How beautiful are your feet in sandals, prince’s daughter! Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a skillful workman.
Your body is like a round goblet, no mixed wine is wanting. Your waist is like a heap of wheat, set about with lilies.
Your two breasts are like two fawns, that are twins of a roe.
Your neck is like an ivory tower. Your eyes are like the pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bathrabbim. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon which looks toward Damascus.
Your head on you is like Carmel. The hair of your head like purple. The king is held captive in its tresses.
How beautiful and how pleasant you are, love, for delights!
This, your stature, is like a palm tree, your breasts like its fruit.
I said, “I will climb up into the palm tree. I will take hold of its fruit.” Let your breasts be like clusters of the vine, the smell of your breath like apples.
Your mouth is like the best wine, that goes down smoothly for my beloved, gliding through the lips of those who are asleep.
I am my beloved’s. His desire is toward me.
Come, my beloved! Let’s go out into the field. Let’s lodge in the villages.
Let’s go early up to the vineyards. Let’s see whether the vine has budded, its blossom is open, and the pomegranates are in flower. There I will give you my love.
The mandrakes produce fragrance. At our doors are all kinds of precious fruits, new and old, which I have stored up for you, my beloved.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 10, 12 He describeth the comely beauty of the Church in…
He describeth the comely beauty of the Church in every part, which is to be understood spiritually.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–13 Son 7:1 How beautiful are thy feet with shoes,…
Son 7:1 How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince’s daughter! the joints of thy thighs [are] like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman.
Ver. 1. How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, &c.] Before he had described her from head to foot; now back again, from foot to head, taking in ten parts of his spouse, concerning whom - such was his love - he thought he could never say sufficient. He begins at the lowest and most abject part, the feet, not without admiration of them. O quam pulchri sunt pedes tui! "Oh, how beautiful are thy feet with shoes!" A temporal calling honours our profession; so some understand it. Others make the meaning to be, the Church’s being "shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace"; {Eph 6:15} ready pressed to "run with patience the race that is set before her." {Heb 12:1} To run is active; to run with patience is passive. This prince’s daughter (Atalanta-like) can only skill of this "running with patience," as being shod with Tachash skin, {Eze 16:10} bestowed upon her by her spouse, as a love token, that is, with sound affections and holy actions. Whereas wicked men are carried captive by the devil, as the Egyptians once were by the Assyrians, {Isa 20:4} "naked and barefoot," and so "perish from the way." {Psa 2:12}
Read full note →
O prince’s daughter.] Thou that hast him for thy father "in whose hands are all the corners of the earth," and is supreme King of the universe. This is such a privilege and preferment as St John stands amazed at. {1Jn 3:1} "Behold," saith he, qualem et quantum, "what manner of love the Father hath showed unto us, that we should be called the sons" and daughters "of God Almighty." {2Co 6:18} All privileges are summed up in this; and in Joh 1:12 it is called a power or prerogative {a} royal; it is to be of royal blood of heaven; it is to be an heir of God and co-heir with Christ. Kings can make their firstborn only heirs, as Jehoshaphat. {2Ch 21:3} But all God’s children are firstborn, and so "higher than the kings of the earth." {Psa 89:27}
The joints of thy thighs are like jewels, &c., ] i.e., Thy loins are compassed with the belt of truth; for so some render it, The compassing of thy thighs or loins. And here, if ever, ungirt, unblest. "Gird up therefore the loins of your minds"; {1Pe 1:13} gird yourselves and serve God. {Luk 17:8} Girding implies readiness, nimbleness, handiness, handsomeness. A loose, discinct, and diffluent mind is unfit for holy actions.
{a} εξουσια
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 vv1–13 The Bridegroom, who spake the last words, here continueth…
The Bridegroom, who spake the last words, here continueth his speech, and breaks forth into an elegant and particular description and commendation of the spouse, partly from the parts of her body, and partly from her ornaments; in which the same thing is to be observed which was noted concerning her description of the Bridegroom, that there is no necessity of a distinct application of every parcel of it, the design being only this, to describe the beauty and glory of the church under the representation of a beautiful and noble woman. This also is observable, that in the description of Christ she begins at the head, and so goeth downward, Son 5:11, &c., but Christ in the description of the spouse proceedeth from the feet upwards.
Feet being the chief instrument of our motion from place to place, is oft used metonymically for the motion itself, and so may here signify either the inward motions, the workings of the affections, or the outward motions, the steps or actions of the life, both which are right and amiable in believers.
Read full note →
Shoes were anciently evidences of a free and comfortable state, whereas slaves and mourners use to go barefoot, 2Sa 15:30; Isa 20:4, which also in women of high quality were adorned with gold and other ornaments; of which see Isa 3:18. These may also signify that the feet of believers should be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, Eph 6:15. Prince’s daughter, both by birth, being born of God, and by disposition and deportment agreeable to that quality.
The joints of thy thighs; either,
1. The hollow place in which the hip or thigh-bone moveth and turneth itself; or rather,
2. The hip or thighbone which moveth there; for this is more fitly compared to a jewel well set. Some understand this of some ornaments worn by women upon those parts; for the word rendered joints may signify girdles, or any ornament which encompasseth any part of the body, and the same words which signify thighs are both in Hebrew and other languages sometimes used concerning the legs; which being admitted, this might seem to be understood of the bride’s garters, about her legs, which not unfitly follows the shoes upon her feet last mentioned. But this sense seems not to suit so well with the following comparison as the former doth.
Like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman; like jewels orderly and excellently set by a skillful artist. So this signifies the uprightness and decency of her going, which depends very much upon the right situation of the hip or thigh-bone, which when it is dislocated or disordered causeth a lameness or uncomeliness in going; whereby he understands the orderliness and amiableness of her conversation.
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, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 A farther description of the church's his graces, ver.…
A farther description of the church's his graces, ver. 1-7. His design to visit the church, with the blessed effect thereof, ver. 8-9. She professes her faith, and desire, ver. 10. She invites him to communion with her, ver. 11. The end thereof, ver. 12, 13.
Shoes - Were anciently evidences of a free and comfortable state, whereas slaves and mourners used to go bare-foot.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–13 A farther description of the bride, 1-9.
CHAPTER VII
A farther description of the bride, 1-9.
Read full note →
Her invitation to the bridegroom, 10-13.
NOTES ON CHAP. VII
Verse 1. How beautiful are thy feet with shoes] "How graceful is thy walking." In the sixth chapter the bridegroom praises the Shulamite, as we might express it, from head to foot. Here he begins a new description, taking her from foot to head.
The shoes, sandals, or slippers of the Eastern ladies are most beautifully formed, and richly embroidered. The majestic walk of a beautiful woman in such shoes is peculiarly grand. And to show that such a walk is intended, he calls her a prince's daughter.
The joints of thy thighs] Must refer to the ornaments on the beautiful drawers, which are in general use among ladies of quality in most parts of the East.
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, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13 Son 7:1. How beautiful are thy feet, &c. —…
Son 7:1. How beautiful are thy feet, &c. — The bridegroom, who spake the last words, here continues his speech, and breaks forth into a particular description and commendation of the spouse, partly from the parts of her body, and partly from her ornaments. With respect to which the same thing is to be observed which was remarked concerning her description of the bridegroom, namely, that there is no necessity of a distinct application of every particular article of it, the design being only this, to describe the beauty and glory of the church, under the representation of a beautiful and noble woman. This also is observable, that in the description of Christ, she begins at the head, and so goeth downward, (Son 5:11, &c.,) but Christ, in the description of the spouse, proceeds from the feet upward. With shoes — Shoes were anciently evidences of a free and comfortable state, whereas slaves and mourners used to go barefoot.
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, 4, 5, 6 Thy feet with shoes - Or, thy steps in…
Thy feet with shoes - Or, thy steps in the sandals: the bride’s feet are seen in motion in the dance. “Joints” might be rendered circling movements.
Prince’s daughter - Or, daughter of a noble; the bride is of honorable though not of kingly birth.
Read full note →
Like jewels - The image suggested is that of large well-formed pearls or other jewels skillfully strung or linked together.
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, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13 What? Christ commends the Jews, who shall at last…
What? Christ commends the Jews, who shall at last embrace the faith with great fervour. (Worthington) --- Thou. Hebrew and Septuagint, "ye." They join this sentence with the preceding chapter. (Haydock) --- Companies. Hebrew, "as it were the choir (or dance) of Mahanaim," (Calmet) where Jacob saw the camps of angels, near the Jaboc. (Haydock) (Genesis xxxii.) --- These dances might be proverbial.
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 See Son_5:1 ff for the passage comments with footnotes.
See Son_5:1 ff for the passage comments with footnotes.
Son_7:1. Come back, come back, Shulamith, etc. As according to our understanding of Son_7:11-12 Shulamith expresses in them her longing for the simpler circumstances of her native region and speaks of her elevation to the king’s throne as a distinction, which came to her without her knowledge, and contrary to her expectation, nothing is more natural than to conceive that she spoke this in a saddened and painfully excited mood, and to conjecture that her strong and painful feeling of home-sickness would be accompanied by a corresponding gesture. This gesture we must unquestionably suppose from the earnest and repeated call addressed to her by the ladies of the court “come back, turn back” (שׁוּבִי שׁוּבִי comp. Jdg_5:12) was that of intending to go away, to escape from the vicinity of the vicious court of the king, which had become offensive to her. She does not purpose to withdraw from the “king’s garden” (Döpke, Delitzsch, etc.), in which besides she could scarcely have been at the time, but from the vicinity of the king altogether, who had greatly grieved her, and that of the ladies of his court, whose society she feels that she must henceforth avoid. Hence it is that the latter (for it is to them that Shulamith’s answer “what do you see in Shulamith?” is directed) call to her, entreating her to turn again and permit them still to look upon her charming person. For this is the only sense in which וְנֶחֱזֶה בָּךְ “that we may look upon thee” (חָזָה בְּ not materially different from רָאָה בְּ Son_6:11) can be taken, viz.: that of beholding with delight, feasting the eyes upon her to whom they had long before accorded the praise of beauty (comp. their frequent form of address, “fairest among women,” Son_1:8; Son_5:9; Son_6:1). That it is the ladies of the court, who address to her this summons to return and remain, and not Solomon (whom many of the older commentators regard as the speaker in these words, see Starke), is either to be explained by Solomon’s uniting in the call of the women (comp. Döpke, Ewald, etc.), or better still by the assumption that he who was more affected than all others by her attempt to go away, does more than barely call her back, he seeks by loving force to detain her; and hence, speechless with passionate emotion, he first embraces and holds her, that he may afterwards fetter her by the fondest adulation1 (Son_7:2 ff.).—What do you see in Shulamith? This question asked by the party addressed is doubtless to be understood as modestly declining the praise indirectly bestowed upon her beauty in thus calling her. Shulamith wishes to be no longer looked at and admired by such people as Solomon’s concubines and the ladies of his court; this has become oppressive to her. The humility of her entire question certainly characterizes also her designation of herself בַּשּׁוּלַמִּית (lit., “in the Shulamitess,” i.e. not “in this Shulamitess” but “in one who is a Shulamitess;” comp. 1Ki_20:36 : Isa_7:14; Joel 4:3, etc.). Its meaning is certainly no other than “why do you look at me, a plain country girl (Hitzig)? what you see in the simple daughter of a Galilean village?” הַשּׁוּלַמִּית is, as the article shows both here and where it was used in the vocative, certainly not the proper name of a person (so most of the ancient versions and interpreters); no more is it an adjective meaning “favored, treated with kindness” (Weissb.), but a gentile noun, synonymous with הַשּׁוּנַמִּית1Ki_1:3; 2Ki_4:12; 2Ki_4:25, of which it is only a dialectic variation; it is accordingly a designation of the person in question from שׂוּלֵם or שׁוּנֵם, the place of her abode.2 This place, the Σουλήμ of Eusebius and Jerome in his Onomast. and the modern Sôlam appears to have received its name, which originally may have been = סֻלָּם “ladder,” on account of its location on a steep mountain declivity (comp. Robinson, Pal. II. 234), just as many other mountains, e.g. that mentioned 1Ma_11:59 bear the name Κλίμαξ (comp. Hitzig in loc. and “Urgeschichte der Philister,” p. 126). According to Jos_19:18 this Shunem was situated in the tribe of Issachar, according to 1Sa_28:4; 1Sa_29:1; 1Sa_29:11; 1Sa_31:1 not far from Mount Gilboa and the plain of Jezreel, according to 2Ki_4:22-25 not very remote from Mount Carmel (comp. on Son_7:6 of this chapter, and above on Son_2:8; Son_3:6; Son_4:1; Son_4:8; also the Introduction, p. 6). As the dance of Mahanaim. Some interpreters after the example of the Vulg. (“quid videbis in Sulamite, nisi choros castrorum?”) connect the difficult words כִּמְחֹלַת הַמַּחֲנָֽיִם with the question “why will ye look upon Shulamith, as one looks upon the dance of Mahanaim?” (Hahn, Weissb., Renan, etc.,) or “as at the dance of M.” (Hitzig). But it seems more natural and better suited to the context with the majority of both the older and more recent commentators, to regard these words as the answer to the question of Shulamith, given of course by those who had asked her to return, and who take this mode of stating why they were in fact so much concerned to see Shulamith yet longer. They see in her “something that resembles the dance of Mahanaim,” something as magnificent and transporting as the dance of the angel-host, east of the Jordan on Jacob’s return home to the promised land. See Gen_32:1-3, to which passage there is an unmistakable allusion here as Döpke, Delitzsch, Hengstenb., Meier, etc., correctly assume. This occurrence in the early patriarchal history as celebrated as Jacob’s wrestling at Peniel (Gen_32:28, comp. Hos_12:4 ff.), this miraculous experience of the patriarch Jacob, to which the town of Mahanaim between Jabbok and the Jordan, the royal residence of the anti-Davidic northern kingdom under Ishbosheth (2Sa_2:8 ff.) owed its name, forms here the point of comparison and is evidently intended to represent the sight of Shulamith as of angelic beauty and heavenly sublimity, just as she had before been compared with the morning dawn, the sun and moon (Son_6:10), and in agreement with the fact that in other passages dances in praise of God are attributed both to the stars and to the angels of God (comp. Job_38:7; Jdg_5:20; Psa_103:21; Psa_148:2; 1Ki_22:19; Luk_2:13, etc.). The “dance of Mahanaim” is accordingly the well-known dance of the angels on the site where Mahanaim subsequently stood. It is not necessary to take הַמַּחֲנָֽיִם in its appellative sense “dance of the angel choirs” (Döpke) or “the angelic hosts” (Gesen.) or “the angel-camps” (Del.) or “the double army” (Umbr., Weissb.; comp. the Targ. in loc.). We must, however, decidedly reject every interpretation of these words, which sees in them an “invitation to dance,” whether it is Solomon (so Böttcher), or the ladies of the court (Ew., Delitzsch, etc.), or Solomon and his companions (Döpke), who are supposed to make request of Shulamith to execute the famous dance of Mahanaim in their presence. Such a dance, whether it be regarded as a solemn festive dance, in which several took part (Ewald, Böttcher, etc.), or as a contra-dance of two ranks, one consisting of young men, and the other of young women (Hitzig), or as a solo dance by a “danseuse of the Harem” (Ren.), or as a “country festival dance in the simple attire of a shepherdess or a vine-dresser” (Del.) is as devoid of evidence for its historical existence, as it is impossible to demonstrate from the present context that it was in this instance actually performed. And if actually exhibited on the stage, and described in the terms that follow (Son_7:2 ff.), it certainly would not have afforded that “most chaste spectacle,” that “indication of Shulamith’s humility and childlike disposition” which Delitzsch professes to see in it; comp. above No. 2, p. 94.
