture of the white of the eye by a figure like that employed Son_7:5, and to place it in fitting contrast with the iris whose varied hues resemble the plumage of the dove.—Bathing in milk, sitting on fulness. A further description of the relation of the “doves” to the “brooks of water,” i.e. of the iris (with the pupil) to the white that surrounds it. These water-brooks here appear to be filled up with milk instead of water, and the doves answering to the irides of both eyes are represented as bathing in this milk and accordingly as “sitting on” or “by fulness”—in which there is an allusion likewise to the convex form of the eye (correctly the Septuag., Vulg., Syr., and after them Hengstenb., Weissbach, etc.). מִלֵּאת, lit. “fulness,” an idea undefined in itself, is here limited by the preceding אפּיקי מים and therefore means “the fulness of the water-courses, that which fills them up” (Weissb.); and the עַל which stands before it, indicates the same sense substantially of sitting by this fulness, as is expressed by the same preposition before אפיקי מים (comp. Psa_1:3). Others take מִלֵּאת in the sense of “setting” as of a gem (comparing מִלֻּאַת אֶבֶןExo_28:17) and hence translate “enthroned in a setting” (Magn.) or “jewels finely set” (Böttch., Del., preceded by Ibn Ezra, Jarch., Rosenm., Winer). But in opposition to this may be urged both the absence of אֶבֶן after the indefinite מלאת, and the prep. עַל instead of which בְּ might rather have been expected. More correctly Cocceius and Döpke, who explain it “over the setting” i.e. “over the edge of the brook,” though still they do violence to the natural meaning of מלאת.
Son_5:13. His cheeks like a bed of balm. The tert. compar. is not barely their delightful fragrance, but likewise the superb growth of beard upon his cheeks. Shulamith would scarcely have compared beardless cheeks with a bed of balm, i.e. a garden plot covered with plants. That she likens the two cheeks to but one bed may be explained from the fact that the beard, which likewise surrounds the chin and lips, unites them into one whole, which like the borders in many gardens has its two parallel sides (comp. Hitzig). The punctuation עֲרוּגתֹ, which the ancient versions seem to have followed (e. g, Vulg. “sicut areolæ aromatum”) and which Weissb. still prefers, accordingly appears to be less suitable than the sing. עֲרוּגַת here retained by the Masorites; whilst the plur. עֲרוּגוֹת is unquestionably the true reading in Son_6:2.—Towers of spice plants. The expression מִגְדְּלוֹת מֶרְקָחִים is doubtless so to be understood, as explanatory apposition to עֲרוּגַת הַבּשֶֹׁם and the bed of balm is accordingly to be conceived of as a plot embracing several “towers” or pyramidal elevations of aromatic herbs, by which the rich luxuriance of his beard and perhaps also its fine curly appearance is most fitly set forth (Ew., Delitzsch, Hengstenb., etc.). We can see no ground for the scruples, which are alleged to stand in the way of this explanation, or why we must with J. Cappellus suppose a reference to “boxes of unguents” (pyxides unguentorum) or with Hitzig, Friedr., Weissb., follow the Septuag. (φύουσαι μυρεψικά) in reading the part. מְגַדְּלוֹת. The fem. plur. מִגְדְּלוֹת from מִגְדָּל is also attested by Son_8:10. The custom of raising fragrant plants on mounds of earth of a pyramidal or high tower-like shape, receives sufficient confirmation from Son_4:6 (the “mountain of myrrh” and the “hill of frankincense”). And the whole comparison appears to be entirely appropriate, if we but think of the beard on the chin and cheeks of her lover as not merely a soft down (Hitz.) but as a vigorous, finely cultivated and carefully arranged growth of hair. And in this we are justified in precise proportion as we rid ourselves of the notion of a youthful lover of the rank of a shepherd, and keep in view king Solomon in the maturity of middle life as the object of the description before us. Besides the circumstance that they were in the habit of perfuming the beard, as is still done to a considerable extent in the east (see Arvieux, R., p. 52; della Valle, II. 98; Harmer, Beobacht., II. 77, 83; Reiske on Tarafa, p. 46) may have contributed its share to the particular form of the comparison.—His lips lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.Of course it is not white but red lilies, lilies of the color, denoted Son_4:3 by the “crimson thread,” to which the lips of her lover are here likened. The “dropping of liquid myrrh” (comp. on Son_5:3) refers not to the lilies (Syr., Rosenm.) but directly to the lips. It serves to represent the lovely fragrance of the breath, which issues from her lips (comp Son_7:9); for the “loveliness of his speech” (Hengstenb., comp. Targ.) is not mentioned till Song 5:316.
Son_5:14. His hands golden rods. Others, as Coccei., Gesen., (Thesaur. p. 287), Rosenm., Döpke, Vaih., [so Eng. Ver.], take גְּלִילֵי זָהָב to be gold rings, which they refer to the bent or closed hand, with allusion also to the fingernails colored with alhenna as compared with the jewels of the rings. Very arbitrarily, because 1) the curved or hollow hand must necessarily have been denoted by כַף; 2) the proper expression for ring would not have been גָּלִיל but חוֹתָם or טַבַּעַת; 3) מְמֻלָּאִים could no more express the idea of being “set with anything,” than turquoises standing with it could yield a figure even remotely appropriate for yellow-stained finger nails. גָּלִיל is rather roller, cylinder, rod, and the expression “golden rods” is applied primarily to the individual fingers with reference to their reddish lustre and finely rounded shape (comp. Son_5:11 a) and then by synecdoche to the hands consisting of the fingers.99—Encased in turquoises. Whatever precious stone may be intended by תַּרְשִׁישׁ, whether the chrysolite of the ancients (see Septuag.,Exo_28:17; Exo_39:13) which seems to answer to our topaz; or what is now called the turquoise (a light-blue semi-precious stone); or the onyx, which Hitzig proposes (though this was called שֹׁהַםGen_2:12, etc.), it is at all events in bad taste to understand by this encasing of the fingers in costly jewels anything but actual jewel ornaments with which his hands glittered, agreeably to the well-known custom in the ancient East of wearing many rings. (Comp. Winer, Realwörterb., Art., “Ringe” and “Siegelring”). The nails in and of themselves differed too little in color and lustre from the fingers and hands as a whole, to admit of their being compared with precious stones; and staining them with alhenna (comp. on Son_1:14) if practised at all in the time of Solomon, was most likely a custom restricted to women and which could scarcely have been likewise in use amongst men. On מִלֵּא in the sense of “encasing” (lit., to fill in the encasement or enclosure) comp. Exo_28:17; Exo_31:5; Exo_35:33. “Golden rods encased in turquoise” or “with turquoise” are properly such rods filled into the body of jewels here named i.e. surrounded and glittering with them (comp. Weissb. in loc.).—His body a figure of ivory, veiled with sapphires.מֵעָיו here, where the exterior parts of the body only are enumerated, is certainly not “his bowels, his inwards” (Hengstenberg), but “his body,” comp. Son_7:3, as well as Dan_2:32, where מֵעִים also stands as a synonym of בֶּטֶן. It is only the pure white and the smooth appearance of the body, i.e. of the trunk generally, including the breast, thighs, etc., which can be intended by the comparison with an עֵשֶׁת שֵׁן a “figure of ivory” (עֵשֶׁת sing, of עַשְׁתּוֹת [but see Gesen. Lex. s. v.—Tr.] forms, thoughts, Job_12:5), a comparison in which that ivory work of art restored by Solomon according to 1Ki_10:18 may have been before the mind of the speaker. The sapphires veiling the statue are naturally a figure of the dress of sapphire-blue or better still of the dress confined by a splendid girdle studded with sapphires. On the latter assumption the apparent “unsuitableness of the comparison” vanishes, which certainly would have to be admitted (Hitz.) if the sapphire referred to the azure color of the dress. For it would evidently be too far-fetched, with Vaih. to refer the sapphire to the “blue veins appearing through the splendid white skin of the body,” and this would neither comport with the deep blue color of the sapphire or lapis lazuli, nor with the expression “veiled, covered (מְעֻלֶּפֶת) with sapphires.”—There is accordingly an indirect proof of the royal rank and condition of Shulamith’s lover in the representations of this verse likewise, especially in its allusions to the ornaments of precious stones on the hands and about the waist of the person described.
Son_5:15. His legs columns of white marble. The figure of an elegant statue is here continued with little alteration. To understand the שׁוֹקַיִם simply of the lower part of the legs and to assume that Shulamith omits to mention the יְרֵכַיִםi.e. the upper part of the legs from a fine sense of decorum (Hitz.) is inadmissible, because שׁוֹקַיִם according to passages like Pro_26:7; Isa_47:2 appears to include the upper part of the leg, whilst יְרֵכַיִם according to Gen_24:2; Exo_28:42 : Dan_2:32, etc., denotes rather the loins or that part of the body where the legs begin to separate. Further, the mention of the legs and just before of the body could only be regarded as unbecoming or improper by an overstrained prudishness, because the description which is here given avoids all libidinous details and is so strictly general as not even to imply that she had ever seen the parts of the body in question in a nude condition. It merely serves to complete the delineation of her lover, which Shulamith sketches by a gradual descent from head to foot, and moreover is to be laid to the account of the poet rather than to that of Shulamith, who is in every thing else so chaste and delicate in her feelings.—The legs are compared with “white marble” (שֵׁשׁ) principally on account of the lustrous color of their skin, not with reference to their solidity; for an Arabic poet (Amru b Kelth., Moal. 5:18) pictures even the legs of a girl as “pillars of marble and ivory;” and the figure of the marble column is also employed in a like sense by Greek poets and mythographers (comp. Vaih. in loc.). Set on bases of fine gold,viz., on the feet which are here named as the bases or pedestals of the columns (their יְסוֹד) without however going into any further description of them.100His aspect like Lebanon.מַרְאֶה not synonymous with קוֹמָה “stature” (Son_7:8), but denoting his entire appearance, his whole figure and bearing comp. Son_2:14. By this comparison with Lebanon his figure is characterized as majestically tall and impressive, comp. Jer_46:18. There is probably no allusion to the “lordly look” which Lebanon bestows upon his beholders (vs.Rosenm., Magn.), and still less likelihood of a reference to the roots of the mountain penetrating deeply and extending widely in the earth as analogous to the “roots of her lover’s feet.” Job_13:27; Hos_14:6 (vs.Hitz.).—Choice as the cedars; that is, stately and majestic as these giant trees which crown the summit of Lebanon.
Son_5:16. His palate (is) sweets.חֵךְ is not the mouth for kissing (Magn., Böttch.) but the palate as an organ of speech, as in Job_6:30; Job_31:30; Pro_5:3; Pro_8:7. Hitz. correctly: “It is speech which first betrays that the beautiful body described Son_5:10-15 has a soul;” whilst Weissb. in asserting that the palate is here regarded as an organ of breathing like the lips Son_5:13, fails to perceive this advance from the corporeal to the spiritual and creates an unhandsome repetition. On the figure comp. Pro_16:21; Pro_27:9.—And he is altogether precious.כֻּלּוֹ “all of him” combines in one the sum total of the ten corporeal excellencies enumerated in Son_5:11-15 together with the last named endowment of a spiritual nature, and thus completes the portrait of her lover, whereupon there follows the general reference to the preceding description: “This is my beloved, and this my friend, ye daughters of Jerusalem.”
See Son_8:1 for DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL.
Footnotes:
[1][Wicl., Mat.: The voice of the Church.]
[2]The unmistakably close connection of these words with what follows “Hark! my beloved knocking!” gives to both the participles יְשֵׁנָה and עֵר the sense of imperfects. Hitzig correctly says: “The connection makes the two partic. as well as דּוֹכֵּק express the relative past (comp. Jer_38:26; Exo_5:8); and this first part of the verse is therefore=בַּחֲלוֹמִי Gen_41:17.”
[3]Lit. “The sound of my beloved knocking,” etc. Comp. Son_2:8. דּוֹכֵּק is not in apposition to דּוֹדִי, but the predicate, and for this reason is without the article; comp. Gen_3:8 [see Green’s Chrestom., p. 95, on this passage]. Hitzig correctly: “קוֹל is just the knocking, and is known to be קוֹל דּוֹדָהּ by the accompanying words.”
[4][Mat.: Christ to the Church.]
[5][Cov., Mat., Cran., Bish.: darling. Genev., Eng. Ver.: undefiled.]
[6] שֶׁ· before ראשִׁי assigns the reason as אֲשֶׁר Ecc_6:12, or as כִּי Son_2:11.
[7][Mat.: The voice of the spousess.]
[8]The prolonged form אֵיכָכָה instead of אֵיךְ or אֵיכָה serves to make the question more emphatic, like our “How could I. …? How can you ask me to. …?”
[9][Mat.: The voice of the Church speaking of Christ.]
[10][Wicl., Mat.: hole. Genev., Eng. Ver.: hole of the door.]
[11][Genev.: Mine heart was affectioned toward him. Marg. as Eng. Ver.: my bowels were moved.]
[12] חמק cognate with חבק “to embrace” is substantially synonymous with סבב “to turn;” comp. the Hith. in the sense of “turning and forsaking,” Jer_31:22, as well as the substantive חַמּוּקִים “that which is turned or rounded,” Son_7:2 below. “He had turned away” is now strengthened by adding the synonyme עבר to express his total disappearance. Symmachus correctly: ἀπονεν̓σαζ ἀπῆλθε, and still better the Vulg.: “at ille declinaverat atque transierat;” for the pluperfect sense of the verbs is demanded by the context.
[13]Comp. Gen_42:8 : יָצָא לֵב. [Cov., Mat.: Now like as aforetime, when he spake, my heart could not refrain. Wicl., Dow.: melted. Burrowes: sunk in consequence of what he had said. Noyes, better: I was not in my senses while he spake.]
[14]Others read instead of בְּדַבְּרוֹ, בְּדָבְרוֹ and either explain this from the Arabic as equivalent to בְּעָבְרוֹ “at his going away, at his departure” (Ew., etc.) or (comparing the Arab. dabra אַחֲרֵי “behind him,” (Hitz.) with which Umbreit’s reference of בְּדַֹבְּרוֹ to a verb דִּבֶּר “to follow” (“I went out to follow him”) substantially agrees. But all these explanations, as well as that of Weissbach, according to which we should read בִּדְכָרוֹ “on his account, for his sake,” lack the requisite confirmation in point of language.
[15][Mat.: The Church complaineth of her persecutors.]
[16][Wicl.: mantle. Cov., Mat.: garment. Cran., Bish.: kerchief. Dow.: cloak.]
[17][Mat.: The spousess speaketh to her companions.]
[18][Wicl.: The voice of friends saith to the Church. Which is thy lemman (lover) of the loved? Mat.: The voice of the Synagogue. Who is thy love above other lovers—or what can thy love do more than other loves?]
[19] מִדּוֹד beyond any one who is a beloved, i.e., more excellent than any other. דּוֹד here simply states the idea in a general form, and מִן is comparative, expressing the superiority of one thing above another, as in 10 b.
[20][Wicl.: The voice of the Church of Christ saith to the friends. Mat.: The Church answering of Christ.]
[21][Wicl.: as bunches of palms. Dow.: as the branches of palm trees. Genev.: curled. Eng. Ver.: bushy. Thrupp in imitation of the reduplicated form in Hebrew: flow flowingly.]
[22][Cov., Mat.: brown as the evening.]
[23][Cov., Mat.: remaining in a plenteous place. Cran., Bish.: set like pearls in gold. Genev.: remain by the full vessels. Dow.: sit beside the most full streams. Eng. Ver.: fitly set; Marg.: sitting in fullness, that is, fitly placed and set as a precious stone in the foil of a ring.]
[24][Cov., Mat., Cran., Bish.: His cheeks are like a garden bed wherein the apothecaries plant all manner of sweet things.]
[25][Cov., Mat.: His hands are full of gold rings and precious stones; his body is like the pure ivory, decked over with sapphires. Cran., Bish.: his hands are like gold rings having enclosed the pleasant stone of Tharsis. Dow.: his hands wrought round of gold, full of hyacinths. Genev.: his hands as rings of gold set with the chrysolite.]
