Text -- The Song of Songs 4:7-16 (NET)

4:7 You are altogether beautiful, my darling! There is no blemish in you!

The Wedding Night: Beautiful as Lebanon

4:8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon. Descend from the crest of Amana, from the top of Senir, the summit of Hermon, from the lions’ dens and the mountain haunts of the leopards. 4:9 You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride! You have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace. 4:10 How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine; the fragrance of your perfume is better than any spice! 4:11 Your lips drip sweetness like the honeycomb, my bride, honey and milk are under your tongue. The fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

The Wedding Night: The Delightful Garden

4:12 The Lover to His Beloved: You are a locked garden, my sister, my bride; you are an enclosed spring, a sealed-up fountain. 4:13 Your shoots are a royal garden full of pomegranates with choice fruits: henna with nard, 4:14 nard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon with every kind of spice, myrrh and aloes with all the finest spices. 4:15 You are a garden spring, a well of fresh water flowing down from Lebanon. 4:16 The Beloved to Her Lover: Awake, O north wind; come, O south wind! Blow on my garden so that its fragrant spices may send out their sweet smell. May my beloved come into his garden and eat its delightful fruit!

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Wesley: Sos 4:8

Unto the mountains of myrrh.

Wesley: Sos 4:8

To the place to which I invite thee to go, which from those high mountains thou mayest easily behold.

Wesley: Sos 4:8

From these or other mountains, which are inhabited by lions and leopards. This seems to be added as an argument to move the spouse to go with him, because the places where now she was, were not only barren, but also dangerous.

Wesley: Sos 4:9

So he calls her to shew the greatness of his love, which cannot sufficiently be expressed by any one relation.

Wesley: Sos 4:9

With one glance.

Wesley: Sos 4:9

With one of those other graces and perfections wherewith thou art adorned.

Wesley: Sos 4:10

How amiable and acceptable to me.

Wesley: Sos 4:10

Of the gifts and graces of God's Spirit, wherewith thou art anointed.

Wesley: Sos 4:11

Thy speeches both to me in prayer and praises, and to men for their edification, are highly acceptable to me.

Wesley: Sos 4:11

Words more sweet and comfortable than honey or milk.

Wesley: Sos 4:11

Of that righteousness wherewith I have adorned thee.

Wesley: Sos 4:11

Which was very sweet and grateful in regard of the great numbers of sweet - smelling spices and trees which grow on that mountain.

Wesley: Sos 4:12

For order and beauty, for pleasant walks, and flowers, and fruits.

Wesley: Sos 4:12

Defended by the care of my providence: and reserved for my proper use.

Wesley: Sos 4:12

To preserve it from all pollution, and to reserve it for the use of its owner, for which reason, springs were shut up in those countries where water was scarce and precious.

Wesley: Sos 4:13

Believers, which are planted in thee, are like the plants or fruits of an orchard, which are pleasant to the eye, and delicious to the taste or smell, whereby he signifies the variety and excellency of the gifts and graces in the several members of the church.

Wesley: Sos 4:13

Which he mentions here with camphire, and in the next verse with saffron, because it is mixed with both these, and being so mixed, yields. the more grateful smell.

Wesley: Sos 4:14

Such trees as produce frankincense.

Wesley: Sos 4:15

Though my spouse be in some sort a fountain shut up, yet that is not so to be understood as if she kept her waters to herself, for she is like a fountain of living or running water, which flows into gardens, and makes its flowers and plants to flourish. The church conveys those waters of life which she receives from Christ to particular believers.

Wesley: Sos 4:15

Like those sweet and refreshing rivers which flow down from mount Lebanon, of which Jordan is one.

Wesley: Sos 4:16

These winds may signify the several dispensations of God's spirit.

Wesley: Sos 4:16

This verse is spoken by the spouse. And he calls the garden both hers and his, because of that oneness which is between them, Son 2:16.

Wesley: Sos 4:16

That my graces may be exercised.

Wesley: Sos 4:16

Let Christ afford his gracious presence to his church.

Wesley: Sos 4:16

And let him delight himself in that service which is given him, both by the religious worship, and by the holy conversation of his people.

JFB: Sos 4:7

Assurance that He is going from her in love, not in displeasure (Joh 16:6-7).

JFB: Sos 4:7

Still stronger than Son 1:15; Son 4:1.

JFB: Sos 4:7

Our privilege (Eph 5:27; Col 2:10); our duty (2Co 6:17; Jud 1:23; Jam 1:27).

JFB: Sos 4:8

Invitation to her to leave the border mountains (the highest worldly elevation) between the hostile lands north of Palestine and the Promised Land (Psa 45:10; Phi 3:13).

JFB: Sos 4:8

South of Anti-Libanus; the river Abana, or Amana, was near Damascus (2Ki 5:12).

JFB: Sos 4:8

The whole mountain was called Hermon; the part held by the Sidonians was called Sirion; the part held by the Amorites, Shenir (Deu 3:9). Infested by the devouring lion and the stealthy and swift leopard (Psa 76:4; Eph 6:11; 1Pe 5:8). Contrasted with the mountain of myrrh, &c. (Son 4:6; Isa 2:2); the good land (Isa 35:9).

JFB: Sos 4:8

Twice repeated emphatically. The presence of Jesus Christ makes up for the absence of all besides (Luk 18:29-30; 2Co 6:10). Moses was permitted to see Canaan from Pisgah; Peter, James, and John had a foretaste of glory on the mount of transfiguration.

JFB: Sos 4:9

This title is here first used, as He is soon about to institute the Supper, the pledge of the nuptial union. By the term "sister," carnal ideas are excluded; the ardor of a spouse's love is combined with the purity of a sister's (Isa 54:5; compare Mar 3:35).

JFB: Sos 4:9

Even one look is enough to secure His love (Zec 12:10; Luk 23:40-43). Not merely the Church collectively, but each one member of it (Mat 18:10, Mat 18:14; Luk 15:7, Luk 15:24, Luk 15:32).

JFB: Sos 4:9

Necklace (Isa 62:3; Mal 3:17), answering to the "shields" hanging in the tower of David (Son 4:4). Compare the "ornament" (1Pe 3:4); "chains" (Pro 1:9; Pro 3:22).

JFB: Sos 4:10

Hebrew, "loves"; manifold tokens of thy love.

JFB: Sos 4:10

Answering to her "better" (Son 1:2), but with increased force. An Amoebean pastoral character pervades the Song, like the classic Amoebean idylls and eclogues.

JFB: Sos 4:10

The love of His saints is a more reviving cordial to Him than wine; for example, at the feast in Simon's house (Luk 7:36, Luk 7:47; Joh 4:32; compare Zec 10:7).

JFB: Sos 4:10

Answering to her praise (Son 1:3) with increased force. Fragrant, as being fruits of His Spirit in us (Gal 5:22).

JFB: Sos 4:11

Always ready to fall, being full of honey, though not always (Pro 10:19) actually dropping (Son 5:13; Deu 32:2; Mat 12:34).

JFB: Sos 4:11

(Pro 5:3; Pro 16:24).

JFB: Sos 4:11

Not always on, but under, the tongue, ready to fall (Psa 55:21). Contrast her former state (Psa 140:3; Rom 3:13). "Honey and milk" were the glory of the good land. The change is illustrated in the penitent thief. Contrast Mat 27:44 with Luk 23:39, &c. It was literally with "one" eye, a sidelong glance of love "better than wine," that he refreshed Jesus Christ (Son 4:9-10). "To-day shalt thou be with Me (compare Son 4:8) in Paradise" (Son 4:12), is the only joyous sentence of His seven utterances on the cross.

JFB: Sos 4:11

Which are often perfumed in the East (Psa 45:8). The perfume comes from Him on us (Psa 133:2). We draw nigh to God in the perfumed garment of our elder brother (Gen 27:27; see Jud 1:23).

JFB: Sos 4:11

Abounding in odoriferous trees (Hos 14:5-7).

JFB: Sos 4:12

The Hebrew has no "is." Here she is distinct from the garden (Son 5:1), yet identified with it (Son 4:16) as being one with Him in His sufferings. Historically the Paradise, into which the soul of Jesus Christ entered at death; and the tomb of Joseph, in which His body was laid amid "myrrh," &c. (Son 4:6), situated in a nicely kept garden (compare "gardener," Joh 20:15); "sealed" with a stone (Mat 27:66); in which it resembles "wells" in the East (Gen 29:3, Gen 29:8). It was in a garden of light Adam fell; in a garden of darkness, Gethsemane, and chiefly that of the tomb, the second Adam retrieved us. Spiritually the garden is the gospel kingdom of heaven. Here all is ripe; previously (Son 2:13) it was "the tender grape." The garden is His, though He calls the plants hers (Son 4:13) by His gift (Isa 61:3, end).

JFB: Sos 4:12

Jesus Christ (Joh 4:10) sealed, while He was in the sealed tomb: it poured forth its full tide on Pentecost (Joh 7:37-39). Still He is a sealed fountain until the Holy Ghost opens it to one (1Co 12:3). The Church also is "a garden enclosed" (Psa 4:3; Isa 5:1, &c.). Contrast Psa 80:9-12. So "a spring" (Isa 27:3; Isa 58:11); "sealed" (Eph 4:30; 2Ti 2:19). As wives in the East are secluded from public gaze, so believers (Psa 83:3; Col 3:3). Contrast the open streams which "pass away" (Job 6:15-18; 2Pe 2:17).

JFB: Sos 4:13

Hebrew, "a paradise," that is, a pleasure-ground and orchard. Not only flowers, but fruit trees (Joh 15:8; Phi 1:11).

JFB: Sos 4:13

Not camphor (Son 1:14), hennah, or cypress blooms.

JFB: Sos 4:14

"sweet cane" (Exo 30:23; Jer 6:20).

JFB: Sos 4:14

Ointments are associated with His death, as well as with feasts (Joh 12:7). The bride's ministry of "myrrh and aloes" is recorded (Joh 19:39).

JFB: Sos 4:15

This pleasure-ground is not dependent on mere reservoirs; it has a fountain sufficient to water many "gardens" (plural).

JFB: Sos 4:15

(Jer 17:8; Joh 4:13-14; Joh 7:38-39).

JFB: Sos 4:15

Though the fountain is lowly, the source is lofty; fed by the perpetual snows of Lebanon, refreshingly cool (Jer 18:14), fertilizing the gardens of Damascus. It springs upon earth; its source is heaven. It is now not "sealed," but open "streams" (Rev 22:17).

JFB: Sos 4:16

Literally, "arise." All besides is ready; one thing alone is wanted--the breath of God. This follows rightly after His death (Son 6:12; Act 2:1-4). It is His call to the Spirit to come (Joh 14:16); in Joh 3:8, compared to "the wind"; quickening (Joh 6:63; Eze 27:9). Saints offer the same prayer (Psa 85:6; Hab 3:2). The north wind "awakes," or arises strongly, namely, the Holy Ghost as a reprover (Joh 16:8-11); the south wind "comes" gently, namely, the Holy Ghost as the comforter (Joh 14:16). The west wind brings rain from the sea (1Ki 18:44-45; Luk 12:54). The east wind is tempestuous (Job 27:21; Isa 27:8) and withering (Gen 41:23). These, therefore, are not wanted; but first the north wind clearing the air (Job 37:22; Pro 25:23), and then the warm south wind (Job 37:17); so the Holy Ghost first clearing away mists of gloom, error, unbelief, sin, which intercept the light of Jesus Christ, then infusing spiritual warmth (2Co 4:6), causing the graces to exhale their odor.

JFB: Sos 4:16

The bride's reply. The fruit was now at length ripe; the last passover, which He had so desired, is come (Luk 22:7, Luk 22:15-16, Luk 22:18), the only occasion in which He took charge of the preparations.

JFB: Sos 4:16

Answering to Jesus Christ's "My." She owns that the garden is His, and the fruits in her, which she does not in false humility deny (Psa 66:16; Act 21:19; 1Co 15:10) are His (Joh 15:8; Phi 1:11).

Clarke: Sos 4:7

Thou art all fair - there is no spot in thee - " My beloved, every part of thee is beautiful; thou hast not a single defect."The description given of the beauties of Daphne, by Ovid, Metam. lib. 1: ver. 497, has some similarity to the above verses: -

Spectat inornatos collo pend ere capillos

Et, quid si comantur? ait. Videt igne micante

Sideribus similes oculos; videt oscula, quae no

Est vidisse satis. Laudat digitosque, manusque

Brachiaque, et nudos media plus parte lacertos

Si qua latent meliora putat

Her well-turn’ d neck he view’ d, (her neck was bare)

And on her shoulders her disheveled hair

O, were it comb’ d, said he, with what a grac

Would every waving curl become her face

He view’ d her eyes, like heavenly lamps that shone

He view’ d her lips, too sweet to view alone

Her taper fingers, and her panting breast

He praises all he sees; and, for the rest

Believes the beauties yet unseen the best

Dryden

Jayadeva describes the beauty of Radha in nearly the same imagery: "Thy lips, O thou most beautiful among women, are a bandhujiva flower; the lustre of the madhuca beams upon thy cheek; thine eye outshines the blue lotos; thy nose is a bud of the tila; the cunda blossom yields to thy teeth. Surely thou descendedst from heaven, O slender damsel! attended by a company of youthful goddesses; and all their beauties are collected in thee."See these poems, and the short notes at the end

The same poet has a parallel thought to that in Son 4:5, "Thy two breasts,"etc. The companions of Radha thus address her: "Ask those two round hillocks which receive pure dew drops from the garland playing on thy neck, and the buds on whose tops start aloft with the thought of thy beloved."

Clarke: Sos 4:8

My spouse - The כלה callah which we translate spouse, seems to have a peculiar meaning. Mr. Harmer thinks the Jewish princess is intended by it; and this seems to receive confirmation from the bridegroom calling her sister, Son 4:9, that is, one of the same stock and country; and thus different from the Egyptian bride

Mr. Harmer’ s opinion is very probable, that Two Queens are mentioned in this song: one Pharaoh’ s daughter, the other a Jewess. See his outlines. But I contend for no system relative to this song

Clarke: Sos 4:8

Look from the top of Amana, etc. - Solomon, says Calmet, by an admirable poetic fiction, represents his beloved as a mountain nymph, wholly occupied in hunting the lion and the leopard on the mountains of Lebanon, Amana, Shenir, and Hermon. As a bold and undisciplined virgin, who is unwilling to leave her wild and rural retreats, he invites her to come from those hills; and promises to deck her with a crown and to make her his bride. Thus the poets represent their goddess Diana, and even Venus herself: -

Per juga, per sylvas, dumosaque saxa vagatu

Nuda genu, vestem ritu succincta Dianae

Hortaturque canes; tutaeque animalia praedae

Aut pronos lepores, aut celsum in cornua cervum

Aut agitat damas: at fortibus abstinet apris

MET. lib. x., ver. 535

Now buskin’ d like the virgin huntress goe

Through woods, and pathless wilds, and mountain snows

With her own tuneful voice she joys to chee

The panting hounds that chase the flying deer

She runs the labyrinth of the fearful hares

But fearless beasts and dangerous prey forbears

Mount Libanus separates Phoenicia from Syria. Amanus is between Syria and Silicia. Shenir and Hermon are beyond Jordan, to the south of Damascus and Mount Libanus, and northward of the mountains of Gilead. Hermon and Shenir are but different parts of the same chain of mountains which separates Trachonitis, or the country of Manasses, from Arabia Deserta. For these places, see 2Ki 5:12, and Deu 3:9, where they are probably meant.

Clarke: Sos 4:9

Thou hast ravished my heart - לבבתני libbabtini , "Thou hast hearted me,"i.e., taken away my heart; as we say, "He has barked the tree,"i.e., he has stripped it of its bark; "He has fleeced the flock,"i.e., deprived them of their wool

Clarke: Sos 4:9

With one of thine eyes - באצד מעיניך beachad meeynayich . This has been thought a harsh expression, and various emendations have been sought. The Masoretes have put באצת beachath , "at once,"in the margin; and this is confirmed by twenty of Kennicott’ s MSS. but De Rossi does not notice it. It is scarceiy necessary; the sense to me is clear and good without it. "Even one of thine eyes, or one glance of thine eyes, has been sufficient to deprive me of all power; it has completely overcome me;"for glance may be understood, and such forms of speech are common in all languages, when speaking on such subjects. If even taken literally, the sense is good; for the poet may refer to a side glance, shot in passing by or turning away, where only one eye could be seen. I think this a better sense than that which is obtained from the Masoretic emendation

Clarke: Sos 4:9

With one chain of thy neck - Probably referring to the play of the cervical muscles, rather than to necklaces, or ringlets of hair.

Clarke: Sos 4:10

How much better is thy love - דדיך dodayich ; Hebrew. mastoi sou ; Septuagint. Ubera tua ; Vulgate. "Thy breasts."And so all the versions, except the Chaldee

Clarke: Sos 4:10

Smell of thine ointments - Perfumes.

Clarke: Sos 4:11

Thy lips - drop as the honey-comb - Thy words are as delicious to my heart as the first droppings of the honey-comb are to the palate

Clarke: Sos 4:11

Honey and milk are under thy tongue - Eloquence and persuasive speech were compared among the ancients to honey and milk

Thus Homer, Iliad, lib. i., ver. 247: -

Τοισι δε Νεστω

Ηδυεπης ανορουσε, λιγυς Πυλιων αγορητης

Του και απο γλωσσης μελιτος γλυκιων ῥεεν αυδη

Experienced Nestor, in persuasion skill’ d

Words sweet as honey from his lips distill’ d

But the figure is common to all writers and languages. A similar expression will be seen in the Gitagovinda.

Clarke: Sos 4:12

A garden enclosed - a spring shut up, a fountain sealed - Different expressions to point out the fidelity of the bride, or of the Jewish queen. See the outlines. She is unsullied, a chaste, pure virgin. None has ever entered into this garden; none has yet tasted of this spring; the seal of this fountain has never been broken. Among the Athenians, the interior part of the house, called the women’ s apartment, was not only locked but sealed; so Aristophan., Thesmoph. ver. 422: -

Ειτα δια τουτον ταις γυναικωνιτισι

Σφραγιδας εμβαλλουσιν ηδη και μοχλους

And on this account, to the women’ s apartmen

They place seals as well as bolts

And seal, as applicable to chaste conduct, is a phrase well known to the Greeks. Aeschylus, in the Agamemnon, praises a woman, σημαντη ριον ουδεν διαφψειρασαν, who had not violated her seal of conjugal faith. But Nonnus, lib. ii., uses the form of speech exactly as Solomon does with reference to a pure virgin; he says, Αψαυστον ἑης σφρηγιδα κορειης ; "She had preserved the seal of her virginity untouched."All this is plain; but how many will make metaphors out of metaphors!

Clarke: Sos 4:13

Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates - This seems to refer to the fecundity of the bride or Jewish queen; to the former it would be a prediction; to the latter, a statement of what had already taken place. The word פרדס pardes , which we translate an orchard, is the same which has given birth to our paradise, a garden of pleasure. The other expressions, in this and the following verse, seem to refer wholly to matters of a connubial nature.

Clarke: Sos 4:16

A fountain of gardens - Perhaps גנים gannim , "gardens,"was originally ציים chaiyim , "lives,"a living fountain, a continual spring. See Houbigant. But this is expressed afterwards; though there would be nothing improper in saying, "a living fountain, a well of living waters, and streams from Mount Lebanon."A fountain of gardens may mean one so abundant as to be sufficient to supply nany gardens, to water many plots of ground, an exuberant fountain. This is the allusion; the reference is plain enough.

Clarke: Sos 4:16

Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south - It is granted that the south wind in Palestine, in the summer, is extremely hot and troublesome; therefore, another interpretation of this passage has been proposed by Mr. Harmer; who thinks בואי boi , which we render come, signifies enter into thy repositories; and, therefore, supposes the true interpretation of the words to be as follows: "Arise, thou north wind, (and retire, thou south), blow upon my garden; let the spices thereof flow forth, that my beloved may come into his garden, invited by the coolness and fragrancy of the air, and may eat his pleasant fruits; for, if the south wind blow, the excessive heat will forbid his taking the air, and oblige him to shut close the doors and windows of his apartments."Others think that he wishes the winds from all directions to carry throughout the land the fume of his spices, virtue, and perfections

Clarke: Sos 4:16

Let my beloved come into his garden - This is the invitation of the bride: and if we look not for far-fetched meanings, the sense is sufficiently evident. But commentators on this song sometimes take a literal sense where the metaphor is evident; at other times they build an allegory upon a metaphor. The Gitagovinda has an elegant passage similar to this. See the place, Part VII, beginning with Enter, sweet Radha

The whole of this chapter is considered to be unconnected with any particular time of the marriage ceremonies.

Defender: Sos 4:10

Four times, he calls her "my sister, my spouse" (Son 4:9, Son 4:12; Son 5:1), denoting holy fellowship as well as marital life. Similarly, Christ "is not ashamed to call (them) brethren" (Heb 2:11)."

Defender: Sos 4:12

The bride was a virgin, whose garden of spices was opened first and only to her beloved spouse."

