Text -- The Song of Songs 8:3-14 (NET)

Double Refrain: Embracing and Adjuration

8:3 The Beloved about Her Lover: His left hand caresses my head, and his right hand stimulates me. 8:4 The Beloved to the Maidens: I admonish you, O maidens of Jerusalem: “Do not arouse or awaken love until it pleases!”

The Awakening of Love

8:5 The Maidens about His Beloved: Who is this coming up from the desert, leaning on her beloved? The Beloved to Her Lover: Under the apple tree I aroused you; there your mother conceived you, there she who bore you was in labor of childbirth.

The Nature of True Love

8:6 The Beloved to Her Lover: Set me like a cylinder seal over your heart, like a signet on your arm. For love is as strong as death, passion is as unrelenting as Sheol. Its flames burst forth, it is a blazing flame. 8:7 Surging waters cannot quench love; floodwaters cannot overflow it. If someone were to offer all his possessions to buy love, the offer would be utterly despised.

The Brother’s Plan and the Sister’s Reward

8:8 The Beloved’s Brothers: We have a little sister, and as yet she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is spoken for? 8:9 If she is a wall, we will build on her a battlement of silver; but if she is a door, we will barricade her with boards of cedar. 8:10 The Beloved: I was a wall, and my breasts were like fortress towers. Then I found favor in his eyes.

Solomon’s Vineyard and the Beloved’s Vineyard

8:11 The Beloved to Her Lover: Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-Hamon; he leased out the vineyard to those who maintained it. Each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit. 8:12 My vineyard, which belongs to me, is at my disposal alone. The thousand shekels belong to you, O Solomon, and two hundred shekels belong to those who maintain it for its fruit.

Epilogue: The Lover’s Request and His Beloved’s Invitation

8:13 The Lover to His Beloved: O you who stay in the gardens, my companions are listening attentively for your voice; let me be the one to hear it! 8:14 The Beloved to Her Lover: Make haste, my beloved! Be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Wesley: Sos 8:5

This and the next clause are the words of the bridegroom, who proposes the question, that he may give the answer following.

Wesley: Sos 8:5

He speaks of himself in the third person, which is usual in the Hebrew language.

Wesley: Sos 8:5

When thou wast dead in trespasses and in the depth of misery.

Wesley: Sos 8:5

Under my own shadow; for she had compared him to an apple tree, and declared, that under the shadow of the tree she had both delight and fruit, Son 2:3, which is the same thing with this raising up.

Wesley: Sos 8:5

Under that tree, either the universal or the primitive church, did conceive and bring thee forth.

Wesley: Sos 8:6

These are undoubtedly the words of the bride. Let thy heart be constantly set upon me. He seems to allude to the engraven tablets which are frequently worn upon the breast, and to the signet on a man's arm or hand, which they prized at a more than ordinary rate, and which are continually in their sight.

Wesley: Sos 8:6

My love to thee.

Wesley: Sos 8:6

Or, zeal; my ardent love to thee.

Wesley: Sos 8:6

Heb. hard, grievous and terrible, and sometimes ready to overwhelm me; therefore have pity upon me, and do not leave me.

Wesley: Sos 8:6

It burns and melts my heart like fire.

Wesley: Sos 8:7

My love to thee cannot be taken off, either by terrors and afflictions, which are commonly signified in scripture by waters and floods; or by temptations and allurements. Therefore, give me thyself, without whom, and in comparison of whom, I despise all other persons and things.

Wesley: Sos 8:8

These are still the words of the bride. The present church, which was that of the Jews, speaks of a future church, which was to consist of the Gentiles, which she calls little, because she was the younger sister, and then scarce had a being; and she calls her sister to intimate that the Gentile - church should be admitted to the same privileges with the Jews.

Wesley: Sos 8:8

No grown and full breasts, as virgin have when they are ripe for marriage, Eze 16:7. This signifies the present state of the Gentiles, which as yet were not grown up, and wanted the milk or food of life, as for itself, so also for its members.

Wesley: Sos 8:8

In order to her marriage. How shall we supply that defect?