Read full note →
8. Conclusion. c.Solomon’s final laudation of the beauty of his beloved,Son_7:2-6. Delitzsch alone has put this description into the mouth of the daughters of Jerusalem instead of that of Solomon [so Taylor, Good, Williams, Fry, Patrick, Ainsworth and others on the ground chiefly that the king is spoken of in the third person, Son_7:5], against which, however, may be urged not only the sameness of the tone, which prevails in this as in the following brief section (Son_7:7-10), but also the circumstance that the caressing speeches here go further in one point at any rate, and to say the least, are more undisguised than could have been expected from the mouth of women (see Son_7:3). This description of the beauty of Shulamith also has the greatest similarity to those which Solomon had previously given (Son_4:1 ff.; Son_6:4 ff.), only it enumerates her various charms in the reverse order, by ascending from the feet to the head, and thus proceeds in conformity with the customary Hebrew phrase “from the foot to the head” (2Sa_14:25; Isa_1:6). That this inverted order of the description was not occasioned by the person described executing a dance, but simply arose from the poet’s desire for variety, is correctly recognized even by Hitzig; comp. also Ewald in loc. (vs. Delitzsch, Vaih., Renan and others). One point of contact with a preceding passage of like character in the poem is found in the ten beautiful parts of the body, which are here adduced as in Shulamith’s description of the charms of her lover (Son_5:10-16).—How beautiful are thy steps in the shoes, O prince’s daughter! That the beginning is made with the steps (פְּעָמִים comp. Psa_58:11; 2Ki_19:24), i.e., with the feet as stepping, as in motion, proves nothing in favor of the dancing hypothesis already rejected. For “to step” is not = “to dance,” and Shulamith must have taken some steps at the beginning of this description, inasmuch as Solomon must have led her back to his or to her former position, or have conducted her to some seat after her purpose to go away. In doing so he points out to her her graceful and charming “steps in her shoes,” or in other words how very becoming the shoes, which she wears as a “prince’s daughter,” are to her as she walks! The shoes are manifestly mentioned as something which she did not wear originally and in common (comp. Son_5:3), as a constituent, therefore, of her new and elegant court dress, which had doubtless been prepared in a most luxurious manner, both in material and style, and probably were ornamented with bows of purple, yellow or variegated ribbons, like the showy sandals of noble Hebrew women in later times (comp. Eze_16:10; Jdt_10:9; Winer R.-W.-B., Art. “Schuhe”). She is at the same time designated a “prince’s daughter” or “noble daughter” in order to indicate her present high rank (not her noble descent, which according to Son_1:6; Son_2:8 ff., Son_6:11 is improbable). בַּת is here used in a wide sense for female in general, to mark the fem. gender, as Son_2:2; Son_6:9; Gen_30:13; Jdg_12:9, etc.; and the term נָדִיב “noble” may have been suggested by the עִַמּי נַדְיב which she had used just before. That this form of address is substantially synonymous with “my sister bride” has already been observed on Son_4:9 above. Thy rounded thighs are like jewels. Lit., “the roundings of thy thighs,” i.e., the rounded parts which constitute thy thighs (יְרֵכַיִךְ genit. of the material [Green’s Heb. Gram., § 254, 4] as Psa_40:16; Psa_68:31, etc.—The word חֲלָאִים is very variously explained “necklace” or “jewels” (Sept., Vulg., Syr., Rosenm., Magn., Vaih., Böttcher), “clasps” (Ew.), “pearls” (Hitzig), “ornaments” (Hengstenb.), or “ornamental chains.” As is shown by the singular חֶלְיָה ,חֲלִי, which occurs Pro_25:12; Hos_2:15, some elegantly made ornament must be intended, and according to the passage before us it must be composed of round, smoothly turned globules or pearls, as it is used to set forth the perfectly rounded shape of the thighs.—The work of an artist’s hands. The sing. מַעֲשֶׂה, which the Sept. and Syr. correctly retain, is here employed because the numerous globules or pearls strung together, form but one whole, one necklace. The form אָמָן, of the same signification with אוּמָן Pro_8:30, and with the Chald. and Syr. אוּמָן (see Hitzig in loc., and Ewald, Lehrbuch, § 152 b) serves to denote the artificer or artist (τεχνίτηςartifex) in contrast with the חָרָשׁ (τέκτων, faber) workman who only performs the coarser kind of work. That a skilful turner is here particularly intended appears from חֲלָאִים. The rotundity of the thighs is one of the noted beauties of the female figure, not merely according to Oriental, but also according to Grecian taste, as is shown by the well-known attribute of Aphrodite καλόπυος.
Son_7:3. Thy navel is a round bowl.שֹׁרֶר according to the unanimous testimony of the old translators = שֹׁר Eze_16:4, and = Arab. surr, i.e., “navel” (comp. on Pro_3:8). But, as we learn from the comparison with a round bowl or mixing vessel (on אגן see just below), as well as from the following wish that this vessel may not lack mingled wine, the navel itself as such cannot be intended, but rather the whole belly (abdomen) with the navel as its centre. Correctly therefore Hahn, Vaih., Weissbach, etc., “dein Schooss,” (thy lap) by which expression the reference demanded by what follows is sufficiently intimated, whilst the translation “pudenda” (Magnus, Döpke, Hitzig) cannot be justified on linguistic grounds; for both שְׁרִיר Job_40:16, and the Arab, sirr (αἰδοῖον, arcanum) are only related, not identical ideas.—אַגָּן plur. אַגָנוֹת (Isa_22:24; Exo_24:6) does not denote a cup, but rather a bowl, a large round drinking vessel, here doubtless a bowl for mixing (κρατήρ, Sept., Vulg.) as the following מֶזֶג “mixed wine” shows. For that they prepared this drink (a mixture of wine with warm or cold water—Berachoth 7, 5; 8, Song of Solomon 2 : Pesach 7, 13; Maasser 4, 4) exclusively in smaller vessels as cups, goblets, etc., can scarcely be proved by the formula מְזֹג אֶת־הַכּוֹם (vs. Hitzig).—Let not mixed wine be lacking. This wish, which is not to be converted with the older interpreters into an objective statement, as “nunquam indigens poculis”Vulg.) or “to which drink is never wanting” (Luther), contains without doubt an allusion of like nature, but not so delicate as that contained in Son_5:12 ff.3 (comp. Pro_5:15 ff.). Some modern commentators vainly seek by various methods to escape this admission, e.g., Böttcher. by the assumption that this wish was only designed to set forth in a vivid manner the circular form of the navel; Hengstenb. by the allegorizing remark: “the capacity of the church to revive the thirsty with a noble refreshing draught is represented under the emblem of a bowl always full of mixed wine;” Del. by the assertion: “The navel in so far as it became visible through her dress as she breathed harder in dancing (?) was like a circular cup which was not lacking in spiced wine” (but אַל with the following voluntative or jussive future!), “i.e., as full of blooming health (Pro_3:8) as that of spiced wine.”—Thy body is a heap of wheat, set around with lilies.—עֲרִמַת חִטִּים is certainly not a “sheaf of wheat” (Ewald, who here has in mind Rth_3:7, where, however, עֲרֵמָה rather means a heap of sheaves), but an accumulated heap of grain (comp. 2Ch_31:6 ff.; Neh. 3:34), so that the point of comparison lies on the one hand in its being arched over, and on the other in its yellowish-white color, and perhaps also subordinately in the fruitfulness of such a heap of grain. “Set around with lilies” appears to allude to the custom of “garnishing with flowers such a heap of wheat on the floor, when they threshed the grain in the open field immediately after the harvest” (Döpke),—a custom which, to be sure, has to be inferred solely from this passage. That the whole is a mere “fancy picture” (Weissb., Hitzig) is improbable. Yet the comparison was probably suggested by the lily-red—we would have to say the rose-red—color of her dress which chastely and modestly covered, as it should, the body of the young lady, just as in Son_5:14 the sapphires enveloping the “ivory figure” indicated the color of the garment. At all events the characteristic feature, and the chief significance, perhaps, of the entire figure lies not in this subsidiary matter of setting it around with lilies, but in the heap of grain. Approximate parallels are adduced by Döpke, Magn., etc., e.g., a passage from Motanebbi (v. Hammer, p. 74), where the loins of a girl are likened to a sand-hill; Ommonrheif (Hamasa, in Reiske Taraf., p. 53), “Nates habet ut tumulos arenæ rore compactæ;”Nuweirius (loc. cit., p. 131): “Poetæ comparant nates amatæ cum collibus arenaceis.”
Son_7:4. Thy two breasts are like two young roes,etc.—Comp. Son_4:5. “Feeding among the lilies” is omitted here, because the figure of lilies had just been employed with a somewhat different application; not from regard to Son_7:9, which has nothing to do with “feeding” either in figure or in fact (vs. Weissbach).