TSK: Sos 4:7

Son 4:1, Son 5:16; Num 24:5; Psa 45:11, Psa 45:13; Eph 5:25-27; Col 1:22; 2Pe 3:14; Jud 1:24; Rev 21:2

TSK: Sos 4:8

with me : Son 2:13, Son 7:11; Psa 45:10; Pro 9:6; Joh 12:26; Col 3:1, Col 3:2

from Lebanon : Deu 3:25

Shenir : Deu 3:9; Jos 12:1

from the lions’ : Psa 76:1, Psa 76:4

TSK: Sos 4:9

ravished : or, taken away, etc

my sister : Son 4:10, Son 4:12, Son 5:1, Son 5:2; Gen 20:12; Mat 12:50; 1Co 9:5; Heb 2:11-14

my spouse : Son 3:11; Psa 45:9; Isa 54:5, Isa 62:5; Eze 16:8; Hos 2:19, Hos 2:20; Joh 3:29; 2Co 11:2; Rev 19:7, Rev 19:8, Rev 21:2, Rev 21:9, Rev 21:10

thou hast : Son 6:12, Son 7:5, Son 7:6, Son 7:10; Pro 5:19, Pro 5:20; Zep 3:17

with one of : Son 1:15, Son 6:5

one chain : Son 1:10

TSK: Sos 4:10

love : Heb. loves, Son 1:2 *marg.

how much : Son 1:2, Son 1:4

the smell : Son 1:3, Son 1:12, Son 3:6, Son 5:5; 2Co 1:21, 2Co 1:22; Gal 5:22; Phi 4:18; Rev 5:8

TSK: Sos 4:11

lips : Son 4:3, Son 5:13, Son 7:9; Psa 71:14, Psa 71:15, Psa 71:23, Psa 71:24; Pro 16:24; Hos 14:2; Heb 13:15

honey : Son 5:1; Pro 24:13, Pro 24:14; Isa 7:15

the smell : Son 4:10; Gen 27:27; Psa 45:8; Hos 14:7

TSK: Sos 4:12

garden : Son 6:2, Son 6:11; Pro 5:15-18; Isa 58:11, Isa 61:10, Isa 61:11; Jer 31:12; Hos 6:3; 1Co 6:13, 1Co 6:19, 1Co 6:20, 1Co 7:34; Rev 21:27

enclosed : Heb. barred

sealed : 2Co 1:22; Eph 1:13, Eph 4:30; Rev 7:3

TSK: Sos 4:13

are : Son 6:11, Son 7:12, Son 8:2; Psa 92:14; Ecc 2:5; Isa 60:21, Isa 61:11; Joh 15:1-3; Phi 1:11

pleasant : Son 6:2

camphire : or, cypress, Son 4:14, Son 1:14

spikenard : Son 1:12; Mar 14:3; Joh 12:3

TSK: Sos 4:14

calamus : Exo 30:23; Eze 27:19

cinnamon : Pro 7:17; Rev 18:13

trees : Son 4:6, Son 5:1; Num 24:6

the chief : Son 6:2; Gen 43:11; 1Ki 10:10; 2Ch 9:9; Mar 16:1

TSK: Sos 4:15

fountain : Son 4:12; Ecc 2:6

a well : Psa 36:8, Psa 36:9, Psa 46:4; Jer 2:13, Jer 17:13; Joh 4:10, Joh 4:14, Joh 7:38; Rev 22:1

streams : Jer 18:13, Jer 18:14

TSK: Sos 4:16

Awake : Son 1:4; Ecc 1:6; Isa 51:9-11, Isa 64:1; Eze 37:9; Joh 3:8; Act 2:1, Act 2:2, Act 4:31

the spices : Son 4:13, Son 4:14, Son 7:12, Son 7:13; 2Co 9:10-15; Phi 1:9-11; Col 1:9-12; 1Th 2:12, 1Th 2:13; Heb 13:20, Heb 13:21; 2Pe 3:18

Let : Son 5:1, Son 8:12; Mat 26:10, Mat 26:12; Joh 5:8; Rom 15:16, Rom 15:28; 1Pe 2:5, 1Pe 2:9, 1Pe 2:10

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: Sos 4:7

Section 4:7\endash 5:1: The king meeting the bride in the evening of the same day, expresses once more his love and admiration in the sweetest and tenderest terms and figures. He calls her now "bride"(spouse, Son 4:8) for the first time, to mark it as the hour of their espousals, and "sister-bride"(spouse, Son 4:9-10, Son 4:12; Son 5:1), to express the likeness of thought and disposition which henceforth unites them. At the same time he invites her to leave for his sake her birthplace and its mountain neighborhood, and live henceforth for him alone.

Barnes: Sos 4:8

The order and collocation of words in the Hebrew is grand and significant. With me from Lebanon, O bride, with me from Lebanon thou shalt come, shalt look around (or wander forth) from the height (literally "head") of Amana, from the height of Shenir and Hermon, from dens of lions, from mountain-haunts of leopards. It is evidently a solemn invitation from the king in the sense of Psa 45:10-11. Four peaks in the same mountain-system are here named as a poetical periphrasis for northern Palestine, the region in which is situated the native home of the bride.

(1) Amana (or Abana, 2Ki 5:12), that part of the Anti-libanus which overlooks Damascus.

(2) Shenir or Senir, another peak of the same range (according to Deu 3:9, the Amorite name for Hermon, but spoken of here and in 1Ch 5:23 as distinct from it).

(3) Hermon, the celebrated mountain which forms the culminating point of the Anti-libanus, on the northeastern border of the holy land.

(4) Lebanon, properly the western range overlooking the Mediterranean, but here used as a common designation for the whole mountain system.

Leopards are still not unfrequently seen there, but the lion has long since disappeared.

Barnes: Sos 4:9-11

The similes employed refer to the graces of adornment, speech, and gesture, as expressions of inward character and sentiment.

Son 4:9

With one of thine eyes - Rather, with one look of thine.

Son 4:11

Honeycomb - literally, Thy lips distill a dropping (of pure honey). Compare the marginal references.

Barnes: Sos 4:12-15

The loveliness and purity of the bride are now set forth under the image of a paradise or garden fast barred against intruders, filled with rarest plants of excellent fragrance, and watered by abundant streams. Compare Pro 5:15-20.

Son 4:12

A fountain sealed - i. e., A well-spring covered with a stone Gen 29:3, and sealed with "the king’ s own signet"(Dan 6:17; compare Mat 27:66).

Son 4:13

Orchard - This is the renderlng here and in Ecc 2:5 of "pardes"(see Neh 2:8 note). The pomegranate was for the Jews a sacred fruit, and a characteristic product of the land of promise (compare Exo 28:33-34; Num 20:5; Deu 8:8; 1Ki 7:18, 1Ki 7:20). It is frequently mentioned in the Song, and always in connection with the bride. It abounds to this day in the ravines of the Lebanon.

Camphire - Cyprus. See Son 1:14 note.

Son 4:13-15

Seven kinds of spices (some of them with Indian names, e. g. aloes, spikenard, saffron) are enumerated as found in this symbolic garden. They are for the most part pure exotics which have formed for countless ages articles of commerce in the East, and were brought at that time in Solomon’ s ships from southern Arabia, the great Indian Peninsula, and perhaps the islands of the Indian Archipelago. The picture here is best regarded as a purely ideal one, having no corresponding reality but in the bride herself. The beauties and attractions of both north and south - of Lebanon with its streams of sparkling water and fresh mountain air, of Engedi with its tropical climate and henna plantations, of the spice-groves of Arabia Felix, and of the rarest products of the distant mysterious Ophir - all combine to furnish one glorious representation, "Thou art all fair!"

Barnes: Sos 4:16

The bride’ s brief reply, declaring her affection for the king and willingness to belong to him.

Poole: Sos 4:7

Thou art all fair it is needless to mention the several beauties of all thy parts, for, in one word, thou art wholly beautiful; and it may be said more truly of thee than it was of Absalom, 2Sa 14:25 , that from the sole of thy foot to the crown of thy head there is no blemish in thee.

There is no spot in thee which is not to be understood simply and absolutely, as if the people of God were really perfect, and free from all sin; but either,

1. Comparatively, no such spot or blemish as is in wicked men, or as is inconsistent with true grace, of which Moses speaks, Deu 32:5 . Or,

2. In regard of God’ s gracious acceptation, in which respect he is said not to behold iniquity in Jacob , Num 23:21 . God doth not look upon them with a severe eye, as they are in themselves, but in and through Christ, in whom he accepts them as if they were perfect, partly because it is their chief design, desire, and endeavour to be so, and partly because Christ hath undertaken to make them so, Eph 5:25,27 , and they shall one day be such.

Poole: Sos 4:8

Come with me unto the mountains of myrrh , &c., mentioned Son 4:6 ,

from Lebanon a known mountain in the north of Canaan, which is sometimes mentioned as a pleasant and glorious place, as Son 5:15 Isa 35:2 Hos 14:6 , &c., in regard of its goodly cedars; and sometimes as a barren wilderness, as Isa 29:17 , and seat of wild beasts, as 2Ki 14:9 , &c. Which latter sense seems more agreeable, both to the opposition which is here tacitly made between this mountain and the mountain of myrrh, and to the quality of the other mountains here joined with Lebanon, and to the last clause of the verse. My spouse ; this is the first time that Christ gives her this name, which he now doth, both to encourage and oblige her to go with him. Look to the place to which I invite thee to go, which from those high mountains thou mayst easily behold, the sight of which will certainly inflame thee with desire to go thither. He alludes to Moses’ s beholding the Promised Land from Mount Pisgah.

Amana not that Amana which divided Syria from Cilicia, which was too remote from these parts, but another of that name, not far from Lebanon.

Shenir and

Hermon may be the names of two tops of the same mountain, as Horeb and Sinai seem to have been. Or, Shenir or (the copulative and being put disjunctively for or , as it is in many places, which have been observed before)

Hermon for this mountain is called both Shenir and Hermon , Deu 3:9 , and the latter name, Hermon , may be added to the former, as being better known to the Israelites.

From the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards from these or other such-like mountains, which are inhabited by lions and leopards; which seems to be added as an argument to move the spouse to go with him, because the places where now she was were not only barren, but also dangerous, as being the habitations of tyrants and persecutors, and wild or savage people, who are oft described by the names of wild beasts, whose natures they have, and whose practices they imitate.

Poole: Sos 4:9

Thou hast ravished my heart I am overcome with thy beauty, and therefore am so desirous of thy company.

My sister so he calls her, partly because both he and she had one and the same father, to wit, God, yea, and mother too, being both at this time born in and of the commonwealth and church of Israel; and partly to show the greatness of his love to her, which is such, as cannot be sufficiently expressed by any one relation, but must borrow the perfections and affections of all to describe it.

With one of thine eyes with one glance of one of thine eyes: by which phrase he intimates the modesty and humility of the church, which was ashamed or afraid to look fully and directly upon the Bridegroom with both her eyes; and withal alludes to the ancient custom of virgins, who used to cover their faces with a veil, and to look out only with one of their eyes for the direction of their steps. By this one eye he seems to mean that fundamental grace of faith, by which Christians look upon Christ, and discern his beauty, and which is precious in the sight of God and of Christ.

With one chain of thy neck with one of those other graces and perfections wherewith thou art adorned. How then should I be ravished if thou didst discover both thine eyes, and thy whole countenance, and all thy excellent gifts and graces!

Poole: Sos 4:10

How fair how amiable and acceptable to me, is thy love! I do not disdain thy love, as I might do, but take it kindly, and prize it highly.

How much better is thy love than wine! of which See Poole "Son 1:2" , See Poole "Son 1:4" .

Of thine ointments of the gifts and graces of God’ s Spirit, wherewith thou art anointed. Compare Isa 61:1 1Jo 2:20,27 .

Poole: Sos 4:11

Thy lips drop as the honey-comb thy speeches both to me in prayer and praises, and to men for their edification, are highly acceptable to me.

Honey and milk words more sweet and comfortable than honey or milk.

Under thy tongue by which phrase he may possibly intimate that her words were not uttered in hypocrisy, or with evil design, as many fair and smooth speeches are, but proceed from her very heart, which is under her tongue, as mischief is said to be under his tongue, Psa 10:7 , who devised it in his heart. The smell of thy garments; of that righteousness wherewith I have clothed and adorned thee. Christ and the graces of the Spirit are oft, compared to garments, as Rom 13:14 Eph 4:24 1Pe 5:5 .

The smell of Lebanon which is also mentioned and commended Hos 14:6 , which must needs be very sweet and grateful in regard of the great numbers of sweet-smelling spices and trees which grew in that mountain.

Poole: Sos 4:12

A garden for order and beauty, for pleasant walks, and flowers, and fruits.

Enclosed either,

1. Defended by the care of my providence; or,

2. Reserved for my proper use. She will not admit of other lovers, either false teachers or worldly lusts, but keeps herself close for me. She is chaste, and pure, and modest, as virgins are or should be.

A spring either,

1. For others, sending forth the wholesome streams of saving doctrine, for the refreshing, and healing, and cleansing of those who receive it. Or,

2. Within herself, being well watered, i.e. replenished with spiritual graces and blessings, which are frequently compared to waters, both in the Old and New Testament, as Isa 44:3 Joh 4:10 7:38 , for which the church is compared to a watered garden , or a spring of water , Isa 58:11 .

Shut up either,

1. To preserve it from all pollution or injury; or,

2. To reserve it for the use and service of its owner, for which reason springs were shut up in those countries where water was scarce and precious, as Gen 29:3 .

A fountain sealed the same thing is here repeated in other words.

Poole: Sos 4:13

Thy plants the plants of thy garden, believers which are planted in thee,

are an orchard are like the plants or fruits of an orchard, which are pleasant to the eye, and delicious to the taste or smell, such as are here mentioned in the following words; whereby he signifies the variety and excellency of gifts and graces in the several members of the church.

Spikenard which he mentions both here with camphire or cypress , and in the next verse with saffron , because it is mixed with both these, and being so mixed, yieldeth the more grateful smell.

Poole: Sos 4:14

Trees of frankincense such trees as produce frankincense. Or, as others, both ancient and modern, render it, trees of Lebanon ; such sweet-smelling trees and plants as grew in Lebanon, of which See Poole "Son 4:11" .

Poole: Sos 4:15

These are the words either,

1. Of the bride, who returns this answer to the Bridegroom. Thou callest me a fountain, but in truth thou only art that fountain from whence I derive all my streams of comfort; or rather,

2. Of the Bridegroom, who hath hitherto been speaking to and of the church, and still continues his speech. He seems to add this by way of correction to or exposition of what he said, Son 1:12 . Though my spouse be in some sort a fountain shut up or sealed, yet that is not so to be understood as if she kept her waters to herself, for she is like a fountain or well of living or running water, which floweth into gardens, and maketh tho flowers and plants to grow and flourish. The church conveyeth those waters of life which she receiveth from Christ unto particular believers and congregations.

Streams from Lebanon like those sweet and refreshing rivers which flow down from Mount Lebanon, of which Jordan is one.

Poole: Sos 4:16

Awake or, arise ; either,

1. To be gone, as being commonly hurtful to plants and gardens; or rather,

2. To come, as the next clause explains it. For both the north wind and the south wind have their several uses in gardens; the former to purge and cool the air, and to bring fair weather; the latter to warm and moisten the earth, and cherish the plants. And these winds may signify the several dispensations either of God’ s providence, or rather of his Spirit, which is compared to the wind, Joh 3:8 , whereby the following effects are produced.

My garden: this verse is spoken; by the spouse, as appears from the last clause of it. And she calls the garden both hers and his , because of that oneness which is between them, Son 2:16 , whereby they have a common interest one in another’ s person and concerns.

That the spices thereof may flow out that my graces may be exercised to thy glory, the edification of others, and my own comfort.

Let my Beloved come into his garden let Christ afford his gracious presence more and more to his church, and eat his pleasant fruit; and let him delight himself in that service and glory which is given to him, both by the religious worship and by the holy conversations of his people.

Haydock: Sos 4:7

Thee. All must be pure before they enter heaven, as the blessed Virgin [Mary] was on earth, (Worthington) and the Church is still, Ephesians v. 27. (Calmet) ---

Before his departure, Christ heaps praises on her.

Haydock: Sos 4:8

Thou. Hebrew, "look from." ---

Libanus. So Jerusalem is called, Zacharias xi. 3. (Ribera) (Menochius) ---

Amana. Septuagint, "faith." By it and charity, we must do good. (St. Augustine, Psalm lxvii.) Amanus separates Cilicia from Syria. ---

Sanir is the name given by the Phenicians to Hermon, (Eusebius) beyond the Jordan, 1 Paralipomenon v. 23. ---

Leopards. It is not fit for women to hunt such beasts. Ovid (Met. x. 10.) thus speaks of Venus: Nuda genu, vestemque ritu succincta Dianæ, &c. The Church leaves Jerusalem to preach the gospel without fear. (Menochius)

Haydock: Sos 4:9

Wounded. Symmachus, "given." Septuagint, Protestants, "ravished." Mystic writers suppose, that the spouse had been guilty of some negligence; or, on the contrary, that her deportment was most enchanting, bent on God, and on good works. (Calmet) ---

Sister. So Assuerus styles himself brother of Esther, xv. 12. Christ died for the unity of his Church. (Menochius)

Haydock: Sos 4:10

Spices. He returns her compliment, chap. i. 2.

Haydock: Sos 4:12

Up. She is perfectly chaste, Proverbs v. 14. The Church excludes from her society all unbelievers and schismatics. The wicked serve to exercise the virtuous. Her pastors explain the Scriptures, the fountains of saving knowledge. (Calmet) ---

Christ is also a fountain, Zacharias xiii. 1., and John vii. 37. (Menochius)

Haydock: Sos 4:13

Plants. The various orders of clergy and laity. ---

Cyprus, (chap. i. 13.; Calmet) whence a healing oil is extracted. (Theodoret) ---

Protestants, "camphire." (Haydock) ---

Spikenard is twice mentioned, as it may be well mixed with cyprus and saffron. (Menochius)

Haydock: Sos 4:14

Cinnamon. Very rare, Exodus xxx. 23. ---

Libanus, or "incense." (Hebrew)

Haydock: Sos 4:15

Libanus. The law of the gospel was proclaimed by the apostles, who were Jews. They explained the pure doctrine of the Scriptures, and converted many.

Haydock: Sos 4:16

Wind. At different times. Let all nations be convinced of thy beauty. (Calmet) ---

The holy Spirit enabled the apostles to convert the world. (Nys. Rupert.) ---

All temptations, whether proceeding from cruelty or deceit, "make constant souls more grateful to God." (Worthington)

Gill: Sos 4:7

Thou art all fair, my love,.... Being justified by the righteousness of Christ, washed in his blood, and sanctified by his Spirit; of the title, my "love", see Son 1:9. The church is often said by Christ to be "fair", his "fair one", and the "fairest among women", Son 1:8; but here "all fair", being a perfection of beauty, and perfectly comely through his comeliness: this is said to show her completeness in Christ, as to justification; and that, with respect to sanctification, she had a perfection of parts, though not of degrees; and to observe, that the church and "all" the true members of it were so, the meanest and weakest believer, as well as the greatest and strongest. It is added,

there is no spot in thee; not that the saints have no sin in them; nor any committed by them; nor that their sins are not sins; nor that they have no spots in them, with respect to sanctification, which is imperfect; but with respect to their justification, as having the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, and covered with that spotless robe, they are considered as having no spot in them; God sees no sin in them, so as to reckon it to them, and condemn them for it; and they stand unblamable and unreproveable in his sight; and will be presented by Christ, both to himself and to his father, and in the view of men and angels, "not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing", Eph 5:27, upon them.

Gill: Sos 4:8

Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon,.... This is a new title given the church, my "spouse"; here first mentioned, because the day of espousals was over, Son 3:11; and having on the wedding garment, in which she was so fair and spotless, as before described, she looked somewhat like a bride, and the spouse of Christ; and is chiefly used by Christ, to prevail upon her to go with him, which relation, duty, and affection, obliged her to do. The invitation is to come with him from Lebanon, which is repeated, to show earnestness and vehemency; not Lebanon, literally taken, a mountain to the north of the land of Canaan, famous for odoriferous trees, and where to be was delightful; but figuratively, the temple, made of the wood of Lebanon, and Jerusalem, in which it was, which in Christ's time was a den of thieves, and from whence Christ called out his people; or this being a pleasant mountain, may signify those carnal sensual pleasures, from which Christ calls his people off. Some render the words, "thou shalt come with me", &c. ^u, being influenced by the powerful grace of Christ, and drawn by his love; and what he invites and exhorts unto, he gives grace to enable to perform;

look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards; Amana is thought by some to be the mountain which divided Cilicia from Syria, taken notice of by several writers ^w; but it seems too distant from Lebanon; perhaps it is the same with Abana, from whence was a river of that name, 2Ki 5:12; where, in the "Keri" or margin, it is read Amana; so the Targum here explains it of the people that dwelt by the river Amana, which washed the country of Damascus: Jarchi takes it to be the same with Hor, a mountain on the northern border of Israel; and indeed, wherever mention is made of this mountain, the Targum has it, Taurus Umanus; and, according to Ptolemy ^x, Amanus was a part of Mount Taurus, with which it is joined by Josephus ^y; and with that and Lebanon, and Carmel, by Aelianus ^z, Shenir and Hermon were one and the same mountain, called by different names; Hermon might be the common name to the whole; and that part of it which belonged to the Sidonians was called by them Sirion; and that which the Amorites possessed Shenir, Deu 3:9; Now all these mountains might be called "dens of lions", and "mountains of leopards"; both because inhabited by such beasts of prey; hence we read of the lions of Syria ^a, and of leopards ^b in those parts; in the land of Moab, and in the tribe of Gad, were places called Bethnimrah, and the waters of Nimrim, which seem to have their names from leopards that formerly haunted those places, Num 32:36; or because inhabited by cruel, savage, and tyrannical persons; particularly Amana, in Cilicia or Syria, as appears from Strabo ^c, Lucan ^d, and Cicero ^e; and Shenir and Hermon were formerly, as Jarchi observes, the dens of those lions, Og king of Bashan, and Sihon king of the Amorites: unless rather these were the names of some places near Lebanon; for Adrichomius ^f says,

"the mountain of the leopards, which was round and high, was two miles from Tripoli northward, three from Arce southward, and one from Lebanon.''

Now these words may be considered as a call of Christ to his people, to come out from among wicked men, comparable to such creatures; and he makes use of two arguments to enforce it: the one is taken from the nature of such men, and the danger of being with them; who are like to lions, for their cruel and persecuting temper; and to leopards, for their being full of the spots of sin; and for their craftiness and malice, exercised towards those who are quiet in the land; and for their swiftness and readiness to do mischief; wherefore it must be both uncomfortable and unsafe to be with such persons: the other argument is taken from their enjoyment of Christ's company and presence, which must be preferable to theirs, for pleasure, profit, and safety, and therefore most eligible. Besides, Christ chose not to go without his church; she was so fair, as before described, and so amiable and lovely in his sight, as follows.