Wesley: Sos 8:9

This seems to be Christ's answer to the foregoing question of the Jewish church. Christ engages himself to provide for her, as suits best with her condition. If the Gentiles when they are converted shall be like a wall, strong and firm in faith; We, my Father, and I, and the Holy Ghost, as the principal builders, and my ministers as workers with, and under us, will build upon her a palace of silver, will add more strength and beauty to her, will enlarge and adorn her; and if she be as a door, which is weaker than a wall; if she be weak in faith, yet we will not therefore reject her, but we will inclose or (as many others render the word) strengthen or fortify her with boards of cedar, which are not only beautiful, but also strong and durable.

Wesley: Sos 8:10

These seem to be the words of the Jewish church. O Lord, by thy grace I am what thou wouldst have my sister to be, and therefore humbly hope, according to thy promise to her in that case, thou wilt build upon me a palace of silver.

Wesley: Sos 8:10

Which stand out from and above the wall, and are an ornament and defence to it.

Wesley: Sos 8:10

When by his grace I was made a wall, he was well - pleased with me, and with his own workmanship in me.

Wesley: Sos 8:11

hamon - A place not far from Jerusalem.

Wesley: Sos 8:11

Whereby he signifies both the vast extent of the vineyard which required so many keepers, and its singular fertility.

Wesley: Sos 8:12

My church, which is here opposed to Solomon's vineyard. Possibly we may ascribe the first clause to Christ, and the latter to the spouse: such interlocutions being familiar in this book.

Wesley: Sos 8:12

This repetition is very emphatical, to shew that Christ had a more eminent title to his vineyard, the church, than Solomon had to his vineyard, because it was purchased not by his money, but by his blood.

Wesley: Sos 8:12

Is under my own eye and care.

Wesley: Sos 8:12

These words are the church's return to Christ, who is here called Solomon, as he was Son 3:9, Son 3:11, as elsewhere he is called David. Dost thou, O Christ, keep thine own vineyard, which Solomon did not? Then surely it is meet that thou shouldst receive as large a revenue from thy vineyard, as he did from his.

Wesley: Sos 8:12

Though the chief revenue is justly given to thee, yet thy ministers, who serve thee in thy vineyard, are allowed by thee to receive some encouragement for their service.

Wesley: Sos 8:13

Christ speaks here to his spouse.

Wesley: Sos 8:13

Not in the wilderness of the world, but in the church, the garden of God. He saith, gardens, because of the many particular congregations, into which the church is divided.

Wesley: Sos 8:13

The friends of the bride and bridegroom.

Wesley: Sos 8:13

Diligently observe all thy words towards me.

Wesley: Sos 8:13

When I am gone from thee, let me hear thy prayers, and praises, and the preaching of my gospel in the world.

Wesley: Sos 8:14

Seeing we must part for a time, make haste, O my beloved bridegroom, and speedily finish the work which thou hast to do in the world, that so thou mayest take me to thyself, that I may live in thine everlasting embraces.

JFB: Sos 8:3-4

The "left and right hand," &c., occurred only once actually (Son 2:6), and here optatively. Only at His first manifestation did the Church palpably embrace Him; at His second coming there shall be again sensible communion with Him. The rest in Son 8:4, which is a spiritual realization of the wish in Son 8:3 (1Pe 1:8), and the charge not to disturb it, close the first, second, and fourth canticles; not the third, as the bridegroom there takes charge Himself; nor the fifth, as, if repose formed its close, we might mistake the present state for our rest. The broken, longing close, like that of the whole Bible (Rev 22:20), reminds us we are to be waiting for a Saviour to come. On "daughters of Jerusalem," see on Son 7:10.

JFB: Sos 8:5

(CANTICLE V)--FROM THE CALL OF THE GENTILES TO THE CLOSE OF REVELATION. (Son 8:5-14)

JFB: Sos 8:5

Words of the daughters of Jerusalem, that is, the churches of Judea; referring to Paul, on his return from Arabia ("the wilderness"), whither he had gone after conversion (Gal 1:15-24).