Son_7:5. Thy neck is like a tower of ivory.—The tert. comp. lies on the one hand in its being slender and straight, and on the other in the pure white skin of the neck; it is therefore similar, though not exactly like that in Son_4:4. The ivory tower here mentioned is certainly different from the tower of David named there, inasmuch as it is not to be conceived of as a tower for defence or an arsenal, but without doubt a structure designed for purposes of luxury, like Ahab’s ivory house (1Ki_22:39; comp. Amo_3:15; Psa_45:9), or like the ivory throne, on which Solomon sat, according to 1Ki_10:18 ff.—Thine eyes pools in Heshbon.—As Son_5:12 the eyes of the lover are compared with “doves by brooks of water, bathing in milk, sitting on fullness,” so here the eyes of his beloved are likened to light blue pools or basins of water, which charmingly mirror back the rays of the sun. Comp. Ovid, de arte amat., II., Song 722:—“oculos tremulo fulgore micantes, ut sol a liquida sæpe refulget aqua.” The pools near Heshbon, perhaps just two pools lying near together before one of the principal gates of this city, may have been especially suited for such a comparison by the clearness of their sheets of water and the loveliness of their banks. Modern travellers, as Seetzen, Burckhardt, etc., still mention at least one large reservoir of water near Hesbân (the ancient Heshbon, the city of the Moabitish kings, Deu_2:24 ff.; Isa_15:4), lying in a wady south of the city, which is enthroned on a high hill, and consisting of excellent, masonry; comp. Crome, Palästina, I., 254 ff.—At the gate of the daughter of multitudes.—This “daughter of multitudes” (בַּת רַבִּים lit. “daughter of many,” λεωφόρος) or populous city is assuredly Heshbon itself (comp. the frequent designation of cities by the personifying expression בַּת “daughter,” e.g., Isa_1:8; Isa_10:32; Isa_23:12; Psa_137:6), a city which in the age of David and Solomon was certainly next to Rabbath Ammon, the most populous place in the neighboring kingdoms, or rather provinces of Israel east of the Jordan. Hengstenberg’s opinion is inadmissible that בַּת רַבִּים is only another expression for רַבָּה “Rabbah,” or רַבַּת בְּנֵי עַמּוֹן “Rabbath of the children of Ammon,” so that here the pools of two trans-jordanic cities would be named. And so is Hitzig’s notion that “the populous” is the name of a particular gate4 of the city of Heshbon (בַּת רַבִּים therefore not genitive but appositive), viz., that at which the markets and the tribunals were commonly held; for there is no example anywhere else of the personification of the gates of a city as daughters.—Thy nose like the tower of Lebanon, which looks toward Damascus.—Literally: as “a tower of Lebanon”5—but it does not follow from this absence of the definite article that one tower out of several of the same kind and situation is intended (Hitzig). For it is plainly designated as a watch-tower, or a look-out by צוֹפֶה וגו״; and though there may have been in all several structures of this description on Mount Lebanon (for according to 2Sa_8:6 David had set military garrisons in Damascene Syria), yet there could scarcely have been more than one that “looked toward Damascus,” i.e., which served for the military observation of this city, which since Rezon’s defection had become dangerous to Israel’s northern frontier (comp. 1Ki_11:23-24). Naturally enough it cannot now be accurately determined where this tower of Lebanon is to be looked for, whether at Fukra, in the neighborhood of which Robinson indicates a “remarkable tower” probably designed for military purposes (Zeitschr. d. Deutsch.-Morgenl. Gesellsch. VII. 1, 77), or at Magdol, a place in the same region, with a very ancient temple looking to the north (ibid., p. 72). At all events, however, this tower of Lebanon is totally distinct from the tower of David mentioned Son_4:4, and this the more certainly as the latter served to represent a majestic and beautifully ornamented neck, and the former a straight nose, forming a handsome profile.
Son_7:6. Thy head upon thee like Carmel.—On the somewhat inaccurate expression “thy head upon thee,” in which the head appears in some sort as an appendage to the entire man, comp. 2Ki_6:31; Jdg_14:18.—The main thing to be regarded in the comparison with Carmel is, that next to Lebanon it is the loftiest mountain in Northern Palestine, and for this reason perhaps it is often designated רֹאשׁ הַכַּרְמֶל “head of Carmel” (1Ki_18:42; Amo_9:3; comp. Jer_46:18); probably also there may be a subordinate reference to its being covered with dense woods, an emblem of a luxuriant growth of hair (Mic_7:14; comp. Son_5:13 a above)—whilst its loveliness, which Hengstenberg would have to be most of all regarded, is probably left out of the account.—And thy flowing looks like purple.—דַּלָּה here coma pendula—literally “the pendant, that which hangs down from thy head” (comp. Isa_38:12, where it denotes the thrum, i.e., the threads of the old web hanging down on the loom, to which the new are attached) from דללpendere, Job_38:4.—In the comparison of the hair with purple (אַרְגָּמָן particularly denoting the red purple in distinction from the dark violet-blue purple or תְּכֵלֶת) the color is not so much taken into consideration—for red hair, or such as at all inclines to a reddish cast, is not at all supposable in an Oriental beauty—as its dark lustre (comp. Son_5:11). As also with the Greeks πορφύρεος often has almost the same signification with μέλας, and hence, e.g., Anacreon (28:6, 7) uses πορφυραῖ χαῖται as the synonym of κόμαι μέλαιναι; Propertius, III., 17, 22, speaks of the purpurea coma of Nisus, and Suidas explains the Homeric κυανοχαίτης by “μελανόθριξ, πορφυρόθριξ” (other pertinent citations from Tibull., Virg., Cic., Plin., etc., see in Rosenm. and Döpke in loc.). It is, moreover, also possible that some purple ornament, that Shulamith may have worn braided in her hair (comp. Iliad, 17:52), gave occasion to the comparison; whilst there is no need whatever of supposing an allusion to the later custom among the Hebrew women of dying their hair with henna and the like to give it a yellowish red appearance. Comp. Döpke in loc. and Winer R.-W.-B., Art. “Haar.”—A king fettered by curls. The noble lustre of his beloved’s head of hair just described makes the transition easy to the powerful effect which it, or more particularly her wonderfully beautiful locks, has wrought on him, her royal lover (comp. Son_4:9). On the comparison of pretty locks with nets or snares, in which the lover is caught, Sir_9:3-4, as well as numerous parallels from Oriental poets (in Ewald, Heiligst., and Döpke); also Pro_6:25, where this ensnaring effect is attributed to the eye-lashes, as Ecc_7:26, to the arms of the beloved object. The Vulg., Syr., Luth., and more recently Weissbach and Friedrich connect6מֶלֶךְ with אַרְגָּמָן: “as the king’s purple,” or as “purple of a king,” but in so doing involve themselves in inextricable difficulties in the explanation of the concluding words: אָסוּר בָּֽרְהָטים (e.g., Friedrich: “as the purple of a king that is unbound like the folds in the troughs;” Weissbach: “as a king’s purple fastened in running water”—where an allusion is supposed to the purple dye-houses on the Phœnician side of Carmel)!
9. Third Scene, a.Solomon: Son_7:7-11.
Son_7:7. How fair art thou, and how comely, O love, among delights.—It is no more necessary here than in Son_3:10, to take אַהֲבָה in the sense of אֲהֻבָה, as is done by the Vulg. (“charissima”) and Syr., or to point it accordingly as Hitzig proposes. We evidently have to do with an apostrophe to love as such, like that contained in Son_4:10, only for the more concrete idea “thy love,” the more universal one of love in general is here substituted. אַהֲבָה has substantially the same sense as in Son_2:7, Son_5:8, Son_8:6-7, or as in 2Sa_1:26, etc. In a strangely arbitrary manner Weissbach takes אַהֲבָה in its proper infinitive sense as in apposition with the predicate not as a vocative: “how fair art thou, and how comely, a loving in delight”—which is made to mean “one, to love whom awakens delight.”—תַּעֲנוּגִים (or תַּעֲנוּגוֹת Ecc_2:8) are not “caresses” (Hengstenb.), but the sensations of pleasure connected with them, “joys, delights” (comp. Pro_19:10, Mic_1:16; Mic_2:9). Solomon does not mean by it vulgar, carnal pleasure, but the sweet joys of connubial intercourse, as he now experiences them anew in embracing Shulamith.—On the necessity of assuming either an exit of the chorus, or their withdrawal to the back-ground during the enthusiastic manifestations of conjugal tenderness which begin here, comp. above, No. 2, p. 100, where all that was necessary is noted respecting the propriety of having a new scene begin with this verse.
Son_7:8. This thy stature resembles a palm tree. The זֹאת “this” before קוֹמָתֵךְ “thy stature” is commonly regarded as referring back to the description of the beauty of the beloved, contained in Son_7:2-6, which however is the more inadmissible, as separate parts only of the body were there spoken of, for whose combination into one idea מַרְאֶה (Son_5:15), and not קוֹמָה, would have been the proper expression. Delitzsch correctly remarks: “As he lets her go from his arms, he surveys her figure with his eyes, and finds it like the palm-tree,” etc. To get a lively impression of her towering stature (comp. קוֹמָה in Isa_10:33; Eze_31:3; Psa_37:24), he must have let go of her for a moment at least, and have contemplated her more from a distance. The female name Tamar, which is not an unusual one in the Old Test., is based upon the comparison, which is quite a favorite with oriental poets, of a tall and slender stature with the palm (comp. Fraehn on Ibn Fossl., p. 72; also Homer, Od. vii. 160). And thy breasts clusters,i.e. those of the palm-tree, by which must be intended the date-palm, loaded with its clusters of fruit (correctly Rosenmueller, Böttcher, Hitzig), especially as it is not until the following verse that the transition is made to clusters of grapes, which are expressly designated as such by the addition of הַגֶּפֶּן “the vine.” That the date clusters are rather hard, and to that extent appear not to correspond to the swelling softness of the breasts, does not impair the suitableness of the comparison, as the only thing regarded is the form (vs. Weissb.) Moreover, the mention of breasts again in this passage (comp. Son_7:4) proves that the preceding description (Son_7:2-6) is not closely connected with that before us, and consequently that Weissbach’s opinion that twelve beauties are designedly enumerated in Son_7:2-11 (viz., the stature and the breasts, in addition to the preceding ten), lacks confirmation.
Son_7:9. I resolve I will climb the palm-tree,אָמַרְתִּי is not to be taken as a preterite “I said,” or “I resolved,” at some former time, etc., as though these words referred back to Son_5:1 (so Vulg., Luther, etc.), but as a present, since several other wishes are uttered in what follows, but no mention is made of any previous fulfilment of these wishes. Comp. also תְּשׁוּקָתוֹ Son_7:11, which plainly points to a fond desire of her lover, just manifested afresh, not to one entertained at a former period. I will grasp its boughs.סַנְסִנִּים lit. “that which is on top” (kindred with תלל ,סלל to lift up), i.e., the branches and leaves forming the crown of the palm-tree. A more particular interpretation of the figure, e.g., so that the nose and mouth, which her lover wished to kiss, are here intended by the “branches” (Weissb.), is inadmissible, and leads to offences against good taste.—And be thy breasts, please, like clusters of the vine (comp. on Son_7:8), and the breath of thy nose like apples. Nothing more is here expressed than the design to kiss, or to revel in the beauty and the sweetness of the face and the bosom of his beloved. Son_4:16; Son_5:1, is, therefore, not to be directly compared.—“The breath of the nose” (comp. Isa_2:22, 2Sa_22:16) is here expressly mentioned, because this is what is perceived in kissing the mouth. The figure of apples is the more appropriate, because the apple תַּפּוּחַ derives its name in Hebrew from its delightful fragrance.
Son_7:10. And thy palate like the best wine. The palate is not named here as the organ of speech (Hengstenb. and others), but as a substitute for the mouth or the lips in respect to the sweet breath or lovely kisses (comp. Son_5:13). יִיִן הַטּוֹב lit. “wine of the good” (comp. בִּרְכַּת־טוֹב Pro_24:25), is equivalent to “delightful, excellent wine.” See on this periphrasis for the adjective, Ewald, Lehrb. § 287, b [Green’s Heb. Gram., § 254, 6, b].—Going down for my beloved smoothly. As the supposition that לְדוֹדִי “for my beloved” has slipped in here by mistake from the 11th verse following (Amm., Heiligst., Hitz.: also Ewald formerly), is as arbitrary as its change to לְדוֹדַי “my love” (Velth., Meier), or to לְדוֹדִים “beloved ones, friends” (so Ewald now), there is no doubt that Shulamith here takes up the king’s words, in order as in Son_4:16 to continue his description, and to give him to understand, in the most flattering way, that she fully responds to his love, and is ready to grant him every enjoyment, of it.—Gliding over the lips of sleepers. Others: causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak (Mercerus, Hengstenb., Del., etc., connecting דּוֹבֵב with דִּבָּה speaking (in a bad sense), slander); or “causing the lips of sleepers to long for it” (Weissb.), etc. But for דבב—whence דּבֹ as the name of the bear with his slow and awkward gait—the signification “to flow gently,” or “to glide,” is suitable enough, and the meaning undoubtedly is, that pleasant tasting wine easily puts one to sleep, so that he who drinks it is insensibly overtaken by slumber (correctly Ew.). There is certainly no allusion to the saliva oris of two lovers united in a kiss, (according to the expression in Lucretius, “junguntque salivas oris,”etc.) for such an image of refined sensuality is inconceivable in the mouth of the chaste Shulamith.
Son_7:11. I am my beloved’s (comp. Son_6:3), and for me is his desire.—Lit.: “and on me (rests) his desire.” תְּשׁוּקָה as in Gen_3:16, the passage which lies at the basis of this, of the longing desire of the man for the society of his wife, not of gross sensual desires for sexual intercourse. The whole is a triumphant exclamation in which Shulamith joyfully affirms that her lover cannot exist without her, and it thus prepares the way for her making the request of him, which follows. With indescribable vulgarity Hitzig asserts that “the concubine here recognizes with faltering voice and bursting eyes the mutual necessity of love.”