Gill: Sos 4:9

Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse,.... Here another new title is given to the church, "my sister", with the repetition of the former, my "spouse": for one and the same person, with the Hebrews, might be sister and spouse; see 1Co 9:5. And this may be used in a love strain, and so not improper in a love poem, as this was ^g; see Son 8:8; likewise the church may be called Christ's sister, because of his incarnation, in virtue of which he is not ashamed to call his people his brethren, and so his sisters, Heb 2:11; and on account of their adoption; in which respect, he that is Christ's Father is theirs; and which is evidenced in regeneration; when they, through grace, do the will of his Father, and so are his brother, and sister, and mother, Mat 12:50. And, upon the whole, it is used to express the great affection of Christ for the church, and his high esteem of her; and which appears by his saying, "thou hast ravished my heart"; which is but one word in the Hebrew text, and nowhere else used, and is variously rendered: the Vulgate Latin version is, "thou hast wounded my heart" ^h: with one of love's darts, Son 2:5; "thou hast drawn my heart unto thee", so some Jewish writers ⁱ; which is surprising, since no love nor loveliness are in her of herself; this shows how free and unmerited the love of Christ is; according to the use of the word with the Talmudists ^k, the sense is, "thou hast coupled mine heart with thine"; the heart of Christ and his church are so closely knit and joined together in love, that they are but one heart, and can never be separated: others, "thou hast seized my heart"; or, "claimed it for thyself" ^l; thou art master over it; it is no more mine, but thine The Septuagint version is, "thou hast unhearted us"; Father, Son, and Spirit; particularly the second Person: or thou hast stolen away my heart; I have no heart left in me; which, as it is the case through fear, is sometimes through love: this sense is approved by Aben Ezra. Some render it just the reverse, "thou hast heartened me" ^m; put heart into me, animated me, made me of good cheer; so the word is used in the Syriac version of Mat 9:2. The sense may be, that such was the love of Christ to his church, and so much was he charmed by her, that the thought of his having her company in heaven to all eternity animated him to endure all sufferings he did for her sake, Heb 12:2; The Targum is,

"thy love is fixed upon the table of my heart;''

where the church herself was fixed, Son 8:6;

thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes; the allusion may be to the custom of the eastern women; who, when they walked abroad or spoke to any, showed but one eye, the other, with the rest of the face, being covered with a veil ⁿ: the eyes of women are ensnaring to lovers ^o; the church has more eyes than one. Mention is made of the eyes of the understanding, Eph 1:18; faith is one of them, and may he here chiefly intended; by which a soul looks on Christ, the glories of his person, and the fulness of his grace; and looks so him for the blessings of grace now, and eternal glory hereafter: and with this Christ's heart is ravished; even with "one look" from it, or "glance" of it, as some ^p render it;

with one chain of thy neck; with the several graces of the Spirit, linked together as in a chain; which were about the neck of the church, and as ornamental to her as a pearl necklace, Son 1:10; and with every link in this chain Christ's heart is ravished and delighted. The Vulgate Latin version is, "with one lock of hair of thy neck": which hung down in it, and looked very beautiful; and with which lovers are sometimes taken ^q.

Gill: Sos 4:10

How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse!.... Of these titles; see Gill on Son 4:8; See Gill on Son 4:9; and of the love of the church to Christ; see Gill on Son 1:3; here said to be "fair", lovely and delightful, grateful and acceptable; as it is to Christ, in the several acts and effects of it, and therefore the word is plural, "thy loves" ^r; being exceeding beautiful in his eye, and extremely well pleasing to him; therefore says, "how fair!" as admiring it, it being hard to say how fair it was; and this appears from the large manifestations of Christ's love to those that love him; and from his causing all things to work together for the good of such; and from his preparing and laying up things, unseen and unheard of, for them;

how much better is thy love than wine! which is saying the same thing of her love to him she says of his to her, Son 1:2; her love to Christ is more pleasant, more cheering, and more acceptable to him, than the wine of legal sacrifices, or than all burnt offerings; or than any duty whatever, unless that is the principle from whence it flows, Mar 12:33;

and the smell of thine ointments than all spices! the same with Christ's ointments, commended Son 1:3; namely, the graces of the Spirit, which are in Christ without measure, and from him communicated to his people; and when exercised by them, are very delightful to him, and preferred by him to "all spices": even to all those used in the holy anointing oil, typical of them, Exo 30:23.

Gill: Sos 4:11

Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb,.... Words, for sweetness, delight, and pleasure, like that; so the speech of persons, flowing from their mouth and tongue, is said to be sweeter than the honeycomb ^s; and lovers are said to be sweeter to one another than the sweet honey ^t: so the lips or words of the church in prayer, as the Targum; or in praise of Christ, and thankfulness to him; or in the ministration of the doctrines of the Gospel, which are pleasant words; or in common conversation, are pleasing to Christ; when, like the honey, they drop freely and without constraint; gradually, at proper seasons and opportunities, as prudence directs; and continually, more or less, ever dropping something to the glory of divine grace, and the good of souls;

honey and milk are under thy tongue; rolled, as a sweet morsel, there: the ancients had a sort of food of this mixture, a cake made of honey and milk, called by the Greeks "meligala" ^u, and sometimes "candylos" ^w, which was the same composition; Galen ^x says, it was not safe to take goats' milk without honey; Jove is said ^y to be nursed with such a mixture: and this being very grateful to the taste, the speech of the church for pleasantness is compared unto it; so Pindar ^z compares his hymn or ode to honey mixed with milk, as being sweet and grateful; and in Plautus ^a,

"your words are honey and milk:''

and, it may be further observed, that such a mixture of milk and honey, with poppies in it, was given to the newly married bride, and drank when brought home to her husband ^b; which was now the case of the church. The doctrines of the Gospel may be meant, comparable to honey and milk; to "honey", for their sweetness and acceptableness: for their nourishing nature; and for, their being gathered out of the choice flowers of the Scriptures, by the laborious ministers of the word, who are like to bees; see Psa 19:10; to "milk", for the purity of them and the nourishment had by them; for their being easy of digestion, when mixed with faith; and for their being of a cooling nature, to allay the heat of a fiery law in the conscience; and for the recovery and restoration of souls by them, in a declining condition; see 1Pe 2:2; these may be said to be "under the tongue", when they have a place in the heart, are the subject of constant meditation, a sweetness is tasted in them; and they are had in readiness to speak of them upon all occasions;

and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon; the ancients formerly scented their garments; Calypso gave to Ulysses sweet smelling garments ^c: such are Christ's robe of righteousness, and garments of salvation, which are said to "smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia"; with which the saints being arrayed, the smell of their raiment is as "the smell of a field the Lord has blessed", and so like the smell of Lebanon, a mountain abounding with odoriferous trees and plants; see Psa 45:8. Or the outward conversation garments of the saints may be designed, the mention of which fitly follows the lips and tongue; for when works go along with words, and practice with profession; when to lips dropping the doctrines of the Gospel, like the honeycomb, are joined the sweet smelling garments of an agreeable life and conversation; the Christian is very much ornamented, and becomes lovely and amiable.

Gill: Sos 4:12

A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse,.... At a little distance from Bethlehem are pools of water, and below these runs a narrow rocky valley, enclosed on both sides with high mountains which the friars, as Mr. Maundrell says ^d will have to be the enclosed garden here alluded to; but it is more likely that the allusion is to a garden near Jerusalem, called the king's garden, Adrichomius ^e makes mention of, which was shut up, and only for the king's use and pleasure: to which the church may be compared; for its being distinguished from the world's wide waste, by the sovereign grace of God; and for the smallness of it in comparison of that; and for its pleasantness and fruitfulness, having pleasant and precious plants of great renown; or consisting of persons of different gifts and graces; in whose hearts these are not naturally, or do not grow there of themselves; but are sown or planted and raised up by the Spirit of God, for which the fallow ground of their hearts is thrown up: and that everything may be kept in good order, as in a garden, the plants are watered with the grace of God; the trees of righteousness are pruned by Christ's father, the vinedresser; the fences are kept up, and the whole is watched over night and day; and here Christ, the owner of it, takes his delightful walks, and grants his presence with his people. And the church is like an "enclosed" garden; for distinction, being separated by the grace of God, in election, redemption, effectual calling, &c. and for protection, being encompassed with the power of God, as a wall about it; and for secrecy, being so closely surrounded, that it is not to be seen nor known by the world; and indeed is not accessible to any but to believers in Christ; and is peculiarly for his use, who is the proprietor of it; see Son 4:16;

a spring shut up, a fountain sealed; the allusion may be to the sealed fountains great personages reserved for their own use; such as the kings of Persia had, of which the king and his eldest son only might drink ^f; and King Solomon might have such a spring and fountain in his garden, either at Jerusalem or at Ethan, where he had pleasant gardens, in which he took great delight, as Josephus ^g relates: and near the pools, at some distance from Bethlehem, supposed to be his, is a fountain, which the friars will have to be the sealed fountain here alluded to; and, to confirm which, they pretend a tradition, that Solomon shut up these springs, and kept the door of them sealed with his signet, to preserve the waters for his own drinking; and Mr. Maundrell ^h, who saw them, says it was not difficult so to secure them, they rising underground, and having no avenue to them, but by a little hole, like to the mouth of a narrow well. Now the church may be thus compared, because of the abundance of grace in her, and in each of her members, which is as a well of living water, springing up unto everlasting life, Joh 4:14; and because of the doctrines of the Gospel, called a fountain, Joe 3:18; with which Gospel ministers water the plants in Christ's garden, the members of the church; whereby they are revived, refreshed, and flourish; and their souls become as a watered garden, whose springs fail not. Though some read this clause in connection with the former; "a garden enclosed art thou, with a spring" or flow of water "shut up, and with a fountain sealed" ⁱ; meaning Christ and his fulness; from whence all grace is received by the church and its members; and with which they are supplied, and their souls are watered: and the phrases, "shut up" and "sealed", which, whether applied to the doctrines of grace and truth, in and from Christ, may denote the secrecy and safety of them from the men of the world; or to the grace of Christ, communicated by him to the saints, may denote the security of it, the invisible operations of it, and the sole exercise of it on him: for these phrases denote the inviolable chastity of the church to Christ, in her faith, love, service, and worship; see Pro 5:15; and are used in the Jewish writings ^k, to express the chastity of the bride. Ambrose affirms ^l, that what Plato ^m says concerning Jove's garden, elsewhere called by him the garden of the mind, is taken out of Solomon's Song.

Gill: Sos 4:13

Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates,.... These plants are the members of the church, true converts, believers in Christ; pleasant plants, plants of renown, planted in the church by Christ's heavenly Father, and shall never be plucked up; or, thy gardens, as it may be rendered ⁿ; particular churches, well taken care of and watered; these make an orchard, or are like one, even a paradise, as the word ^o signifies: it is generally thought to be a Persic word; see Neh 2:8; but Hillerus ^p derives it from פרר, to "separate", it being a garden, separated and enclosed as before; one like Eden's garden, exceeding pleasant and delightful: and not like an orchard of any sort of trees, but of "pomegranates", of which there were plenty in Canaan, hence called a "land of pomegranates", Deu 8:8; many places in it had their names from thence, Jos 15:32. To which believers in Christ may be compared, for the various sorts of them ^q, for their largeness, fruitfulness, and uprightness; saints have gifts and grace, differing from one another as to size, but all pomegranates, trees of righteousness; some are larger, and excel others, are full of all the fruits of righteousness; but all are, more or less, fruitful and upright in heart: and so the saints of the higher class may be here designed, as those of a lower are by other trees and spices after mentioned;

with pleasant fruits; that are valuable, precious, and desirable, of which an enumeration follows:

camphire, with spikenard; or "cypresses", or "cyprusses with nards" ^r; both in the plural number: the former may intend cypress trees, so called on account of their berries and fruits growing in clusters; see Son 1:14; and the latter, because there are different sorts of them, as "nardus Italica", "Indica", and "Celtica": to these saints may be compared, because pleasant and delightful, of a sweet smell, and rare and excellent.

Gill: Sos 4:14

Spikenard and saffron,.... The former is the best sort of nard, and therefore mentioned and repeated, to which saints may be compared, because of the graces of the Spirit in them; which, when exercised, give a sweet odour, and are exceeding grateful to Christ; see Son 1:12; and the latter, according to Schindler ^s, seems to have been read "carcos", the same with "crocus", and is a plant well known by us for its cheering nature; and has its name from the Arabic, "zaffran", because of its yellow or golden colour; but "crocus", from "Corycus" ^t, a mountain in Cilicia, where it grew; it is properly joined with spikenard, since itself is a "spica", and is sometimes called "spica Cilissa" ^u. Next follow

calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; "calamus" is the sweet cane in Isa 43:24; "cinnamon" is the rind or bark of a tree; both grow in India ^w and in Arabia ^x; as also trees of "frankincense", which are only in Arabia; hence one of the Arabias is called "thurifera" ^y, for they do not grow in all Arabia: the two first were ingredients in the holy anointing oil, and the latter in the holy perfume, Exo 30:23;

myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices; Solomon's gardens might be furnished with all these; and with the above trees, plants, and spices, from Arabia Felix, where, as Appianus ^z says, "cassia" grew in marshy places; myrrh and frankincense were gathered from trees, cinnamon from shrubs, and their meadows naturally produced nard; hence called "aromatifera", the spicy country ^a: myrrh was also an ingredient in the anointing oil; and aloes, according to the Targum, is the same with lign aloes; see Num 24:6; not the herb which has a very bitter juice, but the tree of a sweet odour, which Isidore ^b distinguishes, and is what is meant in Psa 45:8; and were both of a very fragrant smell. Now all these trees, plants, and spices, signify truly precious souls, possessed of the graces of the Spirit; comparable to them for their valuableness and excellency, their sweet smell, and the reviving and refreshing nature of them; which make the subjects of these graces very agreeable to Christ, and to one another. What a garden is the church thus planted!

Gill: Sos 4:15

A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon. Some ^c take these words to be the words of Christ continued, speaking still of his church, and explaining and enlarging upon what he had said of her, Son 4:12; but they are rather the words of the church; who, upon hearing herself commended, and knowing that all her fruitfulness, and the flourishing condition she was in, were owing to the grace of Christ, breaks forth in these words, and ascribes all to him, saying, "O fountain of gardens, O well of living waters", &c. for so the words may be rendered in the vocative case ^d. By the "gardens" may be meant particular distinct churches, such as were gathered in the first times of the Gospel, and since, as the churches of Asia, &c. separated from the world, and planted with trees of righteousness, such as are before described: and though there are many gardens or churches, there is but one "fountain" which supplies them all with gifts and grace, and that is Christ, and his fulness, the fountain from whence flow all grace, and the blessings of it: who also is the "well of living waters"; a well deep and large, fathomless and bottomless, dug by sovereign grace, and full of all grace; signified by "waters", for the abundance of it; and said to be "living", because by it dead sinners are quickened, and drooping saints revived; and is ever running ^e, ever flowing and overflowing; so that there is always a supply for all Christ's gardens, and for all believers in all ages; who, with the bucket of faith, draw water with joy out of this well, or wells of salvation, Isa 12:3; and the flows of grace from hence are like "streams from Lebanon", because of the abundance of it; the constant and continued supplies of it; the rapidity and force with which it comes, bearing down all obstacles in its way, and for the pleasure it gives, the flows of it being as delightful and grateful as streams of water in hot countries. Respect seems to be had to several places called by these names; there was one, called "the Fountain of Gardens", which flowed from Lebanon, six miles from Tripoli, and watered all the gardens, whence it had its name, and all the country that lay between these two places ^f; and there was another, called "the Well of living Waters", a little mile to the south of Tyre; it had four fountains, from whence were cut various aqueducts and rivulets, which watered all the plain of Tyre, and all its gardens; which fountains were little more than a bow's cast from the main sea, and in which space six mills were employed ^g: and there is a rupture in Mount Lebanon, as Mr. Maundrell ^h says, which runs up it seven hours' travelling; and which, on both sides, is steep and high, and clothed with fragrant greens from top to bottom; and everywhere refreshed with "fountains", falling down from the rocks, in pleasant cascades, the ingenious work of nature; and Rauwolff ⁱ, who was on this mountain in 1575, relates;

"we came (says he) into pleasant groves, by delightful "rivulets" that arose from "springs", that made so sweet a noise, as to be admired by King Solomon, Son 4:15;''

and these streams gave rise to some rivers, as Jordan, Eleutherus, &c. ^k to which the allusion is here. There were two cities, one in the tribe of Judah, and the other in the tribe of Issachar, called Engannim, the fountain of gardens, Jos 15:34.

Gill: Sos 4:16

Awake, O north wind,.... These words, according to some ^l, are the words of the church continued, praying for the spirit; to which sense the order and connection of the words seem to incline; though the language suits best with Christ, who has the command of the winds, and a right and property in the garden, the church: nor does it seem so agreeable, that the church should petition Christ to let loose the north wind upon her, if by that are meant afflictive dispensations of Providence; but agrees well enough with Christ, since these come not without his will and order, and by him made to work together for good; by which he nips the corruptions of his people, tries their graces, and causes them to come forth into exercise: though some ^m think this is a command to the north wind to remove, and be gone, and blow no longer, since it was spring, Son 2:11; and would be harmful to the plants in the garden; and the verb "blow" is singular, and only in construction with the south wind; and, besides, winds diametrically opposite ⁿ cannot blow together in the same horizon, with a continued blast: though others ^o are of opinion, that both winds are designed, being both useful to gardens; the one to scatter the clouds, and make the air clear and wholesome, and restrain the luxuriance of the plants; and the other, being moist and warming, of use to bring plants and fruits to maturity; and both may design the Spirit of God, in his different operations and effects, through the law and the terrors of it, and by the Gospel and its comforting doctrines;

and come, thou south, blow upon my garden; the church, Christ's property, as she asserts in the latter part of the verse: the Spirit of God is intended by the "south", or south wind; who is compared to the "wind", because it blows like that, freely, and as he pleases, when, where, and on whom, and imperceptibly, powerfully, and irresistibly, Joh 3:8; and to the "south wind", because it is a warm wind, brings serenity, and makes fruitful with showers of rain: so the Spirit of God warms the cold heart of a sinner; thaws his frozen soul, and comforts with the discoveries of divine love; brings quietness and peace into the conscience; and makes fruitful in grace and good works, by causing the rain of Gospel doctrines to descend and distil upon men. The end to be answered is,

that the spices thereof may flow out; the spices in the garden, the odoriferous plants, might emit a fragrant smell; though Virgil ^p represents the south wind as harmful to flowers; so it might be in Italy, where it dried them up, as Servius on the place observes; and yet be useful to them in Palestine, where it blew from the sea, and is sometimes so called, Psa 107:3. Spices denote the graces of believers, rare, precious, and odorous; and their "flowing out" the exercise of them, their evidence, increase, and the ripening of them; when they diffuse a sweet odour to Christ and others, and make it delightful to walk in his garden; as it is to walk in one after a delightful shower of rain, and when the wind gently blows upon it. And hence what is prayed for being granted, the church speaks again, and invites Christ, saying;

let my beloved come into his garden; which "coming" is to be understood, not of Christ's first, nor of his second coming; but of his spiritual coming, to visit his people, grant his presence, and manifest his love; which is very desirable by them; and, when granted, is reckoned a great favour, and is an instance of the condescending grace of Christ, Joh 14:22; the church is "his garden" by his own choice, his Father's gift, the purchase of his blood, and the power of his grace: and here he is invited to come,

and eat his pleasant fruits; meaning either the graces of the Spirit, which are his fruits; and called Christ's, because they come from him, and are exercised on him, and he is the author and finisher of them: or the good works of believers, which are performed by virtue of union to him, and abiding in him; are done in his strength, and designed for his glory: and both are "pleasant", that is, well pleasing and acceptable to him; the graces of the Spirit, when in exercise, as appears from Son 4:9; and good works, when done in faith, from a principle of love, and to his glory: and he may be said to eat them when he expresses his well pleasedness with them, and acceptation of them.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Sos 4:9

¹ tn The Piel denominative verb לבב is derived from the noun לֵבָב (levav, “heart”), and occurs only here. Its meaning is debated: (1) metonymical sense: “you have encouraged me,” that is, given me heart (BDB 525 s.v. לֵב; AV, RSV); (2) intensive sense: “you have made my heart beat faster” (KBL 471 s.v. I לבב); and (3) privative sense: “you have ravished my heart” or “you have stolen my heart” (HALOT 515 s.v. I לבב; GKC 141-42 §52.h) (NIV). While the Niphal stem has a metonymical nuance (cause for effect): to get heart, that is, to get understanding (Job 11:12), the Piel stem may have a privative nuance: to take away heart, that is, to take away the senses. Her beauty was so overwhelming that it robbed him of his senses (e.g., Hos 4:11). This is paralleled by a modern Palestinian love song: “She stood opposite me and deprived me of reason (literally, “took my heart”), your dark eyes slew me while I was singing, your eyebrows drove shame from me…the darkness of your eyes have slain me; O one clad in purple clothes, it is worthwhile falling in love with you, for your eyes are black and sparkle, and have slain me indeed.” Less likely is the proposal of Waldeman who relates this to Akkadian lababu (“to rage, be aroused to fury”), suggesting that Song 4:9 means “to become passionately aroused” or “to be aroused sexually.” See S. H. Stephan, “Modern Palestinian Parallels to the Song of Songs,” JPOS 2 (1922): 13; R. Gordis, Song of Songs and Lamentations, 85-86; N. M. Waldman, “A Note on Canticles 4:9,” JBL 89 (1970): 215-17; H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 40-58.

² sn It is clear from Song 8:1 that the young man and his bride were not physical brother and sister, yet he addresses his bride as אֲחֹתִי (’akhoti, “my sister”) several times (4:9, 10, 12; 5:1). This probably reflects any one of several ancient Near Eastern customs: (1) The appellatives “my sister” and “my brother” were both commonly used in ancient Near Eastern love literature as figurative descriptions of two lovers. For instance, in a Ugaritic poem when Anat tried to seduce Aqhat, she says, “Hear, O hero Aqhat, you are my brother and I your sister” (Aqhat 18 i. 24). In the OT Apocrypha husband and wife are referred to several times as “brother” and “sister” (Add Esth 15:9; Tob 5:20; 7:16). This “sister-wife” motif might be behind Paul’s perplexing statement about a “sister-wife” (1 Cor 9:5). (2) In several Mesopotamian societies husbands actually could legally adopt their wives for a variety of reasons. For instance, in Hurrian society husbands in the upper classes sometimes adopted their wives as “sisters” in order to form the strongest of all possible marriage bonds; a man could divorce his wife but he could not divorce his “sister” because she was “family.” At Nuzi a husband could adopt his wife to give her a higher status in society. See M. Held, “A Faithful Lover in Old Babylonian Dialogue,” JCS 15 (1961): 1-26 and S. N. Kramer, The Sacred Marriage Rite, 103-5; T. Jacobsen, “The Sister’s Message,” JANESCU 5 (1973): 199-212; E. A. Speiser, “The Wife-Sister Motif in the Patriarchal Narratives,” Oriental and Biblical Studies, 15- 28; G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 111.