[26] בָּחוּר “chosen, excellent” (not “young man,” as Targ., Magn., Ew., Böttch. have it) is evidently intended to indicate the pre-eminence of the cedars above all other trees, their surpassing height and stately form. Comp. דָּגוּל Son_5:10 above, which is substantially synonymous, as well as the expressions מִבְחַר אֲרָזִים Jer_22:7, and מִבְחוֹר בְּרשִׁים (together with קוֹמַת אֲרָזִים) 2Ki_19:23. This word moreover belongs to מַרְאֵהוּ as its predicate; for it is too remote to refer it to the suffix attached to this word, or to a new subject derived from it (Hitz.).
[27][Cov., Mat., Dow.: his throat. Cran., Bish.: the words of his mouth. Genev., Eng. Ver.: his mouth; Marg.: palate.]
[28]On the plur. מַמְתַּקִּים “sweetnesses” see Ew. Lehrb. § 179, a [Green’s Heb. Gram. § 201, 1, a and c].
[29] מַחֲמַדִּים lit. “preciousnesses, desirable things;” comp. Joel 4:5; Hos_9:16; 2Ch_36:19.
[30]On the repeated זֶה comp. Gen_3:15.
[31][Wicl.: The voice of holy souls, of the church. Mat.: The voice of the synagogue speaking to the church.]
[32][Wicl., Mat.: The voice of the church.]
[33]In regard to עֲרוּגוֹת בֶּשֹׁם comp. on Son_5:13 above.
[34][Cov., Mat., Cran., Bish.: that he may refresh himself.]
[35][Thrupp: Note in the Hebrew of this verse not only the rhyme between בגנים and שושנים, but also the resemblance in sound between לערוגות and לרעות.Cov., Mat.: flowers. Cran.: roses.]
[36][Wicl., Mat.: The voice of Christ to the church. Wicl.: Fair thou art, my love, sweet and fair as Jerusalem. Cov., Mat.: Thou art pleasant, O my love, even as loveliness itself; thou art fair as Jerusalem, glorious as an army of men with their banners.]
[37][Good, Percy, Taylor, Thrupp: dazzling.]
[38] נִגְדָּלוֹת lit., provided with a דֶּגֶל banner, gathered about a standard (comp. Num_1:52; Num_2:2; Psa_20:6); not, “distinguished, select,” as Weissb. misled by the affinity between this expression and דָּגוּל Son_5:10 supposes. The fem. נִגְדָּלוֹת is not to be explained by a מַחֲנוֹת understood (Ibn Ezra), but it “expresses the idea of a collective, as in אֹרְחָה and גּוֹלָה” (Hitz.).
[39] Weissb. preposterously: הֵסֵבִּי עֵינִַיךְ מִנֶּגְדִּי is equivalent to “turn thine eyes away from thee to me,” and then the only suitable sense in the second clause must be “thine eyes encourage me.” [So Thrupp: מִנֶּגֶד “opposite, over-against.” The full meaning is “Thou who art standing over against me, bend thou thine eyes so as directly to meet mine.”] Against this excessively artificial and over-refined interpretation of מִנֶּגֶד one single parallel is decisive, Isa_1:16 : הָסִירוּ — מנֶּגֶד עֵינַי “put away—from before mine eyes.”
[40]The Hiph. הרהיכ from רהב “to rage, be violent,” most probably expresses a sense corresponding to the predicate אֲיֻמָּה, consequently not “to encourage, inspire courage,” as in Psa_138:3, but “to assault, violently excite, take by storm.” [Cov., Mat.: make me too proud. Cran., Bish.: have set me on fire. Dow.: make me flee away. Eng. Ver.: overcome me; Marg.: puffed me up. Thrupp.: swell my heart with pride.]
[41]Verbally corresponding with Son_4:2, except in the more special הַקְצוּבוֹת “shorn” instead of the more general expression הָרְחֵלִים “lambs” used here. [This is the meaning of the word in Arabic, but in Heb. it means “ewes, sheep.”]
[42]The numeral אַחַת one, forming a marked contrast with the sixty, eighty, etc., receives its proper limitation from the added הִיא: one she, i.e., she only. [It is better to regard הִיא as the copula like הֵמָּה in Son_6:8. Green’s Heb. Gram. § 258, 2]. That אֲחֹתִי “my sister” which stands with יוֹנָתִי תַמָּתִי “my dove, my perfect” in the parallel passage Son_5:2, can have influenced the selection of אַחַת “one” in this place, is very improbable (vs. Weissb.).
[43] אַחַת הִיא cannot be taken here otherwise than it was before; the predicate is, therefore, wanting after this expression, as well as after the parallel בָּרָה הִיא, and hence the predicate of the preceding clause, viz: “my dove, my perfect” must be supplied here again. The meaning therefore is “only one, she alone is my dove, my darling; she alone of her mother (i.e. her only daughter), she as separated or chosen of her that bare her.” So correctly Weissb. in opposition to Hitz. who takes אַחַת the second time as the predicate and הִיא as subject: “she is the only one of her mother.”
[44]On בָּרָה electa (Vulg.) from ברר “to separate,” comp. Eze_20:38; Jer_23:28. [Thrupp: For the same reason that תמתי lit., “my perfect one” may be rendered “my own one” may כרה, lit. “pure one” be rendered “sole darling.” She is her parent’s “pure one”; and this would in fact be the best rendering, had not the word “pure” in its original sense become somewhat antiquated.]
[45][Mat.: The voice of the Synagogue. Wicl.: Who is she, this that goeth forth as the morrow tide, rising fair as the moon, chosen as the sun? Cov., Mat.: Who is she, this that peepeth out as the morning? fair as the moon, excellent as the sun.]
[46][Good, Moody Stuart and others: dazzling as the stars.]
[47][Wicl.: The voice of the church, of the synagogue, Mat.: Christ to the synagogue. Cov., Mat., Cran.: I went down into the nut-garden to see what grew by the brooks, and to look if the vineyard flourished and if the pomegranates were shot forth.]
[48][Castell., Parkhurst: pruned garden as if אְגֶוֹז were from גָּזַז. Thrupp without authority proposes to substitute הַגּוֹי.]
[49][Mat.: The voice of the synagogue. Cov., Mat.: Then the chariots of the prince of my people made me suddenly afraid. Cran., Bish.: I knew not that my soul had made me the chariot of the people that be under tribute. Dow.: My soul troubled me for the chariots of Aminadab. Genev.: I knew nothing, my soul set me as the chariots of my noble people. Eng. Ver.: My soul made me like the chariots of Ammi-nadib; Marg.: Set me on the chariots of my willing people. Thrupp: “All translations which introduce a preposition before ‘the chariots’—‘on,’ ‘to,’ ‘among,’ ‘on account of,’ etc., are grammatically untenable.” He renders: my soul had made me the chariots of my people the Freewilling.] נַכְּשִׁי שָׂמַתְנִי limits the meaning of the preceding לֹא יָדַעְתִּי, though there is no necessity of supplying כִּי. The relation is rather such that the preceding principal clause is logically subordinated to the limiting and explanatory clause annexed to it, and thus yields some such sense as “without my knowing it, unawares my desire, etc;” comp. Job_9:5, Isa_47:11 as well as Hitz. and Hengstenb. in loc. נַכְּשִׁי—which can neither be the object, nor in apposition with the subject of יָדַעְתִּי—might it is true, have the sense of “I myself” (comp. Hos_9:4; Job_9:21; Psa_3:3, etc.), but as the subject of the verb שָׂמַתְנִי obtains the sense of “desire, longing,” which is attested by Gen_23:8; Job_23:13; 2Ki_9:15, etc.
[50][Wicl.: The voice of the church to the faith of the neophyte. Mat.: The voice of the church calling again the synagogue.]
[51][Wicl.: The voice of Christ to the church, of the synagogue. Mat.: Christ to the synagogue. What pleasure have ye more in the Shulamite than when she danceth among the men of war?]
[52][Wicl., Mat.: The voice of Christ to the church. Mat.: O how pleasant are thy treadings with thy shoes.
[53]For חַמּוּקִים and its root חמק turn, revolve, see on Son_5:6, and for יְרֵכַיִם thighs, on Son_5:15.
[54][Thrupp: Note the homœophony in the Hebrew.] אַגַן הַסַּהַר “bowl of roundness” is of course equivalent to “round bowl,” see Ewald, § 287 f. [Green’s Heb. Gram. § 254, 6, a] The root סהר, as appears from the Samaritan, is synonymous with סחר “to go round, surround;” comp. on the one hand סֹחֵרָה “shield,” Psa_91:14, and on the other hand סֹהַר castle, fortress, tower; also שַׂהֲרוֹן “little moon,” and the Talmudic סָהָר wall, fence.
[55][Wick.: Never needing drink. Con., Mat.: which is never without drink. Dow.: Never wanting cups. E. V.; which wanteth not liquor.]
[56] סוּגָה Aramæism for שׂוּגָה; literally “hedged in lilies.”
[57][Genev.: scarlet. Eng. Ver. Marg.: crimson.]
[58] רְהָטִים elsewhere “channels, water-troughs” are here manifestly the flowing ringlets or locks of her hair, comp. the Lat. coma fluens. [Cov., Mat.: like the king’s purple folden up in plates. Cran.: like purple and like a king going forth with his guards about him. Dow.: as a king’s purple tied to water-pipes. Genev.: the king is tied in the rafters; with the marginal note “he delighteth to come near thee and to be in thy company.” Eng. Ver.: the king is held in the galleries. Wordsworth: the king is bound or tied at the water-troughs, i.e. dispenses grace through the appointed channels.]
[59][Wicl.: Thou most dearworth. Cov., Mat.: my darling. Genev.: O my love.]
[60][Thrupp, who is quite too fond of ingenious emendations: “O daughter of allurements. We may follow the Syriac and Aquila in dividing the בתענגים of our Hebrew text into the two words בת ענגים.”]
[61][Cov., Mat.: like the grapes.]
[62][Wicl.: Christ of the holy cross saith. Mat.: The spouse speaking of the cross.]
[63][Wicl., Dow.: fruits.]
[64][Wicl.: The voice of Christ to the church. Mat.: The spouse to the spousess.]
[65][Wicl.: The smell of thy mouth. Dow.: odor of thy mouth. Cov., Mat.: the smell of thy nostrils. Genev.: the savor of thy nose.]
[66][Wicl., Cov., Mat., Dow.: throat. Cran.: jaws. Bish., Genev, Eng. Ver.: the roof of thy mouth.]
[67][Wicl.: The church saith of Christ,—worthy to my love to drink, to the lips and to the teeth of him to chew. Cov., Mat.: this shall be pure and clear for my love; his lips and teeth shall have their pleasure. Cran,: which goeth straight unto my beloved and bursteth forth by the lips of the ancient elders. Bish.: which is meet for my best beloved, pleasant for his lips and for his teeth to chew. Genev.: which goeth straight to my well-beloved and causeth the lips of the ancient to speak, Dow.: worthy for my beloved to drink and for his lips and his teeth to ruminate. Eng. Ver.: that goeth down Sweetly (Marg. straightly) causing the lips of those that are asleep (Marg. the ancient) to speak, Thrupp: “In so difficult a passage some variations of text must be expected; and for שפּתי ישנים ‘the lips of the sleepers,’ the LXX, Syriac and Aquila apparently concur in reading שפתי ושנים ‘my lips and teeth;’ to which reading the versions of Symmachus and Jerome also lend partial and indirect support. It has, however, the disadvantage of being ungrammatical, the true Hebrew for ‘my lips and teeth’ being שפתי ושני. Moreover, the received text is decidedly upheld by the Targum, and yields a more appropriate meaning.”]
[68]On הוֹלֵךְ לְמֵישָׁרִים lit. “going according to evenness” (in an even, smooth way) comp. the similar הִתְהַלֵךְ בְּמֵישָׁרִים Pro_23:31; also Isa_8:6.
[69]On אֵלַי=עָלַי comp. Pro_29:5; Psa_36:3. [Wicl.: I to my love and to me the turning of him. Dow.: I to my beloved and his turning is towards me. Cov., Mat., Cran.: There will I turn me unto my love, and he shall turn him unto me. Bish.: I am my beloved’s and he shall turn him unto me. Genev.: I am my well-beloved’s (Eng. Ver.: beloved’s) and his desire is toward me. Ginsburg: “It is for me to desire him. עָלַי lit. on me, i. e. it is upon me as a duty, thus 2Sa_18:11; Pro_7:14.”]
[70][Wicl.: The voice of the church to Christ. Mat.: The church speaking to Christ.]
[71]On יָצָא הַשָׂדֶה of going out of the city into the open country comp. also 1Sa_20:6.
[72]“To start early (הִשְׁכִּים) for the vineyards” i. e. to rise early and go to them, a constr. prægnans, comp. Ew. § 282, c. [Green’s Heb. Gram. § 272, 3. Wicl.: early rise we to the vine. Cov., Mat.: in the morning will we rise betimes and go see the vineyard.]
[73]The Piel כִּתַּח is to be taken reflexively, “opened themselves” (Del., Hengstenb., Meier), perhaps also inchoatively, “whether they are opening, are on the point of bursting” (Ew., Heiligst., Vaih. etc.). For סְמָדַד comp. on Son_2:13.
[74]On אֶתֵּן אֶת־דּוֹדַי comp. Pro_29:17. [Wicl. omits. Cov., Mat., Cran. Bish., my breasts.]
[75][Wicl.: the mandrakes give their smell in our gates. All apples new and old, my love, I kept to thee. Cov., Mat.: there shall the mandragoras give their smell beside our doors; there, O my love, have I kept unto thee all manner of fruits both new and old.]
[76][Genev.: All sweet things.]
[77]This last clause cannot be taken as an independent sentence (Döpke, Rosenm., Hengstenb.) for then the verb would have “new fruit” likewise for its object. אֲשֶׁד must be supplied and the resulting relative clause must only be connected with the last predicate יְשֵׁנִים (correctly Hitz.).
[78][Wicl., Mat.: The voice of the patriarchs speaking of Christ. Wicl.: Who to me giveth [Dow. shall give to me] thee my brother sucking the teats [Dow. breasts] of my mother, that I find thee alone without forth [Dow. I may find thee without] and kiss thee. Cov., Mat.: O that I might find thee without and kiss thee, whom I love as my brother, which sucked my mother’s breasts; and that thou wouldst not be offended if I took thee and brought thee, etc. Cran.:—and that thou shouldst not be despised. I will lead thee and bring thee, etc.]
[79]On the conditional clause without אִם, and with nothing to mark the apodosis, comp. Hos_8:12; Pro_24:10; Jdg_11:36.
[80] גַם yet, nevertheless, see Ew. § 341, a, [Gesen. Lex. in verb.]
[81]On בּוּז see Son_7:7 below, Pro_6:30. Instead of לִי me some inferior MSS. read לָךְ thee, which however seems far less appropriate, and has doubtless been repeated here from the close of the preceding verse. All the ancient versions read לִי. [Genev.: they should not despise thee; Marg. me].
[82][Wicl., Dow., Genev.: Thou shalt teach me. Cov., Mat., Cran., Bish.: that thou mightest teach me. Eng. Ver.: who would instruct me.]
[83]This exclamation differs from that in Son_2:6, with which in other respects it agrees verbatim, merely in the omission of לְ after תַּחַת, Just as תַּחַת stands alone also in Son_7:5 b, so likewise in Exo_24:4; Exo_32:19. We have already seen Son_6:3; Son_4:1; Son_7:4, etc. that the poet does not like exact verbal repetitions of formulas before used.
[84][Wicl., Mat.: The voice of Christ.] Repeated with some freedom from Son_2:7; Son_3:5. In place of אִם there, a prohibitory מָה is introduced here (see Ewald, § 325, b, comp. also on Son_5:8 above) [Ainsworth, with more scrupulous adherence to the form of the Hebrew expression; why should ye stir, and why should ye stir up the love.] And by omitting the gazelles and hinds of the field as well as contracting עד שתחכּץ into one word by means of Makkeph, a rhythmical reduction of the whole exclamation to a verse of but two members has been attained.