10. Continuation and Conclusion. b. Shulamith’s victorious assault on Solomon’s heart, Son_7:12 to Son_8:4.
Son_7:12. Come, my beloved, let us go out to the country.—The beloved (דּוֹד) who is addressed, can be no other than the one addressed just before in Son_7:10-11, that is to say, Solomon, not the “shepherd,” to whom she certainly would not have been obliged in the first instance to have expressed her wish to escape from the contracted city walls into the country in the form of an earnest entreaty, and a fluent and impassioned persuasion, even if he were with her in Jerusalem (vs. Böttch., Hitz., Ren.); and if he was not with her, it was utterly useless to address these words to him when far remote (vs. Ew., Vaih.). Her persuasion is plainly directed to a lover, who was really present, and besides was seriously meant, not a mere fantastical make-believe request, a desire which the petitioner was convinced beforehand could not possibly be granted (vs. Weissb.).—Let us lodge in the villages.—To the country (שָׂדֶה) are here added villages (כְּפָרִים from כּפֶֹר 1Sa_6:18; construct כְּפַר) as in 1Ch_27:25. They are alone adapted to the idea of “lodging, passing the night” (לוּן), not “cypress-flowers” or “alhennas,” which Döderl., Ew., Meier unsuitably mingle in here, and which could scarcely have been so common then in the holy land, that people could sleep on them or under them (comp. on Son_1:14).—On the necessity of spending at least two nights on the way from Jerusalem to Shunem, see on Son_3:8 above (p. 82).
Son_7:13. Let us start early for the vineyards.—It is not vineyards lying on the route to Shunem, which they might visit on their way, that are here intended, but doubtless the vineyards at Shulamith’s home, and probably her own. For it was in these alone that she could take so lively an interest as is expressed in what follows.—We shall see whether the vine has sprouted, its blossoms opened.—The vines and pomegranates here named are the same as those in Son_6:11. Shulamith wishes to return with her lover to just those innocent rural occupations and pleasures, which are there described as belonging to her former mode of life. The season implied, as in Son_6:11 and in Son_2:11 ff., is the spring—that period in the year which most incites and allures to the enjoyment of external nature. It is inadmissible to suppose that precisely one year had elapsed between the spring depicted in those passages and that which is here implied (Hitz.). It is more probable—inasmuch as the whole action appears to run its course in two or three weeks (comp. on Son_2:8 ff. above, p. 69)—that the same spring is meant here as there, supposing the poet to have formed a clear conception of the intervals between the main particulars of the action.—There will I give thee my love.—דּוֹדַי means not “thy caresses bestowed on me,” but “mine bestowed on thee.” This to be sure, she has already granted him (see Son_4:16; Son_7:7 ff.), but not as yet continuously, nor without temporary disturbances and interruptions (comp. Son_6:4 f.; Son_6:11), nor as yet with the full and unreserved opening of her heart. But there (שָׁם with strong emphasis, as Amo_7:12) there amid the loveliness and joyous freedom of fair nature she will become entirely his.—Observe how little this passage again suits the so-called shepherd hypothesis; or even Weissbach’s supposition that Shulamith is not serious in uttering the wish before us, and that שָׁם אֶתֵּן is therefore to be taken conditionally: “There would I give—if it were only supposable that you could go with me” (?!).
Son_7:13. The mandrakes give forth their odor.—הַדּוּדָאִים are not “lilies” (Luther), but the fruit of the mandrake (mandragora vernalis, or atropa mandragora), a wild plant common in Palestine, particularly in Galilee (Schubert, Reise, III., 117), of the same genus with the belladonna, with small whitish-green blossoms, which in May or June become small yellow apples, about the size of a nutmeg, of a strong and agreeable odor (μῆλα εὔοσμα, Test. Issachar, 100:1; comp. Dioscorid. IV. Song 76: εὐώδη μετὰ βάρους τινός). As now these apples have a pleasant smell, but not the blossoms nor the plant itself, Shulamith of course refers to the former, and here therefore looks forward to a more advanced season than in Son_7:13—that is to say, the time of wheat harvest (see Gen_30:14), as in what follows in her mention of “this year’s fruit” her imagination goes still further forward.—These apples, according to Gen_30:14-16, were regarded as an artificial provocative of sexual love (whence also the name דּוּדָאִים from דּוֹדִים ,דּוֹד) even in the earliest Oriental antiquity; so also by the Greeks and Romans, by whom they were therefore called κιρκαία, Circeta (comp. also the name Ἀφροδίτη μανδραγορῆτις in Hesychius and Phavorinus), by the Arabs, who to this day call them tuffâh es-Shaitân, “Satan’s apples,” by all Christendom in the middle ages (see Graesse, Beiträge zur Litetur und Sage des Mittelalters, 1850), and by many still in modern times; comp., e.g., Father Myller in his Journey to the Promised Land: “This root (!), which I found in the wilderness of St. John the Baptist, and brought considerable of it away with me, has many medicinal virtues, removes barrenness, and makes efficacious love-potions.” (See Del., Genesis, p. 467.) Shulamith certainly does not name the dudaim here on account of these supposed aphrodisiac qualities, much less does she mean to intimate an intention to prepare a magic potion from them to excite her lover to a higher degree of affection. This fruit is rather to her in her innocence and simplicity merely the symbol of love, and her naming them here like the “excellent fruits of all sorts over our doors” is merely designed to add to the attractions and enjoyments of her home, which she had before mentioned, such as were new and less familiar to her lover (see Weissb. in loc.). Meier goes too far in seeking a symbolic sense for the words, when he understands “the love apples are fragrant” to mean simply “I am deeply in love,” and “the old fruit and the new” there mentioned to signify the sweet fruits of love, of which she would give him to partake, the old love which had been in existence hitherto, and the new, which would meanwhile grow up and reach a heightened intensity. See in opposition to this allegorizing, which fritters away the simple freshness of a description so true to nature for the sake of insipid trivialities, Hitz. and Weissb. in loc.—And over our doors are all sorts of excellent fruit, new as well as old.—By “our doors” Shulamith means the doors of her parental home in Shunem, where, besides her brothers and sister (Son_1:6; Son_8:8), her mother still lived (comp. Son_3:4; Son_8:2). This house had probably several doors, at all events a front and a back door, and likely also side doors, whence the plural. On shelves in the inside over these doors they may have kept choice ripe fruit, as is often done in our farmers’ houses; hence the עַל “over” before פְתָהֵינוּ “our doors,” which can neither mean “in front of” (Luther, v. Amm.), nor “within” (Magn.) nor “by” or “at” (Cocc., Hahn, Goltz, etc.). Pro_17:19 also seems to allude to a use of the beams or boards over the doors of rustic dwellings for keeping various objects (even if not exactly for the construction of regular store-rooms).—On מְגָדִים lit., “excellencies, precious things” comp. Son_4:13. כָּל־ refers to the various kinds of this fine fruit, not as Weissb. affirms, to the distinction between this year’s and last year’s fruit. As regards these two expressions (חֲדָשִׁים גַם יְשֵׁנִים), they are both to be taken in the same sense as Mat_13:52καινὰ καὶ παλαι̇ά (comp. also Lev_25:22; Lev_26:10), and as epithets limiting כָּל־מְגָדִים; they must not in violation of the accents be connected with the final clause “I have, my beloved, laid up for thee” (vs. Magn., Del., Meier). This as well as the reference of the verb צָפַנְתִּי to the whole sentence from עַל־פְּתָחֵינוּ onward, as if the last three clauses of the verse formed one long period (Ew., Umbr., Weissb.) is inadmissible, for though she might speak of having stored old or last year’s fruit for her lover, the same could not be said of this year’s, which had still to ripen and grow.
See Son_8:1 for DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL.
Footnotes:
[1][The abruptness with which this verse is introduced and the ambiguity of some of its expressions make its meaning extremely doubtful and have led to a variety of uncertain conjectures, but do not justify the acceptance of the incredible sense here put upon it. According to the view which is entertained of the context it has been supposed to be addressed to the bride, who was rising to leave the speakers (Taylor), or had been borne away from them by her inward rapture figuratively described in the preceding verse (Moody Stuart), or who had parted from them in company with her husband (Patrick), or who was timidly shrinking from meeting him (Williams, Good, the latter of whom renders thus: “virgins.—‘Return, return, O bride of Solomon! Return, return, that we may yet respect thee.’ Royal Bride.—‘What do you expect from the bride of Solomon?’ Virgins.—‘Fortitude, like the conflict of two armies’ ”). Or it is thought to be a call upon the bride to return from her alienation to her husband (Ainsworth, Burrowes, as well as Wordsworth, who thinks that the iteration of the appeal denotes a summons “to both Jew and Gentile to return to God and to one another in Christ and His Church”), or to return in peace from victorious conflict (Thrupp, who compares Jos_10:21; Jdg_8:9; Jdg_11:31; 1Ki_22:28).—Tr.]
[2][The article as well as the form of the noun certainly favor its derivation from the place of her birth or residence. The chief objections to it are, first that Shunem is never called Shulem in the Bible but always Shunem and its inhabitants Shunammites; and secondly, the bride is called a prince’s daughter, Son_7:2. The derivation from Solomon (to which Clarke compares Charlotte from Charles, Henrietta from Henry, etc.), is favored by most English commentators, and still divides the suffrages of the learned, though it does not satisfactorily account for the form of the name nor explain the presence of the article. Its derivation from Salem in the sense of Jerusalem, as though it were equivalent to Jerusalemite, as Gill and others suggest after Kimchi and Aben Ezra is utterly inadmissible. Others follow the example of Aquila (έιρηνεν̓ονσα) and attribute to it an appellative sense as derived from the root שׁלם; so Patrick: “perfect,” and Thrupp: “The peace-laden, lit., the bepeaced. The name is derived from the same root as Solomon and stands in partial correspondence with it.”—Tr.]
[3][There is no reason for suspecting an indelicacy in this perfectly harmless expression. Neither the words employed, the mode of their employment, nor the connection in which they stand warrant such an imputation. Noyes correctly says the “spiced wine” is “mentioned merely to set off the beauty and richness of the cup.” Moody Stuart: “The dress of the bride is described throughout except where clothing is not worn, as on the neck and the face. The proof of this is ample and irresistible in the very first line of the picture—the feet ‘beautiful with shoes.’ The person might have been clothed, while the feet were unshod; but it was impossible that the feet should be beautified with the finest sandals, without the whole person being arranged as a bride adorned for her husband. Both the terms, therefore, in this verse are of necessity parts of dress covering the corresponding parts of the person, according to the tendency in all languages to transfer the names that designate the living body to the dress that both conceals and adorns it. There is a great agreement of critics, as well as obvious suitableness in interpreting the goblet of wine as an image of the clasp that secures the girdle, composed probably of rubies to which wine is often compared.” So substantially also Patrick, Harmer, Parkhurst, Taylor, Williams, and others. Good, on the contrary, objects to the opinion “that the royal poet, instead of delineating the personal charms, ‘the unbought graces’ of his accomplished fair, is merely describing her different habiliments with the splendid figures which were wrought on them. Against such an interpretation I cannot but strongly protest, as equally unpoetical, and unjust to the text. In the literal sense of the original, I see no indelicacy whatever, and there ought to be no indelicacy in its translation. The royal bard is merely assuming a liberty, and that in the chastest manner possible, which we are daily conceding in our age to every painter and sculptor of eminence.” Good coincides in opinion with Zöckler, that “navel” is here used in a wide sense for “the whole of the surrounding region,” and proposes the rendering “waist.” Adopting this suggestion, Burrowes presents the following picture as his conception of the figure here described: “First, the feet more beautiful in the elegant sandals; then the contour, the folds of the bridal dress falling around the hips, graceful as the curvature of a rich necklace wrought by a finished hand; next, the body like a heap of wheat encompassed with lilies; then, the waist expanding into the bosom, elegant as a goblet rounded gracefully upwards, and filled with the richest spiced wine.” Scott: “Comeliness of person, not richness of attire or ornament, is intended; otherwise the commendations would be equally appropriate to the most deformed, if splendidly attired, as to the most beautiful; nor is there any need to remove the garments in order to distinguish a very well proportioned and comely person from others in the most ordinary intercourse of life. Either men or women may disguise themselves by decoration; but becoming raiment sets off the form of those who wear it.”]
[4][So Thrupp: “That gate of Heshbon which opened northeastward in the direction of Rabbah of Ammon,” or “the gate of approach to the pools, the portal through which the multitude of the Gentile world presses to drink to the full of the clear and unruffled waters of Christian doctrine.”]
[5][The correct translation is “the tower of Lebanon,” the entire expression being rendered definite by the article before the last noun; See Green’s Heb. Gram. § 246, 3.—Tr.]