³ tn Alternately, “eye-stone [of your necklace].” The term עִינַיִךְ (’inayikh, “your eyes”) probably refers to her physical eyes (e.g., 4:1). However, in Sumero-Akkadian literature the term “eye” sometimes refers to the eye-stone of a necklace. Agate-stones were cut so that white stripes appeared around the black or brown core to look like the pupil on the eye. M. H. Pope (Song of Songs [AB], 482-83) suggests that the parallelism between the A and B lines suggests the following: “with one of your eye-stones” and “with one jewel of your necklace.” See W. G. Lambert, “An Eye Stone of Esarhaddon’s Queen and Other Similar Gems,” RA 63 (1969): 65-71.

NET Notes: Sos 4:12

¹ sn The twin themes of the enclosed garden and sealed spring are highlighted by the wordplay (paronomasia) between the Hebrew expressions גַּן נָעוּל (gan na’ul, “a garden locked up”) and גַּל נָעוּל (gal na’ul, “an enclosed spring”).

NET Notes: Sos 4:13

¹ sn The noun פַּרְדֵּס (pardes, “garden, parkland, forest”) is a foreign loanword that occurs only 3 times in the Hebrew Bible (Song 4:13; Eccl 2:5; Neh 2:8). The original Old Persian (Avestan) term pairidaeza designated the enclosed parks and pleasure-grounds which were the exclusive domain of the Persian kings and nobility in the Achaemenid period (HALOT 963 s.v. פַּרְדֵּס; LSJ 1308). The Babylonian term pardesu means “marvelous garden,” in reference to the enclosed parks of the kings (AHw 2:833.a and 3:1582.a). The term passed into Greek as παραδείσος (paradeisos, “enclosed park, pleasure-ground”), referring to the enclosed parks and gardens of the Persian kings (LSJ 1308). The Greek term was transliterated into English as “paradise.”

NET Notes: Sos 4:14

¹ tn Or “with all the finest balsam trees.” The Hebrew term בֹּשֶׂם (bosem) can refer either to the balsam tree, the spice associated with it, or by extension any fragrant aroma used as perfuming oil or incense.

NET Notes: Sos 4:15

¹ tn Heb “a fountain of gardens” or “a headwaters for gardens.” The term מַעְיַן (m’yan, “fountain”) denotes “source, headwaters” as the place of origin of streams (HALOT 612 s.v. מַעְיַן). The term does not refer to a water fountain such as commonly found in modern cultivated gardens or parks; rather, it refers to the headwaters of streams and rivers, such as Banyas as the headwaters of the Jordan. The genitive construct מַעְיַן גַּנִּים (m’yan gannim, “a fountain of gardens”) is an unusual expression that has been treated in various ways: (1) “a garden fountain,” that is, a fountain located in a garden (HALOT 198 s.v. גַּן); (2) “a fountain of gardens,” that is, the headwaters of many spring-watered gardens. The latter is preferred. In Song 4:12-14 the bride is figuratively described as a garden with exotic plants; however, in 4:15 the metaphor shifts to the source of the water for the garden: מַעְיַן (“headwaters”) and בְּאֵר (bÿ’er, “well”) of fresh water flowing down from Lebanon.

² tn Heb “a watering place” or “well of underground water.” The term בְּאֵר (bÿ’er, “well”) refers to an underground well that is dug in the ground to provide fresh water for humans and beasts (e.g., Gen 21:19, 25, 30; 26:15, 18, 19, 22, 32) (HALOT 106 s.v. I בְּאֵר; DCH 2:87 s.v. I בְּאֵר). The term is often used in parallelism with בּוֹר (bor, “cistern”), עַיִן (’ayin, “spring”), and שׁוּחָה (shukhah, “water-hole”).

³ tn Heb “living water.” The phrase מַיִם חַיִּים (mayim khayyim, “living water”) refers to flowing, fresh water in contrast to standing, stagnant water (Gen 26:19; Lev 14:5-6, 50-52; 15:13; Num 19:17; Jer 2:13; 17:13; Zech 14:8; Song 4:15; 1QH 8:7, 16; 4Q418 103.2:6; 4QDibHam^a 1.5:2; 11QT 45:16) (DCH 3:202 s.v. I חַי 1; HALOT 308 s.v. חיה 1; BDB 312 s.v. חַי f). The adjective חַיִּים (“living”) frequently refers to what is fresh (Gen 26:19), healthy (Sir 30:14), or thriving (Gen 43:7, 27). Fresh, flowing water is pictured as pure (Lev 14:5-6, 50-52; 15:13) and a source of refreshment (Gen 26:19). See P. Reymond, L’eau, sa vie, et sa signification dans l’Ancien Testament (VTSup), 136.

NET Notes: Sos 4:16

¹ tn Heb “may flow.”

Geneva Bible: Sos 4:8

^{( d )} Come with me from Lebanon, [my] spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards.

^{( d )} Christ promises his Church to call his faithful from all the corners of the world.

Geneva Bible: Sos 4:9

Thou hast ravished my heart, my ^{( e )} sister, [my] spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thy ^{( f )} eyes, with one chain of thy neck.

^{( e )} Christ calls his Church sister in respect that he had taken the flesh of man.

^{( f )} In that he made his Church beautiful and rich, he loved his gifts in her.

Geneva Bible: Sos 4:11

Thy ^{( g )} lips, O [my] spouse, drop [as] the honeycomb: honey and milk [are] under thy tongue; and the scent of thy garments [is] like the fragrance of Lebanon.

^{( g )} Because of your confession and thanksgiving.

Geneva Bible: Sos 4:15

^{( h )} A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.

^{( h )} The Church confesses that all her glory and beauty comes from Christ who is the true fountain of all grace.

Geneva Bible: Sos 4:16

Awake, O ^{( i )} north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, [that] its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.

^{( i )} She desires Christ to comfort her and to pour the graces of his Spirit on her, which is meant by the North and South wind.

Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Sos 4:1-16

1 Christ sets forth the graces of the church.

8 He shews his love to her.

16 The church prays to be made fit for his presence.

MHCC: Sos 4:1-7

If each of these comparisons has a meaning applicable to the graces of the church, or of the faithful Christian, they are not clearly known; and great mistakes are made by fanciful guesses. The mountain of myrrh appears to mean the mountain Moriah, on which the temple was built, where the incense was burned, and the people worshipped the Lord. This was his residence till the shadows of the law given to Moses were dispersed by the breaking of the gospel day, and the rising of the Sun of righteousness. And though, in respect of his human nature, Christ is absent from his church on earth, and will continue to be so till the heavenly day break, yet he is spiritually present in his ordinances, and with his people. How fair and comely are believers, when justified in Christ's righteousness, and adorned with spiritual graces! when their thoughts, words, and deeds, though imperfect, are pure, manifesting a heart nourished by the gospel!

MHCC: Sos 4:8-15

Observe the gracious call Christ gives to the church. It is, 1. A precept; so this is Christ's call to his church to come off from the world. These hills seem pleasant, but there are in them lions' dens; they are mountains of the leopards. 2. As a promise; many shall be brought as members of the church, from every point. The church shall be delivered from her persecutors in due time, though now she dwells among lions, Psa 57:4. Christ's heart is upon his church; his treasure is therein; and he delights in the affection she has for him; its working in the heart, and its works in the life. The odours wherewith the spouse is perfumed, are as the gifts and graces of the Spirit. Love and obedience to God are more pleasing to Christ than sacrifice or incense. Christ having put upon his spouse the white raiment of his own righteousness, and the righteousness of saints, and perfumed it with holy joy and comfort, he is well pleased with it. And Christ walks in his garden unseen. A hedge of protection is made around, which all the powers of darkness cannot break through. The souls of believers are as gardens enclosed, where is a well of living water, Joh 4:14; Joh 7:38, the influences of the Holy Spirit. The world knows not these wells of salvation, nor can any opposer corrupt this fountain. Saints in the church, and graces in the saints, are fitly compared to fruits and spices. They are planted, and do not grow of themselves. They are precious; they are the blessings of this earth. They will be kept to good purpose when flowers are withered. Grace, when ended in glory, will last for ever. Christ is the source which makes these gardens fruitful; even a well of living waters.

MHCC: Sos 4:16

The church prays for the influences of the blessed Spirit, to make this garden fruitful. Graces in the soul are as spices in these gardens, that in them which is valuable and useful. The blessed Spirit, in his work upon the soul, is as the wind. There is the north wind of conviction, and the south wind of comfort. He stirs up good affections, and works in us both to will and to do that which is good. The church invites Christ. Let him have the honour of all the garden produces, and let us have the comfort of his acceptance of it. We can invite him to nothing but what is his own already. The believer can have no joy of the fruits, unless they redound some way or other to the glory of Christ. Let us then seek to keep separate from the world, as a garden enclosed, and to avoid conformity thereto.

Matthew Henry: Sos 4:1-7

Here is, I. A large and particular account of the beauties of the church, and of gracious souls on whom the image of God is renewed, consisting in the beauty of holiness. In general, he that is a competent judge of beauty, whose judgment, we are sure, is according to truth, and what all must subscribe to, he has said, Behold, thou art fair. She had commended him, and called all about her to take notice of his glories; and hereby she recommends herself to him, gains his favour, and, in return for her respects, he calls to all about him to take notice of her graces. Those that honour Christ he will honour, 1Sa 2:30.

1. He does not flatter her, nor design hereby either to make her proud of herself or to court her praises of him; but, (1.) It is to encourage her under her present dejections. Whatever others thought of her, she was amiable in his eyes. (2.) It is to teach her what to value herself upon, not any external advantages (which would add nothing to her, and the want of which would deprive her of nothing that was really excellent), but upon the comeliness of grace which he had put upon her. (3.) It is to invite others to think well of her too, and to join themselves to her: "Thou art my love, thou lovest me and art beloved of me, and therefore thou art fair. "All the beauty of the saints is derived from him, and they shine by reflecting his light; it is the beauty of the Lord our God that is upon us, Psa 90:17. She was espoused to him, and that made her beautiful. Uxor fulget radiis mariti - The spouse shines in her husband's rays. It it repeated, Thou art fair, and again, Thou art fair, denoting not only the certainty of it, but the pleasure he took in speaking of it.

2. As to the representation here made of the beauty of the church, the images are certainly very bright, the shades are strong, and the comparisons bold, not proper indeed to represent any external beauty, for they were not designed to do so, but the beauty of holiness, the new man, the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible. Seven particulars are specified, a number of perfection, for the church is enriched with manifold graces by the seven spirits that are before the throne, Rev 1:4; 1Co 1:5, 1Co 1:7.

(1.) Her eyes. A good eye contributes much to a beauty: Thou hast doves' eyes, clear and chaste, and often cast up towards heaven. It is not the eagle's eye, that can face the sun, but the dove's eye, a humble, modest, mournful eye, that is the praise of those whom Christ loves. Ministers are the church's eyes (Isa 52:8, thy watchmen shall see eye to eye ); they must be like doves' eyes, harmless and inoffensive (Mat 10:16), having their conversation in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity. Wisdom and knowledge are the eyes of the new man; they must be clear, but not haughty, not exercised in things too high for us. When our aims and intentions are sincere and honest, then we have doves' eyes, when we look not unto idols (Eze 18:6), but have our eyes ever towards the Lord, Psa 25:15. The doves' eyes are within the locks, which area as a shade upon them, so that, [1.] They cannot fully see. As long as we are here in this world we know but in part, for a hair hangs in our eyes; we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness; death will shortly cut those locks, and then we shall see all things clearly. [2.] They cannot be fully seen, but as the stars through the thin clouds. Some make it to intimate the bashfulness of her looks; she suffers not her eyes to wander, but limits them with her locks.

(2.) Her hair; it is compared to a flock of goats, which looked white, and were, on the top of the mountains, like a fine head of hair; and the sight was more pleasant to the spectator because the goats have not only gravity from their beards, but they are comely in going (Pro 30:29), but it was most pleasant of all to the owner, much of whose riches consisted in his flocks. Christ puts a value upon that in the church, and in believers, which others make no more account of than of their hair. He told his disciples that the very hairs of their head were all numbered, as carefully as men number their flocks (Mat 10:30), and that not a hair of their head should perish, Luk 21:18. Some by the hair here understand the outward conversation of a believer, which ought to be comely, and decent, and agreeable to the holiness of the heart. The apostle opposes good works, such as become the professors of godliness, to the plaiting of the hair, 1Ti 2:9, 1Ti 2:10. Mary Magdalen's hair was beautiful when she wiped the feet of Christ with it.

(3.) Her teeth, Son 4:2. Ministers are the church's teeth; like nurses, they chew the meat for the babes of Christ. The Chaldee paraphrase applies it to the priests and Levites, who fed upon the sacrifices as the representatives of the people. Faith, by which we feed upon Christ, meditation, by which we ruminate on the word and chew the cud upon what we have heard, in order to the digesting of it, are the teeth of the new man. These are here compared to a flock of sheep. Christ called his disciples and ministers a little flock. It is the praise of teeth to be even, to be white, and kept clean, like sheep from the washing, and to be firm and well fixed in the gums, and not like sheep that cast their young; for so the word signifies which we translate barren. It is the praise of ministers to be even in mutual love and concord, to be pure and clean from all moral pollutions, and to be fruitful, bringing forth souls to Christ, and nursing his lambs.

(4.) Her lips; these are compared to a thread of scarlet, Son 4:3. Red lips are comely, and a sign of health, as the paleness of the lips is a sign of faintness and weakness; her lips were the colour of scarlet, but thin lips, like a thread of scarlet. The next words explain it: Thy speech is comely, always with grace, good, and to the use of edifying, which adds much to the beauty of a Christian. When we praise God with our lips, and with the mouth make confession of him to salvation, then they are as a thread of scarlet. All our good works and good words must be washed in the blood of Christ, dyed like the scarlet thread, and then, and not till then, they are acceptable to God. The Chaldee applies it to the chief priest, and his prayers for Israel on the day of atonement.

(5.) Her temples, or cheeks, which are here compared to a piece of a pomegranate, a fruit which, when cut in two, has rich veins or specks in it, like a blush in the face. Humility and modesty, blushing to lift up our faces before God, blushing at the remembrance of sin and in a sense of our unworthiness of the honour put upon us, will beautify us very much in the eyes of Christ. The blushes of Christ's bride are within her locks, which intimates (says Mr. Durham) that she blushes when no other sees, and for that which none sees but God and conscience; also that she seeks not to proclaim her humility, but modestly covers that too; yet the evidences of all these, in a tender walk, appear and are comely.

(6.) Her neck; this is here compared to the tower of David, Son 4:4. This is generally applied to the grace of faith, by which we are united to Christ, as the body is united to the head by the neck; this is like the tower of David, furnishing us with weapons of war, especially bucklers and shields, as the soldiers were supplied with them out of that tower, for faith is our shield (Eph 6:16): those that have it never want a buckler, for God will compass them with his favour as with a shield. When this neck is like a tower, straight, and stately, and strong, a Christian goes on in his way, and works with courage and magnanimity, and does not hang a drooping head, and he does when faith fails. Some make the shields of the mighty men, that are here said to hang up in the tower of David, to be the monuments of the valour of David's worthies. Their shields were preserved, to keep in remembrance them and their heroic acts, intimating that it is a great encouragement to the saints to hold up their heads, to see what great things the saints in all ages have accomplished and won by faith. In Heb. 11 we have the shields of the mighty men hung up, the exploits of believers and the trophies of their victories.

(7.) Her breasts; these are like two young roes that are twins, Son 4:5. The church's breasts are both for ornament (Eze 16:7) and for use; they are the breasts of her consolation (Isa 66:11), as she is said to suck the breasts of kings, Isa 60:16. Some apply these to the two Testaments; others to the two sacraments, the seals of the covenant of grace; others to ministers, who are to be spiritual nurses to the children of God and to give out to them the sincere milk of the word, that they may grow thereby, and, in order to that, are themselves to feed among the lilies where Christ feeds (Son 2:16), that they may be to the babes of the church as full breasts. Or the breasts of a believer are his love to Christ, which he is pleased with, as a tender husband is with the affections of his wife, who is therefore said to be to him as the loving hind and the pleasant roe, because her breasts satisfy him at all times, Pro 5:19. This includes also his edifying others and communicating grace to them, which adds much to a Christian's beauty.

II. The bridegroom's resolution hereupon to retire to the mountain of myrrh (Son 4:6) and there to make his residence. This mountain of myrrh is supposed to signify Mount Moriah, on which the temple was built, where incense was daily burnt to the honour of God. Christ was so pleased with the beauty of his church that he chose this to be his rest for ever; here he will dwell till the day break and the shadows flee away. Christ's parting promise to his disciples, as the representatives of the church, answer to this: Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Where the ordinances of God are duly administered there Christ will be, and there we must meet him at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Some make these to be the words of the spouse, either modestly ashamed of the praises given her, and willing to get out of the hearing of them, or desirous to be constant to the holy hill, not doubting but there to find suitable and sufficient succour and relief in all her straits, and there to cast anchor, and wish for the day, which, at the time appointed, would break and the shadows flee away. The holy hill (as some observe) is here called both a mountain of myrrh, which is bitter, and a hill of frankincense, which is sweet, for there we have occasion both to mourn and rejoice; repentance is a bitter sweet. But in heaven it will be all frankincense, and no myrrh. Prayer is compared to incense, and Christ will meet his praying people and will bless them.

III. His repeated commendation of the beauty of the spouse (Son 4:7): Thou art all fair, my love. He had said (Son 4:1), Thou art fair; but here he goes further, and, in review of the particulars, as of those of the creation, he pronounces all very good: " Thou art all fair, my love; thou art all over beautiful, and there is nothing amiss in thee, and thou hast all beauties in thee; thou art sanctified wholly in every part; all things have become new (2Co 5:17); there is not only a new face and a new name, but a new man, a new nature; there is no spot in thee, as far as thou art renewed."The spiritual sacrifices must be without blemish. There is no spot but such as is often the spot of God's children, none of the leopard's spots. The church, when Christ shall present it to himself a glorious church, will be altogether without spot or wrinkle, Eph 5:27.

Matthew Henry: Sos 4:8-14

These are still the words of Christ to his church, expressing his great esteem of her and affection to her, the opinion he had of her beauty and excellency, the desire he had of, and the delight he had in, her converse and society. And so ought men to love their wives as Christ loves the church, and takes pleasure in it as if it were spotless and had no fault, when yet it is compassed with infirmity. Now, observe here,

I. The endearing names and titles by which he calls her, to express his love to her, to assure her of it, and to engage and excite her love to him. Twice here he calls her My spouse (Son 4:8, Son 4:11) and three times My sister, my spouse, Son 4:9, Son 4:10, Son 4:12. Mention was made (Son 3:11) of the day of his espousals, and, after that, she is called his spouse, not before. Note, There is a marriage-covenant between Christ and his church, between Christ and every true believer. Christ calls his church his spouse, and his calling her so makes her so. "I have betrothed thee unto me for ever; and, as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee."He is not ashamed to own the relation, but, as becomes a kind and tender husband, he speaks affectionately to her, and calls her his spouse, which cannot but strongly engage her to be faithful to him. Nay, because no one relation among men is sufficient to set forth Christ's love to his church, and to show that all this must be understood spiritually, he owns her in two relations, which among men are incompatible, My sister, my spouse. Abraham's saying of Sarah, She is my sister, was interpreted as a denying of her to be his wife; but Christ's church is to him both a sister and a spouse, as Mat 12:50, a sister and mother. His calling her sister is grounded upon his taking our nature upon him in his incarnation, and his making us partakers of his nature in our sanctification. He clothed himself with a body (Heb 2:14), and he clothes believers with his Spirit (1Co 6:17), and so they become his sisters. They are children of God his Father (2Co 6:18) and so they become his sisters; he that sanctifies, and those that are sanctified, are all of one (Heb 2:11); and he owns them, and loves them, as his sisters.

II. The gracious call he gives her to come along with him as a faithful bride, that must forget her own people and her father's house, and leave all to cleave to him. Ubi tu Caius, ibi ego Caia - Where thou Caius art, I Caia will be. Come with me from Lebanon, Son 4:8.

1. It is a precept; so we take it, like that (Son 2:10, Son 2:13), Rise up, and come away. All that have by faith come to Christ must come with Christ, in holy obedience to him and compliance with him. Being joined to him, we must walk with him. This is his command to us daily: " Come with me, my spouse; come with me to God as a Father; come with me onward, heavenward; come forward with me; come up with me; come with me from Lebanon, from the top of Amana, from the lions' dens. "These mountains are to be considered, (1.) As seemingly delightful places. Lebanon is called that goodly mountain, Deu 3:25. We read of the glory of Lebanon (Isa 35:2) and its goodly smell, Hos 14:6. We read of the pleasant dew of Hermon (Psa 133:3) and the joy of Hermon (Psa 89:12); and we may suppose the other mountains here mentioned to be pleasant ones, and so this is Christ's call to his spouse to come off from the world, all its products, all its pleasures, to sit loose to all the delights of sense. All those must do so that would come with Christ; they must take their affections off from all present things; yea, though they be placed at the upper end of the world, on the top of Amana and the top of Shenir, though they enjoy the highest satisfactions the creature can propose to give, yet they must come away from them all, and live above the tops of the highest hills on earth, that they may have their conversation in heaven. Come from those mountains, to go along with Christ to the holy mountain, the mountain of myrrh, Son 4:6. Even while we have our residence on these mountains, yet we must look for them, look above them. Shall we lift up our eyes to the hills? No; our help comes from the Lord, Psa 121:1, Psa 121:2. We must look beyond them, to the things that are not seen (as these high hills are), that are eternal. From the tops of Shenir and Hermon, which were on the other side Jordan, as from Pisgah, they could see the land of Canaan; from this world we must look forward to the better country. (2.) They are to be considered as really dangerous. These hills indeed are pleasant enough, but there are in them lions' dens; they are mountains of the leopards, mountains of prey, though they seem glorious and excellent, Psa 76:4. Satan, that roaring lion, in the prince of this world; in the things of it he lies in wait to devour. On the tops of these mountains there are many dangerous temptations to those who would take up their residence in them; and therefore come with me from them; let us not set our hearts upon the things of this world, and then they can do us no hurt. Come with me from the temples of idolaters, and the societies of wicked people (so some understand it); come out from among them, and be you separate. Come from under the dominion of your own lusts, which are as lions and leopards, fierce upon us, and making us fierce.