[85] [That Solomon had given Shulamith any occasion for disquietude, or that her pain at his absence arose from a suspicion of the constancy, warmth or purity of his affection, is the merest figment without the shadow of a foundation in the language of the Song. Solomon is Shulamith’s ideal as she is his. She does not utter one word of complaint to others or of reproach to him. There is nothing to imply that in her most secret thoughts she censures him for an absence which is intolerable to her. As far as there is any blame in the case, she casts it upon her own drowsy sluggishness, which forbore to open to him promptly and grant him the admission that he sought. Even this, however, occurring as it did in a dream, seems to be told not so much in a spirit of self-reproach as to demonstrate that she was “sick of love.” She longs for her beloved every moment, and, sleeping or waking, he is ever in her thoughts, and she is uneasy and restless when he is not by her side. But her confidence is unabated that she is her beloved’s and her beloved is hers, Son_6:3. Her language respecting him is that of affectionate admiration, Son_5:10, etc., and his to her is that of the most tender fondness, Son_6:4, etc. There has been a brief separation, but there is nothing to indicate so much as a momentary estrangement on her part or on his.
The current allegorical interpretations seem here to be at fault in one direction as much as that of Zöckler errs in the other. The image of ideal love presented in the Song should not be marred by the untimely introduction of any thing outside of itself, whether the sins and inconsistencies of the church or of believing souls on the one hand, or the actual historical character of Solomon as learned from Kings and Chronicles on the other. We are not at liberty to put constraint upon the language here employed for the sake of making the bride mirror forth the deficiencies of the Church or of preserving the consistency of Solomon’s character as represented here with all that is recorded of him elsewhere.
The bride supplies an emblem of devoted attachment and faithful love, which is to be set before the Church as the ideal towards which she should tend, and after which she should aspire and struggle, rather than as a picture which has been or is realized in her actual life. It is a bride loving, longing for, delighting in her lord, but conscious of no unfaithfulness on her part and suspecting none on his.
And the bridegroom is equally removed from any charge of inconstancy. The military metaphor of Son_6:4-5, to which Zöckler appeals, is not suggestive of frowns or of displeasure any more than Son_4:4 or the strong language of Son_4:9. It is her incomparable charms, the batteries of beauty and of love which assault him with such resistless energy that he pleads for quarter. Nor is there any foundation for the desire attributed to Shulamith to escape from Solomon’s court or to have him forsake it on account of its presumed excesses. It certainly cannot be deduced from language which simply expresses an exquisite delight in natural objects, and a wish to enjoy them in the company of her beloved, and to possess the opportunity which would thus be afforded for uninterrupted and unrestricted converse. The language of the bride Son_7:11-12 is entirely parallel to Son_2:10-13 in the mouth of her lover. And the indelicacy alleged in Son_7:2 is not in the pure language of the song, nor in the chaste and beautiful emblems employed, but must be wholly charged to the account of mal-interpretation. Commentators of what our author justly terms the profane-erotic class have put their own offensive glosses upon this Song; and some devout and evangelical interpreters have unfortunately made concessions which the facts of the case do not warrant. There is not the slightest taint of impurity or immodesty to he found in any portion of this elegant lyric.—Tr.]
[86][The difficulty of finding a suitable beginning and close for these divisions suggests a doubt of their certainty, or at least of their importance.—Tr.]
[87]A marked instance of this is to be found in the well-known dream of the youthful Ansgar at Corbie, of the broad morass, which prevented him from coming to his mother and other pious women, whom he saw in the company of the blessed virgin on a delightful road, comp. A. Tappehorn, Leben des heil. Ansgar, Apostels Von Dänemark, etc. Munst. 1863, p. 69 f. Rimbert, Vita S. Ansgarii, c. 2, in Pertz, Monum. Germaniæ Tom. II. p. 690.
[88][Burrowes states the true sense much more simply and correctly: “These words mean, that as the bride had retired to rest, she could not put herself to the trouble of arising even to let in the beloved.”]
[89][Not “withdrew his hand from the hole,” a rendering mentioned by Ainsworth, disapproved by Williams, and adopted by Burrowes and Ginsburg.]
[90][Percy: “It was the ancient custom to secure the door of a house by a cross bar or bolt; which at night was fastened with a little button or pin. In the upper part of the door was left a round hole, through which any person from without might thrust his arm, and remove the bar, unless this additional security were superadded.” Thrupp: “The hole is that through which according to the fashion of eastern doors, a person from without thrusts in his hand in order to insert the key and so to open it, see Thomson The Land and the Book, chap. 22”]
[91][Alexander (Comm. on Isa_16:11): “The viscera are evidently mentioned as the seat of the affections. Modern usage would require heart and bosom. Barnes correctly applies to this verse the distinction which philologists have made between the ancient usage of bowels to denote the upper viscera and its modern restriction to the lower viscera, a change which sufficiently accounts for the different associations excited by the same or equivalent expressions then and now.”]
[92][Thrupp: “up I arose.” Literally “I arose.” So too at the beginning of the next verse the literal rendering is simply “I opened.” But in both places the use, contrary to the Hebrew custom of the pronoun אני “I” is emphatic; and seems to indicate an alertness and forwardness, which must in an English rendering be expressed in some other manner.]
[93][Thrupp thinks the myrrh came from the hands of the bridegroom, Wordsworth from those of the bride. Williams: “Commentators in general suppose that the perfume here called liquid myrrh, proceeded from the moisture of his hands, wet with dew; and the compliment in this view is very elegant and beautiful, implying that the fragrance of his body perfumed everything which came in contact with it. If the perfume, however, be referred to the spouse, I think it will imply that she had anointed herself with such luxuriancy that her fingers were still wet with myrrh; and this would partly account for her reluctancy to rise, since indulgence naturally induces sloth.” Good and Patrick strangely imagine that in her haste to reach the door she overturned a vase of fragrance which agreeably to oriental practice she had prepared for her lover.]
[94] Particularly Lucretius, 4:1171:
“At lacrimans exclusus amator limina sæpe
Floribus et sertis operit, postesque superbos
Unguit amaracino et foribus miser oscula figit.”
Comp. also Tibull. I. ii. 14; Athenæ. ed. Casaubon, I. 669.
[95][Good: “Pure or perhaps liquid myrrh, that which weeps or drops from the tree, the most esteemed but most expensive of this class of perfumes.”]
[96][Noyes gives the most satisfactory explanation of this expression: “I was not in my senses; literally, ‘my soul was gone from me.’ The meaning most suited to the connection is, that she acted insanely in not admitting her beloved at his request. It seems to denote that bewilderment of the faculties caused by fear, as in Gen_42:28, or by any other passion; here by the passion of love.” Or rather the bewilderment intended would seem to be that strange want of self possession so common in dreams, in consequence of which a person does precisely the wrong thing, and as the result, finds himself in most embarrassing and trying situations. Westminster Annotations: “My neglect of his speech troubled me when he was gone.” Scott: “Either she now recollected his former most tender and affectionate call which she had resisted; or he spake a reproving word as he withdrew, which filled her with extreme distress.” Thrupp: “My soul failed me for what he had spoken. Here the reference must be to the words uttered by the bridegroom when he first presented himself at the door: for there is no record of his speaking subsequently.” Ginsburg: “When he spoke of it, i.e., of his going away.” Moody Stuart: “My soul failed for his speaking; with mingled desire and fear she listens till her soul faints within her.”]
[97][Thrupp: “It seems to be generally agreed that the word רדיד occurring here, and at Isa_3:23, denotes a wide and thin garment, such as Eastern ladies to the present day throw over all the rest of their dress. The Germans well translate it Schleierkleid, veil-garment.” Good: “To tear away the veil from an Eastern lady is one of the greatest indignities that can be offered to her.”]
[98][Much better Thrupp: “That the dramatic form may be preserved a question is here put by the chorus of the Daughters of Jerusalem in order to furnish occasion for the description which follows.” It is also to he observed that the inquiry is not who he is, as though it implied their ignorance of his person, but what is he. They simply wish to draw from her her estimate of him.—Tr.]
[99][Thrupp: “His hands are folding panels of gold. The word גליל is applied, as we learn from 1Ki_6:34, to the separate portions of a folding door; the doors to the holy of holies consisted of two leaves, each of which in its turn consisted of two halves or folds. There is no passage in which the word denotes a ‘ring;’ nor would this meaning be here so appropriate. The image is that of a door, not necessarily a large door, constructed in four or five separate folds, corresponding to the appearance presented by the hand when the fingers, while kept in contact with each other, are stretched at full length.”]
[100](Burrowes: “These doubtless refer to the beauty of his sandals;” so Good, Taylor, Williams and others. This seems to be the better explanation notwithstanding Ginsburg’s objection: “That it refers to his feet and not to his sandals is evident from Son_5:11; Son_5:14, where the head and the hands, the visible parts of the body, are described as golden; and it is but natural that the feet, the only remaining exposed parts, should also be described as golden.”)
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–16 1. I am come — Hebrew, I am coming.…
1. I am come — Hebrew, I am coming. All these verbs are of present action; I am eating, etc. Here, in the full blaze of her charms, and the exhilaration which her love breathes into his heart, the Beloved finds all that he has described, and his soul is melting in raptures.
O friends — The remainder of this verse — an utterance by the Chorus — is as from the “daughters of Jerusalem,” or the ladies of the court, bidding the happy lovers take full enjoyment of affections so pure and simple. Sad or guilty indeed must be the heart that has no sympathy with tender and faithful love! That is the holy light of the wedding day and the wedding feast —always so joyous, if innocent and sincere — and on which the Countenance that gladdens both earth and heaven beamed at Cana of Galilee. This brief utterance is a gush of natural, beautiful sympathy from women, who, by experience or by instinct, at once appreciate the feelings of lovers.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–16 Ch. Son_5:1. The great question regarding this verse is…
Ch. Son_5:1. The great question regarding this verse is how the perfect tenses in it are to be understood. Some maintain that they must be rigorously taken as perfects; others think that they should be understood in one or other of the modified perfect senses which this tense may have in Heb. Grammatically we may render either, I have come, or I come (cp. Ges. Gr. § 106 i); or lastly I will come, perf. of confidence (Ges. § 106 n). Those who, like Delitzsch, suppose that the marriage has taken place, take the first; Budde, who regards the song as one sung after the marriage has been celebrated, but during the week of festivities, takes the second; those who regard the marriage as still in the future cannot but take the perfs. in the third sense. In that case the words indicate that after what the bride has revealed of her love, the bridegroom feels that the marriage is as good as accomplished.
I have gathered my myrrh with my spice] Rather, I have plucked my myrrh with my balsam.
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eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved] The chief difficulty here is whether dôdhîm, the word translated ‘friends,’ should not be rendered ‘caresses,’ as it has meant hitherto throughout the book, or whether it is to be taken in the sense of ‘beloved friends,’ as its parallelism to rç‘îm would suggest. That dôdhîm may have this latter meaning seems clear, for in many languages the abstract word, ‘love,’ is used in a concrete signification. On the whole this rendering beloved friends seems the best here. Siegfried seeks to establish a distinction between dôdhîm written defectively (רדים), and the same word written fully (רֹודים), the former being used, he says, only of caresses, the latter of friends, quoting König, Lehrgeb. vol. 11. 2, 262 b. He translates, “Eat ye too, O companions, and intoxicate yourselves, O friends,” and says that the clause would mean in prose, ‘do ye marry also.’ But in that case some way of emphasising the ye would have been expected. It seems preferable to understand the words of an invitation to his friends to come to the marriage feast he has spoken of as being as good as made (Ewald).
drink abundantly] That the bridegroom should invite them to drink to satiety is in accord with what would appear to have been the custom, viz. to shew sympathy at such a feast by departing from the habitual abstemiousness of the East in regard to wine. Cp. Joh_2:10, the marriage at Cana of Galilee. That shâkhar may mean merely to drink to satiety, not to drunkenness, is proved by Hag_1:6, “Ye eat, but ye have not enough, ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink”; where lìsŏbhâh is parallel to lìshokhrâh. Some prefer to take the last clause as an address by the daughters of Jerusalem (Ginsburg), or by the poet to the young pair (Hitzig).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 (1) I am come into my garden.—This continues the…
V.
(1) I am come into my garden.—This continues the same figure, and under it describes once more the complete union of the wedded pair. The only difficulty lies in the invitation, “Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved” (Marg., and be drunken with loves). Some suppose an invitation to an actual marriage feast; and if sung as an epithalamium, the song might have this double intention. But the margin, “be drunken with loves,” suggests the right interpretation. The poet, it has been already said (Note, Son_2:7), loves to invoke the sympathy of others with his joys, and the following lines of Shelley reproduce the very feeling of this passage. Here, as throughout the poem, it is the “new strong wine of love,” and not the fruit of the grape, which is desired and drunk.
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“Thou art the wine, whose drunkenness is all
We can desire, O Love! and happy souls,
Ere from thy vine the leaves of autumn fall,
Catch thee and feed, from thine o’erflowing bowls,
Thousands who thirst for thy ambrosial dew.”
Prince Athanase.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 16 Ver. 2-ch. Son_3:1-4; but the difference is very clear.…
Ver. 2-ch. Son_3:1-4; but the difference is very clear. In the former case the lover is represented as dismissed for a season, and then the relenting heart of the maiden sought after him and found him. In this case he "stands at the door and knocks," coming in the night; and the maiden rises to open, but finds him gone, and so is drawn after him. The second dream is much more vivid and elaborate, and seems to be an imitation and enlargement of the other, being introduced apparently more for the sake of dwelling on the attractions of the beloved one and his preciousness in the eyes of the maiden than in self-reproach. Is it not possible that the poem originally concluded at Son_5:1 with the marriage, and that the whole of the latter half was an amplification, either by Solomon himself, the author of the first half, or by some one who has entered into the spirit of the song? This would explain the apparent repetition, with the variations. But, at all events, the second part certainly is more from the standpoint of married life than the first. Hence the bride speaks at great length, which she does not in the earlier portion. Delitzsch thinks that this second love dream is intended to represent what occurred in early married life; but there are two objections to thatfirst, that the place is evidently a country residence; and secondly, that such an occurrence is unsuitable to the conditions of a royal bride. It is much more natural to suppose that the bride is recalling what occurred in her dream when the lover, having been sent away until the evening, as on the former occasion, returned, and in the night knocked at the door. "My heart waked" is the same as "My mind was active." The "heart" in Hebrew is the inner man, both intellect and feeling. "I was asleep, but I was thinking" (cf. Cicero, "De Divinatione," 1:30). The lover has come off a long journey over the mountains, and arrives in the night time. The terms with which he appeals to his beloved are significant, denoting
(1) equal rankmy sister;
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(2) free choicemy love;
(3) purity, simplicity, and lovelinessmy dove;
(4) entire devotion, undoubting trustmy undefiled. Tammanthi, "my perfection," as Arabic tam, teim, "one devoted to another." as a servant.
Similar passages are quoted from heathen love poetry, as Anacreon, 3:10; Propertius, 1:16-23; Ovid, "Amor.," 3:19, 21. The simple meaning of the dream is that she is full of love by night and by day. She dreamed that she was back in her old country home, and that her lover visited her like a shepherd; and she tells how she sought him, to show how she loved him. When we are united to the Saviour with the bonds of a pledged affection, we lose the sense of self-reproach in the delight of fellowship, and can even speak of our own slowness and backwardness only to magnify his grace. We delight to acknowledge that it was his knocking that led us to seek after him, although we had to struggle with the dull heart; and it was not until it was moved by his approach, by his moving towards us, that we hastened to find him, and were full of the thought of his desirableness. There are abundant examples of this same interchange of affection in the history of the Church"s revivals and restorations.
Vers. 2-8. The second dream of the bride.
I THE BRIDEGROOM AT THE DOOR.