JFB: Sos 8:5

(Act 26:14-16). The first words of Jesus Christ to the bride since her going to the garden of nuts (Son 6:9-10); so His appearance to Paul is the only one since His ascension, Son 8:13 is not an address of Him as visible: her reply implies He is not visible (1Co 15:8). Spiritually, she was found in the moral wilderness (Eze 16:5; Hos 13:5); but now she is "coming up from" it (Jer 2:2; Hos 2:14), especially in the last stage of her journey, her conscious weakness casting itself the more wholly on Jesus Christ (2Co 12:9). "Raised" (Eph 2:1-7). Found ruined under the forbidden tree (Gen 3:22-24); restored under the shadow of Jesus Christ crucified, "the green tree" (Luk 23:31), fruit-"bearing" by the cross (Isa 53:11; Joh 12:24). "Born again by the Holy Ghost" "there" (Eze 16:3-6). In this verse, her dependence, in the similar verse, Son 3:6, &c., His omnipotence to support her, are brought out (Deu 33:26).

JFB: Sos 8:6

Implying approaching absence of the Bridegroom.

JFB: Sos 8:6

Having her name and likeness engraven on it. His Holy Priesthood also in heaven (Exo 28:6-12, Exo. 28:15-30; Heb 4:14); "his heart" there answering to "thine heart" here, and "two shoulders" to "arm." (Compare Jer 22:24, with Hag 2:23). But the Holy Ghost (Eph 1:13-14). As in Son 8:5, she was "leaning" on Him, that is, her arm on His arm, her head on His bosom; so she prays now that before they part, her impression may be engraven both on His heart and His arm, answering to His love and His power (Psa 77:15; see Gen 38:18; Isa 62:3).

JFB: Sos 8:6

(Act 21:13; Rom 8:35-39; Rev 12:11). This their love unto death flows from His (Joh 10:15; Joh 15:13).

JFB: Sos 8:6

Zealous love, jealous of all that would come between the soul and Jesus Christ (1Ki 19:10; Psa 106:30-31; Luk 9:60; Luk 14:26; 1Co 16:22).

JFB: Sos 8:6

Rather, "unyielding" hard, as the grave will not let go those whom it once holds (Joh 10:28).

JFB: Sos 8:6

Literally, "the fire-flame of Jehovah" (Psa 80:16; Isa 6:6). Nowhere else is God's name found in the Song. The zeal that burnt in Jesus Christ (Psa 69:9; Luk 12:49-50) kindled in His followers (Act 2:3; Rom 15:30; Phi 2:17).

JFB: Sos 8:7

In contrast with the "coals of fire" (Son 8:6; 1Ki 18:33-38). Persecutions (Act 8:1) cannot quench love (Heb 10:34; Rev 12:15-16). Our many provocations have not quenched His love (Rom 8:33-39).

JFB: Sos 8:7

Nothing short of Jesus Christ Himself, not even heaven without Him, can satisfy the saint (Phi 3:8). Satan offers the world, as to Jesus Christ (Mat 4:8), so to the saint, in vain (1Jo 2:15-17; 1Jo 5:4). Nothing but our love in turn can satisfy Him (1Co 13:1-3).

JFB: Sos 8:8

The Gentile Church (Eze 16:48). "We," that is, the Hebrew Church, which heretofore admitted Gentiles to communion, only by becoming Judaic proselytes. Now first idolatrous Gentiles are admitted directly (Act 11:17-26). Generally, the saint's anxiety for other souls (Mar 5:19; Joh 4:28-29).

JFB: Sos 8:8

Neither faith nor love as yet (see on Son 4:5), which "come by hearing" of Him who first loved us. Not yet fit to be His bride, and mother of a spiritual offspring.

JFB: Sos 8:8

The chief question in the early Church at the first council (Act 15:23-29). How shall "the elder brother" treat the "younger," already received by the Father (Luk 15:25-32)? Generally (2Sa 15:15; Joh 9:4; Act 9:6; Gal 6:10).

JFB: Sos 8:8

That is, when she shall be sought in marriage (Jdg 14:7), namely, by Jesus Christ, the heavenly bridegroom.

JFB: Sos 8:9

The very terms employed as to the Gentile question (Act 14:27; Eph 2:14). If she be a wall in Zion, founded on Jesus Christ (1Co 3:11), we will not "withstand God" (Act 11:17; Act 15:8-11). But if so, we must not "build" (Act 15:14-17) on her "wood, hay, stubble" (1Co 3:12), that is, Jewish rites, &c., but "a palace of silver," that is, all the highest privileges of church communion (Gal 2:11-18; Eph 2:11-22). Image from the splendid turrets "built" on the "walls" of Jerusalem, and flanking the "door," or gateway. The Gentile Church is the "door," the type of catholic accessibleness (1Co 16:9); but it must be not a mere thoroughfare but furnished with a wooden framework, so as not merely to admit, but also to safely enclose: cedar is fragrant, beautiful, and enduring.