2. It may be taken as a promise: Thou shalt come with me from Lebanon, from the lions' dens; that is, (1.) "Many shall be brought home to me, as living members of the church, from every point, from Lebanon in the north, Amana in the west, Hermon in the east, Shenir in the south, from all parts, to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, "Mat 8:11. See Isa 49:11, Isa 49:12. Some from the tops of these mountains, some of the great men of this world, shall give themselves to Christ. (2.) The church shall be delivered from her persecutors, in due time; though now she dwells among lions (Psa 57:4), Christ will take her with himself from among their dens.

III. The great delight Christ takes in his church and in all believers. He delights in them,

1. As in an agreeable bride, adorned for her husband (Rev 21:2), who greatly desires her beauty, Psa 45:11. No expressions of love can be more passionate than these here, in which Christ manifests his affection to his church; and yet that great proof of his love, his dying for it, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, goes far beyond them all. A spouse so dearly bought and paid for could not but be dearly loved. Such a price being given for her, a high value must needs be put upon her accordingly; and both together may well set us a wondering at the height and depth, and length and breadth, of the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, that love in which he gave himself for us and gives himself to us. Observe, (1.) How he is affected towards his spouse: Thou hast ravished my heart; the word is used only here. Thou hast hearted me, or Thou has unhearted me. New words are coined to express the inexpressibleness of Christ's surprising love to his church; and the strength of that love is set forth by that which is a weakness in men, the being so much in love with one object as to be heartless to every thing else. This may refer to that love which Christ had to the chosen remnant, before the worlds were, when his delights were with the sons of men (Pro 8:31), that first love, which brought him from heaven to earth, to seek and save them at such vast expense, yet including the complacency he takes in them when he has brought them to himself. Note, Christ's heart is upon his church; so it has appeared all along. His treasure is in it; it is his peculiar treasure (Exo 19:5); and therefore there his heart is also. "Never was love like unto the love of Christ, which made him even mindless of himself, when he emptied himself of his glory, and despised all shame and pain, for our sakes. The wound of love towards us, which he had from eternity in himself, made him neglect all the wounds and reproaches of the cross;"so Bishop Reynolds. Thus let us love him. (2.) What it is that thus affects him with delight. [1.] The regard she has to him: Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thy eyes, those doves' eyes, clear and chaste (which were commended, Son 4:1), with one glance of those eyes. Christ is wonderfully pleased with those that look unto him as their Saviour, and through the eye of faith dart their affections to him, above any rival whatsoever, and whose eyes are ever towards him; he is soon aware of the first look of a soul towards him and meets it with his favours. [2.] The ornaments she has from him, that is, the obedience she yields to him, for that is the chain of her neck, the graces that enrich her soul, which are connected as links in chain, the exercise of these graces in a conversation which adorns both herself and the doctrine of Jesus Christ, which she professes to believe (as a gold chain is an ornament to persons of quality), and an entire submission to the commanding power of his love. Having shaken off the bands of our neck, by which we were tied to this world (Isa 52:2), and the yoke of our transgressions, we are bound with the cords of love, as chains of gold, to Jesus Christ, and our necks are brought under his sweet and easy yoke, to drawn in it. This recommends us to Jesus Christ, for this is that true wisdom which, in his account, is an ornament of grace unto the head and chains about the neck, Pro 1:9. [3.] The affection she has for him: How fair is thy love! how beautiful is it! Not only thy love itself, but all the fruits and products of it, its working in the heart, its works in the life. How well does it become a believer thus to love Christ, and what a pleasure does Christ take in it! Nothing recommends us to Christ as this does. How much better is thy love than wine, than all the wine that was poured out to the Lord in the drink-offerings! Hence the fruit of the vine is said to cheer God and man, Jdg 9:13. She had said of Christ's love, It is better than wine (Son 1:2), and now Christ says so of hers; there is nothing lost by praising Christ, nor will he be behindhand with his friends in kindness. [4.] The ointments, the odours wherewith she is perfumed, the gifts and graces of the Spirit, her good works, which are an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God, Phi 4:18. The smell of thy ointment is better than all spices, such as the queen of Sheba presented to Solomon, camel-loads of them (1Ki 10:2), or, rather, than all the spices that were used in compounding the holy incense which was burned daily on the golden altar. Love and obedience to God are more pleasing to Christ than sacrifice or incense. The smell of her garments too, the visible profession she makes of religion, and relation to Christ, before men, and wherein she appears to the world, this is very grateful to Christ, as the smell of Lebanon. Christ having put upon his spouse the white raiment of his own righteousness (Rev 3:18), and the righteousness of saints (Rev 19:8), and this perfumed with holy joy and comfort, he is well pleased with it. [5.] Her words, both in her devotion to God and her discourses with men (Son 4:11): Thy lips O my spouse! drop as the honeycomb, drop that which is very sweet, and drop it freely and plentifully. If what God speaks to us be sweeter to us than the honey and the honeycomb (Psa 19:10), what we say to him in prayer and praise shall also be pleasing to him: Sweet is thy voice. And if out of a good treasure in the heart we bring forth good things, if our speech be always with grace, if our lips use knowledge aright, if they disperse knowledge, they then, in Christ's account, even drop the honeycomb, out-drop it. Honey and milk (the two staple commodities of Canaan) are under thy tongue; that is, in thy heart, not only reserved there for thy own use as a sweet morsel for thyself, but ready there for the use of others. In the word of God there is sweet and wholesome nourishment, milk for babes, honey for those that are grown up. Christ is well-pleased with those that are full of his word.

2. As in a pleasant garden. And well may a very great delight be compared to the delight taken in a garden, when the happiness of Adam in innocency was represented by the putting of him into a garden, a garden of pleasure. This comparison is pursued, Son 4:12-14. The church is fitly compared to a garden, to a garden which, as was usual, had a fountain in it. Where Solomon made himself gardens and orchards he made himself pools of water (Ecc 2:5, Ecc 2:6), not only for curiosity and diversion, in water-works, but for use, to water the gardens. Eden was well watered, Gen 2:10; Gen 13:10. Observe, (1.) The peculiarity of this garden: It is a garden enclosed, a paradise separated from the common earth. It is appropriated to God; he has set it apart for himself; Israel is God's portion, the lot of his inheritance. It is enclosed for secresy; the saints are God's hidden ones, therefore the world knows them not; Christ walks in his garden unseen. It is enclosed for safety; a hedge of protection is made about it, which all the powers of darkness cannot either find or make a gap in. God's vineyard is fenced (Isa 5:2); there is a wall about it, a wall of fire. It has a spring in it, and a fountain, but it is a spring shut up and a fountain sealed, which sends its streams abroad (Pro 5:16), but is itself carefully locked up, that it may not by any injurious hand be muddied or polluted. The souls of believers are as gardens enclosed; grace in them is as a spring shut up there in the hidden man of the heart, where the water that Christ gives is a well of living water, Joh 4:14; Joh 7:38. The Old Testament church was a garden enclosed by the partition wall of the ceremonial law. The Bible was then a spring shut up and a fountain sealed; it was confined to one nation; but now the wall of separation is removed, the gospel preached to every nation, and in Jesus Christ there is neither Greek nor Jew. (2.) The products of this garden. It is as the garden of Eden, where the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, Gen 2:9. Thy plants, or plantations, are an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, Son 4:13. It is not like the vineyard of the man void of understanding, that was all grown over with thorns and nettles; but here are fruits, pleasant fruits, all trees of frankincense, and all the chief spices, Son 4:14. Here is a great plenty of fruits and great variety, nothing wanting which might either beautify or enrich this garden, might make it either delightful or serviceable to its great Lord. Every thing here is the best of the kind. Their chief spices were much more valuable, because much more durable, than the choicest of our flowers. Solomon was a great master in botany as well as other parts of natural philosophy; he treated largely of trees (1Ki 4:33), and perhaps had reference to some specific qualities of the fruits here specified, which made them very fit for the purpose for which he alludes to them; but we must be content to observe, in general, the saints in the church, and graces in the saints, are very fitly compared to these fruits and spices; for, [1.] They are planted, and do not grow of themselves; the trees of righteousness are the planting of the Lord (Isa 61:3); grace springs from an incorruptible seed. [2.] They are precious and of high value; hence we read of the precious sons of Zion and their precious faith; they are plants of renown. [3.] They are pleasant, and of a sweet savour to God and man, and, as strong aromatics, diffuse their fragrancy. [4.] They are profitable and of great use. Saints are the blessings of this earth, and their graces are their riches, with which they trade as the merchants of the east with their spices. [5.] They are permanent, and will be preserved to good purpose, when flowers are withered and good for nothing. Grace, ripened into glory, will last for ever.

Matthew Henry: Sos 4:15-16

These seem to be the words of the spouse, the church, in answer to the commendations which Christ, the bridegroom, had given of her as a pleasant fruitful garden. Is she a garden?

I. She owns her dependence upon Christ himself to make this garden fruitful. To him she has an eye (Son 4:15) as the fountain of gardens, not only the founder of them, by whom they are planted and to whom they owe their being, but the fountain of them, by which they are watered and to which they own their continuance and well-being, and without whose constant supplies they would soon become like the dry and barren wilderness. To him she gives all the glory of her fruitfulness, as being nothing without him: O fountain of gardens! fountain of all good, of all grace, do not thou fail me. Does a believer say to the church, All my springs are in thee, in thee, O Zion? (Psa 87:7), the church transmits the praise to Christ, and says to him, All my springs are in thee; thou art the well of living waters (Jer 2:13), out of which flow the streams of Lebanon, the river Jordan, which had its rise at the foot of Mount Lebanon, and the waters of the sanctuary, which issued out from under the threshold of the house, Eze 47:1. Those that are gardens to Christ must acknowledge him a fountain to them, from whose fulness they receive and to whom it is owing that their souls are as a watered garden, Jer 31:12. The city of God on earth is made glad with the river that flows from this fountain (Psa 46:4), and the new Jerusalem has its pure river of water of life proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, Rev 22:1.

II. She implores the influences of the blessed Spirit to make this garden fragrant (Son 4:16): Awake, O north wind! and come, thou south. This is a prayer, 1. For the church in general, that there may be a plentiful effusion of the Spirit upon it, in order to its flourishing estate. Ministers' gifts are the spices; when the Spirit is poured out these flow forth, and then the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, Isa 32:15. This prayer was answered in the pouring out of the Spirit on the day of pentecost (Act 2:1), ushered in by a mighty wind; then the apostles, who were bound up before, flowed forth, and were a sweet savour to God, 2Co 2:15. 2. For particular believers. Note, (1.) Sanctified souls are as gardens, gardens of the Lord, enclosed for him. (2.) Graces in the soul are as spices in these gardens, that in them which is valuable and useful. (3.) It is very desirable that the spices of grace should flow forth both in pious and devout affections and in holy gracious actions, that with them we may honour God, adorn our profession, and do that which will be grateful to good men. (4.) The blessed Spirit, in his operations upon the soul, is as the north and the south wind, which blows where it listeth, and from several points, Joh 3:8. There is the north wind of convictions, and the south wind of comforts; but all, like the wind, brought out of God's treasuries and fulfilling his word. (5.) The flowing forth of the spices of grace depends upon the gales of the Spirit; he stirs up good affections, and works in us both to will and to do that which is good; it is he that makes manifest the savour of his knowledge by us. (6.) We ought therefore to wait upon the Spirit of grace for his quickening influences, to pray for them, and to lay our souls under them. God has promised to give us his Spirit, but he will for this be enquired of.

III. She invites Christ to the best entertainment the garden affords: " Let my beloved then come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits; let him have the honour of all the products of the garden (it is fit he should), and let me have the comfort of his acceptance of them, for that is the best account they can be made to turn to."Observe, 1. She calls it his garden; for those that are espoused to Christ call nothing their own, but what they have devoted to him and desire to be used for him. When the spices flow forth then it is fit to be called his garden, and not till then. The fruits of the garden are his pleasant fruits, for he planted them, watered them, and gave the increase. What can we pretend to merit at Christ's hands when we can invite him to nothing but what is his own already? 2. She begs he would visit it, and accept of what it produced. The believer can take little pleasure in his garden, unless Christ, the beloved of his soul, come to him, nor have any joy of the fruits of it, unless they redound some way or other to the glory of Christ, and he will think all he has well bestowed upon him.

Keil-Delitzsch: Sos 4:7

This childlike modest disposition makes her yet more lovely in the eyes of the king. He breaks out in these words:

7 Thou art altogether fair, my love,

And no blemish in thee.

Certainly he means, no blemish either of soul or body. In Son 4:1-5 he has praised her external beauty; but in Son 4:6 her soul has disclosed itself: the fame of her spotless beauty is there extended to her would no less than to her external appearance. And as to her longing after freedom from the tumult and bustle of court life, he thus promises to her:

Keil-Delitzsch: Sos 4:8

8 With me from Lebanon, my bride,

With me from Lebanon shalt thou come;

Shalt look from the top of Amana,

From the top of Shenir and Hermon,

From dens of lions,

From mountains of leopards.

Zöckl. interprets אתּי in the sense of אלי , and תּשׁוּרי in the sense of journeying to this definite place: "he announces to her in overflowing fulness of expression that from this time forth, instead of the lonely mountainous regions, and the dangerous caves and dens, she shall inhabit with him the royal palace."Thus also Kingsbury. But the interpretation, however plausible, cannot be supported. For (1) such an idea ought to be expressed either by תב אלי or by תשׁבי ואתּי תב , instead of אתּי תּב ; (2) Shulamith is not from Lebanon, nor from the Anti-Libanus, which looks toward Damascus; (3) this would be no answer to Shulamith's longing for lonely quietness. We therefore hold by our explanation given in 1851. He seeks her to go with him up the steep heights of Lebanon, and to descend with him from thence; for while ascending the mountain one has no view before him, but when descending he has the whole panorama of the surrounding region lying at his feet. Thus תשׁ is not to be understood as at Isa 57:9, where it has the meaning of migrabas, but, as at Num 23:9, it means spectabis . With מר the idea of prospect lies nearer than that of descending; besides, the meaning spectare is secondary, for שׁוּר signifies first "to go, proceed, journey,"and then "going to view, to go in order to view."Sêr in Arab. means "the scene,"and sêr etmek in Turkish, "to contemplate"(cf. Arab. tamashy , to walk, then, to contemplate). Lebanon is the name of the Alpine range which lies in the N.-W. of the Holy Land, and stretches above 20 (German) miles from the Leontes ( Nahr el-Kasmîe ) northwards to the Eleutheros ( Nahr el-Kebîr ). The other three names here found refer to the Anti-Libanus separated from the Lebanon by the Coelo-Syrian valley, and stretching from the Banis northwards to the plain of Hamâth.

Amana denotes that range of the Anti-Libanus from which the springs of the river Amana issue, one of the two rivers which the Syrian captain (2Ki 5:12) named as better than all the waters of Israel. These are the Amana and Pharpar , i.e. , the Baradâ and A'wadsh ; to the union of the Baradâ (called by the Greeks Chrysorrhoas , i.e. , "golden stream") with the Feidshe , the environs of Damascus owe their ghuwdat , their paradisaical beauty.

Hermon (from חרם , to cut of; cf. Arab. kharom and makhrim , the steep projection of a mountain) is the most southern peak of the Anti-Libanus chain, the lofty mountains (about 10, 000 feet above the level of the sea) which form the north-eastern border of Palestine, and from which the springs of the Jordan take their rise.

Another section of the Anti-Libanus range is called Senir , not Shenir . The name, in all the three places where it occurs (Deu 3:9; 1Ch 5:23), is, in accordance with tradition, to be written with Sin . The Onkelos Targum writes סריון ; the Jerusalem paraphrases, טורא דמסרי פירוי (the mountain whose fruits become putrid, viz., on account of their superabundance); the Midrash explains otherwise: שהוא שובא הניר (the mountain which resists being broken up by the plough), - everywhere the writing of the word with the letter Sin is supposed. According to Deu 3:9, this was the Amorite name of Hermon. The expression then denotes that the Amorites called Hermon - i.e. , the Anti-Libanus range, for they gave the name of a part to the whole range - by the name Senîr ; Abulfeda uses Arab. snîr as the name of the part to the north of Damascus, with which the statement of Schwarz ( Das h. Land , p. 33) agrees, that the Hermon (Anti-Libanus) to the north-west of Damascus is called Senîr .

נמרים , panthers, to the present day inhabit the clefts and defiles of the Lebanon, and of the Anti-Libanus running parallel to it; whereas lions have now altogether disappeared from the countries of the Mediterranean. In Solomon's time they were to be met with in the lurking-places of the Jordan valley, and yet more frequently in the remote districts of the northern Alpine chains. From the heights of these Alps Solomon says Shulamith shall alone with him look down from where the lions and panthers dwell. Near these beasts of prey, and yet inaccessible by them, shall she enjoy the prospect of the extensive pleasant land which was subject to the sceptre of him who held her safe on these cliffs, and accompanied her over these giddy heights. If "mountain of myrrh,"so also "the top of Amana"is not without subordinate reference. Amana , proceeding from the primary idea of firmness and verification, signifies fidelity and the faithful covenant as it is established between God and the congregation, for He betrothes it to Himself b'mwnh ("in faithfulness"), Hos 2:22 [20]; the congregation of which the apostle (Eph 5:27) says the same as is here said by Solomon of Shulamith. Here for the first time he calls her כלה , not כּלּתי ; for that, according to the usus loq ., would mean "my daughter-in-law."Accordingly, it appears that the idea of "daughter-in-law"is the primary, and that of "bride"the secondary one. כּלה , which is = כּלוּלה , as חלּה , a cake, is = חלוּלה , that which is pierced through (cf. כּלוּלות , being espoused; Jer 2:2), appears to mean

(Note: L. Geiger's Ursprung d. Sprach. p. 227; cf. 88.)

(cf. what was said regarding חתן under Son 3:11 ) her who is comprehended with the family into which, leaving her parents' house, she enters; not her who is embraced = crowned with a garland (cf. Arab. qkll , to be garlanded; tēklîl , garlanding; iklil , Syr. kelilo , a wreath), or her who is brought to completion (cf. the verb, Eze 27:4, Eze 27:11), i.e. , has reached the goal of her womanly calling. Besides, כּלה , like "steplang7 Braut "in the older German ( e.g. , steplang7 Gudrun ), means not only her who is betrothed, but also her who has been lately married.

Keil-Delitzsch: Sos 4:9

All that the king calls his, she now can call hers; for she has won his heart, and with his heart himself and all that is his.

9 Thou hast taken my heart, my sister-bride;

Thou hast taken my heart with one of thy glances,

With a little chain of thy necklace.

The Piel לבּב may mean to make courageous, and it actually has this meaning in the Aram., wherefore the Syr. retains the word; Symm. renders it by ἐθάρσυνάς με . But is it becoming in a man who is no coward, especially in a king, to say that the love he cherishes gives him heart, i.e. , courage? It might be becoming, perhaps, in a warrior who is inspired by the thought of his beloved, whose respect and admiration he seeks to gain, to dare the uttermost. But Solomon is no Antar, no wandering knight.

(Note: A specimen of Böttcher's interpretation: "What is more natural than to suppose that the keeper of a vineyard showed herself with half of her head and neck exposed at the half-opened window to her shepherd on his first attempt to set her free, when he cried, 'my dove in the clefts of the rocks,' etc., and animated him thereby to this present bold deliverance of her from the midst of robbers?"We pity the Shulamitess, that she put her trust in this moonshiny coward.)

Besides, the first effect of love is different: it influences those whom it governs, not as encouraging, in the first instance, but as disarming them; love responded to encourages, but love in its beginning, which is the subject here, overpowers. We would thus more naturally render: "thou hast unhearted me;"but "to unheart,"according to the Semitic and generally the ancient conception of the heart ( Psychol . p. 254), does not so much mean to captivate the heart, as rather to deprive of understanding or of judgment (cf. Hos 4:11). Such denomin. Pi . of names of corporeal members signify not merely taking away, but also wounding, and generally any violent affection of it, as זנּב , גּרם , Ewald, §120 c ; accordingly the lxx, Venet., and Jerome: ἐκαρδίωσάς με , vulnerasti cor meum . The meaning is the same for "thou hast wounded my heart"= "thou hast subdued my heart"(cf. Psa 45:6 ). With one of her glances, with a little chain of her necklace, she has overcome him as with a powerful charm: veni , visa sum , vici . The Kerı̂ changes באחד into בּאחת ; certainly עין is mostly fem. ( e.g. , Jdg 16:28), but not only the non-bibl. usus loq ., which e.g. , prefers רעה or רע עין , of a malignant bewitching look, but also the bibl. ( vid ., Zec 3:9; Zec 4:10) treats the word as of double gender. ענק and צוּרנים are related to each other as a part is to the whole. With the subst. ending ôn, the designation of an ornament designed for the neck is formed from צוּאר , the neck; cf. שׂהרון , the "round tires like the moon"of the women's toilet, Isa 3:18. ענק (connected with אחד ענק , cervix ) is a separate chain (Aram. עוּנקתא ) of this necklace. In the words ענק אחד , אחד is used instead of אחד , occurring also out of genit. connection (Gen 48:22; 2Sa 17:22), and the arrangement ( vid ., under Psa 89:51) follows the analogy of the pure numerals as נשׁים שׁלשׁ ; it appears to be transferred from the vulgar language to that used in books, where, besides the passage before us, it occurs only in Dan 8:13. That a glance of the eye may pierce the heart, experience shows; but how can a little chain of a necklace do this? That also is intelligible. As beauty becomes unlike itself when the attire shows want of taste, so by means of tasteful clothing, which does not need to be splendid, but may even be of the simplest kind, it becomes mighty. Hence the charming attractive power of the impression one makes communicates itself to all that he wears, as, e.g. , the woman with the issue of blood touched with joyful hope the hem of Jesus' garment; for he who loves feels the soul of that which is loved in all that stands connected therewith, all that is, as it were, consecrated and charmed by the beloved object, and operates so much the more powerfully if it adorns it, because as an ornament of that which is beautiful, it appears so much the more beautiful. In the preceding verse, Solomon has for the first time addressed Shulamith by the title "bride."Here with heightened cordiality he calls her "sister-bride."In this change in the address the progress of the story is mirrored. Why he does not say כּלּתי (my bride), has already been explained, under Son 4:8 , from the derivation of the word. Solomon's mother might call Shulamith callathi, but he gives to the relation of affinity into which Shulamith has entered a reference to himself individually, for he says ahhothi callaa (my sister-bride): she who as callaa of his mother is to her a kind of daughter, is as callaa in relation to himself, as it were, his sister.