1. The voice of the beloved. The bridegroom is absent; the bride is alone. There is a temporary separation, something approaching to an estrangement; yet the old love is not lost. The bride is sleeping when she should be awake and watching for the bridegroom"s approach. Yet her heart waketh. She has a dreamy consciousness of what is going on around her; she seems to hear in her dream the voice of her beloved. So the Church sometimes sleeps leaves her first love lapses into something like spiritual apathy; yet her heart waketh. The Lord never leaves himself without a witness. At the worst times of indifference there has always been some dim consciousness of his presence, some faint love for him who loved the Church and gave himself for her. So the soul sometimes sleeps when it is high time to awake, when the night is far spent and the day is at hand. The heavenly Bridegroom will not let us slumber on without a warning. He knocks at the door of our heart. "Behold," he saith, "I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me". (Rev_3:20) The Church of Laodicea was lying wrapped in a deep sleep: the Lord sought to arouse her. So he knocks at the door of our hearts now by his Word, by his ministers, by his chastisements, by the warnings of his Spirit. If we can in truth call him "my Beloved;" if we have really set our love upon him, and given him our heart in answer to his seeking love, we shall hear him. We shall know his voice, recognizing it in judgments and in mercies, in warnings and in consolations. When duty calls us, even if it be, as it will sometimes be, hard and displeasing to flesh and blood, we shall say, "It is the voice of my Beloved." It is the Master"s call; he speaks. The heart waketh to listen. Does he come with stern reproof for indifference and coldness of heart? No; his words are full of tenderness. "Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled." It is the Lord"s great love for the souls of men that produces those utterances of yearning affection. He still calls the bride "my sister," as he had done before the cloud had come upon her love. He still says "my love, my dove," as he said before; and he has a fresh term of endearment, "my undefiled, my perfect one." We know, alas I that we are not undefiled, we are not perfect. ("Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect," says even the great apostle, St. Paul.) But what the Lord would have us to be, what he will make us at the last if we abide in him, that he is graciously pleased to call us now. How those holy words of deep tenderness should excite in us repentance for the past, and earnest effort to become by his grace less unworthy of those most gracious and loving titles! He asks us to open, that he may enter in. He has been wandering in the darkness, and as when he came unto his own there was no room for him in the inn, and as during the days of his earthly ministry he had not where to lay his head, so now he knocks at one heart after another, and heart after heart is closely barred against him. They will not open, that he may enter in and make his abode with them. He comes now to the sister bride of old times, asking her as if for his own sake (such is the unutterable depth of his infinite, self-abasing love), "Open unto me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled." Ah, how can any of those souls of men whom he loved even unto death shut up their hearts against that call of unspeakable affection! He pleads as for himself, as if needing shelter: "My head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night." Alas! the bride, still half asleep, scarcely heeds the bridegroom"s call, does not realize its meaning"For none of the ransom"d ever knew How deep were the waters cross"d; Or how dark was the night that the Lord pass"d through Ere he found his sheep that was lost.
It cost more to redeem our souls than our poor thoughts can comprehend. When we try to realize the Lord"s sufferings, we seem to stand afar off beholding, like the people who came together to that sight of awe, who smote their breasts. (Luk_23:48) The Church pleads those bitter sufferings in her solemn Litany: "By thine agony and bloody sweat, by thy cross and passion, good Lord, deliver us." "Remember, good Lord Jesus," we say in the ancient hymn, "that it was for me thou didst undertake that long, weary journey; in that long search for me thou didst sit faint and exhausted; it was to redeem me that thou didst endure the cross. Let not that toil and labour be in vain, O Lord." But here it is the Lord himself who pleads with us in our hardness; he so longs for our salvation. He bids us remember what he endured for us. It is the expression of his intense yearning love. He would have us comprehend with all saints something of the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of that great love; to return it in our poor way, to open our heart to him, that he may enter in and take that heart to be his own which he bought with the price of his most precious blood.
2. The answer. The bride does not realize the deep, solemn meaning of the bridegroom"s call. She is half asleep still. She lies dreaming in her bed. She makes excuses to herself. And we, alas! far too often do the like when the Lord calls us to work, to deny ourselves for his sake. We slumber on in careless sleep; we forget what he did for us. We do not hear his voice; or, if we hear, we listen dreamily, lying still in spiritual sloth, not thinking that when the Lord calls it is time to bestir ourselves, to be up and doing, to "pass the time of our sojourning here in fear forasmuch as we know that we were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold... but with the precious blood of Christ". (1Pe_1:18) We must not make vain excuses, like those that were bidden in the parable, (Luk_14:18) for the time is short. It is our eternal salvation that is at stake. It is Christ the Son of God who is calling us; and he loved us, and gave himself for us. (Gal_2:20) Alas! the bride, whom the bridegroom loved with so great a love, makes poor excuses in her dream. She will not rise and open till it is too late; she will not take a little trouble for his sake.
3. The repentance. The beloved put his hand through the hole of the door; he sought to open it. The bride"s heart was moved at last by his earnest appeals. "My bowels were moved for him," she says, as she repeats her dream. She thought of her past love for him, of his great love for her, of the hardships he had gone through in seeking her. She wonders how she could have forgotten all this even in a dream; she rose up to open to her beloved. So the soul that has made many excuses, that has slumbered long, that has spent its time as in a dream, forgetting the solemn realities of life, hears at last through the long suffering grace of God listens to the patient call of the heavenly Bridegroom. Then our heart burns within us when we think that he has indeed been talking with us, opening the Scriptures; (Luk_24:32) our bowels are moved for him. We think that it is the Saviour of the world, our Saviour, who is standing without, waiting for us to answer; that the hand with which he seeks to open the door was once pierced through for us, nailed upon the cross for our souls" sake. We listen to his voice"O Jesu, thou art pleading In accents meek and low: "I died for you, my children, And will ye treat me so?" O Lord, with shame and sorrow We open now the door; Dear Saviour, enter, enter, And leave us never more.
The bride opens to her beloved. The bridegroom"s hand had been dipped in oil of myrrh. Some of the unguent remained upon the bolt; it dropped upon the fingers of the bride. It was a token of the bridegroom"s presence. He had gathered his myrrh (ver. 1) from the "garden enclosed" before this passing shadow had fallen upon their love. It may be, too, that we may see in the myrrh a parable of self-denial. It may be regarded as a loving warning left by the bridegroom to teach the bride a necessary lesson. She must not slumber on; it is time to wake and to work. Working for Christ is sometimes like the wine mingled with myrrh; (Mar_15:23) it has a bitter taste to our pampered palate. But if we take the cup which the Lord gives us to drink, we shall find at last that the smell of it is sweet; even as his yoke, hard at first, becomes easy in the discipline of obedience, and his burden, heavy at first, becomes light when he bears it with us. For self-denials meekly borne for him bring us nearer and nearer to him who bore the supreme self-sacrifice of the cross for us; and in his presence there is a depth of sweetness which takes away the bitterness.
4. It is too late. The beloved had withdrawn himself. "My beloved withdrew himself, was gone," she says, in the plaintive wailing of disappointment (there is no conjunction in the original). "My soul went forth," she continues, "as he spake." My soul, my heart, my affections, went forth to him at the sound of his voice. The well known tones aroused the old love. She had once given her heart to him; and now, though in her dream her love seemed to have been chilled, and she seemed to lie heedless, unwilling to rouse herself to exertion, yet now his words at last reached her heart. Her soul went forth to him in response to his calling. Or the Hebrew words may rather mean, as in the Revised Version, "My soul had failed me when he spake." The same words are used in describing the death of Rachel: "It came to pass, as her soul was in departing". (Gen_35:18) His words awoke in her soul the fear lest she should lose him by her coldness and selfish neglect. The thought was like death to her. "Love is strong as death". (Son_8:6) Her soul went forth; it failed her. For the moment she was helpless prostrate as in a death-like swoon. Then she aroused herself. It was time to act, to bestir herself. He was gone; she might lose him forever; and her heart was bound up in him. To lose him was death worse than death. She sought him, but she could not find him; she called him in her dream, but he gave her no answer. The dream of the bride is a parable of the Christian life. The soul sometimes sinks into a state of listlessness and apathy. There is no actual transgression, perhaps no open sin. The evil spirit is not there; the house is empty. (Mat_12:43, Mat_12:44) But the Bridegroom is absent, and love has grown cold. There is no recollection of the absent Lord no regret, no longing for his return. The soul lives on, as it were, in a dream, not realizing the solemn meaning of life, not thinking of the awful future. But God in his gracious mercy will not let us dream away our lives without a warning. He calls us by his blessed Son: "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock." Sometimes, alas! we will not hear; sometimes we listen dreamily, half-conscious, recognizing in a sense the Bridegroom"s voice, but not realizing the solemn, holy meaning of the call; not thinking of his love and of our ingratitude, his promises and our broken vows, what he did for us and what return we have made to him; not thinking of his grace and our responsibility, his longing for our salvation and our fearful danger. That lethargy, that slumber of indifference, creeps over us all from time to time when we have not been watchful when we have neglected our prayers and other blessed means of grace. But the dear Lord seeketh that which is lost until he find it. He "is long suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance". (2Pe_3:9) He comes again and again, calling us, sometimes in the gentle tones of entreating love, sometimes in the sterner language of reproof and chastisement. Sometimes he makes as though he would force his way. He puts his hand in at the hole of the door; he lays the cross upon us; he reminds us of the burden which he bore for us; he teaches us that the cross is the very badge and mark of his chosen that whosoever doth not take up his cross cannot be his disciple. At last we are stiffed in our slumbers. We rise from our sleep. But perhaps we are only half awake, half-hearted. Our will goes back to our old slothful rest. We say, like the sluggard in the Proverbs, "Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep". (Pro_6:10) Then the Lord deals with us as a wise physician of the soul. He would have us feel our weakness, our danger. "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick". (Mat_9:12) He would have us feel our need of him. He withdraws himself; and when we open to him he is gone. He makes as though he would go further, as he dealt with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. (Luk_24:28) Then our soul goes forth to him. It faints within us; we feel how helpless we are without him; we feel that without him life is not worth living; and we try to constrain him, like those two disciples, saying, in their words, "Abide with us; for it is toward evening, and the day is far slant." We seek him in earnest prayer, sometimes with strong crying and tears. But for a time we cannot find him. We call him, but he gives us no answer. It is in love that he thus deals with us, to arouse us, to make us feel the need of exertion, of active effort. He cannot be found without diligent search. The bride said, in relating her first dream, "By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth". (Son_3:1) It is not thus that the soul should seek for Christ, still lying, as it were, upon the bed of spiritual sloth, thinking dreamily of Christ, pleasing itself, perhaps, with the poetry of religion, with the beauty of the Saviour"s life, with the comfort which the Scriptures offer. Religion is not a dream; it is not mere poetry, mere love of beauty; it is a life a life of action and energy a prolonged effort to imitate Christ, to please Christ, to follow Christ"s holy example. The first cry of the really awakened soul is, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?". (Act_9:6) The soul that answers in earnest to the Saviour"s call knows and feels instinctively that God has work for us; that that work must be done even in fear and trembling by his help, who worketh in us both to will and to do. The Lord would have us realize this truth; therefore sometimes he withdraws himself, to make us feel that life is blank without him to make us cry like Job, "Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me; when his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness; as I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle!". (Job_29:2-4) The contrast makes us feel that God was certainly with us then, even if we cannot feel his presence now. Therefore we seek him, even though for a time we cannot find him. It was so with Job for a season. "He hideth himself," he said; "I cannot see him." He trusted God even in the midst of darkness. "But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold". (Job_23:9, Job_23:10) So we must believe in his love even when he seems to hide his face from us and not to listen to our prayers. He seemed long to disregard the supplications of the Syro-Phoenician woman, but at last there came the gracious answer, "O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt.
II THE SEARCH.
1. The bride goes forth in her dream. Again, as in Son_3:2, she goes about the city seeking the beloved; again the watchmen found her. They had not been unfriendly in the first dream, though they were not able to guide her in her search. Now they seemed to treat her with cruelty. They smote her, and wounded her, and took her mantle from her. Difficulties will always arise in our search after Christ sometimes dangers and persecutions: "We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." We may perhaps also see another lesson here. The bride has more trouble now in her search than she had on the former occasion. She has been more blamable. Then she had been for a time listless and slothful; now her sin had been not only sloth, but selfish disobedience. She refused at first to open to the beloved; she did not heed his call; she did not heed the hardships which he had suffered. So it is in the Christian life. To sin against light is very grievous; repeated sin makes repentance each time more difficult. We must be watchful always, as the Saviour bids us: "Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch". (Mar_13:35-37) We must learn the prayer of the child Samuel, "Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth." Each time we refuse to listen the old torpor steals more and more over our souls, our slumber becomes deeper, the difficulty of awakening us becomes greater, and repentance more doubtful, more encompassed with dangers, calling for more exertion of will, more determined effort.
2. The charge. The bride cannot find her beloved. She seeks the help of the chorus of maidens, the daughters of Jerusalem. She adjures them in her eager anxiety, "If ye find my beloved, what will ye tell him? That I am sick of love." She had used the last words once before, (Son_2:5) but in a different connection. Then his banner over her was love; then the joy of his love was almost too great for her; she was sick of love. Now it is her longing for the absent bridegroom which produces the heart sickness which she describes. She fondly thinks that if he only knew her yearning for him he would return; he would forgive all that was past, and bring her again under the banner of his love. So the Christian soul, awakened out of sleep, longs for the Saviour"s presence. She feels that she is sick. She needs the great Physician. Without him all is dark; without him there is no spiritual health, no joy, no hope. She seeks him in earnest prayer. She asks for the intercession of Christian friends; she would have them bring her distress and longing before the throne. "My God, my soul is cast down within me;" "My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God;" "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.
The flesh and spirit.
"I sleep, but my heart waketh." The body sleeping, the heart awake.
I SOMETIMES, AS HERE, BUT ONE OF THESE IS AWAKE.
1. Here it was the spirit.
(1) This fact an argument against materialism, which insists that the spirit is altogether dependent upon the body. Hence that death ends all. But, as here, the body may be weighed down with sleep, but the mind is active; the body is dead, but the mind alive. Surely, therefore, the mind is something more than some special arrangement of the molecules of the brain.
(2) It is well that, if the spirit be willing, the flesh should be weak. As a general rule it is well, for else, unless the wholesome drag of the body were put on, brain workers would not live out half their days.
(3) But it is at times the occasion of much harm. It was so here. It was so to our Lord through his disciples yielding to the sleep that weighed on them. And the flesh is a tyrant which will, if allowed, enslave the spirit. Hence we need to "keep under the body." For:
2. Often it is only the flesh that is awake. This a fearful condition. Cf. St. Jude, "These be sensual, not having the Spirit." Men may, do, sink down into gross animalism. It is horrible as well as disgraceful. It was that which led to the destruction of Sodom, of the Canaanites, etc. It is a dread possibility threatening very many. God keep us therefrom!
II SOMETIMES NEITHER ARE AWAKE. There are many people of whom one would have much more hope if they were a little better or a little worse than they are. They are such as we have just named. They are generally decent people outwardly; they never offend against the conventionalities; they are to be found in all Churches, more"s the pity; for they are but caricatures of the Christian character. They are dull, cold, selfish, hard, and spiritually dead. What is to be done with such? They are the despair of the earnest Christian, who would almost be willing that they should fall were it possible into some miserable sin if so only their present self-content could be shattered and they made to wake up.
III SOMETIMES BOTH ARE AWAKE. This the ideal condition. It is that, and more than that, which is meant by the "Sana mens in corpore sano." For wherever this condition is, the spirit will, as is right, rule the flesh, having it well in hand, causing it like a properly trained dog to come to heel at once at the word of command (Huxley). The body will be the active, faithful servant of the master will, the spirit of the man. And when that spirit is inspired by the Spirit of God, then that is salvation, which means "health." May such health be ours! S.C.
Vers. 2-8. The dream of Gethsemane.
Under the imagery of this dream devout students have seen pictured forth the pathetic facts of the garden in which our Lord was in agony, and his disciples slept. (cf. Mat_26:40-43 and parallels) We have
I THE DISTRESSED SAVIOR. (Ver. 2) He desired his disciples to watch with him. He needed and desired their sympathy and the solace which their watchful love would have given him. His soul was troubled. He was as he who is told of here, and to whom the cold drenching dews and the damp chills of the dreary night had caused much distress, and who therefore asks the aid of her whom he loved. So did Jesus seek the aid of those he loved. He had right to expect it. He said to Peter, "Simon, sleepest thou? thou so loved, so privileged, so loud in thy profession of love to me, so faithfully warned, sleepest thou? And still the like occurs. The Lord looking for the aid of his avowed disciples, distressed by manifold causes, and that aid not forthcoming, though he has such right to expect it. But he too often finds now what he found then
II HIS DISCIPLES ASLEEP. (Ver. 3) So the spouse here, as the disciples there, and as man now, had composed herself to sleep. The repeated calls of him who by voice and knock sought to arouse her failed. And so did the repeated visits of Jesus to his disciples fail. And he finds the same still. The poor excuses of ver. 3 serve well to set forth the excuses of today when he calls on us now to aid and sympathize with him. Who really rouses himself for Christ, and puts forth earnest self-denying endeavour to help his work? No doubt the disciples had their excuses, and Christ then, as now, makes all allowances. But the fact remains the same. Christ wants us, and we are asleep. The sleeper told of in this dream evidently was filled with self-reproach. It can hardly have been otherwise with the disciples, and it is so with us now when in our holier moments the vision of our Lord in all his love for us comes before our hearts. Then we confess, "It is high time to awake out of sleep.