JFB: Sos 8:10

The Gentile Church's joy at its free admission to gospel privileges (Act 15:30-31). She is one wall in the spiritual temple of the Holy Ghost, the Hebrew Church is the other; Jesus Christ, the common foundation, joins them (Eph 2:11-22).

JFB: Sos 8:10

Alluding to the silver palace, which the bridal virgins proposed to build on her (Son 8:9). "Breasts" of consolation (Isa 66:11); faith and love (1Th 5:8); opposed to her previous state, "no breasts" (Son 8:8; 2Th 1:3). Thus Eze 16:46, Eze 16:61 was fulfilled, both Samaria and the Gentiles being joined to the Jewish gospel Church.

JFB: Sos 8:10

Rather, "peace." The Gentile Church too is become the Shulamite (Son 6:13), or peace-enjoying bride of Solomon, that is, Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace (Rom 5:1; Eph 2:14). Reject not those whom God accepts (Num 11:28; Luk 9:49; Act 15:8-9). Rather, superadd to such every aid and privilege (Son 8:9).

JFB: Sos 8:11

The joint Church speaks of Jesus Christ's vineyard. Transference of it from the Jews, who rendered not the fruits, as is implied by the silence respecting any, to the Gentiles (Mat 21:33-43).

JFB: Sos 8:11

Equivalent to the owner of a multitude; so Israel in Solomon's day (1Ki 4:20); so Isa 5:1, "a very fruitful hill" abounding in privileges, as in numbers.

JFB: Sos 8:11

Namely, silverlings, or shekels. The vineyard had a thousand vines probably; a vine at a silverling (Isa 7:23), referring to this passage.

JFB: Sos 8:12

"mine" by grant of the true Solomon. Not merely "let out to keepers," as in the Jewish dispensation of works, but "mine" by grace. This is "before me," that is, in my power [MAURER]. But though no longer under constraint of "keeping" the law as a mere letter and covenant of works, love to Jesus Christ will constrain her the more freely to render all to Solomon (Rom 8:2-4; 1Co 6:20; Gal 5:13; 1Pe 2:16), after having paid what justice and His will require should be paid to others (1Co 7:29-31; 1Co 9:14). "Before me" may also mean "I will never lose sight of it" (contrast Son 1:6) [MOODY STUART]. She will not keep it for herself, though so freely given to her, but for His use and glory (Luk 19:13; Rom 6:15; Rom 14:7-9; 1Co 12:7). Or the "two hundred" may mean a double tithe (two-tenths of the whole paid back by Jesus Christ) as the reward of grace for our surrender of all (the thousand) to Him (Gal 6:7; Heb 6:10); then she and "those that keep" are the same [ADELAIDE NEWTON]. But Jesus Christ pays back not merely two tithes, but His all for our all (1Co 3:21-23).

JFB: Sos 8:13

Jesus Christ's address to her; now no longer visibly present. Once she "had not kept" her vineyard (Son 1:6); now she "dwells" in it, not as its owner, but its superintendent under Jesus Christ, with vinedressers ("companions"), for example, Paul, &c. (Act 15:25-26), under her (Son 8:11-12); these ought to obey her when she obeys Jesus Christ. Her voice in prayer and praise is to be heard continually by Jesus Christ, if her voice before men is to be effective (Son 2:14, end; Act 6:4; Act 13:2-3).

JFB: Sos 8:14

(See on Son 2:17). As she began with longing for His first coming (Son 1:2), so she ends with praying for His second coming (Psa 130:6; Phi 3:20-21; Rev 22:20). MOODY STUART makes the roe upon spices to be the musk deer. As there are four gardens, so four mountains, which form not mere images, as Gilead, Carmel, &c., but part of the structure of the Song: (1) Bether, or division (Son 2:17), God's justice dividing us from God. (2) Those "of leopards" (Son 4:8), sin, the world, and Satan. (3) That "of myrrh and aloes" (Son 4:6, Son 4:14), the sepulchre of Calvary. (4) Those "of spices," here answering to "the hill of frankincense" (Son 4:6), where His soul was for the three days of His death, and heaven, where He is a High Priest now, offering incense for us on the fragrant mountain of His own finished work (Heb 4:14, Heb 7:25; Rev 8:3-4); thus He surmounts the other three mountains, God's justice, our sin, death. The mountain of spices is as much greater than our sins, as heaven is higher than earth (Psa 103:11). The abrupt, unsatisfied close with the yearning prayer for His visible coming shows that the marriage is future, and that to wait eagerly for it is our true attitude (1Co 1:7; 1Th 1:10; Tit 2:13; 2Pe 3:12).