Keil-Delitzsch: Sos 4:10-11

He proceeds still further to praise her attractions.

10 How fair is thy love, my sister-bride!

How much better thy love than wine!

And the fragrance of thy unguents than all spices!

11 Thy lips drop honey, my bride;

Honey and milk are under thy tongue;

And the fragrance of thy garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

Regarding the connection of the pluralet. דּודים with the plur. of the pred., vid ., at Son 1:2 . The pred. יפוּ praises her love in its manifestations according to its impression on the sight; טבוּ , according to its experience on nearer intercourse. As in Son 4:9 the same power of impression is attributed to the eyes and to the necklace, so here is intermingled praise of the beauty of her person with praise of the fragrance, the odour of the clothing of the bride; for her soul speaks out not only by her lips, she breathes forth odours also for him in her spices, which he deems more fragrant than all other odours, because he inhales, as it were, her soul along with them. נפת , from נפת , ebullire ( vid ., under Pro 5:3, also Schultens), is virgin honey, ἄκοιτον ( acetum , Pliny, xi. 15), i.e. , that which of itself flows from the combs ( צוּפים ). Honey drops from the lips which he kisses; milk and honey are under the tongue which whispers to him words of pure and inward joy; cf. the contrary, Psa 140:4. The last line is an echo of Gen 27:27. שׂלמה is שׂמלה (from שׂמל , complicare , complecti ) transposed (cf. עלנה from עולה , כּשׂבּה from כּבשׂה ). As Jacob's raiment had for his old father the fragrance of a field which God had blessed, so for Solomon the garments of the faultless and pure one, fresh from the woods and mountains of the north, gave forth a heart-strengthening savour like the fragrance of Lebanon (Hos 4:7), viz., of its fragrant herbs and trees, chiefly of the balsamic odour of the apples of the cedar.

Keil-Delitzsch: Sos 4:12

The praise is sensuous, but it has a moral consecration.

12 A garden locked is my sister-bride;

A spring locked, a fountain sealed.

גּן (according to rule masc. Böttch. §658) denotes the garden from its enclosure; גּ (elsewhere נּלּה ere ), the fountain (synon. מבּוּע ), the waves bubbling forth (cf. Amo 5:24); and מעין , the place, as it were an eye of the earth, from which a fountain gushes forth. Luther distinguishes rightly between gan and gal ; on the contrary, all the old translators (even the Venet.) render as if the word in both cases were gan . The Pasek between gan and nā'ul , and between gal and nā'ul , is designed to separate the two Nuns, as e.g. , at 2Ch 2:9; Neh 2:2, the two Mems ; it is the orthophonic Pasek , already described under Son 2:7, which secures the independence of two similar or organically related sounds. Whether the sealed fountain ( fons signatus ) alludes to a definite fountain which Solomon had built for the upper city and the temple place,

(Note: Vid ., Zschocke in the Tübinger Quartalschrift , 1867, 3.)

we do not now inquire. To a locked garden and spring no one has access but the rightful owner, and a sealed fountain is shut against all impurity. Thus she is closed against the world, and inaccessible to all that would disturb her pure heart, or desecrate her pure person.

(Note: Seal, חותם , pers. muhr, is used directly in the sense of maiden-like behaviour; vid ., Perles' etymol. Studien (1871), p. 67.)

All the more beautiful and the greater is the fulness of the flowers and fruits which bloom and ripen in the garden of this life, closed against the world and its lust.

Keil-Delitzsch: Sos 4:13-14

13 What sprouts forth for thee is a park of pomegranates,

With most excellent fruits;

Cypress flowers with nards;

14 Nard and crocus; calamus and cinnamon,

With all kinds of incense trees;

Myrrh and aloes,

With all the chief aromatics.

The common subject to all down to Son 4:15 inclusive is שׁלחיך ("what sprouts for thee"= "thy plants"), as a figurative designation, borrowed from plants, of all the "phenomena and life utterances"(Böttch.) of her personality. "If I only knew here,"says Rocke, "how to disclose the meaning, certainly all these flowers and fruits, in the figurative language of the Orient, in the flower-language of love, had their beautiful interpretation."In the old German poetry, also, the phrase steplang7 bluomen brechen to break flowers was equivalent to: to enjoy love; the flowers and fruits named are figures of all that the amata offers to the amator . Most of the plants here named are exotics; פּרדּס (heaping around, circumvallation, enclosing) is a garden or park, especially with foreign ornamental and fragrant plants - an old Persian word, the explanation of which, after Spiegel, first given in our exposition of the Song, 1851 (from pairi = περί , and dêz , R. diz , a heap), has now become common property (Justi's Handb. der Zendsprache , p. 180). מגדים פּרי (from מגד , which corresponds to The Arab. mejd , praise, honour, excellence; vid ., Volck under Deu 33:13) are fructus laudum , or lautitiarum , excellent precious fruits, which in the more modern language are simply called מגדים ( Shabbath 127 b , מיני מגדים , all kinds of fine fruits); cf. Syr. magdo , dried fruit. Regarding כּפר , vid ., under Son 1:14; regarding מר , under Son 1:13; also regarding נרדּ , under Son 1:12. The long vowel of נרדּ corresponds to the Pers. form nârd , but near to which is also nard , Indian nalada (fragrance-giving); the ē is thus only the long accent, and can therefore disappear in the plur. For נרדים , Grätz reads ירדים , roses, because the poet would not have named nard twice. The conjecture is beautiful, but for us, who believe the poem to be Solomonic, is inconsistent with the history of roses ( vid ., under Son 2:1), and also unnecessary. The description moves forward by steps rhythmically.

כּרוכם is the crocus stativus , the genuine Indian safran , the dried flower-eyes of which yield the safran used as a colour, as an aromatic, and also as medicine; safran is an Arab. word, and means yellow root and yellow colouring matter. The name כּרוכם , Pers. karkam , Arab. karkum , is radically Indian, Sanscr. kunkuma . קנה , a reed (from קנה , R. qn, to rise up, viewed intrans.),

(Note: In this general sense of "reed"(Syn. arundo ) the word is also found in the Gr. and Lat.: κάνναι ( κάναι ), reed-mats, κάνεον κάναστρον , a wicker basket, canna , canistrum , without any reference to an Indo-Germ. verbal stem, and without acquiring the specific signification of an aromatic plant.)

viz., sweet reed, acorus calamus , which with us now grows wild in marshes, but is indigenous to the Orient.

קנּמנן is the laurus cinnamomum , a tree indigenous to the east coast of Africa and Ceylon, and found later also on the Antilles. It is of the family of the laurineae , the inner bark of which, peeled off and rolled together, is the cinnamon-bark ( cannella , French cannelle ); Aram. קוּנמא , as also the Greek κιννάμοομον and κίνναμον , Lat. ( e.g. , in the 12th book of Pliny) cinnamomum and cinnamum , are interchanged, from קנם , probably a secondary formation from קנה (like בּם , whence בּמה , from בּא ), to which also Syr. qenûmā' , ὑπόστασις , and the Talm.-Targ. קנּוּם קונם , an oath (cf. קים ), go back, so that thus the name which was brought to the west by the Phoenicians denoted not the tree, but the reed-like form of the rolled dried bark. As "nards"refer to varieties of the nard, perhaps to the Indian and the Jamanic spoken of by Strabo and others, so "all kinds of incense trees"refers definitely to Indo-Arab. varieties of the incense tree and its fragrant resin; it has its name fro the white and transparent seeds of this its resin (cf. Arab. lubân , incense and benzoin, the resin of the storax tree, לבנה ); the Greek λίβανος , λιβανωτός (Lat. thus, frankincense, from θύω ), is a word derived from the Pheonicians.

אהלות or אהלים (which already in a remarkable way was used by Balaam, Num 24:6, elsewhere only since the time of Solomon) is the Semitized old Indian name of the aloe, agaru or aguru ; that which is aromatic is the wood of the aloe-tree ( aloëxylon agallochum ), particularly its dried root ( agallochum or lignum aloës , ξυλαλόη , according to which the Targ. here: אלואין אכסיל , after the phrase in Aruch) mouldered in the earth, which chiefly came from farther India.

(Note: Vid ., Lassen's Ind. Alterthumsk . I 334f. Furrer, in Schenkel's Bib. Lex ., understands אהלות of the liliaceae , indigenous to Palestine as to Arabia, which is also called aloë . But the drastic purgative which the succulent leaves of this plant yield is not aromatic, and the verb אחל "to glisten,"whence he seeks to derive the name of this aloe, is not proved. Cf. besides, the Petersburg Lex . under aguru ("not difficult"), according to which is this name of the amyris agallocha , and the aquilaria agallocha , but of no liliaceae . The name Adlerholz ("eagle-wood") rests on a misunderstanding of the name of the Agila tree. It is called "Paradiesholz," because it must have been one of the paradise trees ( vid ., Bereshith rabba under Gen 2:8). Dioskorides says of this wood: θυμιᾶται ἀντὶ λιβανωτοῦ ; the Song therefore places it along with myrrh and frankincense. That which is common to the lily-aloe and the wood-aloe, is the bitter taste of the juice of the former and of the resinous wood of the latter. The Arab. name of the aloe, ṣabir , is also given to the lily-aloe. The proverbs: amarru min eṣ -ṣabir , bitterer than the aloe, and es -sabr sabir , patience is the aloe, refer to the aloe-juice.)

עם , as everywhere, connects things contained together or in any way united (Son 5:1; cf. Son 1:11, as Psa 87:4; cf. 1Sa 16:12). The concluding phrase וגו כּל־ר , cum praestantissimis quibusque aromatibus , is a poet. et cetera . ראשׁ , with the gen. of the object whose value is estimated, denotes what is of meilleure qualité ; or, as the Talm. says, what is אלפא , ἄλφα , i.e. , number one. Ezek; Eze 27:22, in a similar sense, says, "with chief ( ראשׁ ) of all spices."

Keil-Delitzsch: Sos 4:15

The panegyric returns now once more to the figure of a fountain.

15 A garden-fountain, a well of living water,

And torrents from Lebanon.

The tertium compar . in Son 4:12 was the collecting and sealing up; here, it is the inner life and its outward activity. A fountain in gardens ( גּנּים , categ. pl.) is put to service for the benefit of the beds of plants round about, and it has in these gardens, as it were, its proper sphere of influence. A well of living water is one in which that which is distributes springs up from within, so that it is indeed given to it, but not without at the same time being its own true property. נזל is related, according to the Semitic usus loq ., to אזל , as "steplang7 niedergehen "(to go down) to "steplang7 weggehen "(to go away) ( vid ., Pro 5:15); similarly related are (Arab.) sar , to go, and sal (in which the letter ra is exchanged for lam , to express the softness of the liquid), to flow, whence syl (sêl ), impetuous stream, rushing water, kindred in meaning to נזלים . Streams which come from Lebanon have a rapid descent, and (so far as they do not arise in the snow region) the water is not only fresh, but clear as crystal. All these figures understood sensuously would be insipid; but understood ethically, they are exceedingly appropriate, and are easily interpreted, so that the conjecture is natural, that on the supposition of the spiritual interpretation of the Song, Jesus has this saying in His mind when He says that streams of living water shall flow "out of the belly"of the believer, Joh 7:38.

Keil-Delitzsch: Sos 4:16

The king's praise is for Shulamith proof of his love, which seeks a response. But as she is, she thinks herself yet unworthy of him; her modesty says to her that she needs preparation for him, preparation by that blowing which is the breath of God in the natural and in the spiritual world.

16 Awake, thou North (wind), and come, thou South!

Blow through my garden, cause its spices to flow -

Let my beloved come into his garden,

And eat the fruits which are precious to him.

The names of the north and south, denoting not only the regions of the heavens, but also the winds blowing from these regions, are of the fem. gender, Isa 43:6. The east wind, קדים , is purposely not mentioned; the idea of that which is destructive and adverse is connected with it ( vid ., under Job 27:21). The north wind brings cold till ice is formed, Sir. 43:20; and if the south wind blow, it is hot, Luk 12:55. If cold and heat, coolness and sultriness, interchange at the proper time, then growth is promoted. And if the wind blow through a garden at one time from this direction and at another from that, - not so violently as when it shakes the trees of the forest, but softly and yet as powerfully as a garden can bear it, - then all the fragrance of the garden rises in waves, and it becomes like a sea of incense. The garden itself then blows, i.e. , emits odours; for ( פּח = the Arab. fakh , fah , cf. fawh , pl. afwâh , sweet odours, fragrant plants) as in היּום רוּח , Gen 3:8, the idea underlies the expression, that when it is evening the day itself blows, i.e. , becomes cool, the causative הפיחי , connected with the object-accus. of the garden, means to make the garden breezy and fragrant. נזל is here used of the odours which, set free as it were from the plants, flow out, being carried forth by the waves of air. Shulamith wishes that in her all that is worthy of love should be fully realized. What had to be done for Esther (Est 2:12) before she could be brought in to the king, Shulamith calls on the winds to accomplish for her, which are, as it were, the breath of the life of all nature, and as such, of the life-spirit, which is the sustaining background of all created things. If she is thus prepared for him who loves her, and whom she loves, he shall come into his garden and enjoy the precious fruit belonging to him. With words of such gentle tenderness, childlike purity, she gives herself to her beloved.

Constable: Sos 3:6--5:2

III. THE WEDDING 3:6--5:1

Weddings in Israel took place before the local town elders rather than before the priests (e.g., Ruth 4:10-11). They transpired in homes rather than in the tabernacle or temple (or synagogue later). They were civil rather than religious ceremonies.

There were three parts to a wedding in the ancient Near East. First, the groom's parents selected a bride for their son. This involved securing the permission of the bride's parents and the approval of both the bride and the groom themselves. Though the parents of the young people arranged the marriage, they usually obtained the consent of both the bride and the groom. Second, on the wedding day the groom proceeded to the bride's house accompanied by a group of his friends. He then escorted her to the site of the wedding ceremony and finally took her to their new residence accompanied by their friends. Physical union consummated the marriage the night after the wedding ceremony took place. Third, the couple feasted with their friends usually for seven days following the wedding ceremony.⁵⁹

In the section before us (3:6-5:1) the writer mentioned the wedding procession (3:6-11) and the consummation (4:1-5:1).

". . . the book is framed by an inclusio involving the brothers' and the vineyard,' and at the heart of the book is the wedding day, framed by two dream' sections with noticeable parallels."⁶⁰

Constable: Sos 4:1--5:2

B. The Consummation 4:1-5:1

Our attention now turns from the public procession that took place on the wedding day to the private union that followed that night.

Constable: Sos 4:1-7

1. The bride's beauty 4:1-7

His bride's beauty ravished Solomon. His praise in verses 1 and 7 frames his description of her in verses 1-6.

4:1 Women in Solomon's culture did not always wear a veil. Before their wedding they put one on and did not take it off until the wedding night (cf. Gen. 24:65; 29:19-25). From a distance a flock of black goats descending from the mountains at dusk was very attractive and reminded Solomon of his beloved's long black locks rippling and tumbling freely.

4:2-3 Her teeth were white and evenly matched. Her mouth had a beautiful color and shape. Her temples were rosy with robust health, like the outside of a pomegranate.⁶⁴

4:4 A long neck, which gives a stately appearance, may have been a mark of beauty in the ancient world.⁶⁵ On the other hand, this may be a figurative description designed to compliment. It was customary for soldiers to hang their shields on the towers belonging to the lords to whom they pledged allegiance.⁶⁶ What tower of David this was we do not know. It was not David's citadel that now stands on the west side of old Jerusalem because that tower did not exist at this time. The idea is that many of the best people loved and stood by the bride. She enjoyed popular acceptance by Solomon's subjects.

4:5-6 Fawns are soft and lovable. The "mountain" and "hill" are also metaphors for the girl's breasts. Myrrh and frankincense were expensive perfumes, so Solomon may have meant his wife's breasts were precious to him as well as attractive.

4:7 Perhaps she was not really as perfect as Solomon claimed here (cf. 1:5-6). "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." She was perfect to him.

Probably Solomon drew comparisons between his bride and things common in pastoral settings because rural life was her background and was dominant in Israel. She would have understood his meaning easily.

Constable: Sos 4:8

2. The groom's request 4:8

Solomon appealed to his bride to put all thoughts of her former life away. These included both the pleasant thoughts, such as those of the beautiful mountains of the Anti-Lebanon and Hermon ranges in Lebanon from which she had come, and fearful thoughts, such as those of wild animals. He urged her to give him her attention on this their wedding night.

Constable: Sos 4:9-11

3. The bride's love 4:9-11

In these verses Solomon evidently praised his bride for giving herself wholly to him as he had asked.

4:9 "Sister" was evidently an affectionate term for wife (cf. vv. 10, 12; 5:1-2; Tobit 7:16; 8:4, 7).

4:10 Again the word translated "love" means physical expressions of love (cf. 1:2). Her "oils" were her perfumes.

4:11 Milk and honey not only connote sweet delicacies but also the blessings of God (cf. Exod. 3:8). Lebanon was fragrant because of the many cedar trees that covered its hills.

". . . it is probably better to understand that the sweetness of the passionate kiss is in view."⁶⁷

Constable: Sos 4:12-15

4. The bride's purity 4:12-15

4:12 Solomon praised his bride's virginity also. She had kept herself a virgin for the man she would marry.

4:13-14 She was like a garden full of beautiful and pleasing plants that was now open to Solomon.⁶⁸ These spices, fruits, and flowers probably represent her whole person rather than her individual parts.

"The most obvious feature of the Song of Songs is the sexually explicit nature of the material, sensitively guised in figurative language."⁶⁹

4:15 Though she had kept her most intimate parts from others in the past, they were now open to Solomon, and he experienced full satisfaction with her love.

Constable: Sos 4:16--5:2

5. The bride's surrender 4:16-5:1

4:16 The Shulammite invited Solomon to take her completely. She called on the winds to carry the scents to which Solomon had referred so he would find full satisfaction (cf. vv. 13-14).

5:1 Solomon exulted in the joy that union with his beloved had brought him, and he commended it to others. This interpretation seems preferable to the views that "the onlookers[?!] and guests,"⁷⁰ or God,⁷¹ or the poet (not Solomon)⁷² spoke the words, "Eat . . . O lovers." The metaphors used express the fully satisfying nature of his sexual experience (cf. 2 Sam. 13:15).

"Biblically, when a lover gives himself to his beloved as these two have done, the relationship of each has changed to all the rest of the human race. That is why traditionally in our culture a wedding cannot be performed without witnesses. That is the reason behind the publishing of wedding bans. The taking of a woman by a man is a public matter.

"Furthermore, what one does with one's sexuality is of concern to God (Exod 20:14). Likewise, it is a concern to everyone else. The woman now belongs to the man and the man to the woman. This changes all other personal relationships. Thus the witnesses present at weddings represent the larger society. This is why weddings are considered legal matters.

"Self-giving love between the sexes is of social significance. Society must know. How else can marriage be a witness and testimony to the relationship of Christ and the church? One Savior, one spouse!"⁷³

Introduction / Outline

JFB: The Song of Songs (Book Introduction)

The Song of Solomon, called in the Vulgate and Septuagint, "The Song of Songs," from the opening words. This title denotes its superior excellence, according to the Hebrew idiom; so holy of holies, equivalent to "most holy" (Exo 29:37); the heaven of heavens, equivalent to the highest heavens (Deu 10:14). It is one of the five volumes (megilloth) placed immediately after the Pentateuch in manuscripts of the Jewish Scriptures. It is also fourth of the Hagiographa (Cetubim, writings) or the third division of the Old Testament, the other two being the Law and the Prophets. The Jewish enumeration of the Cetubim is Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra (including Nehemiah), and Chronicles. Its canonicity is certain; it is found in all Hebrew manuscripts of Scripture; also in the Greek Septuagint; in the catalogues of MELITO, bishop of Sardis, A.D. 170 (EUSEBIUS, Ecclesiastical History, 4.26), and of others of the ancient Church.