III THE SORROWFUL AWAKENING. The sleeper told of here awoke (ver. 5) to find her beloved gone. And in Gethsemane the disciples awoke at last. In this song (ver. 5) we are told how he had thrust in his hand by the latch hole (see Exposition). But he had withdrawn it, as she whom he had appealed to had not awaked; and, finding this, her heart was touched, and she rose to open to him. And doubtless when the disciples saw the gleam of the lanterns and heard their Lord"s word, "Arise," and the tramp of the armed multitude who had come to arrest him, then their hearts were touched, and. they arose. But it was too late. And like as the sleeper here (ver. 5) did not withhold tokens of her affection she richly perfumed herself, her hands especially, in token thereof as the Oriental manner was so, too, the disciples in their way made plain their love for their Lord. They would have fought for him Peter drew his sword at once had he let them. But the opportunity for real service was gone. The sleeper of this song tells how her heart smote her when her beloved spoke, and we may well believe that it was so when the disciples heard their Lord"s voice. But in both cases it was too late. Who does not know the sorrow that smites the soul when we realize that opportunities of succouring, serving, and making glad the heart of some beloved one have been allowed to pass by us unused, and now cannot be recalled? Oh, if we had only been awake then!
IV THE UNAVAILING SEARCH. (Ver. 6) Cf. Peter"s tears; the sorrow of the disciples. The reproaches of conscience they were the watchmen who met and sternly dealt with her who is told of here, and made her ashamed. Such failures in duty are followed by unavailing regrets and prayers. "Oh that I knew where I might find him!" Conscience, the Word of God, faithful pastors, these are as the watchmen who meet such souls, and scant comfort is or ought to be had from them, but only deserved rebuke and reproach. It is all true. What is told of in this verse must have happened then, does happen now. Our Lord has left us, our joy is gone, we cannot find him, tears and prayers and search seem all in vain.
V THE HELP OF THE HOLY WOMEN. (Ver. 8 and Son_6:1) It was wise of the sleeper, now awake, to solicit help from the friends of her beloved. And in the Gospel narrative it is plain that the holy women who loved and ministered to our Lord when on earth were a great help to his sorrowing disciples. They were last at the cross and first at the sepulchre; they first brought the glad tidings that he was risen. They represent his true Church. And the sorrowing soul cannot do better than seek the sympathy and prayers of those who love the Lord. Restoration often comes by such means. Here is one of their intercessions: "That it may please thee to strengthen such as do stand, to comfort and help the weak hearted, to raise up them that fall, and finally to beat down Satan under our feet." Blessed is he who hath intercessions such as that offered for him. But better still not to need them. S.C.
HOMILIES BY J.D. DAVIES Ver. 2. Languid life.
The experiences of the saints are useful guide posts on the heavenly road. They help by way of counsel, caution, inspiration, comfort, warning. Some experiences recorded serve as lighthouses, some as beacons. A wise pilgrim will not despise any one of them. If a traveller is about to cross Africa from west to east, he will not fail to ask what were the fortunes and experiences of those who have already made that perilous journey. He will learn from their mistakes and their sufferings what to avoid. He will learn from their successes how far he should tread in their footsteps. The journey is not so difficult now as it was to the first adventurer. A similitude this of the heavenly pilgrimage. Others have passed this way before us. We are indebted to them for the record of their checkered fortunes. They tell us how they climbed the hill Difficulty. They tell us how they were overtaken with the foe unwarily. They tell us how they fought, and by what methods they conquered. They tell us how at times spiritual drowsiness crept over them; how they bemoaned their folly; how they aroused themselves afresh. Then we discover that this infirmity is not peculiar to ourselves. We do not deny ourselves the consolation that we really belong to Christ, though we have been foolish enough to sleep in his service. There is blight upon the tree, and a reduction of fruitfulness; nevertheless, the tree has life in its roots. Blemishes are upon me; still I am in Christ.
I HERE IS A STATE OF INSENSIBILITY CONFESSED. "I sleep." It is a figure of speech borrowed from the sensations of the body. Our physical nature needs periodic sleep. But many indolent persons sleep when they do not need it; and it is this needless sleep this ignoble sleep that is here described. Unlike the body, the soul requires no sleep.
1. It is a state of inaction. For the time being sight and hearing are suspended. All bodily sensations are awaiting. The sleeper is unconscious of all that is occurring round about him. Sleep is the brother of death. So, if the soul sleeps, it is a transient death. Our best Friend is near, but we cannot see him. If he speaks, we do not hear his voice. We have no enjoyment of his friendship. The sun of God"s favour may shine upon our path; we do not perceive it. We have no conscious communion with Jesus. We find no nourishment in the sacred Word. The ordinances of the sanctuary have lost their charm. We do not grow in grace. We make no progress heavenward. It is inglorious inaction.
2. It is a blamable condition. We are servants of God, and to sleep is to waste our Master"s time. It is an act of unfaithfulness. The Son of God has entrusted to us the campaign against error and sin; yet, lo! we sleep on the battlefield. Tens of thousands round about us know nothing of God"s salvation; and yet we sleep. Satan is busy ensnaring men in the pitfalls of vice; and yet we sleep. The heathen world is waiting to hear Heaven"s gospel; now and again a voice booms across the sea, "Come over and help us!" yet we sleep. Our own crown is imperilled; yet we sleep. This brief life is slipping from us; the day of service wilt soon terminate; the great assize is close at hand; yet we sleep. Is it not matter for self-condemnation?
3. It is a state of peril. A time of sleep is the time for robbers to do their evil work; and we imperil the heavenly treasures when we slothfully sleep. Our wily adversary lies in wait for our unguarded moments. If he can breathe upon the Church a spirit of slumber, he has gained a great advantage for himself. To lull Christians into sleep is his most successful stratagem. In one of his parables Jesus tells us that "while men slept, the enemy sowed his tares." Saul, the King of Israel, exposed his life to imminent danger when he slept in the cave. If a man is insensible to the deadly paralysis that is creeping over him, he is not far from death. And if we Christians become insensible to our sin, or insensible to our dependence on Christ, or insensible to God"s claims, we are in great danger. What if God should say to us, "They prefer their sleep: let them alone"! Then our sleep would deepen into the collapse of death.
4. Spiritual sleep entails loss. How much of spiritual blessing the eleven lost, when they slept in Gethsemane, no tongue can tell. We lose the approval of a good conscience, and that is a serious loss. We lose the approving smile of Christ, and that is a loss far greater. We lose the vigour of our piety. We lose the freshness of enthusiasm. We lose courage. We lose spiritual enjoyment. We lose self-respect. A sense of shame sweeps over the soul. The temperature of our love has gone down. Instead of pressing forward, we have gone backward. It is a loss immeasurable.
II HERE IS A VERY PROMISING SIGN. "My heart waketh." How true is this record to the facts in ourselves! The heart is the spiritual organ that wakes first. For the heart is the seat of feeling, desire, and affection. The heart must move before the will, and the will before the feet.
1. This language denotes disquietude. The man is neither quite asleep nor quite awake. This is an uncomfortable state. It denotes a divided heart. It is not altogether with Christ nor altogether with the world. We cannot endure the thought of leaving Christ, and so forego the hope of heaven. We like some of the experiences of religion. But then we love self in about an equal proportion. We grasp as much pleasure as we can. Hence this vacillation. This is a great loss of Christ"s friendship; a sin to treat Jesus thus. This self-indulgence now will produce a large fruitage of remorse by and by.
2. It is a good sign that this indecision is recognized. It might have been otherwise. The sin might have been unfelt. Conscience might have been drugged with the opiate of self-confidence. When a Christian perceives his own imperfections, and confesses them, there is manifestly some spiritual life within. His state is not hopeless. God"s Spirit has not withdrawn his activities from that man. If he will diligently follow the light which he has, it will lead him to his true home and rest.
3. This language indicates desire for a better state. The heart is the seat of desire, and, thank God, the heart is awake. If this desire be not overpowered by stronger desires of an evil sort, all will yet be well. This desire, unhindered, will work like leaven, till it has leavened the whole man. It will disturb the man"s peace until it is gratified. This desire is the work of God"s good Spirit; and, if we will only yield to his quickening influence, he will make desire ripen into resolve, and resolve into action. A man"s desires are a gauge of the man"s character. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.
4. It is another good sign when a sleepy Christian recognizes Christ"s voice. "It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh." The bride in our text not merely heard a sound, but she was so far awake as to know that it was her lover"s voice. It is a fact that we hear the voice of one we know, and of one we love, much sooner than we bear the voice of a stranger. A mother will hear the cry of her babe sooner than she will hear the cry of another child. If we hear our Master"s voice, then faith is not asleep. "Faith cometh by hearing." Of all Christ"s sheep this is a sure mark; they hear Christ"s voice. "A stranger will they not follow, for they know not the voice of strangers." We know well that if any one strives to arouse us out of sleep, it will be our best Friend. No one else will take such pains to bless us. Ah! if I hear in my soul a rousing voice, if I am moved to holier aspiration, I instinctively say, "It is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh." Then ought I most gladly to respond, "Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth.
III HERE IS A GRACIOUS CALL. This is the reason why the Christian"s heart is awake: Jesus calls and knocks. A Christian cannot sleep under such an appeal.
1. Christ"s whole Person engages in this call. He not only speaks with his voice; he knocks with his hand. He knocks by the preaching of faithful ministers. He knocks by the counsels of a pious friend. He knocks by his afflictive providences. He knocks by his royal bounties. Every fresh gift is a fresh appeal. He knocks by many a startling event that happens about us. He knocks at the door of memory, at the door of feeling, at the door of conscience, at the door of affection. He tries every door, if so be his kindly errand may succeed. He has too much earnest love for us easily to desist. Such love is born, not on earth, but in heaven.
2. He not only knocks; he speaks. He appeals to our intelligent nature. He will not use force or compulsion. That were unseemly on the part of love. Jesus will use measures equally potent, but of a winsome, spiritual sort. He speaks to the heart of saints in a "still small voice." There is a latent power in his gentleness. When God spake to despondent Elijah in the desert, he did not speak in earthquake, or in thunder, or in whirlwind, but in a soft human voice. No sound breaks on the ear; the message goes straight to the conscience and to the heart. Have we not, in hours of retirement, often heard the music of his voice, gently chiding us for neglect, or sweetly moving us to closer fellowship? We may resist the appeal, but, alas! we increase our guilt; we cheat our souls of joy.
3. He addresses us by the most endearing epithets. "My sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled." Every argument that can move us to a better life he will employ. The whole vocabulary of human speech he will exhaust, to assure us of his interest. He reminds us of our many professions of attachment. He brings to our remembrance our plighted troth. Did we not at one time say that we were his? Have we not pledged ourselves to be faithful over and over again? What an array of perjured vows lie on his book? Can we think of them without self-condemnation?
4. He appeals to us on the ground of his deeds and endurances. "My head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night." It is the pathetic picture of a friend who has been refused customary hospitality, and who has spent the cold night appealing for admission. This is the picture, and the meaning thereof is plain. Jesus Christ has to endure hardship and pain through our self-indulgence and our spiritual stupor. Alas! we shut him out from his own temple. We shut out our best Friend". Alter all that he has done for us, yea, suffered for us, in proof of his strong affection, shall we treat him with cold neglect, with heartless contempt? Shall he be all ardour, and shall we be frigid as an iceberg? Shall his nature be all love, and shall ours be all selfishness? Then we are not like him. Is not this to "crucify our Lord afresh, and put him to open shame"? Surely here is a test of character. He who can hear these gracious appeals unmoved, hath never felt the stirrings of the new life; he hath no part in the covenant of grace. D.
The heart that waketh.
Thus opens the recital of a dream a dream which was the confused expression of deep feelings, of affection, of apprehension, of anxiety. The expression is poetical; the body slumbers, yet the mind and its feelings are not altogether asleep. A slumbering heart is inaccessible to the Divine approach, the Divine appeal, the Divine mercy. It is well when the heart waketh, for the wakeful heart is
I PROMPT TO HEAR THE VOICE OF HEAVEN. The mother awakes at once when the babe cries; the surgeon wakes at once when the bell rings; the nurse wakes at once when the patient asks for medicine or for food. When the heart is awake, the ear hearkens, the eye is ready to unclose, the sleeper is half alert and prepared to rise. The heart that loves the Saviour is prompt to hear any word of his, whether it be a word of encouragement, a word of admonition, a word of command. "Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth," denotes the vigilant attitude, the true preparedness of the soul.
II PROMPT TO RESPOND TO THE LOVE OF CHRIST. The true heart is not wakeful to every call, to every presence, to every appeal. It is mutual love that ensures a heart that waketh. The Christian gives love for love. "We love him, because he first loved us." Hence the very sound of Jesus" name enkindles upon the devout and grateful heart the flame of pure and fervent affection. Nothing that concerns the Lord is indifferent to the Christian; for his heart is awake to every token of the Divine presence, and eager for the spiritual communion which is the privilege of the friends of Jesus.
III WATCHFUL AGAINST THOUGHTS AND PURPOSES OF EVIL. The deep slumber into which the careless may fall is likely to render them a prey to the assaults of the tempter. Christ found his three nearest friends sleeping in the garden whilst he was enduring his bitter conflict. "Watch and pray," was his admonition, "lest ye enter into temptation." As soldiers during a campaign must take rest in sleep, yet, as it were, with one eye and one ear open, so that they may spring up, and fly to arms, if the foe approach them under cover of the darkness; so must the Christian take even his refreshing rest and recreation as upon the alert, and as ready to resist an approaching enemy. Watchfulness and prayer must guard him against surprise. The heart must be ever wakeful. "Keep thy heart with all diligence.
IV READY TO ENGAGE IN ALL REQUIRED SERVICE. The service of the hands, of the lips, alone is unacceptable to our Divine Lord, who desires above all things the devotion and loyalty of the heart. This, if the heart slumbers, cannot be given. But a wakeful heart, being ready to receive impressions, is ready also to obey commands, to summon all the powers of the nature to engage in that service which combines dimity with freedom, and submission with joy. T.
Vers. 2-5. Open to the beloved who knocketh.
This dream, so significant of fervent affection, and so full of tender pathos, is emblematic of the relation between the Divine Saviour and Lord and those whom he approaches in his grace and kindness, to whom he proffers the blessing of his presence and his love.
I THE SUMMONS.
1. Its nature. There is the knock which demands attention, and there is the speech which articulately conveys the appeal. Christ comes to the world, and comes to the heart, with such tokens of Divine authority as demand that heed should be given to his embassage. The supernatural arrests the attention even of the careless and the unspiritual. That in Christianity which is of the nature of portent, the "mighty works" which have been exhibited, summon men to yield their reverent attention to a Divine communication. But the miracle is a "sign." The display of power is revelation of a wisdom, a love, which are deeper and more sacred than itself. The knock that arouses is followed by the speech that instructs, guides, comforts, inspires. Authority is not blind; it accompanies the appeal to the intelligence, to the heart.
2. The danger of neglecting it. To give no heed to the Divine appeal, to sleep on when God himself is calling, this is to despise the Highest, to wrong our own soul, to increase our insensibility and to confirm ourselves in spiritual deadness, and to tempt the departure of the heavenly Visitor.
3. The duty of welcoming and responding to it. This appears both from the dignity of him who knocks, his right to the affection, gratitude, and devotion of the soul; and from the complete dependence of the soul upon his friendship for its highest welfare.