Clarke: Sos 8:3

His left hand - See on Son 2:6 (note)

With the fourth verse the Sixth night of the marriage week is supposed to end.

Clarke: Sos 8:5

That cometh up from the wilderness - Perhaps the words of the daughters of Jerusalem, who, seeing the bride returning from the country, leaning on the arm of her beloved, are filled with admiration at her excellent carriage and beauty

Clarke: Sos 8:5

I raised thee up under the apple tree - The original of this clause is obscure, and has given birth to various translations. The following is nearly literal: "Under the apple tree I excited thee (to espouse me): there, thy mother contracted thee; - there, she that brought thee forth contracted thee (to me). Or it may be understood of the following circumstance: The bridegroom found her once asleep under an apple tree, and awoke her; and this happened to be the very place where her mother, taken in untimely labor, had brought her into the world."And here the bridegroom, in his fondness and familiarity, recalls these little adventures to her memory

The Vulgate gives this an abominable meaning

Sub arbore malo suscitavi te: ibi corrupta est mater tua; ibi violata est genetrix tua ; "I raised thee up under the apple tree: it was there that thy mother was corrupted; it was there that she who brought thee forth was violated."Spiritually, all this is applied to Eve losing her purity by sin; and Jesus as the promised seed raising her up by the promise of mercy, through the blood of his cross. But the text says nothing of this.

Clarke: Sos 8:6

Set me as a seal upon thine heart - It was customary in the Levant and other places to make impressions of various kinds upon the arms, the breast, and other parts. I have seen these often: some slight punctures are made, and the place rubbed over with a sort of blue powder that, getting between the cuticle and cutis, is never discharged; it continues in all its distinctness throughout life. The figures of young women are frequently thus impressed on the arms and on the breasts. If the bride alludes to any thing of this kind, which is very probable, the interpretation is easy. Let me be thus depicted upon thine arm, which being constantly before thy eyes, thou wilt never forget me; and let me be thus depicted upon thy breast, the emblem of the share I have in thy heart and affections. Do this as a proof of the love I bear to thee, which is such as nothing but death can destroy; and do it to prevent any jealousy I might feel, which is as cruel as the grave, and as deadly as fiery arrows or poisoned darts shot into the body

Clarke: Sos 8:6

A most vehement flame - שלהבתיה shalhebethyah , "the flame of God;"for the word is divided שלהבת יה shalhebeth Yah , "the flame of Jehovah,"by one hundred and sixteen of Dr. Kennicott’ s MSS., and by one hundred and fourteen of those of De Rossi. It may mean the lightning; or, as our text understands it, a most vehement or intense fire.

Clarke: Sos 8:7

Many waters - Neither common nor uncommon adversities, even of the most ruinous nature, can destroy love when it is pure; and pure love is such that nothing can procure it. If it be not excited naturally, no money can purchase it, no property can procure it, no arts can persuade it. How vain is the thought of old rich men hoping to procure the affections of young women by loading them with presents and wealth! No woman can command her affections; they are not in her power. Where they do not rise spontaneously, they can never exist. "If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be utterly contemned."Let the old, as well as the gay and the giddy, think of this.

Clarke: Sos 8:8

We have a little sister - This young girl belonged most probably to the bride

Clarke: Sos 8:8

She hath no breasts - She is not yet marriageable

Clarke: Sos 8:8

What shall we do for our sister - How shall we secure her comfort and welfare

Clarke: Sos 8:8

In the day when she shall be spoken for? - When any person shall demand her in marriage.