ORIGEN and JEROME tell us that the Jews forbade it to be read by any until he was thirty years old. It certainly needs a degree of spiritual maturity to enter aright into the holy mystery of love which it allegorically sets forth. To such as have attained this maturity, of whatever age they be, the Song of Songs is one of the most edifying of the sacred writings. ROSENMULLER justly says, The sudden transitions of the bride from the court to the grove are inexplicable, on the supposition that it describes merely human love. Had it been the latter, it would have been positively objectionable, and never would have been inserted in the holy canon. The allusion to "Pharaoh's chariots" (Son 1:9) has been made a ground for conjecturing that the love of Solomon and Pharaoh's daughter is the subject of the Song. But this passage alludes to a remarkable event in the history of the Old Testament Church, the deliverance from the hosts and chariots of Pharaoh at the Red Sea. (However, see on Son 1:9). The other allusions are quite opposed to the notion; the bride is represented at times as a shepherdess (Son 1:7), "an abomination to the Egyptians" (Gen 46:34); so also Son 1:6; Son 3:4; Son 4:8; Son 5:7 are at variance with it. The Christian fathers, ORIGEN and THEODORET, compared the teachings of Solomon to a ladder with three steps; Ecclesiastes, natural (the nature of sensible things, vain); Proverbs, moral; Canticles, mystical (figuring the union of Christ and the Church). The Jews compared Proverbs to the outer court of Solomon's temple, Ecclesiastes to the holy place, and Canticles to the holy of holies. Understood allegorically, the Song is cleared of all difficulty. "Shulamith" (Son 6:13), the bride, is thus an appropriate name, Daughter of Peace being the feminine of Solomon, equivalent to the Prince of Peace. She by turns is a vinedresser, shepherdess, midnight inquirer, and prince's consort and daughter, and He a suppliant drenched with night dews, and a king in His palace, in harmony with the various relations of the Church and Christ. As Ecclesiastes sets forth the vanity of love of the creature, Canticles sets forth the fullness of the love which joins believers and the Saviour. The entire economy of salvation, says HARRIS, aims at restoring to the world the lost spirit of love. God is love, and Christ is the embodiment of the love of God. As the other books of Scripture present severally their own aspects of divine truth, so Canticles furnishes the believer with language of holy love, wherewith his heart can commune with his Lord; and it portrays the intensity of Christ's love to him; the affection of love was created in man to be a transcript of the divine love, and the Song clothes the latter in words; were it not for this, we should be at a loss for language, having the divine warrant, wherewith to express, without presumption, the fervor of the love between Christ and us. The image of a bride, a bridegroom, and a marriage, to represent this spiritual union, has the sanction of Scripture throughout; nay, the spiritual union was the original fact in the mind of God, of which marriage is the transcript (Isa 54:5; Isa 62:5; Jer 3:1, &c.; Eze. 16:1-63; Eze. 23:1-49; Mat 9:15; Mat 22:2; Mat 25:1, &c.; Joh 3:29; 2Co 11:2; Eph 5:23-32, where Paul does not go from the marriage relation to the union of Christ and the Church as if the former were the first; but comes down from the latter as the first and best recognized fact on which the relation of marriage is based; Rev 19:7; Rev 21:2; Rev 22:17). Above all, the Song seems to correspond to, and form a trilogy with, Psalms 45 and 72, which contain the same imagery; just as Psalm 37 answers to Proverbs, and the Psalms 39 and 73 to Job. Love to Christ is the strongest, as it is the purest, of human passions, and therefore needs the strongest language to express it: to the pure in heart the phraseology, drawn from the rich imagery of Oriental poetry, will not only appear not indelicate or exaggerated, but even below the reality. A single emblem is a type; the actual rites, incidents, and persons of the Old Testament were appointed types of truths afterwards to be revealed. But the allegory is a continued metaphor, in which the circumstances are palpably often purely imagery, while the thing signified is altogether real. The clue to the meaning of the Song is not to be looked for in the allegory itself, but in other parts of Scripture. "It lies in the casket of revelation an exquisite gem, engraved with emblematical characters, with nothing literal thereon to break the consistency of their beauty" [BURROWES]. This accounts for the name of God not occurring in it. Whereas in the parable the writer narrates, in the allegory he never does so. The Song throughout consists of immediate addresses either of Christ to the soul, or of the soul to Christ. "The experimental knowledge of Christ's loveliness and the believer's love is the best commentary on the whole of this allegorical Song" [LEIGHTON]. Like the curiously wrought Oriental lamps, which do not reveal the beauty of their transparent emblems until lighted up within, so the types and allegories of Scripture, "the lantern to our path" [Psa 119:105], need the inner light of the Holy Spirit of Jesus to reveal their significance. The details of the allegory are not to be too minutely pressed. In the Song, with an Oriental profusion of imagery, numbers of lovely, sensible objects are aggregated not strictly congruous, but portraying jointly by their very diversity the thousand various and seemingly opposite beauties which meet together in Christ.

The unity of subject throughout, and the recurrence of the same expressions (Son 2:6-7; Son 3:5; Son 8:3-4; Son 2:16; Son 6:3; Son 7:10; Son 3:6; Son 6:10; Son 8:5), prove the unity of the poem, in opposition to those who make it consist of a number of separate erotic songs. The sudden transitions (for example, from the midnight knocking at a humble cottage to a glorious description of the King) accord with the alternations in the believer's experience. However various the divisions assigned be, most commentators have observed four breaks (whatever more they have imagined), followed by four abrupt beginnings (Son 2:7; Son 3:5; Son 5:1; Son 8:4). Thus there result five parts, all alike ending in full repose and refreshment. We read (1Ki 4:32) that Solomon's songs were "a thousand and five." The odd number five added over the complete thousand makes it not unlikely that the "five" refers to the Song of songs, consisting of five parts.

It answers to the idyllic poetry of other nations. The Jews explain it of the union of Jehovah and ancient Israel; the allusions to the temple and the wilderness accord with this; some Christians of Christ and the Church; others of Christ and the individual believer. All these are true; for the Church is one in all ages, the ancient typifying the modern Church, and its history answering to that of each individual soul in it. Jesus "sees all, as if that all were one, loves one, as if that one were all." "The time suited the manner of this revelation; because types and allegories belonged to the old dispensation, which reached its ripeness under Solomon, when the temple was built" [MOODY STUART]. "The daughter of Zion at that time was openly married to Jehovah"; for it is thenceforth that the prophets, in reproving Israel's subsequent sin, speak of it as a breach of her marriage covenant. The songs heretofore sung by her were the preparatory hymns of her childhood; "the last and crowning 'Song of Songs' was prepared for the now mature maiden against the day of her marriage to the King of kings" [ORIGEN]. Solomon was peculiarly fitted to clothe this holy mystery with the lovely natural imagery with which the Song abounds; for "he spake of trees, from the cedar in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall" (1Ki 4:33). A higher qualification was his knowledge of the eternal Wisdom or Word of God (Pro. 8:1-36), the heavenly bridegroom. David, his father, had prepared the way, in Psalms 45 and 72; the son perfected the allegory. It seems to have been written in early life, long before his declension; for after it a song of holy gladness would hardly be appropriate. It was the song of his first love, in the kindness of his youthful espousals to Jehovah. Like other inspired books, its sense is not to be restricted to that local and temporary one in which the writer may have understood it; it extends to all ages, and shadows forth everlasting truth (1Pe 1:11-12; 2Pe 1:20-21).

"Oh that I knew how all thy lights combine, and the configurations of their glorie,

Seeing not only how each verse doth shine, but all the constellations of the storie."--HERBERT.

Three notes of time occur [MOODY STUART]: (1) The Jewish Church speaks of the Gentile Church (Son 8:8) towards the end; (2) Christ speaks to the apostles (Son 5:1) in the middle; (3) The Church speaks of the coming of Christ (Son 1:2) at the beginning. Thus we have, in direct order, Christ about to come, and the cry for the advent; Christ finishing His work on earth, and the last supper; Christ ascended, and the call of the Gentiles. In another aspect we have: (1) In the individual soul the longing for the manifestation of Christ to it, and the various alternations in its experience (Son 1:2, Son 1:4; Son 2:8; Son 3:1, Son 3:4, Son 3:6-7) of His manifestation; (2) The abundant enjoyment of His sensible consolations, which is soon withdrawn through the bride's carelessness (Son 5:1-3, &c.), and her longings after Him, and reconciliation (Son 5:8-16; Son 6:3, &c.; Son 7:1, &c.); (3) Effects of Christ's manifestation on the believer; namely, assurance, labors of love, anxiety for the salvation of the impenitent, eagerness for the Lord's second coming (Son 7:10, Son 7:12; Son 8:8-10, Son 8:14).

TSK: The Song of Songs 4 (Chapter Introduction)

Overview

Son 4:1, Christ sets forth the graces of the church; Son 4:8, He shews his love to her; Son 4:16, The church prays to be made fit for his presence.

Poole: The Song of Songs 4 (Chapter Introduction)

OF SOLOMON CHAPTER 4

Christ commendeth his church for her beauty, Son 4:1-7 . He calleth her to go with him, Son 4:8 , manifesting his love and affection for her, Son 4:9 . A further commendation of her, Son 4:10-15 . She prayeth for the effectual operation of his Holy Spirit on her to make her fruitful, Son 4:16 .

These and the following words are evidently spoken by the Bridegroom to and concerning his spouse.

Thou art fair not in thyself, but by my beauty, being clothed with my righteousness, and adorned with all the graces of my Spirit, which I acknowledge to be in thee.

Thou art fair he repeats it, both to confirm the truth of his assertion, and to show the sincerity and fervency of his affection to her.

Thou hast dove’ s eyes thou art harmless, chaste, &c., as appears by thine eyes, which commonly discover the temper of the mind or person. See more of this phrase Son 1:15 . And whereas the beauty of the spouse is here described in her several parts, we need not labour much about the application of each particular to some distinct member or grace of the church, this being the chief design of this description of a bride which is beautiful in all points, to show that completeness and absolute perfection which the church hath in part received, and shall more fully receive from Christ in the future life. Yet because the church is a body, consisting of divers members, and enriched with variety of gifts and graces, I know no reason but the several parts of this description may have a more special regard to one or other of them. And so her eyes may here note, either,

1. Her teachers, who are instead of eyes to her, as the phrase is, Num 10:31 , whence they are called seers and guides, &c. Or,

2. The disposition of her mind or heart, which is compared to the eye, Mat 6:22,23 , and is oft discerned in the eye.

Within thy locks which being decently composed, make the eyes appear more amiable: withal this intimates the modesty of her looks; her eyes are not wanton, and wandering, or lofty, but sober, and humble, and confined within their proper bounds, looking directly upon her husband, not looking asquint upon other lovers, nor minding other Gods or Christs. If the eyes signify teachers, the locks may note the people assembled together to hear their teachers, to whom they are a great ornament when they thrive by his teaching.

Thy hair the hair of thine head, which is a great ornament to the female sex, 1Co 11:15 . This hair may signify either,

1. The inward thoughts and meditations; or rather,

2. The outward conversation and visible fruits of holiness, which do greatly adorn the professors and profession of religion, as hair doth the head, as is implied, 1Ti 2:9,10 1Pe 3:3-5 .

As a flock of goats which are comely and orderly in going, Pro 30:29,31 , and afford a goodly prospect. Or rather, as the hair (which word is here to be understood, as appears both from the comparison itself, and from divers places where goats are put for goats’ hair, as it is in the Hebrew text, Exo 25:4 26:7 35:26 ) of a flock of goats , which in these parts was of extraordinary length, and thickness, and softness, and comeliness, and much more like to the hair of a man or woman than the hair of our goats is, as is evident both from Scripture, as Gen 27:16 1Sa 19:13 ; and from the testimony of other ancient writers, as Apulcius, Martial, &c.

That appear from Mount Gilead that feeding there, or coming down thence, or going up thither, show themselves evidently to those who stand below it, or near them. Or, as it is rendered in our margin, and by others, that eat , or graze of, or upon . He mentions it as a very fruitful place, and fit for the breeding of all sorts of cattle, as is manifest from Num 32:1 Jer 1 19 Mic 7:14 ; and especially of goats, partly because it was a hilly and woody, country, and partly because it abounded with resinous, and oily, and gummy trees, as appears from Gen 37:25 Jer 8:22 46:11 , wherewith the goats are much delighted, as Dioscorides observes. And some affirm that the hair of these goats was commonly of a yellow colour, as may seem probable from 1Sa 19:13,16 , compared with 1Sa 16:12 , and from Son 7:5 ; which also was in ancient times esteemed a beauty in men or women, as the learned know.

MHCC: The Song of Songs (Book Introduction)

This book is a Divine allegory, which represents the love between Christ and his church of true believers, under figures taken from the relation and affection that subsist between a bridegroom and his espoused bride; an emblem often employed in Scripture, as describing the nearest, firmest, and most sure relation: see Psalms 45; Isa 54:5, Isa 54:6; Isa 62:5; Jer 2:2; Jer 3:1; also in Ezekiel, Hosea, and by our Lord himself, Mat 9:15; Mat 25:1; see also Rev 21:2, Rev 21:9; Eph 5:27. There is no character in the church of Christ, and no situation in which the believer is placed, but what may be traced in this book, as humble inquirers will find, on comparing it with other Scriptures, by the assistance of God the Holy Spirit, in answer to their supplications. Much, however, of the language has been misunderstood by expositors and translators. The difference between the customs and manners of Europe, and those of the East, must especially be kept in view. The little acquaintance with eastern customs possessed by most of our early expositors and translators, has in many cases prevented a correct rendering. Also, the changes in our own language, during the last two or three centuries, affect the manner in which some expressions are viewed, and they must not be judged by modern notions. But the great outlines, rightly interpreted, fully accord with the affections and experience of the sincere Christian.

MHCC: The Song of Songs 4 (Chapter Introduction)

(Son 4:1-7) Christ sets forth the graces of the church.

(Son 4:8-15) Christ's love to the church.

(Son 4:16) The church desires further influences of Divine grace.

Matthew Henry: The Song of Songs (Book Introduction)

An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The Song of Solomon

All scripture, we are sure, is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for the support and advancement of the interests of his kingdom among men, and it is never the less so for there being found in it some things dark and hard to be understood, which those that are unlearned and unstable wrest to their own destruction. In our belief both of the divine extraction and of the spiritual exposition of this book we are confirmed by the ancient, constant, and concurring testimony both of the church of the Jews, to whom were committed the oracles of God, and who never made any doubt of the authority of this book, and of the Christian church, which happily succeeds them in that trust and honour. I. It must be confessed, on the one hand, that if he who barely reads this book be asked, as the eunuch was Understandest thou what thou readest? he will have more reason than he had to say, How can I, except some man shall guide me? The books of scripture-history and prophecy are very much like one another, but this Song of Solomon's is very much unlike the songs of his father David; here is not the name of God in it; it is never quoted in the New Testament; we find not in it any expressions of natural religion or pious devotion, no, nor is it introduced by vision, or any of the marks of immediate revelation. It seems as hard as any part of scripture to be made a savour of life unto life, nay, and to those who come to the reading of it with carnal minds and corrupt affections, it is in danger of being made a savour of death unto death; it is a flower out of which they extract poison; and therefore the Jewish doctors advised their young people not to read it till they were thirty years old, lest by the abuse of that which is most pure and sacred ( horrendum dictu - horrible to say! ) the flames of lust should be kindled with fire from heaven, which is intended for the altar only. But, II. It must be confessed, on the other hand, that with the help of the many faithful guides we have for the understanding of this book it appears to be a very bright and powerful ray of heavenly light, admirable fitted to excite pious and devout affections in holy souls, to draw out their desires towards God, to increase their delight in him, and improve their acquaintance and communion with him. It is an allegory, the letter of which kills those who rest in that and look no further, but the spirit of which gives life, 2Co 3:6; Joh 6:63. It is a parable, which makes divine things more difficult to those who do not love them, but more plain and pleasant to those who do, Mat 13:14, Mat 13:16. Experienced Christians here find a counterpart of their experiences, and to them it is intelligible, while those neither understand it nor relish it who have no part nor lot in the matter. It is a song, an Epithalamium, or nuptial song, wherein, by the expressions of love between a bridegroom and his bride, are set forth and illustrated the mutual affections that pass between God and a distinguished remnant of mankind. It is a pastoral; the bride and bridegroom, for the more lively representation of humility and innocence, are brought in as a shepherd and his shepherdess. Now, 1. This song might easily be taken in a spiritual sense by the Jewish church, for whose use it was first composed, and was so taken, as appears by the Chaldee-Paraphrase and the most ancient Jewish expositors. God betrothed the people of Israel to himself; he entered into covenant with them, and it was a marriage-covenant. He had given abundant proofs of his love to them, and required of them that they should love him with all their heart and soul. Idolatry was often spoken of as spiritual adultery, and doting upon idols, to prevent which this song was penned, representing the complacency which God took in Israel and which Israel ought to take in God, and encouraging them to continue faithful to him, though he might seem sometimes to withdraw and hide himself from them, and to wait for the further manifestation of himself in the promised Messiah. 2. It may more easily be taken in a spiritual sense by the Christian church, because the condescensions and communications of divine love appear more rich and free under the gospel than they did under the law, and the communion between heaven and earth more familiar. God sometimes spoke of himself as the husband of the Jewish church (Isa 64:5, Hos 2:16, Hos 2:19), and rejoiced in it as his bride, Isa 62:4, Isa 62:5. But more frequently is Christ represented as the bridegroom of his church (Mat 25:1; Rom 7:4; 2Co 11:2; Eph 5:32), and the church as the bride, the Lamb's wife, Rev 19:7; Rev 21:2, Rev 21:9. Pursuant to this metaphor Christ and the church in general, Christ and particular believers, are here discoursing with abundance of mutual esteem and endearment. The best key to this book is the 45th Psalm, which we find applied to Christ in the New Testament, and therefore this ought to be so too. It requires some pains to find out what may, probably, be the meaning of the Holy Spirit in the several parts of this book; as David's songs are many of them level to the capacity of the meanest, and there are shallows in them learned, and there are depths in it in which an elephant may swim. But, when the meaning is found out, it will be of admirable use to excite pious and devout affections in us; and the same truths which are plainly laid down in other scriptures when they are extracted out of this come to the soul with a more pleasing power. When we apply ourselves to the study of this book we must not only, with Moses and Joshua, put off our shoe from off our foot, and even forget that we have bodies, because the place where we stand is holy ground, but we must, with John, come up hither, must spread our wings, take a noble flight, and soar upwards, till by faith and holy love we enter into the holiest, for this is no other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven.

Matthew Henry: The Song of Songs 4 (Chapter Introduction)

In this chapter, I. Jesus Christ, having espoused his church to himself (Son 3:11), highly commends her beauty in the several expressions of it, concluding her fair, all fair (Son 4:1-5 and again, Son 4:7). II. He retires himself, and invites her with him, from the mountains of terror to those of delight (Son 4:6, Son 4:8). III. He professes his love to her and his delight in her affection to him (Son 4:9-14). IV. She ascribes all she had that was valuable in her to him, and depends upon the continued influence of his grace to make her more and more acceptable to him (Son 4:15, Son 4:16).

Constable: The Song of Songs (Book Introduction)

Introduction

Title

In the Hebrew Bible the title of this book is "The Song of Songs." It comes from 1:1. The Septuagint and Vulgate translators adopted this title. The Latin word for song is canticum from which we get the word Canticles, another title for this book.

Some English translations have kept the title "Song of Songs" (e.g., NIV), but many have changed it to "Song of Solomon" based on 1:1 (e.g., NASB, AV, RSV, NKJV).

Writer and Date

Many references to Solomon throughout the book confirm the claim of 1:1 that Solomon wrote this book (cf. 1:4-5, 12; 3:7, 9, 11; 6:12; 7:5; 8:11-12; 1 Kings 4:33). He reigned between 971 and 931 B.C.

How could Solomon, who had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3), be the same faithful lover this book presents? He could be if he became polygamous after the events in this book took place. That seems a more likely explanation than that he was polygamous when these events occurred but just omitted reference to his other loves. Probably he wrote the book before he became polygamous. We do not know how old Solomon was when he married the second time. The history recorded in Kings and Chronicles is not in strict chronological order. The Shulammite was probably not Pharaoh's daughter (1 Kings 3:1; cf. Song of Sol. 4:8).¹

Interpretation

This book has received more varied interpretations than probably any other book in the Bible.² Some writers believed it presents the reader with the "greatest hermeneutical challenge" in the Old Testament.³ One excellent exegete called it "the most obscure book of the Old Testament."⁴

"Among the books of the Bible, the Song of Solomon is one of the smallest, most difficult, yet one of the most popular with both Jews and Christians. Over the centuries hundreds of books and commentaries have been written and unnumbered sermons preached on these 117 verses."⁵

Bible students have understood the Song of Solomon as an allegory, an extended type, a drama with either two or three main characters, or a collection of wedding songs. Others have thought it is a collection of pagan fertility cult liturgies or an anthology of songs extolling love, to name only the most common interpretations.⁶

Those who interpret the book allegorically--the majority of interpreters--believe that what the writer said is only a symbolic husk for a deeper spiritual meaning that the reader must discover. Jewish interpreters took this deeper revelation to be God's love for Israel. Christian scholars have frequently seen it as Christ's love for the church. However the text itself does not indicate that we should interpret this book differently than any other Bible book.⁷

Those who view it as an extended type believe the events recorded really took place, in contrast to the allegorical interpreters, but their primary significance lies in their illustrative value.⁸ The basic teaching Christian interpreters see is Christ's love for the church. Yet again the text itself does not indicate that this book requires a different interpretation than the other books of the Bible.

A careful analysis of the text has convinced most scholars that the Song of Solomon was not a drama.⁹ We really cannot break it down into acts and scenes in any presentable order. The action is too interwoven. There is also no evidence that the Hebrews had dramas of this type in Solomon's day.¹⁰

Some interpreters believe three main characters are in view, namely, Solomon, the Shulammite girl, and her shepherd lover.¹¹ However, what some scholars have attributed to the shepherd lover can just as easily refer to Solomon. It was not uncommon in ancient Near Eastern literature to refer to kings as shepherds since they served a pastoral function in relation to their people. Furthermore many of them did own many flocks (cf. 2:7).

Probably the Song of Solomon was a single love poem that the writer designed to deal primarily with the subject of human love and marriage. This was the viewpoint of many ancient Jewish rabbis.¹² It is also the conclusion most conservative commentators have come to who have sought to interpret this book in the same way they interpret other Bible books (i.e., literally, historically, and grammatically). It is also the conclusion of some liberal scholars who have analyzed the structure of the book.¹³ Love is an important subject of special revelation, and human love in particular is a central feature of it as well (cf. Lev. 19:18; Matt. 22:36-39; John 13:34-35). Consequently it should not seem incredible that God gave us this book to help us understand this subject better.¹⁴

However, it seems clear that this book also has spiritual value, specifically to clarify divine-human love.

". . . it is widely acknowledged that the Bible is a book of faith and theology, and there is no place in the canon for atheological literature. . . .

"The literal approaches of Dillow, Glickman, and others are much more faithful to the intent of the book [than other approaches]. The limitations of these strictly literal approaches are the tendency to see sexuality as a more prominent feature of the Song than is justified by the text and the propensity to overreact to the absurdities of the allegorical method to the extent of missing justifiable [spiritual] analogy."¹⁵

Evidence of unity within the book argues against its being only a collection of poems that had general similarity to one another that the writer assembled into one song.¹⁶

Purpose

Probably God's primary purpose in inspiring this book of the Bible was to give us revelation concerning the way love between a man and a woman should look.¹⁷ The characters in the book behave toward one another the way men and women in love should conduct themselves in attitudes and activities.