[6][So too Houbigant and Thrupp; the latter of whom renders: “like royal purple enfixed among the wainscotings. The picture is that of a rich chamber, on the walls of which are carved wooden panels alternate with purple hangings. The former serve to relieve and to show off the beauty of the latter, to which latter the well-ordered and well-fastened tresses of the bride’s hair are compared.”]
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 vv1–13 1. In the Hebrew Bible this chapter begins with…
1. In the Hebrew Bible this chapter begins with the last verse of the preceding, and such seems to be the better arrangement. If the first and last periods of that verse were spoken by the Chorus, still the speaker now must be the King. In the compliments of these following verses nothing is noticed more than it has always been allowed to painters and sculptors to portray. The King, as is most fitting to his well-known character, takes greater license in his praises, and this goes to prove the naturalness of the Song. It is far from necessary to suppose that all the parts of the person here described were exposed to view. The modesty of the maiden, unaffected by the warm and amorous language of the King, is seen to recoil from all these blandishments as being distasteful. They have the same effect on her as on any pure and highminded girl in any land or age. It is a masterstroke on the part of the writer of the Song to show thus delicately the amorousness which was the king’s undoing here failing to win its object, and appearing odious in the light of truth and virtue, however artfully disguised in poetic flatteries.
Shoes — Better, sandals. The sandals of Eastern ladies are often highly ornamented, and are much noticed.
Read full note →
O prince’s daughter — Hebrew, noble girl. There is no allusion to her pedigree, but to her character.
Like jewels — That is, delicately wrought and highly finished.
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 vv1–13 1. thy feet with shoes] Lit. thy steps in…
1. thy feet with shoes] Lit. thy steps in sandals. Budde emphasises the fact that the feet are not spoken of here, but the steps, i.e. in his view the dancing movements of the feet in the sword dance. Oettli on the other hand emphasises the shoes, pointing out that the country maiden had probably not worn them before, but the ladies say how well she walks, and how well they become her. The latter is the sense which accords best with the view of the poem which we have taken.
O prince’s daughter] This does not mean that the bride was actually of a noble family. Even if Budde’s interpretation of the poem were accepted, it would be a strange thing to call the bride a nobleman’s daughter, for it would be ridiculous to call a peasant bride, who was a queen only as a bride, a prince’s daughter, and even if Abishag were referred to she was not that either. Nor can the phrase be a substitute for queen, for strictly speaking Solomon’s queens were not noblemen’s but kings’ daughters. On the dramatic view, bath nâdhîbh must mean ‘a born lady’ as we say, i.e. one who would adorn any station. Siegfried thinks that the words arise from a confusion with the Shunammite woman in 2Ki_4:8, who is called ‘a great woman,’ i.e. a woman of good position. Cheyne would read here, as in Son_6:12, daughter of delights. That would suit our view admirably, but there seems to be no sufficient support for it.
Read full note →
The joints of thy thighs are like jewels] Probably this should be rendered as in the R.V. margin, Thy rounded thighs are like jewels, except that the diminutive force which the word ‘jewels’ has is rather inappropriate here, where some large ornament must be meant. The graceful curves of the hips are for beauty of form like ornaments. Some with less probability explain the word to mean the rhythmical movements of the dance.
a cunning workman] Cunning, of course, is used here in the old sense of ‘skilful,’ and probably ’ommân is equivalent to ’âmôn, a skilled artisan. Stade, Gramm. p. 12, gives it as a word of the Northern dialect.
Chap. Son_7:1-6. The Praises of the Ladies of the Hareem
This song or section contains the praises of the Shulammite by the ladies of the hareem; but the circumstances under which the words are spoken are in no way indicated. Some, as Oettli, would make it part of the previous scene. But we can hardly suppose that her dress in the presence of Solomon would be such as to suggest the kind of references to her person here made. It would rather seem to us that they were made in the privacy of the women’s apartments, when the Shulammite was being dressed by the women of the court to receive Solomon. In that case it would stand by itself as a separate picture. The object of this fulsome flattery would be to induce her to accept the king’s addresses. The phrase ‘a king is prisoner in its locks’ (Son_7:5) is the climax, and reveals the purpose of the whole.
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, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 (1) How beautiful . . .—Literally, How beautiful are…
VII.
(1) How beautiful . . .—Literally, How beautiful are thy feet (or thy steps) in the sandals. This description of the beauty of the bride—
Read full note →
“From the delicate Arab arch of her feet
To the grace that, bright and light as the crest
Of a peacock, sits on her shining head”—
is plainly connected with the dance mentioned in the last verse, and possibly proceeds in this order, instead of from the head downwards, because the feet of a dancer would first attract attention. See end of Excursus III.
O prince’s daughter!—Heb. Bath-nadib (the LXX. keep Ναδαβ)—evidently again suggested by Amminadib, in Son_6:12. But as the allusion there cannot be recovered, nothing relating to the rank of the heroine can be deduced from the recurrence of nadib (= noble) here. The reference may be to character rather than descent, just as in the opposite expression, “daughter of Belial” (1Sa_1:16).
Joints.—Heb. chamûk, from chamah—went away, probably refers to the rapid movements in dancing, and the image is suggested by the graceful curves formed by a chain or pendulous ornament when in motion. Or the reference may be to the contour of the person.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 13 How beautiful are thy feet in sandals, O prince"s…
How beautiful are thy feet in sandals, O prince"s daughter! The joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman. To the ladies who are looking on the bride appears simply noble and royal. The word naudhib which is used, translated "prince"s daughter," means "noble in disposition," and so in birth and rank, 1Sa_2:8 Psa_113:8; so in Son_6:12, "the princely people." The description, which is perfectly chaste, is intended to bring before the eye the lithe and beautiful movements of an elegant,lancer; the bendings of the body, full of activity and grace, are compared to the swinging to and fro of jewelled ornaments made in chains. The cunning workman or artist is one who is master of that which abides beautiful. Ma, like, ymiy, "whose truthful work can be trusted." The description passes from the thighs or loins to the middle part of the body, because in the mode of dancing prevailing in the East the breast and the body, are raised, and the outlines of the form appear through the clothing, which is of a light texture. We must not expect to find a symbolical meaning for all the details of such a description. The general intention is to set forth the beauty and glory of the bride. The Church of Christ is most delightful in his sight when it is most full of activity and life, and every portion of it is called forth into manifest excellence. Arise, shine," is the invitation addressed to the whole Church, "shake thyself from the dust," "put on thy beautiful garments," be ready for thy Lord.
Vers. 1-5. The chorus of maidens praise the beauty of the bride.
Read full note →
I THE PRELUDE.
1. The address. They address her as, "O prince"s daughter." She is not a king"s daughter, like the bride of Psalm 45, but she is of honourable extraction. Though she lived in the retired district of Lebanon, and had been brought up there in rustic occupations, her family was one of some distinction. So Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth, was recognized by the angel Gabriel, and was known among men by the testimony of accepted genealogies as "the son of David." The bride always speaks humbly of herself, (as in Son_1:5, Son_1:6) but the daughters of Jerusalem praise her. Such praise was common at nuptial festivals, the literal translation of Psa_78:63, "Their maidens were not given in marriage," seems to be, "Their maidens were not praised." The daughters of Jerusalem do not regard the bride with envy; they do not despise her because of her former low estate; they rather bring forward every point that may tend to her praise. We should be like them in this respect. Jealousy is one of the most common of evil tempers; even the Lord"s apostles were jealous of one another, and that in the very presence of the Master; again and again they disputed among themselves which should be the greatest. (Mat_18:1 Luk_22:24) We must covet earnestly the blessed grace of charity charity which "envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, cloth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. We must pray fervently, "From envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness, good Lord, deliver us.
2. The bride"s approach. "How beautiful are thy feet with shoes!" The word here rendered "feet" more generally means steps; this has been taken as an argument in favour of "the dance of Mahanaim," mentioned above. It is used also for "feet;" but even if we take it in its more common sense, the words of the chorus may be well understood of the approach of the bride, and perhaps also of the queenly grace of her movements. The opening words remind us of the prophecy of Isaiah, quoted by St. Paul in Rom_10:15, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!". (Isa_52:7) We have learned to see in the bride of the Song of Songs a figure of the Church, which is the bride of Christ. The mission of the Church is to "make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever the Lord commanded". (Mat_28:19) The heavenly Bridegroom is with the bride while she obeys his precept; for he adds, "Lo, I am with you all the days, even unto the end of the ages." Therefore "the Spirit and the bride say, Come". (Rev_20:1-7) The Church, taught and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, calls men to the knowledge of Christ. Her feet are beautiful as, "shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace", (Eph_6:15) she moves ever onward, bringing the light of truth into the regions that were lying in darkness and the shadow of death. Missionary work is a most important part of the duty of the Church; when carried on in faith and love and forgetfulness of self, it is beautiful in the sight of God.
II PRAISES IN DETAIL
1. Of her clothing. The chorus begins by praising, not simply the feet, but the sandalled feet, of the bride; they admire her sandals. From this we may infer that other terms used here relate rather to the clothing which covered the various parts of the body. It is the royal robes, with their ornaments and embroidery, which are like rows of jewels, or like a round goblet (see the word translated "round" in Isa_3:18, where it is rendered, "round tires like the moon"), or like a heap of wheat set about with lilies. Comp. Psa_45:9, Psa_45:13, Psa_45:14, "Kings" daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir." "The king"s daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee." So the bride, the Lamb"s wife, shall be "arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints". (Rev_19:8) "The king"s daughter is all glorious within." The Hebrew word, indeed, means "within the palace," in the inner apartment. But we know that the adorning of the Church, when she appears "as a bride adorned for her husband", (Rev_21:2) is "not that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel, but the hidden man of the heart". (1Pe_3:3, 1Pe_3:4) She will then be all glorious within, in the spiritual sense of the word, a glorious Church, holy and without blemish; and the Christian soul must even now put on that white linen which is the righteousness of saints, with the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. Indeed, "our righteousnesses are but as filthy rags"; (Isa_64:6) but Christ "of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness"; (1Co_1:30) and St. Paul teaches us that "as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ". (Gal_3:27) We must "keep ourselves pure"; (1Ti_5:22) we must take jealous and anxious heed so to live in the faith of Christ and in the communion of the Holy Ghost as to keep that white robe unspotted from the world. (Jam_1:27) And if we have marred and stained it, as, alas! we too often do, by carelessness and sin, we must come to God in humble penitence and confession, asking him to give us grace to wash our robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb; for we believe that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin, and that even they who have fallen into grievous sin may, if they turn to God in sorrow and contrition, be made "whiter than snow". (Psa_51:7) The king"s daughter must be all glorious within; she must put on the wedding garment of righteousness. Let us seek that costly robe to be our own; we may gum it through the. grace of Christ if we earnestly desire it, hungering and thirsting after it.
2. Of herself. Her neck was white as the ivory which King Solomon imported and used largely for purposes of decoration; (1Ki_10:18, 1Ki_10:22) her eyes in their liquid beauty were like the pools at Heshbon; her brow stately as the tower of Lebanon; her head beautiful as the summit of Carmel; her hair like the deepest shade of Tyrian purple the king (the chorus continues) is held captive in its tresses. The beauty of the bride is a stately, regal beauty; her neck and her brow are compared to towers, her head to the mountain so famous in the history of Elijah. So in the Book of the Revelation, when the angel had said to St. John, "Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb"s wife," "he carried me," the evangelist continues, "away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from. (Rev_21:9, Rev_21:10) Here, again, the bride, which is the Church, is compared to a city, a city built upon an exceeding high mountain, according to the Saviour"s prophecy, "Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it". (Mat_16:18) St. John dwells in ardent words upon the heavenly beauty of the bride, which is the city of the living God; he tells us of her stately gates, of her vast dimensions, of her jewelled foundations, of her "streets of pure gold as it were transparent glass." The glories of that heavenly city draw the Christian soul mightily with a constraining power, as King Solomon was held captive in the dark tresses of his bride. The Lord "loveth the gates of Zion"; (Psa_87:1) the heavenly Bridegroom loved the Church, and gave himself for it. Christians, taught by him, set their affection on the heavenly city; they love to meditate upon its glories; they count its towers and mark its palaces, the many mansions in our Father"s house; confessing that they are pilgrims and strangers here, they seek the continuing city, which is to come. "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city". (Rev_22:14)
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, 5, 11 How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O Princes…
Son_7:1
How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O Princes daughter!
Read full note →
Beautiful with sandals
The Great Redeemer, the Heavenly Bridegroom, is now represented under the leading emblem of the Book, as surveying the beauties and excellences of His betrothed bride.
The whole chapter is an apostrophe to her. She is in herself full of conscious unworthiness. But He sees her clothed in the bridal attire of His own righteousness, and instead of upbraiding her for avowed imperfections, He begins with the words, How beautiful are thy sandalled feet, O Princes daughter!