Clarke: Sos 8:9

If she be a wall - All these expressions, says Calmet, show that it was necessary to provide a husband for this young sister. For a woman without a husband is like a wall without towers, and without defense; is like a gate or door without bar or lock; and like a city without walls. They must therefore provide for their sister a rich, powerful, and illustrious man; qualities here figured by towers or palaces of silver, and doors of cedar. As it is customary to build towers upon a wall, and to put bolts and bars upon a door in order to secure it, so the expressions may point out the defense, protection, and guardianship which they imagined this young woman to require.

Clarke: Sos 8:10

I am a wall, and my breasts like towers - I am become marriageable, and I stood in need of the defense I have now in my beloved; and as soon as I was so, and became pleasing in the eyes of my beloved, I was given to him in marriage, and have ever since found favor in his sight. As soon then as my sister is in my state, let a proper match be sought out for her. These expressions show the solicitude which the bride felt for her sister, and in her favor she wishes to interest her spouse.

Clarke: Sos 8:11

Solomon had a vineyard - Calmet translates and paraphrases the Hebrew of these two verses thus: "Son 8:11 : Solomon has a vineyard at Baal-hamon: he has let it out to keepers, each of whom for the fruit of it was to bring a thousand pieces of silver. Son 8:12 : As for me, my vineyard is before me; that is, it is my own; I am its proprietor. Keep thyself, O Solomon, thy thousand pieces of silver, and let those who dress (thy vineyard) have two hundred for their trouble. I neither envy thee thy vineyard, nor them their profits. I am satisfied with my own. My beloved is my vineyard - my heritage; I would not change him for all the riches of the universe.

Some suppose that there is a reference here to some property which Pharaoh had given to Solomon with his daughter. See Harmer’ s Outlines, where this subject is considered at large.

Clarke: Sos 8:13

Thou that dwellest in the gardens - This is supposed to refer to the bridegroom asking permission of his spouse early in the morning to retire, as was his usual custom. He intimates the companions were waiting to hear, and he wished to hear it in the way of permission to depart.

Clarke: Sos 8:14

Make haste, my beloved - These appear to be the words of the bride giving permission, but entreating him to speed his return. What these mountains of spices were, we cannot particularly tell; but they must have been thus named from their producing the trees on which the spices grew. They might have been the same as the mountains of Bether, Son 2:17 (note), or the mountains of myrrh, Son 4:6 (note); where see the notes

Here ends the seventh night of the marriage week

Thus ends this most singular book; the oldest pastoral in the world, if it may be ranked among this species of writing. To whatever species of composition it belongs, it is, beyond all controversy, the finest, the most sublime for imagery and colouring, that ever came from the pen of man

In the preceding notes I have carefully avoided all attempts to spiritualize this song. My reasons I have already given in the introduction; and in the course of writing these short notes I have seen no cause to alter my opinion. Any man may allegorize it; that is an easy matter; for when he once considers it to be an allegory, his own creed will furnish him with enough to say, write, or preach, upon the spiritual meanings of every part, which will be an exhibition of his own confession of faith! But when he has finished his work, the question will recur, By what authority do you give it these meanings? And till the day of judgment none shall be able to say, "I have the authority of God for my exposition.

Defender: Sos 8:6

As the Shulamite continues her expressions of love, she concludes with a testimony of her undying love for the king. She herself would be an indelible seal upon both his heart and his arm. The fires of her love would be as unending as death itself."

Defender: Sos 8:7

Not even the waters of a mighty flood could quench the fires of her love; it could never be extinguished. Neither could all the riches of a wealthy man purchase it. Such should be the love we have for Christ."

Defender: Sos 8:8

Son 8:8, Son 8:9 seems to be a remembrance by the Shulamite of the determination of her older brothers (mentioned in Son 1:6 as "my mother's children" who "were angry with me") to guide and protect her as she grew through puberty. If she should become like a "door," open to any who sought to enter, they would restrict her. If she would be like a "wall," they would encourage and help her (Son 8:9). She proved, indeed, to be a "wall," her breasts became "towers" (Son 8:10); and she became King Solomon's bride!"

Defender: Sos 8:11

In these two verses, the bride explains how she came to meet the shepherd king in the first place. Solomon had leased some of his vineyards to her brothers and herself, and they worked them for twenty percent of the profits. She had not kept her own vineyard, however (Son 1:6), since she was going to marry Solomon instead."

Defender: Sos 8:12

Since she had not been able to care for her vineyard, she asked Solomon to turn it over to her brothers, in return for their caring for her when she was younger."