II THE RESPONSE. When Christ "stands at the door and knocks," there is but one thing to do to open wide to him, the Beloved, the door of the heart. This is the true response, and it should be:
1. Glad. His absence is mourned, his presence is desired; his summons, therefore, should be joyfully acknowledged. The heart may well beat strong with gladness, high with hope, when the voice of Jesus is heard; for it is "the voice of the Beloved.
2. Grateful. The picture is one of poetic pathos and beauty. The head of the Beloved is filled with dew, his locks with the drops of the night. How suggestive of what the Saviour has endured for our sake, of his earthly humiliation, of his compassionate sacrifice! The contemplation of Christ"s weakness and weariness, distress and anguish, all endured for us, is enough to awaken the strongest sentiments of gratitude on our part. To whom are we indebted as we are to him? Who has such claims upon our heart"s gratitude and devotion? What language can justly depict the moral debasement of those who are unaffected by a spectacle so touching as that of the Redeemer, the "Man of sorrows," appealing for admission to the nature he died to save and bless?
3. Immediate. Delay is here altogether out of place. The sensitive and responsive nature is forward to exclaim, "Apparitio tua est apertio! see thee is to open to thee!" The hesitation and apologies described in the dream are introduced to show, by suggestion of contrast, how utterly unsuited they are to the circumstances and the occasion.
4. Eager and expectant. "My heart was moved for him; I rose to open to my Beloved." The hope is fulfilled, the prayer is answered, the vision is realized, Christ has come. With him all Divine blessings approach the soul The prospect of his entrance into the spiritual nature is the prospect of a fellowship and intimacy fraught with purest joys and tenderest consolations a fellowship and intimacy which will never fail to bless, and which no power on earth can avail to darken or to close. T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 13, 16 I am come into My garden, My sister, My…
Son_5:1
I am come into My garden, My sister, My spouse.
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The King feasting in His garden
I. The voice of the Master Himself calls us to consider his presence: I am come. He tells us He is come. What I Could He come without our perceiving it? Is it possible? May we be like those whose eyes were holden so that they knew Him not? Is it possible for us to be like Magdalen, seeking Christ, while He is standing very near us? Yes, and we may even be like the disciples who, when they saw Him walking on the water, were afraid, and thought it was a spirit, and cried out, and had need for Him to say, It is I, be not afraid, before they knew who it was! Here is our ignorance, but here is His tenderness. Observe, first, this coming was in answer to prayer. How quickly the spouse was heard! Scarce had the words died away, Let my Beloved come, before she heard Him say, I am come! Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. Now, observe what an unspeakable blessing this is! If the voice had said, I have sent My angel, that would have been a precious boon; but it is not so spoken; the word is, I am come. If you take each word of this remarkable sentence, you will find a meaning. I am come. There is the personal presence of Christ, I am come. There is the certainty that it is so. It is no illusion, no dream, no supposition. I am truly come. This is a solemn as well as a pleasant fact. You who are members of this church, recollect that Jesus is come into the church, that He is now going his rounds among you, and marking your feelings towards Him; He knows to-day who is in fellowship with Him, and who is not; He discerneth between the precious and the vile. I am come into My garden, saith He. Note here the possession which Christ claims in the Church. If it were not His garden, He would not come into it. A church that is not Christs church shall have none of His presence, and a soul that is not Christs has no fellowship with Him. The next word denotes cultivation. I am come into My garden. The Church is a cultivated spot; it did not spring up by chance, it was arranged by Himself, it has been tended by Himself, and the fruits belong to Himself. And then there are the two choice words at the close, by which He speaks of His Church herself rather than of her work. As if He would draw the attention of His people to themselves and to Himself, rather than to their work; He says, My sister, My spouse. There is one name for the garden, but there are two names for herself. The work is His work, the garden is His garden, but see, He wants communion not so much with the work as with the worker, He speaks to the Church herself. He calls her, My sister, My spouse. Spouse has something in it of dearness that is not in the first word, for what can be dearer to the husband than the bride? But then there was a time when the spouse was not dear to the Bridegroom, there was a period perhaps when He did not know her, when there was no relationship between them twain; though they are made of one flesh by marriage, yet they were of different families; and for this cause He adds the dear name of sister, to show an ancient relationship to her, a closeness and nearness by blood, by birth, as well as by betrothal and wedlock. The two words put together make up a confection of inexpressible sweetness.
II. Our Lords satisfaction in His Church. Observe, first, that Christ is delighted with the offerings of His people. He says, I have gathered My myrrh with My spice. We may consider myrrh and spice--sweet perfumes--offered by way of incense to God, as being indicative of the offerings which His people bring to Him. What if I say that prayer is like sweet-smelling myrrh, and that the Beloved has been gathering the myrrh of holy prayer, the bitter myrrh of repenting sighs and cries, in the midst of this church, lo, these many months! No faithful prayer is lost. The groanings of His people are not forgotten, He gathers them as-men gather precious products from a garden which they have tilled with much labour and expense. And then, may not spice represent our praises? for these, as well as prayer, come up as incense before His throne. Praise is pleasant and comely, and most of all so because Jesus accepts it, and says, Whosoever offereth praise glorifieth Me. The Saviours satisfaction is found, next, in His peoples love--I have eaten My honeycomb with My honey. He takes an intense satisfaction in the sweet fruits which He Himself has caused us to produce; notwithstanding every imperfection, He accepts our love, and says, I have eaten My honeycomb with My honey. Turning again to our precious text, we observe that our Lord s satisfaction is compared to drinking as well as eating, and that drinking is of a twofold character. I have drunk My wine. Does he intend by this His joy which is fulfilled in us when our joy is full? Does He mean that, as men go to feasts to make glad their hearts with wine, so He comes to His people to see their joy, and is filled with exultation? Meaneth He not so? Surely He doth. And the milk, may not that mean the Christians common, ordinary life? As milk contains all the constituents of nourishment, may He not mean by this the general life of the Christian? Our Lord takes delight in the graces of our lives. Permit me now to call your attention to those many great little words, which are yet but one--I refer to the word My. Observe, that eight or nine times it is repeated. Here is the reason for the solace which the Bridegroom finds in His Church. If He has gotten anything out of us, He must first have put it in us: if He sees of the travail of His soul, it is because the travail came first. Note well, ye lovers of Jesus, that our Lord in this heavenly verse is fed first. I have eaten, says He, and then He turns to us and says, Eat, O friends. If any of you seek friendship with the Well-beloved, you must commence by preparing Him a feast. Be assured that after yon have so done, your barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail. The way for believers to be fed by Christ is to seek to feed Him; look to His being satisfied, and He will assuredly look to you.
III. We must now remember, that the text contains an invitation. The Beloved says, Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. In the invitation we see the character of the invited guests; they are spoken of as friends. We were once aliens, we are now brought nigh; we were once enemies, we are made servants, but we have advanced from the grade of service (though servants still) into that of friends, henceforth He calls us not servants, but friends, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but all things that He has seen of His Father He has made known unto us. He next calls His people beloved as well as friends. He multiplieth titles, but all His words do not express the full love of His heart. Beloved. Oh, to have this word addressed to us by Christ! It is music! Here, then, you have the character of those who are invited to commune with Christ; He calls His friends and His beloved. The provisions presented to them are of two kinds; they are bidden to eat and to drink. You, who are spiritual, know what the food is, and what the drink is, for you eat His flesh and drink His blood. The incarnation of the Son of God, and the death of Jesus the Saviour, these are the two sacred viands whereon faith is sustained. Note that delightful word, abundantly. Some dainties satiate, and even nauseate when we have too much of them, but no soul ever had too much of the dear love of Christ, no heart did ever complain that His sweetness cloyed. That can never be. Your eating and your drinking may be without stint. Ye cannot impoverish the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth. When ye are satiated with His love, His table shall still be loaded. Your cups may run over, but His flagons will still be brimmed. ]f you are straitened at all you are not straitened in Him, you are straitened in yourselves. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Sunday-school garden
By the garden, here, Jesus means His Church. But the Sunday-school is one of the most important parts of the Church of Christ.
I. Why is the Sunday-school like a garden?
1. The Sunday-school is like a garden because of what is done for it.
(1) The first thing done for a garden is to fence it. These fences are made out of the commandments He has given us in the Bible.
(2) When we have fenced our garden, the next thing to do is to weed it. But you may ask, what are the weeds that grow in Gods garden? Pride is one of these weeds. It is a tall, strong weed, with a glaring, disagreeable flower. Anger is another of these weeds; impatience is another; selfishness is another; idleness is another.
(3) The next thing to be done for it is to improve the soil. Some soil is so very poor that nothing will grow in it. When this is the case, the gardener has many ways of curing it. I will only speak of one. He will have the poor soil taken away, and some good, rich soil put in its place. And this is just what Jesus does to His people. He improves the soil of their hearts by changing it and making it new. Everything that Jesus loves will grow in the soil of the new heart.
(4) Now we are ready to sow the seed, and put in the plants we want to have growing there.
(5) Now it must be watered and cared for. Suppose no rain comes down and no dew distils upon it, will the seed sown there ever spring up and grow? And just in this way Jesus waters and cares for His garden His grace is the rain and dew that soften the soil of our hearts. His Holy Spirit is like the sun that shines on and warms them. Jesus has pipes in His garden to carry the water of tits grace wherever it is needed. The Bible that we read and have explained to us is one of these pipes. And then our blessed Saviour watches carefully over His garden all the time to keep anything from hurting the plants, or from hindering- their growth.
2. But then there is another reason why the Sunday school may be compared to a garden, because of what grows in It. In a garden we expect to find beautiful flowers and delicious fruit. And so in the Sunday-school, which is the garden of Christ, many sweet flowers and fruits are found growing. Every good feeling that we cherish in our hearts is a spiritual flower, and every good deed that we perform in our lives is a spiritual fruit, which Jesus loves to see blooming and ripening in His garden.
II. What does Jesus come into it for?
1. He comes to watch the growth of the plants.
2. He comes to enjoy the beauty of the flowers. No gardener ever took half as much delight in the flowers he is raising as Jesus takes in His. Every Christian child, and every one who is trying to become a Christian, is a flower in the Saviours garden, and nobody can tell how much pleasure Jesus takes in watching them. Oh, who would not wish to be one of the flowers of Jesus?
3. He comes to gather the flowers. You know how many dear children die while they are quite young. But what should we think if we could see them now, as they are blooming and flourishing in the Saviours garden above? (R. Newton, D. D.)
I have gathered My myrrh with My spice.
Love joying in love
1. It is evident that the Lord Jesus is made happy by us. These poetical sentences must mean that He values the graces and works of His people. He gathers their myrrh and spice because He values them; He eats and drinks the honey and the milk because they are pleasant to Him. It is a wonderful thought that the Lord Jesus Christ has joy of us. We cost Him anguish, even unto death, and now He finds a reward in us. This may seem a small thing to an unloving mind, but it may well ravish the heart which adores the Well-beloved.
2. The Lord Jesus will not and cannot be happy by Himself: He will have us share with Him. Note how the words run--I have eaten; Eat, O friends! I have drunk; Drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved! His union with His people is so close that His joy is in them, that their joy may be full. He cannot be alone in His joy. He will not be happy anywhere without us. He will not eat without our eating, and He will not drink without our drinking. Does He not say this in other words in the Revelation--If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me? The inter-communion is complete: the enjoyment is for both. To make our Lord Jesus happy we must be happy also.
3. If we have already enjoyed happy fellowship with Him, the Lord Jesus calls upon us to be still more happy. Though we may say that we have eaten, He will again say, Eat, O friends! He presses you to renew, repeat, and increase your participation with Him. It is true we have drunk out of the chalice of His love; but He again invites us, saying, Drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved! Must it not mean that, though we know the Lord Jesus, we should try to know more of Him, yea, to know all that can be known of that love which passeth knowledge? Oh for grace to appropriate a whole Christ, and all the love, the grace, the glory that is laid up in Him! Does it not also mean--have greater enjoyment of divine things? Partake of them without stint. Do not restrict yourself as though you could go too far in feeding upon the Lord Jesus. Do not be afraid of being too happy in the Lord, or of being too sure of His salvation, or too much devout emotion. Dread not the excitements which come from fellowship with Christ. Do not believe that the love of Jesus can be too powerfully felt in the soul. Permit the full sweep and current of holy joy in the Lord to carry you away: it will be safe to yield to it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 WE have seen how this strange poem mingles fact…
LOVE UNQUENCHABLE
Son_5:1-8
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WE have seen how this strange poem mingles fact and fancy, memory and reverie, in what would be hopeless confusion if we could not detect a common prevailing sentiment and one aim towards which the whole is tending, with all its rapidly shifting scenes and all its perplexing varying movements. The middle of the poem attains a perfect climax of love and rapture. Then we are suddenly transported to an entirely different scene. The Shulammite recites a second dream, which somewhat resembles her former dream, but is more vivid and intense, and ends very painfully. {Son_5:2-7} The circumstances of it will agree most readily with the idea that she is already married to the shepherd. Again it is a dream of the loss of her lover, and of her search for him by night in the streets of Jerusalem. But in the present case he was first close to her, and then he deserted her most unaccountably; and when she went to look for him this time she failed to find him, and met with cruel ill-treatment. In her dream she fancies she hears the bridegroom knocking at her chamber door and calling upon her as his sister, his love, his dove, his undefiled, to open for him. He has just returned from tending his flock in the night, and his hair is wet with the dew. The bride coyly excuses herself, on the plea that she has laid aside her mantle and washed her feet; as though it would vex her to put her feet to the ground again. This is but the playful reluctance of love; for no sooner is her beloved really lost than she undertakes the greatest trouble in the search for him. When he puts in his hand to lift the latch, her heart is moved towards him, and she rises to open the door. On touching the lock she finds it covered with liquid myrrh. It has been ingeniously suggested that we have here a reference to the construction of an eastern lock, with a wooden pin dropped into the bolt, which is intended to be lifted by a key, but which may be raised by a mans finger if he is provided with some viscid substance, such as the ointment here mentioned, to adhere to the pin. The little detail shews that the lover or bridegroom had come with the deliberate intention of entering. How strange, then, that when the bride opens the door he is not to be seen! Why has he fled? The shock of this surprise quite overwhelms the poor girl, and she is on the point of fainting. She looks about for her vanished lover, and calls him by name; but there is no answer. She goes out to seek for him in the streets, and there the watchmen cuff and bruise her, and the sentries on the city walls rudely tear off her veil.
Returning from the distressing recollection of her dream to the present condition of affairs, the sorrowful Shulammite adjures the daughters of Jerusalem to tell her if they have found her love. (Son_5:8) They respond by asking, what is her beloved more than any other beloved? {Son_5:9} This mocking question of the harem women rouses the Shulammite, and affords an opportunity for descanting on the beauty of her love. {Son_5:10-16} He is both fair and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. For this is what he is like: a head splendid as finest gold; massive, curling, raven locks; eyes like doves by water brooks, and looking as though they had been washed in milk-an elaborate image in which the soft iris and the sparkling light on the pupils suggest the picture of the gentle birds brooding on the bank of a flashing stream, and the pure, healthy eyeballs a thought of the whiteness of milk: cheeks fragrant as spices; lips red as lilies (the blood-red anemones); a body like ivory, with blue veins as of sapphire; legs like marble columns on golden bases. The aspect of him is like great Lebanon, splendid as the far-famed cedars; and when he opens his lips his voice is ravishingly sweet. Yes, he is altogether lovely. Such is her beloved, her dearest one.
The mocking ladies ask their victim where then has this paragon gone? {Son_6:1} She would have them understand that he has not been so cruel as really to desert her. It was only in her dream that he treated her with such unaccountable fickleness. The plain fact is that he is away at his work on his far-off farm, feeding his flock, and perhaps gathering a posy of flowers for his bride. (Son_6:2) He is far away, -that sad truth cannot be denied: and yet he is not really lost, for love laughs at time and distance; the poor lonely girl can say still that she is her beloveds and that he is hers. {Son_6:3} The reappearance of this phrase suggests that it is intended to serve as a sort of refrain. Thus it comes in with admirable fitness to balance the other refrain to which reference has been made earlier. In the first refrain the daughters of Jerusalem are besought not to attempt to awaken the Shulammites love for Solomon; this is well balanced by the refrain in which she declares the constancy of the mutual love that exists between herself and the shepherd.