I. The Churchs or the Believers name--Daughter and Princes daughter.
1. She is called daughter. This points to the tender relation subsisting between Christ and His people. When Jehovah in the Old Testament speaks most endearingly of His ancient Church, He calls it The Daughter of Zion. He employs, indeed, manifold figures, all indicative of strong and ardent attachment. As one whom his mother comforteth. Can a woman forget her sucking child? Like as a father pitieth his children. I will be a Father unto you.
2. But again, she is a Princes daughter. He reminds her of her pedigree. It is no ordinary birth. She is one of the adopted children of the King of kings. Their glory is His glory.
II. The subject of commendation: How beautiful are thy feet with shoes.
1. The shoe, or sandal, in ancient times, and in Oriental countries, was the badge of freedom and honour. The crouching slave never wore a sandal. The unsandalled feet was the badge and mark of subjection, if not of degradation. When the Lord, therefore, in the text speaks of His betrothed brides feet being beautiful with shoes, what is this but to proclaim that she--type of every believer--is translated from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God?
2. Shoes or sandals were emblems of joy: while the want of these was equally recognized and regarded as a symbol of grief and sorrow. And is not the Christian called to be joyful? Yes, Gods children are indeed, really, and in truth, alone of all, in this sin-stricken world, entitled to the epithet of happy.
3. The sandals on the feet speak of activity and duty, and preparedness for Christs service. They point to the nature of the journey the believer is pursuing. Though a pleasant road, and a safe road, and a road with a glorious termination, it is at times rough; a path of temptation and trial. Unshod feet would be cut and lacerated with the stones and thorns and briars which beset it. The figure, moreover, suggests, that there can be no loitering or lingering on the way. (J. R. Macduff, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 8, 10, 11 Son_7:5 : The King is held in the galleries.…
Notes
Son_7:5 : The King is held in the galleries. ‘In the galleries.’ בָּרְהָטִים (ba-rehatim), plural of רַהַט, a gutter, rafter, gallery, a hair or ringlet; from רָהַט, an unused root, like the Aramaia רְהַט to run or flow. Here, according to most moderns, a ringlet or lock. A king is fettered in the locks EWALD, DE WETTE, DELITZSCH Her locks or curls viewed as nets or snares. ZÖCKLER. The king is held captive in the flowing ringlets. GOOD. Captivated by the locks. NOTES. According to other interpreters, the word is used in the sense of ‘galleries’ or ‘corridors,’ that run along the sides of a house, or pass from one chamber to another. Places to walk in. JUNIUS, PISCATOR. So the SEPTUAGINT: A king is bound in the galleries (παραδορομαις), DUTCH VERSION: The king is as bound on the galleries. MUNSTER: Bound to the galleries to contemplate thee. JUNIUS: Any king would thus be held in the galleries. According to others, the word here denotes beams or rafters. MERCER: Is bound as it were to the beams of the house to look at thee. VATABLUS: Bound to the beams of his own house for excessive love. Some connect the word מֶלֶךְ (melek), a king, with the last word in the preceding verse, ‘the purple of a king,’ or royal purple, and thus understand בָּרְהָטִים of the ‘gutters,’ or canals used by dyers for dying the purple. So the VULGATE. The purple of a king bound in the canals. WICKLIFF and DOUAI VERSION. Joined or tied to water-pipes. So ABEN EZRA, LEO JUDA, GOGUET, &c. Others, following the same construction, translate ‘plaits or folds.’ COVERDALE and MATTHEWS The purple of a king folden up in plaits. LUTHER. Bound in folds. DIODATI, giving the meaning of ‘rafters.’ Attached to scaffolds. HOUBIGANT. Royal purple hanging in a knot from the ceiling. FRY. Bound on the rafters: allusion to some rich canopy of state suspended from the roof of the palace. THRUPP. Like royal purple fixed among the wainscottings. SANCTIUS gives a different meaning to בָּרְהָטִים—gold or silver headbands. So MICHAELIS. As the king encircled with a straight turban. Thus allegorized: RASHI. The King—God himself—is bound by the love and obedience of His people. ABEN EZRA and ALSHECH. The King—Messiah—born, according to ancient Rabbies, on the day Jerusalem was destroyed. RUPERT: The Saviour’s passion, the more glorious the longer it was preceded by typical sacrifices. AINSWORTH and GILL. Christ the King abruptly breaks off in His description of the Church’s beauty, to discover to her His love and affection. DAVIDSON and WORDSWORTH. The Church’s King dispenses His grace through the appointed channels,—the ordinances of the Gospel, and the Scriptures of truth. HAHN. The love of the King and his people gained by the beauty of Shulamite’s humility and poverty of spirit.
Read full note →
SHULAMITE’S BEAUTY CONTEMPLATED AND ADMIRED
Chap. 7. Son_7:1-7
How beautiful are thy feet with shoes,
O Prince’s daughter!
The joints of thy thighs are like jewels,
The work of the hands of a cunning workman.
Thy navel is like a round goblet,
That wanteth not liquor.
Thy belly is like a heap of wheat,
Set about with lilies.
Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins.
Thy neck is as a tower of ivory.
Thine eyes like the fishpools in Heshbon,
By the gate of Bathrabbim.
Thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon,
That looketh towards Damascus.
Thy head upon thee is like Carmel,
And the hair of thy head like purple;
The King is held in the galleries.
How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights!
This thy stature is like to a palm tree,
And thy breasts to clusters of grapes.
Shulamite, encouraged by his gracious call, now appears in the presence of the King. The King, probably accompanied by his female attendants, contemplates and admires with them her sweetness and beauty. The eye surveys her whole figure, including her ornaments and attire, which, as in the case of the shoes, can alone meet the view. These latter, however, admired and mentioned as tending to set off her beauty.
The title here given to Shulamite observable—‘Prince’s daughter.’ Probably not so originally, but—
(1) Through union with Solomon.
(2) As worthy to be such—her beauty, dignity and grace, such as to become a prince’s daughter, while her spirit and disposition were such as to suggest a royal extraction. The Church of Christ, and believers individually, fitly so called, as—
(1) Born of God, the King eternal (Joh_1:12; 2Co_6:18; 1Jn_3:1).
(2). United to Christ, the ‘Prince of the Kings of the earth,’ as His Bride (Rev_19:7; Rev_21:9).
(3) Princely in their rank and possessions—kings and priests unto God, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, to inherit all things (Rev_1:6; Rev_21:7; Rom_8:17).
(4). Endowed with a princely spirit, disposition, and bearing (Isa_32:5-8; Psa_37:21; 2Sa_24:22-23; 2Co_8:1-4). Believers raised by sovereign grace as beggars from the dung-hill to sit with princes, and to inherit the throne of glory (1Sa_2:8; Psa_113:7).
In the contemplation of Shulamite by the the king and his attendants, and in the description of her loveliness and grace, her ‘feet,’ or rather steps, and the ‘shoes’ she wore, the first object noticed. Perhaps the attention first struck by her graceful and becoming gait as she ‘returned’ and approached the king. The shoes of Oriental females of rank always beautifully and richly ornamented. The feet thus adorned indicative of a princely condition. The ‘feet,’ or steps, suggestive of the believer’s walk and daily life. Practical holiness and devotion to the Lord’s service a great part of spiritual beauty. This especially noticed by the Lord Jesus. ‘Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.’ Indolence and sloth no part of a believer’s character. The ‘shoes’ of the believer the ‘preparation’ given him by ‘the Gospel of peace,’ for holy active service or patient enduring of the Master’s will. The feet to be ‘beautiful with shoes,’ in imitating the Bridegroom who ‘went about doing good,’ and, according to ability, publishing the glad tidings of peace (Isa_52:7; Rom_10:15). Carrying the tidings of salvation to a perishing world, the work peculiarly committed to the Bride of Christ, and that in which great part of her beauty is seen. The distinction of the Pentecostal Church—they ‘went every where preaching the Lord Jesus’ (Act_8:4; Act_11:19-20; 2Jn_1:7). The New Testament Church to be not merely evangelical, but evangelistic. Called not merely to hold, but to hold forth the Word of Life (Php_2:16). Her beauty not merely in holy walking, but in lowly working. The Church essentially a missionary institution, established by her Lord before He went up to heaven, and fitted for her work by the promised gift of the Holy Ghost (Mat_28:20; Luk_24:46-49).
The order in the former descriptions of the Bride’s beauty here reversed. Commencing with the ‘feet,’ advances upwards. Perhaps the Church here especially exhibited as seen by men. The world can see the believer’s walk and judge of that. Men mark how ‘the Christian lives. His inward life ‘hid with Christ in God.’ The outward walk suggested also by the next object mentioned in the description. ‘The joints (or roundings) of thy thighs are like jewels,’ &c. The gait as well as appearance of the Bride’s figure still probably in view. The comparison to ‘jewels’ perhaps suggested by the eye falling on the Bride’s jewelled girdle. The description, as expressive of the life of the New Testament Church, verified in Act_2:42-47; Act_4:32-37; Heb_10:32-36. That life the production of a Divine workman (Eph_2:10; Gal_5:22). The Divine life of believers the result of the renewing of the Holy Ghost (Tit_3:5).
In the description of this and the parts next named, as in the case of the feet, the dress that clothed them only visible, and the subjects only of the comparisons, namely: ‘the navel’ or girdle-clasp which covered it, and the belly or body with the breasts, described by the light coloured dress of golden tissue embroidered with white flowers—the ‘garments of wrought gold’ and the ‘raiment of needlework’ worn by the Bride (Psa_45:13-14). The comparisons, like the mention of the parts themselves, more according to the style of Oriental than of modern European poetry. The parts now mentioned more especially connected with maternity, always highly esteemed in the East; and the comparisons chosen accordingly. The navel, or girdle-clasp, compared to a round goblet, replenished with wine; the breasts to two young beautiful gazelles—the emblems of love and beauty (Pro_5:19); and the body, or the robe which clothed it, to a heap of wheat surrounded, as is said to have been the custom at a harvest festivity, with lilies or other flowers. The Church, like Shulamite, to be ‘not only a beautiful Bride, but a fruitful mother.’ The New Testament or Gentile Church, the ‘barren woman made to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children’ (Psa_113:9). To the free Jerusalem, which is above, and which is the mother of all believers, the Prophet, followed by the Apostle, cries: ‘Rejoice, O barren, thou that didst not bear; for more are the children of the desolate than of her which hath an husband’ (Isa_54:1; Gal_4:26-27). That Church represented by such as Paul himself, when he says: ‘My little children, of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you.’ ‘We were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children (Gal_4:19; 1Th_2:7). The bodily parts, and the comparisons in the text, suggestive of a mother, not only bearing, but nourishing, her children. The goblet of wine, the lily-girdled heap of wheat, and the two fawn-like breasts, not unsuitable emblems of the nourishment which the Church, as a spiritual mother, extends to her children in the word and sacraments: the cup of blessing which she blesses, the bread which she breaks, and the pure milk of the Word, which she administers. A ‘heap of wheat set about with lilies,’ a suggestive emblem of what should be the character of
Ministerial Discourses.
1. A ‘heap of wheat.’ Solid spiritual food, consisting of pure Scripture truth, the food God feeds His people with. ‘I should have fed thee with the finest of the wheat’ (Psa_81:16). The spiritual ‘corn,’ which, under the New Testament, should ‘make the young men cheerful’ (Zec_9:17). The ‘truth as it is in Jesus’ the ‘bread that strengtheneth man’s heart,’ and makes it glad. ‘Thy words were found unto me, and I did eat them; and Thy word was the joy and rejoicing of my heart.’ The Word of God that by which the ‘young men’ are made strong, and are enabled to ‘overcome the wicked One’ (1Jn_2:14). That ‘wheat’ Christ Himself in His person, offices, and work. Christ the ‘grain of wheat’ which, falling into the ground and dying, brings forth much fruit (Joh_12:24). The bread of life which came down from heaven, ‘of which if a man eat he shall live for ever.’ A discourse to feed the souls of the hearers, to be, not merely truth, but ‘the truth as it is in Jesus.’ To be a heap of wheat. Therefore to be well winnowed. The chaff of mere human fancies, speculations, or traditions, to be carefully excluded. ‘What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces’ (Jer_23:28-29). The most useful discourses those that have most of Bible truth in Bible language. No words, for power and efficacy, ‘like the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth’ (1 Corinthians 2, 13). Discourses not only to have the truth, but to have it in abundance. Not a handful, but a heap of wheat. Ministers to preach a full Christ—a Christ who is both Prophet, Priest, and King. Discourses to contain both doctrine, promise, and precept; the things to be believed, and the things to be done; the things done on God’s side, and the things to be done on ours. A fulness in Christ and the truth concerning Him that is inexhaustible. Discourses also to exhibit the truth in a connected, orderly, and methodical manner. A heap of wheat—compact and orderly, not mere loose and scattered grains. Divine evangelical truth a compact whole, with order, connection, and mutual dependence in its parts. Both law and Gospel, doctrine and duty, to have their proper place and proportion. Christ taught the people as they were able to hear it. The foundation to be laid in first principles, and so ‘to go on to perfection’ or higher truths (Heb_5:11-14; Heb_6:1). A natural and orderly arrangement in a discourse necessary as well to its retention as its apprehension.