Defender: Sos 8:14

Her explanations and arrangements attended to, she turns again to her beloved, inviting him to come quickly back to her presence, and Solomon's Song ends on this note of love. Appropriately, the entire Book of God ends on the same note. "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come ... Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus" (Rev 22:17, Rev 22:20)."

TSK: Sos 8:3

Son 2:6; Deu 33:27; Isa 62:4, Isa 62:5; 2Co 12:9

TSK: Sos 8:4

charge : Son 2:7, Son 3:5

that ye stir not up, nor awake : Heb. why should ye stir up, or, why awake, etc.

TSK: Sos 8:5

Who is this : Son 3:6, Son 6:10

from the : Son 4:8; Psa 45:10, Psa 45:11, Psa 107:2-8; Isa 40:3, Isa 43:19; Jer 2:2; Rev 12:6

leaning : 2Ch 32:8 *marg. Psa 63:8; Isa 26:3, Isa 26:4, Isa 36:6; Mic 3:11; Joh 13:23; Act 27:23-25; 2Co 12:9, 2Co 12:10; Eph 1:12, Eph 1:13; 1Pe 1:21

I raised : Son 2:3; Hos 12:4; Joh 1:48-51

there she : Son 8:1, Son 3:4, Son 3:11; Isa 49:20-23; Rom 7:4; Gal 4:19

TSK: Sos 8:6

as a seal : Exo 28:9-12, Exo 28:21, Exo 28:29, Exo 28:30; Isa 49:16; Jer 22:24; Hag 2:23; Zec 3:9; 2Ti 2:19

love : Son 5:8; Psa 42:1, Psa 42:2, Psa 63:1, Psa 84:2; Joh 21:15-19; Act 20:24, Act 21:13; 2Co 5:14, 2Co 5:15; Phi 1:20-23; Rev 12:11

jealousy : Num 5:14, Num 25:11; Deu 32:21; Pro 6:34; 2Co 11:2

cruel : Heb. hard

the coals : Psa 120:4; Pro 25:22; Rom 12:20

TSK: Sos 8:7

waters : Isa 43:2; Mat 7:24, Mat 7:25; Rom 8:28-39

if a man : Pro 6:31, Pro 6:35; Rom 13:8-10

TSK: Sos 8:8

a little : Eze 16:46, Eze 16:55, Eze 16:56, Eze 16:61, Eze 23:33; Joh 10:16; Act 15:14-17; Rom 15:9-12

she hath : Son 8:10, Son 4:5, Son 7:3; Psa 147:19, Psa 147:20; Act 7:38; Rom 3:1, Rom 3:2; Eph 2:12

what : Psa 2:8, Psa 72:17-19; Isa 49:6, Isa 60:1-5, Isa 60:10, Isa 60:11; Acts 10:1-48, 11:1-18, Act 16:9; Act 22:21, Act 26:17, Act 26:18; Rom 10:12-15; Eph 2:13-15, Eph 2:19-22

in the day : Luk 19:44; 1Pe 2:12

TSK: Sos 8:9

a wall : Son 2:9; Rev 21:12-19

we will : Isa 58:12, Isa 60:17, Isa 61:4; Zec 6:12-15; Mat 16:18; Act 15:16; 1Co 3:10-12; Eph 2:20-22

a door : Act 14:27

TSK: Sos 8:10

a wall : Son 8:9

my : Son 4:5, Son 7:3, Son 7:4, Son 7:7, Son 7:8; Eze 16:7

then : Gen 6:8; Deu 7:7, Deu 7:8; Pro 3:4; Isa 60:10; Luk 1:30; Eph 1:6, Eph 1:8; 1Ti 1:16

favour : Heb. peace, Rom 5:1-10

TSK: Sos 8:11

Solomon : Calmet thus translates these verses: ""Solomon has a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he has let it out to keepers, each of whom for the fruit of it was to bring a thousand pieces of silver. As for me, my vineyard is before me; keep thyself, O Solomon, thy thousand pieces of silver,""etc.