Now Solomon reappears on the scene, and resumes his laudation of the Shulammites beauty. {Son_6:4-7} But there is a marked change in his manner. This most recent capture is quite unlike the sort of girls with whom his harem was stocked from time to time. He had no reverence for any of them; they all considered themselves to be highly honoured by his favour, all adored him with slavish admiration, like that expressed by one of them in the first line of the poem. But he is positively afraid of the Shulammite. She is "terrible as an army with banners." He cannot bear to look at her eyes; he begs her to turn them away from him, for they have overcome him. What is the meaning of this new attitude on the part of the mighty monarch? There is something awful in the simple peasant girl. The purity, the constancy, the cold scorn with which she regards the king, are as humiliating as they are novel in his experience. Yet it is well for him that he is susceptible to their influence. He is greatly injured and corrupted by the manners of a luxurious Oriental court. But he is not a seared profligate. The vision of goodness startles him; then there is a better nature in him, and its slumbering powers are partly roused by this unexpected apparition.
We have now reached a very important point in the poem. It is almost impossible to reconcile this with the theory that Solomon is the one and only lover referred to throughout. But on the "shepherd hypothesis" the position is most significant. The value of constancy in love is not only seen in the steadfast character of one who is sorely tempted to yield to other influences; it is also apparent in the effects on a spectator of so uncongenial a nature as king Solomon. Thus the poet brings out the great idea of his work most vividly. He could not have done so more forcibly than by choosing the court of Solomon for the scene of the trial, and shewing the startling effect of the noble virtue of constancy on the king himself.
Here we are face to face with one of the rescuing influences of life, which may be met in various forms. A true woman, an innocent child, a pure man. coming across the path of one who has permitted himself to slide down towards murky depths, arrests his attention with a painful shock of surprise. The result is a revelation to him, in the light of which he discovers, to his horror, how far he has fallen. It is a sort of incarnate conscience, warning him of the still lower degradation towards which he is sinking. Perhaps it strikes him as a beacon light, shewing the path up to purity and peace; an angel from heaven sent to help him retrace his steps and return to his better self. Few men are so abandoned as never to be visited by some such gleam from higher regions. To many, alas, it comes but as the temporary rift in the clouds through which for one brief moment the blue sky becomes visible even on a wild and stormy day, soon to be lost in deeper darkness. Happy are they who obey its unexpected message.
The concluding words of the passage which opens with Solomons praises of the Shulammite present another of the many difficulties with which the poem abounds. Mention is made of Solomons sixty queens, his eighty concubines, his maidens without number; and then the Shulammite is contrasted with this vast seraglio as "My dove, my undefiled," who is "but one"-"the only one of her mother." {Son_6:8-9} Who is speaking here? If this is a continuation of Solomons speech, as the flow of the verses would suggest, it must mean that the king would set his newest acquisition quite apart from all the ladies of the harem, as his choice and treasured bride. Those who regard Solomon as the lover, think they see here what they call his conversion, that is to say, his turning away from polygamy to monogamy. History knows of no such conversion; and it is hardly likely that a poet of the northern kingdom would go out of his way to whitewash the matrimonial reputation of a sovereign from whom the house of Judah was descended. Besides, the occurrence here represented bears a very dubious character when we consider that all the existing denizens of the harem were to be put aside in favour of a new beauty. It would have been more like a genuine conversion if Solomon had gone back to the love of his youth, and confined his affections to his neglected first wife.
On the shepherd hypothesis it is most natural to attribute the passage to the shepherd himself. But since it is difficult to imagine him present at this scene between Solomon and the Shulammite, it seems that we must fall back on the idealising character of the poem. In this figurative way the true lover expresses his contempt for the monstrous harem at the palace, He is content with this one ewe lamb; nay, she is more to him than all Solomons bevy of beauties; even these ladies of the court are now constrained to praise the noble qualities of his bride.
Solomons expression of awe for the terrible purity and constancy of the Shulammite is repeated, {Son_6:10} and then she tells the story of her capture. {Son_6:11-12} She had gone down to the nut garden to look at the fresh green on the plants, and to see whether the vines were budding and the pomegranates putting forth their lovely scarlet blossoms, when suddenly, and all unawares, she was pounced upon by the kings people and whisked away in one of his chariots. It is a vivid scene, and, like other scenes in this poem, the background of it is the lovely aspect of nature in early spring.
The Shulammite now seems to be attempting a retreat, and the ladies of the court bid her return; they would see the performance of a favourite dance, known as "The Dance of Mahanaim." Thereupon we have a description of the performer, as she was seen during the convolutions of the dance, dressed in a transparent garment of red gauze, -perhaps such as is represented in Pompeian frescoes, -so that her person could be compared to pale wheat surrounded by crimson anemones. {Son_7:1-9} It is quite against the tenor of her conduct to suppose that the modest country girl would degrade herself by ministering to the amusement of a corrupt court in this shameless manner. It is more reasonable to conclude that the entertainment was given by a professional dancer from among the women of the harem. We have a hint that this is the case in the title applied to the performer, in addressing whom Solomon exclaims, "O princes daughter," {Son_8:1} an expression never used for the poor Shulammite, and one from which we should gather that she was a captive princess who had been trained as a court dancer. The glimpse of the manners of the palace helps to strengthen the contrast of the innocent, simple country life in which the Shulammite delights.
It has been suggested, with some degree of probability, that the Shulammite is supposed to make her escape while the attention of the king and his court is diverted by this entrancing spectacle It is to be observed, at all events, that from this point onwards to the end of the poem, neither Solomon nor the daughters of Jerusalem take any part in the dialogue, while the scene appears to be shifted to the Shulammites home in the country, where she and the shepherd are now seen together in happy companionship. The bridegroom has come to fetch his bride. Again she owns that she is his, and delights in the glad thought that his heart goes out to her. {Son_7:10} She bids him come with her into the field, and lodge in the villages. They will get them early into the vineyards and see whether the vines, are blooming, and whether the pomegranates are in blossom. {Son_7:11-13} It is still early spring. It was early spring when she was snatched away. Unless she had been a whole year at the palace.-an impossible situation with the king continuing his ineffectual courtship for so long a time, -we have no movement of time. But the series of events from the day when the Shulammite was seized in her nut garden, till she found herself back again in her home in the north country, after the trying episode of her temporary residence in the royal palace, must have occupied some weeks. And yet the conclusion of the story is set in precisely the same stage of spring, the time when people look for the first buds and blossoms, as the opening scenes. It has been proposed to confine the whole action to the northern district, where Solomon might have had a country house adjoining his vineyard. {Son_8:11} The presence of the "daughters of Jerusalem," and allusions to the streets of the city, its watchmen, and the guard upon the walls, are against this notion. It is better to conclude that we have here another instance of the idealism of the poem. Since early spring is the season that harmonises most perfectly with the spirit of the whole work, the author does not trouble himself with adapting its scenes in a realistic manner to the rapidly changing aspects of nature.
The shepherd has addressed the Shulammite as his sister; {Son_8:1} she now reciprocates the title by expressing her longing that he had been as her brother. {Son_8:1} This singular mode of courtship between two lovers who are so passionately devoted to one another that we might call them the Hebrew Romeo and Juliet, is not without significance. Its recurrence, now on the lips of the bride, helps to sharpen still more the contrast between what passes for love in the royal harem, and the true emotion experienced by a pair of innocent young people, unsullied by the corruptions of the court-illustrating, as it does at once, its sweet intimacy and its perfect purity.
The proud bride would now lead her swain to her mothers house. {Son_8:2} There is no mention of her father; apparently he is not living. But the fond way in which this simple girl speaks of her mother reveals another lovely trait in her character. She has witnessed the wearisome magnificence of Solomons palace. It was impossible to associate the idea of home with such a place. We never hear the daughters of Jerusalem, those poor degraded women of the harem, speaking of their mothers. But to the Shulammite no spot on earth is so dear as her mothers cottage. There her lover shall have spiced wine and pomegranate juice-simple home-made country beverages. {Son_8:2} Repeating one of the early refrains of the poem, the happy bride is not afraid to say that there too her husband shall support her in his strong embrace. {Son_8:3} She then repeats another refrain, and for the last time-surely one would say now, quite superfluously-she adjures the daughters of Jerusalem not to awaken any love for Solomon in her, but to leave love to its spontaneous course. {Son_8:4}
Now the bridegroom is seen coming up from the wilderness with his bride leaning upon him, and telling how he first made love to her when he found her asleep under an apple tree in the garden of the cottage where she was. {Son_8:5} As they converse together we reach the richest gem of the poem, the Shulammites impassioned eulogy of love. {Son_8:6-7} She bids her husband set her as a seal upon his heart in the inner sanctuary of his being, and as a seal upon his arm-always owning her, always true to her in the outer world. She is to be his closely, his openly, his forever. She has proved her constancy to him: now she claims his constancy to her. The foundation of this claim rests on the very nature of love. The one essential characteristic here dwelt upon is strength-"Love is strong as death." Who can resist grim death? who escape its iron clutches? Who can resist mighty love, or evade its power? The illustration is startling in the apparent incompatibility of the two things drawn together for comparison. But it is a stern and terrible aspect of love to which our attention is now directed. This is apparent as the Shulammite proceeds to speak of jealousy which is "hard as the grave." If love is treated falsely, it can flash out in a flame of wrath ten times more furious than the raging of hatred-"a most vehement flame of the Lord." This is the only place in which the name of God appears throughout the whole poem. It may be said that even here it only comes in according to a familiar Hebrew idiom, as metaphor for what is very great. But the Shulammite has good reason for claiming God to be on her side in the protection of her love from cruel wrong and outrage. Love as she knows it is both unquenchable and unpurchaseable. She has tested and proved these two attributes in her own experience. At the court of Solomon every effort was made to destroy her love for the shepherd, and all possible means were employed for buying her love for the king. Both utterly failed. All the floods of scorn which the harem ladies poured over her love for the country lad could not quench it; all the wealth of a kingdom could not buy it for Solomon. Where true love exists, no opposition can destroy it; where it is not, no money can purchase it. As for the second idea-the purchasing of love-the Shulammite flings it away with the utmost contempt. Yet this was the too common means employed by a king such as Solomon for replenishing the stock of his harem. Then the monarch was only pursuing a shadow; he was but playing at love-making; he was absolutely ignorant of the reality.
The vigour, one might say the rigour, of this passage distinguishes it from nearly all other poetry devoted to the praises of love. That poetry is usually soft and tender; sometimes it is feeble and sugary. And yet it must be remembered that even the classical Aphrodite could be terribly angry. There is nothing morbid or sentimental in the Shulammites ideas. She has discovered and proved by experience that love is a mighty force, capable of heroic endurance, and able, when wronged, to avenge itself with serious effect.
Towards the conclusion of the poem fresh speakers appear in the persons of the Shulammites brothers, who defend themselves from the charge of negligence in having permitted their little sister to be snatched away from their keeping, explaining how they have done their best to guard her. Or perhaps they mean that they will be more careful in protecting a younger sister. They will build battlements about her. The Shulammite takes up the metaphor. She is safe now, as a wall well embattled; at last she has found peace in the love of her husband. Solomon may have a vineyard in her neighbourhood, and draw great wealth from it with which to buy the wares in which he delights. {Son_8:11} It is nothing to her. She has her own vineyard. This reference to the Shnlammites vineyard recalls the mention of it at the beginning of the poem, and suggests the idea that in both cases the image represents the shepherd lover. In the first instance she had not kept her vineyard, {Son_1:6} for she had lost her lover. Now she has him, and she is satisfied. {Son_8:12} He calls to her in the garden, longing to hear her voice there, {Son_8:13} and she replies, bidding him hasten and come to her as she has described him coming before, -
"Like to a roe or a young hart
Upon the mountains of spices, "{ Son_8:14}
And so the poem sinks to rest in the happy picture of the union of the two young lovers.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1–10 The Bridegroom’s Response
The Bridegroom’s Response
CHAPTER 5 Son_5:1
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SCENE SECOND. Place: Banquet Hall in the Palace. Speaker: The King
TO THE BRIDE
I am come into my garden,
My sister, my spouse;
I have gathered my myrrh with my spice;
I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;
I have drunk my wine with my milk.
TO THE GUESTS
Eat, O Friends;
Drink, yea drink abundantly, O beloved.
I. The Bridegroom’s address to the Bride. ‘I am come,’ &c. The King, like Ahasuerus, accepts the Queen’s invitation to the banquet of wine. Expresses his readiness and delight to do so. The believer’s desire for Christ’s presence no sooner expressed than fulfilled. ‘Before they call I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear’ (Isa_65:24). Christ’s visits not long delayed when His people are earnest and ready to receive them. ‘When the hour was come, He sat down with the twelve.’ The Bride herself the banquet; yet a material feast the accompaniment and outward expression of it. The marriage celebrated with a marriage feast. The feast now prepared, and the guests assembled. The bridegroom conducts his bride to the table. Picture of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, after the reception and presentation of the Bride. Also, historically, of the Last Supper, soon after the triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and immediately preceding the crucifixion. That Supper to be continued in the Church till Christ the Bridegroom come again. Believers, especially while seated at the Lord’s Table, and, according to His dying command, showing forth His death by eating and drinking the symbols of His body and blood in remembrance of Him—His garden and His banquet. The Bride, as well as the table and all its provisions, His own. These provisions only mentioned by the Bride, but enlarged and dwelt on by the rejoicing Bridegroom. A higher value set by Christ on the fruits of His Spirit and His own mediatorial work, than by the believer himself. Those fruits of great variety. Each of them a special delight to the Saviour. The myrrh of a believer’s repentance as acceptable to Christ as the spice of His love. The humblest gifts of love as acceptable as the most costly. The honeycomb as well as the more valuable honey within it. The common milk as well as the richer and more costly wine. The widow’s two mites more precious in His eyes than the larger offerings of the rich. Enough for Him when He can say: ‘She hath done what she could.’ The turtle dove or young pigeons of the poor as acceptable as the lamb or bullock of the rich, when laid in love upon the altar. ‘It is accepted according to what a man hath, and not what he hath not.’ The cheerfulness of the giver makes the acceptableness of the gift. ‘Where Christ gets a welcome, He never complains of the fare.’—Durham. When Christ was risen from the dead, ‘His disciples gave Him a broiled fish and a piece of a honeycomb, and He ate before them.’ (Luk_24:42-43). Probably designed by the Holy Spirit as another Connecting link between the Song and the Gospels.
II. The Bridegroom’s address to the guests. ‘Eat, O Friends,’ &c. The king invites his friends to partake of his joy. Recals the Saviour’s language to His disciples at the Supper table: ‘Take, eat: Drink ye all of it.’ ‘I have not called you servants, but friends: Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I have commanded you.’ The Marriage Supper of the Lamb partaken of by His friends, who are also the Bride herself. Observe—
1. A high honour and privilege to be called Christ’s friends; though a higher still to be called His Bride.
2. Where Christ is, He wishes her friends to be with Him. Those who invited Christ must also invite His friends. At Cana, both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the marriage (Joh_2:1).
3. Christ’s desire that all who are His should share His joy. His reward to His faithful servants: ‘Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.’
4. When Christ comes into His Church and people, He brings His provisions with Him; and while He sups with them, He gives them to sup with Him (Rev_3:20).
5. The provisions of Christ’s house and table, of great variety, richness, and plenty (Psa_36:8; Psa_65:4). ‘I am come that my sheep might have life, and have it more abundantly.’ ‘I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness; I only satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished evey sorrowful soul’ (Jer_31:14; Jer_31:25). Christ’s provisions both nourishing and refreshing—both milk and wine. Correspond with the blessings of salvation offered in the Gospel (Isa_55:1). At His rich banquet, no danger either of surfeit or excess.
6. Christ gives not only wholesome and heaped cheer, but a hearty welcome.—‘Drink, yea drink abundantly.’ ‘Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.’ ‘Be ye filled with the Spirit’ (Psa_81:10; Eph_5:18).
7. All the provisions of Christ’s table the purchase of His own suffering and death. Perhaps indicated in the first article mentioned by the king: ‘I have gathered my myrrh.’ Myrrh bitter to the taste. This gathered by the King Himself. Vinegar and gall, the symbol of His own bitter sufferings, handed to Him on the cross, before the wine and milk, emblems of the blessings of salvation, could be handed to us. The bread given at the Supper Table the symbol of His broken Body; the wine that of His shed Blood. ‘The bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world (Joh_6:51).