2. ‘Set about with lilies.’ The heap of wheat surrounded with lilies in the way of ornament. The heap thus made more attractive. ‘Apples of gold’ to be served up in baskets of silver (Pro_25:11.) The wise preacher to ‘find out acceptable words,’ while ‘words of truth.’ Faithful discourses not necessarily devoid of ornament. Solidity in the matter to be connected with sweetness in the manner of delivering it. The ‘heap of wheat’ beautified and commended by the ‘lilies’ that surrounded it. Style as well as staple to be attended to. The lilies not to be eaten with the wheat, yet not therefore without their purpose. The wheat of solid and saving truth advantageously set forth with the lilies of metaphor and simile. Such lilies culled from the fields of God’s works as well as God’s Word. Gathered also from the words and works of men. Truth both commended and conveyed by apt illustration. Comparisons and illustrations often the window that admits the light. Illustrations drawn from all quarters—history, science, biography, external nature, common life. The discourses of the great Teacher full of them. The better able the preacher is to introduce them, the more likely he is to be useful. Yet the ‘lilies’ only to surround the wheat. To be ‘set about’ the heap, not mixed up with it. Truth, not metaphor or simile to be the staple. The garnishing not to be confounded with the food with which it is served. ‘Very fine, sir, very fine; but people cannot live upon flowers.’—Robert Hall. The truth to be the prominent and commanding object. Illustration and ornament to be only so far employed as may render the truth more attractive and effective. ‘Lilies’ not to take the place of the ‘wheat.’
The neck, eyes, and nose of the Bride next commended. The neck for its whiteness and erectness compared to a ‘tower of ivory.’ The eyes for their largeness and lustre, softness and serenity, compared to the two ponds in Heshbon, the Amorite capital, situated on each side of the gate of Bathrabbim. The nose, for its prominence and majesty, compared to ‘the tower of Lebanon that looketh towards Damascus,’ the active enemy of Israel, that had been taken by David, but recovered its liberty under Solomon (2Sa_8:6; 1Ki_11:23-25). Without straining the allegory and the comparisons, we may view this part of the description as suggestive in relation to the New Testament Church of—
1. The believer’s purity of life and liberty of spirit, as indicated by Shulamite’s fair and erect ‘neck’ rising like a ‘tower of ivory.’ White unspotted ivory, a fit emblem of the life of one whom the grace of God teaches ‘to deny Himself to all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world’ (Tit_2:11-12). A neck like an ivory tower sufficiently suggestive of that ‘liberty wherewith Christ makes His people free’—a liberty from the yoke of bondage both in regard to sin and self-righteousness—a liberty not abused as a cloak of maliciousness, but proving itself by a self-denying love.
2. The believer’s calmness, intelligence, and heavenly-mindedness, in the presence of a noisy, anxious, and bustling world; as symbolized by Shulamite’s soft bright eyes, suggesting the placid pool, with its smooth, deep, transparent waters, reflecting the heavens and heavenly bodies on their unruffled bosom, on each side of the principal gate of Heshbon, with its hum of court and market, and its constant tramp of passengers. Believers taught of God not to be ‘conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of their mind’; to ‘look not at the things which are seen and temporal, but at those which are unseen and eternal’; to be ‘without carefulness,’ and to have their ‘conversation in heaven’; to learn of Him who was ‘meek and lowly in heart,’ and to be, at once, ‘wise as serpents and harmless as doves.’
3. The believer’s boldness, vigilance, and decision, in the presence of a world that either persecutes or ensnares, and of the great adversary that goes about ‘like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.’ Symbolized by a ‘nose’ that suggested the tower of Lebanon, boldly confronting and keeping a vigilant watch upon the hostile city of Damascus. So the Council at Jerusalem marvelled at the boldness of Peter and John in their presence. Believers taught to watch and be steadfast in the faith; to be strong and to quit themselves like men; to be sober and vigilant, and not ignorant of Satan’s devices; to obey God rather than men, and to ‘esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.’
The description ends with the head, as it began with the feet. ‘Thine head upon thee is like Carmel,’ &c. Shulamite had commended her Beloved’s head as ‘being like the most fine gold.’ Hers, perhaps still wearing the marriage chaplet, now commended in turn, as resembling the majestic Carmel, towering up from the sea and the plain, and crowned with foliage and flowers. Her hair admired as resembling the richest purple, as well from its lustre as its deep, dark colour. Her Carmel-like head suggestive of the dignity of Christ’s Church, and the authority with which He invested her when He said: ‘Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted, and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained.’ The power of Christ exercised in His Church when acting in His name; and an authority given unto her by Him for edification, but not for destruction (1Co_5:3-5; 2Co_10:8; 2Co_13:10). The ‘hair,’ given to the woman for a covering, and serving as her ornament and glory (1Co_11:15), suggestive of the precious fruits of the Spirit proceeding from Christ, and forming the true adornment of His Church—love, joy, peace, long-suffering, &c., the ‘fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the praise of God’ (Gal_5:22; Php_1:11). The believer’s adorning not ‘the plaiting of the hair, or the wearing of gold, or the putting on of apparel; but that of the hidden man of the heart, which is not corruptible, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit’ (1Pe_3:4).
The last clause in verse fifth apparently a parenthesis, expressing the admiration of the observer and the attractive power of Shulamite’s beauty. ‘The (or a) king is held [bound or captive] in the galleries’ (or ‘by the tresses’). No higher commendation of her charms than that a King—and such a King as Solomon!—was held captive by them. Suggestive of the spiritual beauty put upon the believer, in contemplating which the King of kings finds His delight. ‘Forget thine own people and thy father’s house, so shall the King desire thy beauty’ (Psa_45:10-11). ‘He shall rejoice over thee with joy; He shall rest in His love.’ That beauty as great as a Three-One God can put upon a creature in order to fit that creature for a Bride to the incarnate Son, ‘who loved the Church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water through the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing’ (Eph_5:28). The clause equally expressive of the love of Christ, as of the Church’s beauty which He imparts to her. Infinite condescension and love on the part of Him who ‘humbleth Himself to behold the things that are done in heaven,’ that He is held bound, not by the beauty and dazzling glory of the Seraphim that never sinned, but by the imparted beauty of those whom He raised from the dunghill of degradation and sin, ‘to set them among princes, even the princes of His people’ (Psa_113:5). Wonderful power of the believing sinner over the loving Saviour. ‘Drawn by His Church’s prayers, He is held by the Church’s praises.’
The contemplation of Shulamite’s beauty followed by an exclamation of admiration and delight. ‘How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for (or in) delights!’ The character of ‘fair and pleasant’ already ascribed by Shulamite to her Beloved (chap. Son_1:16). This twofold character now applied by the King to herself. A mutual admiration and delight between Christ and His people. What He is in their eyes they are in His. Christ not only ‘fair’ in Himself, but ‘pleasant’ to His people. Believers not only made ‘fair’ in themselves, but ‘pleasant’ to Christ, Exhibited still further in the expression ‘for (or in) delights.’ An amazing fact, and expressive of inconceivable grace on the part of Christ,—that the Son of God and Lord of glory can and does find delight in His blood-bought Church, consisting of sinners raised from the dust and dunghill of spiritual filthiness and corruption. Yet such the case: ‘The King shall greatly desire thy beauty.’ ‘He shall rejoice over thee with joy: He shall rest in His love; He shall joy over thee with singing.’ ‘Thou shalt be called Hephzibah, for the Lord delighteth in thee. As a bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy Lord rejoice over thee’ (Isa_62:4-5; Zep_3:17; Psa_45:11). That delight in His saved people as—
(1) Made what they are by the Holy Spirit’s—grace, conformed to Christ’s own image;
(2) His own Bride, the gift of His Father, and espoused by Himself;
(3) His redeemed Bride, for whom He has paid the price of His own humiliation agony, shame, blood, and death. His delight in them now, in the midst of all their imperfections; what when they shall be presented to Himself hereafter, ‘a glorious Church, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing?’ Hence the duty of believers:
(1) To aim at perfect holiness. The holier a believer is, the greater is Christ’s delight in him.
(2) To be much in fellowship with Jesus. That fellowship the Saviour’s joy.
(3) To seek the conversion of others. Every converted soul an addition to the Bridegroom’s delight. The Bride composed of such souls.
(4) To endeavour to promote the sanctification of believers. Christ’s joy enhanced as their sanctification advances. An increase in their holiness is an increase in His joy.
As if unable sufficiently to admire the grace and beauty of his Bride, the king resumes his description with the comparison of her whole figure to a noble and beautiful palm tree, with its rich clusters of dates and its evergreen and elegant branches. This thy stature is like a palm tree, and thy breasts like clusters of grapes’ (or rather ‘dates’). The palm one of the most beautiful of trees. From its erectness and the general beauty of its aspect, its Hebrew name (Thamar, often given to women (Gen_38:6; 2Sa_13:1; 2Sa_14:27). The figure of a palm tree frequent in the decoration of Solomon’s temple. At one time abundant in Palestine, and chosen as the emblem of the country. Now rarely to be met with. Judah sits desolate under her solitary palm tree. The palm tree, both from its beauty, its fruitfulness, and its character as an evergreen, an emblem of the righteous (Psa_92:12). The comparison of Shulamite’s stature to a palm tree natural; the Bride being regarded—
(1) As a tall and elegant female.
(2) As the Church of Christ consisting of those who are both justified and sanctified in Christ Himself. Points suggested in the comparison of the Church and the individual believer to a
Palm Tree.
1. Its erectness. The palm straight and upright. Believers upright in their principles and conduct. Straightforward, as opposed to the wicked, whose ways are ‘crooked’ (Psa_125:5; Pro_2:15). Free and joyous, as distinguished from the spirit of bondage and fear that causes the back to be ‘bowed down alway’ (Psa_69:23; Rom_11:10).
2. Its regularity. The palm regular in its growth and figure, both in respect to stem and branches. The Apostle’s joy in beholding the Church’s order. The believer’s behaviour orderly. His spiritual growth regular. His piety to be symmetrical. Attention to be given to all the will of God, and to all the pattern shown in Christ himself.
3. Its fruitfuluess. The fruit of the palm tree both abundant and nutritious, growing in very large clusters near the stem. Believers, united to Christ as the Life, bear in greater or less abundance the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, &c. To be filled with the fruits of righteousness. To abound in every good word and work. Their fruit glorifying to God and profitable to men. Continues to be borne at all times and in all circumstances, even unto old age (Psa_92:13-14).
4. Its perpetual greenness. The palm an evergreen. Always crowned with beautiful green feathery branches. True grace an evergreen. Inward spiritual life, which is Christ Himself, abiding. Discovers its beauty and freshness alike in prosperity and adversity; in health and sickness; in youth and old age.
5. Its elasticity and invincibleness. The fibre of the palm so elastic that no imposed weights can hinder its upward growth. Hence probably its brances used as tokens of victory and triumph. Nothing able to separate the believer from Christ, who is his life, or to prevent his spiritual growth and final perfection. In all things made more than a conqueror through Him who has loved him. All things made to work together for his spiritual and eternal good. The Church, like its type in Egypt,—‘the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew’ (Exo_1:12). The blood of the martyrs the seed of the Church.
6. Its general beauty. The palm tree one of the most beautiful objects in the vegetable world. The highest beauty seen in true religion and those exhibiting it. Witnessed in its perfection in the Lord Jesus Christ. Seen, more or less, in all His members who are to be conformed to His image. A loving and consistent Christian the admiration of men.
The breasts of the Bride compared to clusters of dates, the fruit of the palm tree. The comparison natural from the dates growing in large clusters near the stem of the tree. The fruits of the Spirit found in believers sweet and refreshing to Christ. Of these fruits, love, symbolized by the breasts, the first in the inspired list (Gal_5:22), and the most precious to the Saviour. The love of Mary, as shown by her anointing His feet with costly perfume, the subject of the highest encomium ever passed by the Saviour on any individual act: ‘Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. Verily, I say unto you, Wheresover this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her’ (Mat_26:10-13). A similar act, done from similar feelings by another woman, as the expression of her love to Him who had so graciously forgiven her, rewarded with similar praise (Luk_7:37-46). No perfume so sweet, and no fruit so precious to the Saviour, as the ardent love of a forgiven sinner.
Notes
Son_7:13. The mandrakes give a smell.