"Solomon was a man of many lovers, and the Song of Songs is a record of one of the relationships that stood out above all others. . . .

"The Song of Songs hearkens back to God's prototypical design in the Garden of Eden of one man and one woman, in marriage, a relationship God designed to be mutually exclusive. This book, then, presents a most relevant and urgent message for today."¹⁸

"The prospect of children is not necessary to justify sexual love in marriage. Significantly, the Song of Solomon makes no reference to procreation. It must be remembered that the book was written in a world where a high premium was placed on offspring and a woman's worth was often measured in terms of the number of her children. Sex was often seen with reference to procreation; yet there is not a trace of that here. The song is a song in praise of love for love's sake and for love's sake alone. This relationship needs no justification beyond itself."¹⁹

The love relationship between a man and a woman is an illustration of the love relationship within the Godhead and between God and Israel and between Christ and the church (cf. Hos. 3:1; Eph. 5:32). Therefore part of the purpose of this book seems to be the revelation of those more basic love relationships for application by the reader.

"The use of the marriage metaphor to describe the relationship of God to his people is almost universal in Scripture. . . .

"Human love is thus a good pedagogical device to cast light on divine love."²⁰

"In creating man--male and female--in his own image and joining them together so that they become one flesh, God makes us copies both of himself in his trinitarian unity and distinction as one God and three persons and of himself in relation to the people of his gracious election. Analogically, what is between Father and Son and Holy Spirit, and what ought to be and is and shall be between God and Israel and Christ and the Church, is also what is meant to be in the relation of man and woman and more specifically of husband and wife. Neither the intratrinitarian relationship nor the union between the heavenly bridegroom and his bride is a good copy of a bad original. Earthly marriage as it is now lived out is a bad copy of a good original."²¹

"There is something proleptic and eschatological in human passion. We deal with symbols that image eternal realities here. Little wonder that this little book is in the canon."²²

Canonicity

There have been three primary reasons that some scholars have thought this book does not deserve to be in the Bible. First, it does not contain the name of God. However, God's name may appear in 8:6. Furthermore, what makes a book theological or religious is not just the presence of the divine name. God's name does not appear in the Book of Esther either.

Second, the presence of frank language describing physical intimacies seems inappropriate in the Bible to some people. Yet the Bible presents marriage as sacred, including its physical aspects.

Third, the difficulty of interpretation has caused some readers to reject it as non-canonical. This criticism fails to recognize that finite and fallen human beings may not easily comprehend the revelations of an infinite and omniscient God.

"Like other portions of the Word of God, this book has its difficulties. But so have all the works of God. Is not the fact that they surpass our unaided powers of comprehension and research a sign-manual' of divinity? Can feeble man expect to grasp divine power, or to understand and interpret the works or the providences of the All-wise? And if not, is it surprising that His Word also needs superhuman wisdom for its interpretation? Thanks be to God, the illumination of the Holy Ghost is promised to all who seek for it: what more can we desire?"²³

Message²⁴

Contemporary culture has affected the interpretation of this book more than that of most other Bible books. For many years believers considered this book to be a revelation of God's love for the believer and the believer's love for God expressed in vivid metaphorical language. This was the predominant viewpoint for centuries during which time most people did not talk about the intimacies of human physical love publicly. With the sexual revolution that began in the 1960s there are many interpreters who now believe this book is a revelation of two human beings' love for each other primarily. Some have even suggested that it is an inspired marriage manual that God has given us to enable us to develop strong marriages.

Personally I believe God gave it to us so that we could understand the nature of love primarily. I think God wanted us to apply that understanding both in our love for our spouses and in our love for our Savior. In other words I believe the purpose is "both . . . and" rather than "either . . . or."

This book emphasizes the supremacy of love. Human life finds its highest fulfillment in the love of a man and a woman. Spiritual life finds its highest fulfillment in the love of a human being and God. Jesus Christ makes the fulfillment of love on both the human and the spiritual levels possible. He manifested God's love to us. Consequently we love Him, and we can love one another.

When Solomon originally wrote this book it was a poem about the love of two people, a man and a woman, for each other. Consequently what it reveals about love is applicable to human love. However since God revealed and inspired it as part of Scripture He also intended us to apply it to our spiritual lives, our relationship with God. That is the purpose of every other book of the Bible, and this was God's purpose in giving us this book as well. In Ephesians, Paul wrote that we should learn about Christ's love for the church from marriage (Eph. 5:32).

Let us look then at the values of this book that are primarily two.

First, the Song of Solomon is a revelation of the true nature of human love. It reveals four things about human love.

1. It reveals the foundation of love. According to this book the foundation of love is mutual satisfaction. The man and the woman in this book find perfect rest in each other. They satisfy one another in every way. Affection relates directly to this ability. We have an affection for people who satisfy some need or desire in us. We have supreme affection for one who satisfies us ultimately. That supreme affection is the basis for marriage. God intended it to be so. This book also reveals that mutual satisfaction is not only complementary, but it is also exclusive. The man and the woman in this book each saw the other as the only one for them (2:2-3). For satisfaction to be complete there must be a commitment to exclusivity. There is usually a promise to forsake all others in the wedding vows. When love is not exclusive, it is diluted (cf. 1 Tim. 3:2). The foundation of love then is mutual satisfaction that is both complementary and exclusive.

2. This book also reveals the strength of love. It is the strongest force in life (8:6-7). People will do for love what they will do for no other reason. However when mutual satisfaction breaks down, the strength of love grows weaker. If you want strong love in your marriage, commit yourselves to satisfying each other more than yourself.

3. This book also reveals how to love. It shows Solomon taking the initiative in reaching out to his loved one with intensity and protecting her. It also shows the Shulammite responding to her beloved by yielding to him and trusting in him. These are the usual actions and reactions of the male and the female in love. Sometimes there is a reversal of roles, but not usually. God intended these methods of expressing love to be instructive for us. They are applicable in both our love for our spouse and in our love for God.

4. Fourth, this book reveals the fruits of love. These are three.

a. In true love there is rest. There is a perfect contentment that turmoil outside or within cannot destroy. The home in which genuine love resides is a haven from the storms of life.

b. In true love there is joy. No matter what other conditions may exist (poverty, misery, etc.) real love fills the heart with song and brightens the darkest day.

c. In true love there is courage. Both individuals gain strength from their love to face circumstances boldly and to recover from their failures and go on. All three of these fruits of love are prominent in this book.

The second value of this book is that it reveals spiritual experience at its highest level.

This was the ultimate intention of the divine Author. This conclusion finds support in the fact that this was the belief of Jewish interpreters as well as Christian scholars in both Old and New Testament times. Furthermore the writers of Scripture used the example of a bride and groom, husband and wife, to describe God's relationship with His people in both Testaments (e.g., Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the bride of Christ; Eph. 5:25-32).

It is therefore important that we take these revelations concerning the nature of love and apply them to our relationship with God as well as to our relationship to our spouse.

1. The foundation of our love for God and His love for us is also mutual satisfaction. He satisfies our every need and our every want. Nevertheless He also finds satisfaction in us.

2. We see the strength of God's love for us when we look at Calvary. The strength of our love for God is the extent to which we respond to Him in obedience.

3. We see how to love in God's initiating love for us, His reaching out intensely and protectively. We express our love for Him by yielding to Him and trusting in Him.

4. The fruits of love are the same in our relationship with God as in our relationship with another human being. We enjoy rest, joy, and courage. God does too. He experiences courage in the sense of encouragement (cf. Zeph. 3:17).

Because of these revelations and emphases I would summarize the message of this book as follows. Human life and spiritual life find their greatest fulfillment in the experience of mutual love.

Love is the greatest experience in all human relationships and our spiritual relationship. Consequently God commands us to love Him and to love one another wholeheartedly (Matt. 22:37-39). We must give attention to loving. This is not how the world views love. The world thinks you fall into it and out of it; it comes and goes. The Bible says it requires continuing commitment.

This book also encourages us to view human love in the light of God's love for us and our love for Him. A person who has experienced the love of God can know best how to express and receive love on the human level. Human love is the child of divine love.

The opposite is true too. We can find help in loving God by learning from our human love. Our passion, abandonment, and fidelity to our mate on the human level should help us to practice these things in our relationship with God. I believe God created the family to help us understand our relationship with Himself. When we learn how to respond to one another, we learn how to respond to God, and vice versa.

Constable: The Song of Songs (Outline)

Outline

I. The superscription 1:1

II. The courtship 1:2-3:5

A. The beginning of love 1:2-11

1. Longing for the boyfriend 1:2-4

2. The girl's insecurity 1:5-8

3. Solomon's praise 1:9-11

B. The growth of love 1:12-3:5

1. Mutual admiration 1:12-2:7

2. Increased longing 2:8-17

3. The pain of separation 3:1-5

III. The wedding 3:6-5:1

A. The procession 3:6-11

B. The consummation 4:1-5:1

1. The bride's beauty 4:1-7

2. The groom's request 4:8

3. The bride's love 4:9-11

4. The bride's purity 4:12-15

5. The bride's surrender 4:16-5:1

IV. The maturing process 5:2-8:4

A. The problem of apathy 5:2-6:13

1. Indifference and withdrawal 5:2-8

2. Renewed affection 5:9-16

3. Steps toward reconciliation 6:1-3

4. Restoration of intimacy 6:4-13

B. Communicating affection 7:1-10

1. The wife's charms 7:1-6

2. The husband's desires 7:7-9

3. The ultimate unity 7:10

C. The wife's initiative 7:11-13

D. Increased intimacy 8:1-4

V. The conclusion 8:5-7

VI. The epilogue 8:8-14

A. The past 8:8-12

B. The present 8:13-14

Constable: The Song of Songs

Song of Solomon

Bibliography

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Carr, G. Lloyd. "Is the Song of Songs a Sacred Marriage' Drama?" Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 22:2 (June 1979):103-14.

_____. "The Love Poetry Genre in the Old Testament and the Ancient Near East: Another Look at Inspiration." Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 25:4 (December 1982):489-98.

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_____. "A Wedding Song for Solomon." Journal of Biblical Literature 63 (1944):263-70.

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Copyright 2003 by Thomas L. Constable

Haydock: The Song of Songs (Book Introduction)

SOLOMON'S CANTICLE OF CANTICLES.

INTRODUCTION.

This book is called the Canticle of Canticles, that is to say, the most excellent of all canticles: because it is full of high mysteries, relating to the happy union of Christ and his spouse; which is here begun by love; and is to be eternal in heaven. The spouse of Christ is the Church: more especially as to the happiest part of it, viz., perfect souls, every one of which is his beloved; but above all others, the immaculate and ever blessed Virgin mother [Mary]. (Challoner) --- The bridegroom is Christ, as God and man. His praises and those of his spouse are recorded by various speakers. Solomon has given us three works; for beginners, the more advanced, and the perfect; as the philosophers teach ethics, physics, and metaphysics. All the holy Scriptures contain spiritual food, but they are not all fit for every person, Hebrews v. 13. With what humility ought we not, therefore, to read this most perfect and mystical canticle, as the sentiments of spiritual love are expressed in the same words as that of worldlings, and we are more inclined to follow our own judgment and carnal notions! (Worthington) --- None, therefore, should dare to peruse this work, who has not mastered his passions, having his conversation in heaven. (Haydock) --- The Jews would not allow any ot read it before the age of thirty. (Origen and St. Jerome) --- Some of the fathers and commentators have even asserted that the mystical sense is the only one which pertains to this book, (Theodoret; Durham; Tirinus) and it is certainly the true and principal one, though allusion may be made to the marriage of Solomon with Pharao's daughter, (Calmet; Bossuet; Du Hamel) or with a Tyrian princess, (chap. iv. 8., and 3 Kings xiii. 5.) or with Abisag. (Rabbins) --- Grotius shews the corruption of his own heart in his impure comments, as Theodorus, of Mopsuestra, is blamed by the second Council of Const.[Constantinople?] iv. a. 68. The name of God never, indeed, occurs; as he is represented under the idea of the bridegroom, &c., and the piece is allegorical. It might be divided into seven scenes, or nights, as the marriage feast lasted so long, Genesis xxix. 22. During this time the bridegroom saw his spouse seldom, and with great reserve, (Calmet) as was the custom with the Lacedemonians. (Plut.[Plutarch?] in Lyc.) --- We might also refer all to six nights, or to the six ages of the Church, conformably to the system of De la Chetardie and Bishop Walmesley on the Apocalypse. --- I. Age. Chap i. 2., marks the ascension of Christ, and the propagation of Christianity; ver. 4, 5., persecutions; ver. 6, 7., vocation of the Gentiles; ver. 12., protection granted by Christ. II. Chap. ii. 3., peace under Constantine; ver. 11, 17., troubles excited by Arius. III. Chap. iii. 1., irruption of barbarians; ver. 4., does not overturn the Church; ver. 6., they are converted; ver. 11., and Christ is more glorified, as [in] Apocalypse xix. IV. Chap. iv. 5., the Latin and Greek Churches; ver. 8., the Chaldeans, lions, and Greeks, leopards, (Daniel) are converted; the Turks obtain dominion; ver. 12., the Greek schismatics cut off: ver. 16., the Church is persecuted, but protected. V. Chap. v. 2., Dew marks the cooling of charity, (St. Augustine) when Luther appeared; chap. vi. 3., yet the Church triumphs, particularly after the Council of Trent. VI. Chap. vi. 9., after the sounding of the sixth trumpet, the Jews are converted, and adorn the Church, in spite of antichrist's power; ver. 11., she addresses the synagogue, ver. 12. Chap. viii. 2., obtains leave to go into the house of her mother, as the apostles were of Jewish extraction; ver. 7., the constancy of the martyrs appears; (see Rondet.) ver. 8-14., the Church pants for her speedy union with her beloved. We may justly admire her authority, in preserving this and the former work of the canon, notwithstanding the internal and external evidence, and the ill use made of them by infidels, which seemed to militate against them. The Protestant Chateillon styles this "a wicked book." Several passages may, no doubt, be abused by a corrupt heart: but what is there so holy, which may not be perverted? When we meditate on this canticle, we ought to remember the admonition given by the Church in the Mass: "Let hearts be on high;" and Oh! that all might answer with truth: "We have them to the Lord!"

Gill: The Song of Songs (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO THE SONG OF SOLOMON

This book is entitled, in the Hebrew copies, "Shir Hashirim", the Song of Songs. The Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions call it, "the Song"; and the title of it in the Syriac version, is,

"the Wisdom of Wisdoms of the same Solomon;''

that is, the same who wrote the two preceding books. It has always been received and esteemed by the ancient Jews as a valuable part of the sacred writings, calling it "the Holy of Holies" ^a; forbidding their children to read it, because of the sublimity and mysteriousness of it, until they were at years to understand it: nor was there ever any controversy among them about the authenticity of it; but all their writers ^b, ancient and more modern, agree that it was written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The ancient Christian fathers and councils have held it as a part of the holy Scriptures, and have continued it in the canon of them; and it has been received as canonical by Christians in all ages, except a very few, as Theodore of Mopsuest, condemned calling it in question by the second council at Constantinople, in 553; and Castalio, in later times, who for the same was censured and exiled by the senate at Geneva; and Mr. Whiston, in our age, whose objections to it I have attempted to answer, in my larger Commentary on this book, published in 1728, and since republished: and I am very sorry I am obliged to take notice of an objection to the antiquity of it, and to its being Solomon's, made by a learned ^c man, very lately; who observes, that the word David, from its first appearance in Ruth, where it is written דוד, without the "yod", continues to be so written through the books of Samuel, Kings, Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel; but appears with a "yod", דויד, in the books of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Zechariah; wherefore he suggests, that if it was customary to write this word without a "yod" till the captivity, and with one after it; then he thinks a strong argument may be drawn from hence against the antiquity of the Canticles, and its being made by Solomon, since this name is written with a "yod" in Son 4:4; the only place in it in which it is used: but in answer to this it must be said, that it is not fact that the word is invariably without a "yod" in the books mentioned, particularly the book of Kings: for the authors of the Masorah have observed, on 1Ki 3:14, that it is five times written in that book full, as they call it, that is, with a "yod", דויד; three of the places I have traced out, 1Ki 3:14; and have found it so written in all the printed copies I have seen; and so it is read by the eastern Jews, in Eze 37:24. This learned man is aware that it is so written, once in Hosea, and twice in Amos, books written two hundred years before the captivity; but then he observes, that in the two last places, in Bomberg's edition, it has a little circle (o) to mark it for an error, or a faulty word, though none over the word in Hosea: but it should be known, that that circle, in hundreds of places, is not used to point out anything faulty in the copy; but is only a mark referring to the margin, and what is observed there; and be it that it does point out an error, or a faulty word, the same circle is over the word in Canticles, and consequently shows it to be faulty there, and to be corrected and read without the "yod", as it was originally without it there; which observation destroys the argument from it: and so it is read in that place in the Talmud ^d without it, and in the ancient book of Zohar ^e; and indeed it seems as if it was read without the "yod" in the copies seen by the authors of the Little Masorah; since in their note on 1Ki 3:14; besides the five places in the Kings, where it is written full, or with the "yod", they say, it is so written throughout the Chronicles, the twelve minor prophets, and Ezra, which includes Nehemiah; but make no mention of Solomon's Song, which, one would think, they would have done, had it been so written there in the copies before them: so that, upon the whole, the argument, if it has any force in it, turns out for, and not against, the antiquity of Solomon's Song. This book of Canticles has plain marks of a divine original, and proofs of its being of divine inspiration: it was written by, one that was inspired of God, as appears by the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, written by him; the greatness of the matter contained in it, the dignity, sublimity, and majesty of its style, show it to be no human composure; the power and efficacy which it has had over the hearts of men, in reading it, and hearing it explained, is another evidence of its being the word of God, which is quick and powerful; the impartiality of it, the bride, who is introduced speaking in it, confessing and proclaiming her own failings and infirmities, is no inconsiderable proof of the same; to which may be added the agreement between this and other portions of Scripture, as particularly Psa 45:1; and there seem to be many allusions and references to various passages of this book in the New Testament; see Mat 9:13, &c. Joh 3:8 Col 2:17; compared with Son 1:3 Son 5:1. In what time of Solomon's life this book was written is not agreed on: some of the Jewish writers say the book of Proverbs was written first, then the Song of Songs, and last of all Ecclesiastes; others, that the Song was written first, then Proverbs, and then Ecclesiastes ^f; though their chronologer ^g says they were all written in his old age, as indeed the last book seems to be; but the Song rather seems to have been written in the middle part of his life, when in the most flourishing circumstances as to body, mind, and estate. Dr. Lightfoot ^h is of opinion it might be written in the thirtieth year of his reign, about ten years before his death, after he had built his summer house in Lebanon, to which he supposes respect is had in Son 4:8; and upon his bringing Pharaoh's daughter to the house prepared for her, 1Ki 9:24; but be this at it may, it was not a celebration of the amours between Solomon and her, since the literal sense, in many places, would be monstrous and absurd; and besides it must be written twenty years at least after that, if the house of the forest of Lebanon is referred to in the above places; nor does it set forth their amours, and the marriage between them, as typical of the inexpressible love and marriage union between Christ and his church; though there is a resemblance between natural and spiritual marriage, and the love of persons in such a relation to one another, and to which there may be an allusion in some passages. Nor is this book historical and prophetic, expressing either the state of the people of Israel, from the times of Abraham to Solomon, and so to the Messiah; in which way go many Jewish interpreters, as the Targum, Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and others: nor is it to be considered as describing the state of the church: of God, whether legal, from the times of David and Solomon, and before, in and after the captivity, to the birth and death of Christ; or the Gospel church, in its beginning, progress, various changes, and consummation, as Brightman and Cotton nor as setting forth the several ages and periods of the Christian church, in agreement with the seven churches of Asia, as Cocceius, and those that follow him, Horchius, Hofman, and Heunischius; which latter, particularly, makes this distribution of them:

(1) The Ephesian church, Son 1:5; from the ascension of Christ to heaven, A. C. 33, to 370. (2) The Smyrnaean church, Son 2:1; from A. C. 371, to 707; (3) The church at Pergamos, Son 3:1; from A. C. 708, to 1045. (4) The Thyatirian church, Son 4:1, from A. C. 1046, to 1383. (5) The Sardian church, Son 5:2, from A. C. 1384, to 1721. (6) The church at Philadelphia, Son 6:9, from A. C. 1722, to 2059. (7) The Laodicean church, Son 8:1, from A. C. 2060, and onwards.

But these senses are very arbitrary, uncertain, and precarious, and limit the several parts of it to certain periods; whereas it is applicable to believers in all ages of time. The whole is figurative and allegorical; expressing, in a variety of lively metaphors, the love, union, and communion, between Christ and his church; setting forth the several different frames, cases, and circumstances of believers, in this life; so that they can be in no case and condition spiritual whatever, but there is something in this Song suitable to them; and which serves much to recommend it, and shows the excellency of it; and that it justly claims the title it bears, the Song of Songs, the most excellent. M. Bossuet ⁱ is of opinion, that whereas the nuptial feast with the Hebrews was kept seven days, this Song is to be distributed into seven parts, a part to be sung, one each day, during the celebration: The first day, Son 1:1. The second day, Son 2:7. The third day, Son 3:1. The fourth day, Son 5:2. The fifth day, Son 6:10. The sixth day, Son 7:12. The seventh day, Son 8:4. The thought is ingenious, but seems too fanciful, and without foundation.

Gill: The Song of Songs 4 (Chapter Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO SONG OF SOLOMON 4

In this chapter is contained a large commendation of the church's beauty by Christ; first, more particularly, by an enumeration of several parts, as her eyes, hair, teeth, lips, temples, neck, and breasts, Son 4:1; and more generally, Son 4:7; And having observed where he himself was determined to go, he invites her to go with him; which he enforces, partly from the danger she was exposed unto where she was Son 4:6; and partly from the comeliness of her person and graces in his esteem; with which he was ravished, and therefore was extremely desirous of her company, Son 4:9; And then enters into some new descriptions of her; as a garden and orchard, as a spring and fountain, Son 4:12; all which she makes to be owing to him, Son 4:15; And the chapter is closed with an order from Christ to the winds to blow on his garden, and cause the spices of it to flow out; and with an invitation of the church to Christ, to come into his garden, and relax there, Son 4:16.