8. A threefold Feast provided by Christ for His friends, as the Bridegroom of the Church—
(1) In their personal and private experience as they journey through the wilderness. The ‘feast of fat things’ made by Christ in His holy mountain, the Church, for the benefit of Zion’s travellers. The ‘bread eaten in secret’ (Rev_3:20).
(2) In the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper, as first instituted in the upper room at Jerusalem, and celebrated in the Church from time to time until He come again. The happiest experience of the believer often connected with that sacred Feast.
(3) The Marriage Supper of the Lamb after He has come to take the Bride to Himself, and she has made herself ready; the number of the elect being then accomplished, and the kingdom having come. The Lord’s Supper an image and foretaste of that heavenly banquet.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Son 5:2-8
Son 5:2-8
I. Christ is ever knocking at the heart; in those who have not received Him, that they may receive Him; in those who have received Him, that they may receive Him more fully; in those who are negligent or who relax that they may rouse themselves; in those who are holy that they may be holier still. Christ is within the heart, else we could not open it. He is without it, because it is finite, He infinite. He knocks by all things which teach us to choose Him; that He is all, and all else nothing, except as He is in it, and comes with it, and makes it anything.
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II. In the Song of songs, our Lord speaks of another case, when at His knocking the bride delayeth to open. He finds the soul of the Church after long peace, when not strung by trouble within or without, at ease, relaxed, unaware that He is not with her as before. Since his tender voice fails he puts forth his hand. He takes away what we have set up instead of Him, the idols of our hearts within us or without, and "chastens us whereby we have offended."
III. Our souls are not the home of grace that it should, without effort on our part to detain it, remain there. Its home is God; it comes to us, visits us, dwells with us, but only if we with diligence keep it and use it. We are ascending the mount of God; if we relax, we slip back. But then there follows a time of dreariness. God hides His face, and the soul is chilled. He withdraws His light, and the soul is dark. The remedies for this state are taught us in the Bride. (1) She opened that which was closed before. (2) She mortified what she found amiss. (3) When she found not Him whom her soul loved she sought Him perseveringly in the broad places of the city, in active duty. (4) She was not hindered by discouragement. (5) When she knew no more how to seek, she sent, exhausted, the aspiration to Him, "I am sick of love." That one word speaks all her ills, all her needs, as Martha and Mary sent to Jesus, "Lord, he whom Thou lovest is sick."
IV. Desolations of soul, even though chastisements of sin, are among God’s choicest means of enlarged grace. By these God teaches the soul how unutterable an evil it is to be separated from Him. He teaches her to hate the memory of all sin, to cleanse herself from all lesser faults which come between her and God. He stirs the inmost heart, kindles her longings, makes her love Himself for Himself, increases her desires that, when they are increased and enlarged, He may fill them.
E. B. Pusey, Sermons for the Church’s Seasons, p. 92.
References: Son 5:2-8.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv., No. 793. Son 5:3.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 367; C. A. Fowler, Parochial Sermons, p. 207. Son 5:4.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 273; J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 217. Son 5:5.—S. Baring-Gould, One Hundred Sermon Sketches, p. 97. Son 5:5, Son 5:6.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 230. Son 5:6.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 89. Son 5:8.—Ibid., Sermons, vol. ix., No. 539; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 235. Son 5:9.—J. Richardson, Penny Pulpit, No. 817; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 290. Son 5:9, Son 5:10.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 239. Son 5:11.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 304. Son 5:13.—Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 122. Son 5:16.—Ibid., Sermons, vol. xvii., No. 1001, and vol. xxiv., No. 1446; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 69. Son 6:1.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 252. Son 6:4.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii., No. 984. Son 6:5.—Ibid., My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 210. Son 6:10.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 261.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v2 A Dream. His Beauty and hers
A Dream. His Beauty and hers
2-7. Another dream of hers, with a painful ending. The accumulation (Son_5:2) of names of endearment reminds us of the frequent repetition, by a Palestinian bridegroom during the wedding dance, of Yâ halâli, Yâ mâli, ' O my property, 'Omy possession!'
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2. Heavy dew falls, especially during spring and in the second half of the night. The Spanish poet whom Longfellow translated had in his mind our passage and Rev_3:20 :
'Lord, what am I, that, with unceasing care,
Thou didst seek after me,—that thou didst wait,
Wet with unhealthy dews before my gate,
And pass the gloomy nights of winter there?
How oft my guardian angel gently cried,
“Soul, from thy casement look, and thou shalt see
How he persists to knock and wait for thee.”'
And our Lord's parable (Luk_11:5-8) presents a parallel to Son_5:3. The tunic had been put off (Exo_22:26; Deu_24:18). The feet, shod only with sandals, needed washing each night.
4. A hole is still cut in the door of Syrian houses, through which the owner can insert his arm and the key. 5. 'Myrrha stacta,' liquid myrrh, which flowed from the bark of the plant, was the finest and most costly. In two modern Egyptian poems we find: 'My love hath perfumed herself on the nights of the festival,' and '0 thou, with sweet hands!'
7. The watchmen treat her as a mere night-wanderer: cp. the solicitude of Boaz for Ruth (Ruth 3 :M). They tore off her wrapper (Mar_14:51-52), a light garment which rested on the shoulders, or was thrown round the head as a veil.
9. The chorus prepares the way for her eulogy of her beloved.
10-16. Nuptial songs in praise of the bridegroom's beauty are at the present day comparatively rare in Palestine. His head is the most fine gold, an expression which recalls Shakespeare's 'Golden lads and girls.' His eyes are doves, building in a ravine through which a stream flows. Possibly the fact that these birds delight in clear water and frequently bathe in it may explain the 'sitting by full streams' of the RV, or, 'sitting upon fulness,' which literally represents the original.
13. The 'banks of sweet herbs' (RV) have also been rendered,' towers of perfumes.' The lips are compared to red lilies, red being the dominant colour of the flora of that land.
14. The fingers are round and shapely; the nails like topazes; the body (RV) a plate of ivory encrusted with lapis lazuli, blue veins showing through the lighter skin.
15. The pillars of marble remind us of a song still current in those regions: the singer avers that his dear one's foot is of white silver, which would be scratched if she walked even on cloth.
Son_6:1-3. The chorus enquire where he may be found, and she, in dreamy and indefinite language, informs them.
4-9. He again strikes in, celebrating her beauty. Tirzah is in a lofty and delightful situation, surrounded by olive groves: its name (= 'Delight') implies its attractiveness. Jerusalem has always been lovely to an Israelite's eye (Psa_48:2; Psa_50:2; Lam_2:15, etc.). A pure and charming woman is 'awe-inspiring as bannered hosts' (RM). Coventry Patmore speaks of 'her awful charm of grace and innocence sincere':
'And though her charms are a strong law
Compelling all men to admire,
They go so clad with lowly awe
None but the noble dare desire.'
5. Her eyes have thrown him into confusion. 8. She is far above all the queens and concubines, the ladies of the harem, who are just now at hand.
9. She is her mother's only, i.e. dearest, one (Gen_22:2), and her pure one.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv2, 6, 12 The bride is satisfied with her washed feet while…
sleep
The bride is satisfied with her washed feet while the Bridegroom, His "head filled with dew," and His "locks with the drops of night," is toiling for others. See Luk 6:12; Luk 14:21-23. The state of the bride is not one of sin, but of neglect of service. She is preoccupied with the graces and perfections which she has in Christ through the Spirit; 1Co 12:4-11; Gal 5:22; Gal 5:23. It is mysticism, unbalanced by the activities of the Christian warfare. Her feet are washed, her hands drop with sweet smelling myrrh; but He has gone on, and now she must seek Him (cf. Luk 2:44; Luk 2:45).
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 The Bridegroom answers the invitation extended to Him when…
CHAPTER 5
The Bridegroom answers the invitation extended to Him when the bride had said, “Let my Beloved come into His (not her) garden.” He says, “I am come into My garden, My sister, My spouse.” She is both “sister and spouse.” When He speaks of her as sister, He owns the national relationship. In Mat 12:46-50 He disowned that relationship because they rejected the offer of the kingdom, but now it is reestablished and the godly portion of Israel becomes the spouse. In His garden, the product of His love and His death, He finds now His enjoyment, His joy and His satisfaction. He invites others to come and partake. “Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, beloved ones.”
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But there is no response here from the side of the bride. She exhibits slothfulness. He is seen now standing outside; His head is filled with the night dew and standing at the door He knocks (See Rev 3:20. The comment on this difficult portion of the Song, as given in the Synopsis of the Bible, is especially helpful.
“Alas, what hearts are ours! We turn again to ourselves as soon as we are comforted by the testimony of the Lord’s love. The Bridegroom’s sensitive and righteous heart acts upon her word, and He retires from one who does not listen to His voice. She arises to learn of her own folly, and the just delicacy, with respect to herself, of His ways whom she had slighted. How often, alas! do we act in the same manner with regard to the voice of His Spirit and the manifestations of His love! What a dreadful loss, but, through grace, what a lesson! She is chastised by those who watch for the peace of Jerusalem. What had she to do in the streets at night, she whom the Bridegroom had sought at home? And now her very affection exposes her to reproof, the expression of its energy placing her in a position that proved she had slighted her Beloved. If we are not in the peaceful enjoyment of the love of Christ, where He meets with us in grace, the very strength of our affection and our self-condemnation causes us to exhibit this affection out of its place, in a certain sense, and brings us into connection with those who judge our position. It was right discipline for a watchman to use towards a woman who was wandering without, whatever might be the cause. Testimonies of her affection to her Beloved at home, the love of her own heart, do not concern the watchman. Affection may exist; but He has to do with order and a becoming walk. Nevertheless her affection was real and led to an ardent expression of all that her Beloved was to her--an expression addressed to others, who ought to understand her; not to the watchman, but to her own companions. But if sloth had prevented her receiving Him in the visitations of His love, her heart, now disciplined by the watchman and turned again to her Beloved, overflowing with His praises, being taught of God, knows where to find Him.”
The words recorded in Son 5:9 are no doubt addressed to the bride by the rest of the nation. How beautiful is her answer! She speaks of Him as “the chiefest among ten thousand.” Here is symbolical language. White tells us of His holiness; ruddy reminds us of His love, so fully expressed in the shedding of His blood. His cheeks were once smitten; Grace is in His lips; the belly speaks of His bowels of mercy; His eyes are the eyes of love; the gold is the symbol of His Deity; the hair is the symbol of His perfect humanity. After giving ten features of His beauty, she has exhausted herself and in ecstasy cries out, as thousands upon thousands in every generation have done, “Yea, He is altogether lovely ... this is my friend.” Blessed are all who can repeat these words and who can say, “This is my friend.”
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 9 Christ’s Call to the Drowsy Church.
Christ’s Call to the Drowsy Church.
The Church Aroused from Sleep
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v. 1. I am come into My garden, My sister, My spouse, this being the King’s answer to Shulamith’s invitation, 4, 16; I have gathered My myrrh with My spice; I have eaten My honeycomb with My honey; I have drunk My wine with My milk, all expressions showing the measure with which the King enjoyed the fruits of His singular garden. Eat, O friends, the wedding-guests being addressed; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved, partaking to repletion of the rich gifts provided by the King’s bounty and by His garden. The reference is plain. When the heavenly Gardener comes into the garden of His Church, the enjoyment is mutual, since He rejoices in her faith and in the works of her faith, and the Church, with all her members, is refreshed by the rich blessings of His grace.
The next paragraph pictures a period of spiritual depression, together with a merciful visitation of the Lord, the bride herself relating the events in their order.
v. 2. I sleep, but my heart waketh, unable to shake off the half-conscious drowsiness which came upon her; it is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to Me, My sister, My love, My dove, My undefiled, the one of whom He is sure that she is wholly devoted to Him in love, as His terms of endearment show; for My head is filled with dew and My locks with the drops of the night, the fall of dew being very heavy in Palestine.
v. 3. I have put off my coat, the tunic or undergarment, which served as a covering in the night; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, as custom requires it where only sandals are worn; how shall I defile them? She had become so indifferent to her Bridegroom that she eagerly adopted the slightest excuse, as though she no longer relished His company.
v. 4. My Beloved put in His hand by the hole of the door, through which the bolt could be reached from the outside if no other locks were employed, and my bowels were moved for Him, she was greatly excited, or agitated, in sympathy for Him, she began to repent of her indifference.
v. 5. I rose up to open to my Beloved, once more thoroughly aroused in love and longing; and my hands dropped with myrrh, best token of her reawakened love, and my fingers with sweet-smelling myrrh, whose perfume was sure to please the King, upon the handles of the lock, as she eagerly attempted to push back the bolt.
v. 8. I opened to my Beloved, ready now to appreciate His visitation of love; but my Beloved had withdrawn Himself and was gone, apparently tired of waiting, ready to extend His merciful call to some one else; my soul failed when He spake, when He had spoken before, this also explaining her long inaction. I sought Him, but I could not find Him, He had withdrawn His gracious presence; I called Him, but He gave me no answer.
v. 7. The watchmen that went about the city found me; they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls, whose business it was to protect the inhabitants of the city, took away my veil from me, an act which was an indignity offered to an Oriental girl at any time, and here doubly so, since the veil was the bride’s greatest pride and the sign of her exalted state.
v. 8. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, adjuring them most earnestly, if ye find my Beloved, that ye tell Him that I am sick of love, her longing had now become overwhelmingly great, due to the very indifference professed by the Lord.
This paragraph correctly pictures the spiritual sleep which sometimes falls upon a single congregation or upon a whole section of the Church. There may still be some feeling of duty and a corresponding battling against the benumbing influence of sleep, but in the eyes of God such a community is dead, even while it has the name that it is living, Rev 3:1. When the Lord comes to such a church to admonish and incite her to true watchfulness, she is often unwilling to be disturbed. She would prefer to go her lukewarm way, without true life and spirituality. And so the Lord, after an urgent call and attempt to arouse the Church, withdraws His merciful presence. Meanwhile the Church arouses herself to the remembrance of the many evidences of grace and love which she has received at His hands, and so she, on her part, now tries to hold Him back from leaving her. She is again filled with the sweet savor of good works flowing from true faith; her heart eagerly seeks Him; she realizes that His condemnation Rev 3:17-19 applies to her. Having been deprived of His presence, she searches most diligently. But the very men who should have aided her in finding the Bridegroom now abuse the Church, while she loudly protests her love for the Bridegroom. Compare the words of the Lord, Joh 7:33-34: "Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto Him that sent Me. Ye shall seek Me and shall not find Me; and where I am, thither ye cannot come. " If at such times the individual congregation or the Church as such relies only upon the grace of the Lord, there is the best hope for the future.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 General Information:
General Information:
See: Poetry and Parallelism
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I have come
It is clearly the woman's lover who is speaking.
have come into my garden
The word "garden" is a metaphor for the woman. The man is finally able to fully enjoy the woman as they make love. (See: Metaphor and Euphemism)
my sister
This is an idiom of affection. They are not actually brother and sister. See how you translated this in Song of Songs 4:9. AT: "my dear" or "my darling" (See: Idiom)
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. See how you translated this in Song of Songs 4:9.
myrrh ... spice ... honeycomb ... honey ... wine ... milk
These are all metaphors for the man enjoying the woman's body (Song of Songs 1:13, Song of Songs 2:04, Song of Songs 4:11, and Song of Songs 4:14). (See: Metaphor)
spice
plants that have a strong smell or taste
Eat ... drink ... be drunk with love
Eating and drinking are metaphors for making love. AT: "Make love ... make love ... make love until you are fully satisfied" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
sister
bride
myrrh
honey
wine
love
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16 5:1 I have entered my garden . . .…
5:1 I have entered my garden . . . myrrh with my spices . . . honeycomb with my honey . . . wine with my milk: In penetrating the garden, the man finds that there is no limit to what he can enjoy. They are ecstatic over finally unlocking the vast enjoyment of intercourse. • drink deeply of your love! The young women of Jerusalem encourage the couple to enjoy their sexual union to the fullest; there can be no guilt or shame in the deepest pleasure between husband and wife.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.