‘Mandrakes.’ הַדּוּדָיִם ha-dudhaim; plural of דוּדַי a love-apple, from דּוּד to love. So GESENIUS and others. ‘A mandragora (Atropa mandragora, Linnœus); a plant with large leaves, like the beet; its root like that of a turnip, divided in the lower part, and somewhat resembling the human form; employed in preparing love philtres, as having a soporific power, and thought to possess a virtue in matters of love, which is still ascribed to it in the East.’ A wild plant common in Palestine, especially in Galilee; of the same genus as the Belladonna, with small whitish blossoms, which, in May or June, become small yellow apples, with a strong and disagreeable odour; very early regarded as an artificial provocative of sensual love, not only in the East, but also by the Greeks and Romans, and still called by the Arabs tuffâh esh-shaitan, or Satan’s apples. ZÖCKLER, EWALD. According to others, a particular kind of melon called in the east, from its shape, chamama, or Woman’s breast, corresponding to the Hebrew name in the text. So CALMET and FRY. TAYLOR. Some lovely fruit or flower. DE WETTE. Some beautiful sweet—smelling plant. COBBIN. A kind of highly-flavoured melon. Some read דּוּרָאִים dudhaim, ‘baskets’ (as Jer_24:1). So HAHN: Baskets full of all kinds of precious fruits. According to to the Talmudists: Violets or lilies. RASHI. The Jasmine. TARGUM. The Balsam. SEPTUAGINT and VULGATE Maudragora. LUTHER. Lilies. According to others, as Ludolf and Simon, the Indian Fig. Patrick and others needlessly object to the man drake, as having an offensive smell. ‘Give a smell,’—give forth their odour; therefore referring to the fruit, not the blossoms, nor the plant; and so looking forward to a more advanced season than in Son_7:13, the fruit not being ripe till the wheat harvest’ (Gen_30:14. ZÖCKLER.
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 I. Notice, first, the Church’s or the believer’s name—"daughter"…
Son 7:1
I. Notice, first, the Church’s or the believer’s name—"daughter" and "prince’s daughter." (1) She is called "daughter." This points to the tender relation subsisting between Christ and His people. When Jehovah in the Old Testament speaks most endearingly of His ancient Church, He calls it "the daughter of Zion." (2) Again, she is a "prince’s daughter." He reminds her of her pedigree. It is no ordinary birth. She is one of the adopted children of the "King of kings"—those who by virtue of their spiritual relationship to the Prince of the kings of the earth, their Elder Brother, are themselves "made kings and priests unto God."
Read full note →
II. Consider the subject of commendation: "How beautiful are thy feet with shoes!" (1) The shoe or sandal, in ancient times, and in Oriental countries, was the badge of freedom and honour. (2) Shoes or sandals were emblems of joy; while the want of these was equally recognised and regarded as a symbol of grief and sorrow. (3) The sandals on the feet speak of activity, and duty, and preparedness for Christ’s service. They point to the nature of the journey the believer is pursuing. Though a pleasant road, and a safe road, and a road with a glorious termination, it is at times rough: a path of temptation and trial. Unshod feet would be cut and lacerated with the stones and thorns and briars which beset it. (4) The shoes point to the believer as a messenger to others. The Church in each of her members must be, or ought to be, shod as a ministering one.
J. R. Macduff, Communion Memories, p. 109.
References: Son 7:8.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, pp. 286, 291, 301; Ibid., Sermons in Sackville College, vol. i., p. 224. Son 7:9.—Expositor, 3rd series, vol. i., p. 160.
Son 7:11
Consider the lessons taught us in the rustling language of the standing corn.
I. Here are revelations from God. In the fields we see (1) His power; (2) His wisdom; (3) His goodness; (4) His faithfulness.
II. Life comes out of death. A few months ago this bright field of teeming life was a graveyard, and every individual grain died, and was buried here in sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection. The cemetery is the field of God. I hear the winds of heaven making music through the standing corn, and this is the burden of their song, "Sown in dishonour, and raised in glory."
III. Like comes forth from like. This heavy crop of wheat is all the outcome of scattered wheat, and no other kind of plant could possibly arise. "What a man soweth that shall he also reap."
IV. Much comes from little. In a small compass of bag and basket was the seed-corn contained. What spacious yard, capacious barn, and extensive granary will be required to hold the vast result. "Despise not the day of small things."
V. Fruit comes from labour. Success is the offspring of toil. This grand field is no happy accident. This field of waving wheat is the farmer’s fee for hard and willing work. Nothing is to be gained by listless indifference.
J. Jackson Wray, Light from the Old Lamp, p. 138.
References: Son 7:11, Son 7:12.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 130. Son 7:11-13.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. x., No. 605, and vol. xviii., No. 1066. Son 7:12, Son 7:13.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 307. Son 7:13.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 275. Son 8:3.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 321. Son 8:5.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv., No. 877; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 291; J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 330. Son 8:5-7.—R. M. McCheyne, Memoirs and Remains, p. 342. Son 8:6.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 341; Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 289. Son 8:6.—J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 5th series, p. 113 (see also Old Testament Outlines, p. 166). Son 8:6, Son 8:7.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii., No. 364; Expositor, 1st series, vol. x., p. 386. Son 8:11.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 352. Son 8:13.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix., No. 1716; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 306.
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 v1 1-6. The wasf begins with a eulogy of her…
1-6. The wasf begins with a eulogy of her dancing: her steps in sandals (RV) are lovely, and the circling movements of her body are graceful as ornamental chains. In Eastern dancing the twisting and vibration of the body are of more consequence than the rapid movement of the feet. The title 'noble's daughter' may be merely a conventional compliment, or it may point to the dignity of her character: cp. 'a daughter of Belial,' 1Sa_1:16.
2. The Talmud states that the proportions for mixed wine (RV) were two-thirds water, one-third wine. In Syria the colour of wheat is considered to be the most beautiful for a human body.
Read full note →
4. Her neck is like a tower of ivory, long, and dazzling white. But what about the swarthiness of Son_1:5-6? The answer is that the exactness and consistency of prose are not to be expected in an epithalamium. Heshbon lies five and a half hours E. of the N. point of the Dead Sea, in a fertile, well-watered region: there are several deep wells cut in the rock, and a large reservoir.
5. Carmel was regarded as the 'Park' of the land; there alone were rocky dells, with deep jungles of copse. A 'king is held captive in the tresses' (RV) of the bride's hair: cp. the Arab song:
'Oh, thy thick hair hangs down;
Seven plaits of it take us captive.'
6-10. The bridegroom begins with a general assertion of the delightfulness of his beloved: then, in like manner as the Greek poet Theocritus compares Helen to the straight Cyprustree, our poet likens the bride to the tall, straight palm, the loveliest of all trees in his eyes,' man's sister,' as the Arabs call it. Something of the same feeling appears in the English poem:
'A daughter of the gods, divinely tall,
And most divinely fair.'
One or two slight changes in the text, partly supported by the ancient versions, make of Son_7:9 an expression of desire that her mouth may be like the best wine for her beloved, 'gliding over his lips and teeth.' Syrian women cried out to an English lady: 'Go on! when you speak Arabic, your words drop out of your mouth like sugar.'
10-14. Again she declares her affection. An intense delight in rural life breathes through these lines.
13. For the effect ascribed to the mandrake see Gen_30:14-16. It is not a very common plant in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, but grows freely in Galilee; its reddish-golden apples, about an inch and a half in diameter, emit a somewhat sweet odour. On a shelf over the inner door (RV) of the house she has laid up some of the old fruits for him.
Son_8:1 f. Obviously this is supposed to be spoken in the days of their first love, before others were aware of it. Amongst the Bedouin, brothers and cousins on the father's side are the only male relatives who may kiss a maiden. In place of the very difficult expression, who would instruct me, two ancient versions have a clause parallel to the preceding one, 'and to the chamber of her who conceived me.' In Persia wineis obtained from pomegranates.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 The rapturous outburst in praise of the bride, the…
CHAPTER 7
The rapturous outburst in praise of the bride, the saved and glorified remnant of Israel, with which this chapter begins, must not be put into the lips of the bridegroom, the Messiah-King. It is the praise of the daughters of Jerusalem, who now recognize her as the beloved of the King. Her highest confession is found in this chapter. He begins to speak of her with Son 7:6, “How fair and pleasant art thou, my love, in delights.” She answers His expressions of love. “I am my Beloved’s, and His desire is toward me.” This is the highest--to know she possesseth Him and that His heart’s delight is in her. This, too, is our happy knowledge. We know He belongs to us; we are Christ’s and in us He has, and finds, His delight. Blessed is the scene with which this chapter closes. He calls on her to go forth with Him into the fields, to go to the vineyards, to see the budding and blossoming, the blooming pomegranates, the choice fruits new and old, all laid up for the Beloved.
Read full note →
This takes us into millennial times. It will be the time of fruit bearing and glory for Him in the fields, in the vineyards, among all the nations of the world. “For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all nations” Isa 61:11. “Truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yea, the LORD shall give that which is good and our land shall yield her increase” Psa 85:11-13.
Israel restored in fellowship with the King will share in the fullest sense these coming blessings and glory.
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, 10 The Victorious Progress of the Church.
The Victorious Progress of the Church.
The Beauty of the Church’s Progress
Read full note →
v. 1. How beautiful are thy feet, literally, "thy steps," with shoes, O prince’s daughter, as the bride proceeds on her way in stately majesty. The joints of thy thighs, the swing or motion of her hips in walking, are like jewels, like the regular swinging of a pendant chain, the work of the hands of a cunning workman, only an artist of the highest rank being able to work such perfection.
v. 2. Thy navel is like a round goblet, a mixing-bowl, which wanteth not liquor, or, "Let not mixed wine," such as was mixed with wine or spices, "be wanting"; thy belly is like an heap of wheat, a rounded pile of grain, set about with lilies.
v. 3. Thy two breasts, organs of nourishment, are like two young roes that are twins, twin gazelles, figures of graceful strength.
v. 4. Thy neck is as a tower of ivory, in whiteness and symmetry; thine eyes like the fish-pools in Heshbon, blue basins mirroring the rays of the sun, by the gate of Bath-rabbim, Heshbon itself being called the "daughter of many," since it was a populous commercial city; thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon, which looketh toward Damascus, the point of comparison being its straightness, making for a handsome profile.
v. 5. Thine head upon thee is like Carmel, a lofty and beautiful mountain, and the hair of thine head like purple, with its dark luster and silkiness. The King is held in the galleries, fettered in love by the beauty of her curls.
v. 6. How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights, charming and amiable in her caresses!
v. 7. This thy stature is like to a palm-tree, with its towering stateliness, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes, rather, the clusters of fruit of the palm-tree.
v. 8. I said, I will go up to the palm-tree, that being His present intention, I will take hold of the boughs thereof; now also thy breasts shall be, or, "Let thy breasts be," as clusters of the vine and the smell of thy nose like apples, the King desiring to revel in the beauty and sweetness of His bride;
v. 9. and the roof of thy mouth, the sweetness of the palate referring to the loveliness of her kisses, like the best wine for My beloved, that goeth down sweetly, or smoothly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak, gliding down gently and causing the drinker to fall into gentle slumber.
Here we see how the Lord regards His Church on her progress through the world, in performing the work of her calling, of the evangelization of nations. The Church is full of generative power, and her children receive the rich food of the means of grace. At the same time she is strong in the defense of the truth, trying the spirits and ever on the watch for dangers from without and within. Although the Church is a populous city, yet no impurity is found in her: she consists of saints, she is a holy, Christian Church. Her majesty is evident to all, and spiritual blessings go forth from her in richest measure, so that the King is ravished with her appearance and with her caresses, Isa 62:4. The Bridegroom eagerly longs for the time when He will be united with the bride in heavenly bliss, Eph 5:32; Rev 19:7-9.
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, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13 General Information:
General Information:
This is Son 7:2, the second verse of chapter seven, in some versions.
Read full note →
How beautiful your feet appear in your sandals
It may be that the woman is dancing (Song of Songs 6:13). AT: "Your feet are so very beautiful in your sandals as you dance" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
prince's daughter
Another possible interpretation is "you who have a noble character."
The curves of your thighs are like jewels
The shape of the woman's thighs remind the speaker of a beautiful precious stone that a skilled workman has carved. AT: "The curves of your thighs are beautiful like the beautiful curves of jewel that a skilled craftsman has made" (See: Simile)
your thighs
The word "thighs" refers to the hips of a woman and the part of her legs that is above her knee.
the work of the hands of a master craftsman
The hands are a synecdoche for the person. AT: "the work of a master craftsman" or "something that a master craftsman has made" (See: Synecdoche)
translationWords
sandal
prince
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, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 7:1-5 The man now praises the woman’s dancing feet…
7:1-5 The man now praises the woman’s dancing feet and then ascends her sensuous body to her flowing hair (7:1-5). • This queenly maiden (literally prince’s daughter) might or might not be from a royal family, but the man considers her as fine as royalty.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.