had a : Son 7:12; Ecc 2:4; Isa 5:1-7; Mat 21:33-43; Mar 12:1

he let : Luk 20:9-18

a thousand : Gen 20:16; Isa 7:23

TSK: Sos 8:12

vineyard : Son 1:6; Pro 4:23; Act 20:28; 1Ti 4:15, 1Ti 4:16

thou : Psa 72:17-19; Rom 14:7-9; 1Co 6:20; 2Co 5:15

those : 1Th 2:19; 1Ti 5:17, 1Ti 5:18

TSK: Sos 8:13

dwellest : Son 2:13, Son 4:16, Son 6:2, Son 6:11, Son 7:11, Son 7:12; Mat 18:20, Mat 28:20; Joh 14:21-23

the companions : Son 1:7, Son 3:7-11, Son 5:9-16; Jdg 11:38, Jdg 14:11; Psa 45:14

cause : Son 2:14; Psa 50:15; Joh 14:13, Joh 14:14, Joh 15:7, Joh 16:24

TSK: Sos 8:14

Make haste : Heb. Flee away, Son 2:17; Luk 19:12; Phi 1:23; Rev 22:17, Rev 22:20

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: Sos 8:3

The bride now turns to and addresses the chorus as before (marginal reference).

Barnes: Sos 8:4

That ye stir not up - literally, as in the margin. For "my love"read as before love. The omission of "the roes and hinds"here is noticeable. Hebrew scholars regard this charge here and elsewhere Son 2:7; Son 3:5 as an admonition to Israel not to attempt obtaining a possession of, or restoration to, the promised land, and union or reunion there with the Holy One, before being inwardly prepared for it by the trials of the wilderness and the exile. This interpretation comes very near to what appears to be the genuine literal meaning (see Son 2:7 note). They suppose the words here to be addressed by Messiah to Israel in "the wilderness of the people"Eze 20:35, in the latter day, and the former words Son 3:5 by Moses in the wilderness of Sinai.

Barnes: Sos 8:5

The scene changes from Jerusalem to the birthplace of the bride, where she is seen coming up toward her mother’ s house, leaning on the arm of the great king her beloved.

Who is this - Compare and contrast with Son 3:6. In the former scene all was splendor and exaltation, but here condescension, humility, and loving charm.

I raised thee up ... - Beneath this apple-tree I wakened thee. The king calls the bride’ s attention to a fruit-tree, which they pass, the trysting-spot of earliest vows in this her home and birthplace. The Masoretic pointing of the Hebrew text (the most ancient traditional interpretation) assigns these words to the bride, but the majority of Christian fathers to the king. The whole passage gains in clearness and dramatic expression by the latter arrangement.

Barnes: Sos 8:6-7

The bride says this as she clings to his arm and rests her head upon his bosom. Compare Joh 13:23; Joh 21:20. This brief dialogue corresponds to the longer one Cant. 4:7\endash 5:1, on the day of their espousals. Allegorical interpreters find a fulfillment of this in the close of the present dispensation, the restoration of Israel to the land of promise, and the manifestation of Messiah to His ancient people there, or His Second Advent to the Church. The Targum makes Son 8:6 a prayer of Israel restored to the holy land that they may never again be carried into captivity, and Son 8:7 the Lord’ s answering assurance that Israel henceforth is safe. Compare Isa 65:24; Isa 62:3-4.

Son 8:6

The key-note of the poem. It forms the Old Testament counterpart to Paul’ s panegyric 1Co 13:1-13 under the New.

(a) Love is here regarded as an universal power, an elemental principle of all true being, alone able to cope with the two eternal foes of God and man, Death and his kingdom.

"For strong as death is love,

Tenacious as Sheol is jealousy."

"Jealousy"is here another term for "love,"expressing the inexorable force and ardor of this affection, which can neither yield nor share possession of its object, and is identified in the mind of the sacred writer with divine or true life.

(b) He goes on to describe it as an all-pervading Fire, kindled by the Eternal One, and partaking of His essence:

"Its brands are brands of fire,

A lightning-flash from Jah."

Compare Deu 4:24.

© This divine principle is next represented as overcoming in its might all opposing agencies whatsoever, symbolized by water.

(d) From all which it follows that love, even as a human affection, must be reverenced, and dealt with so as not to be bought by aught of different nature; the attempt to do this awakening only scorn.

Barnes: Sos 8:8-12

A brief dialogue commencing with a question and answer probably made by brothers of the bride concerning a younger sister who will soon be old enough to be asked in marriage. The answer is given in the form of a parable: "If she be a wall,"i. e., stedfast in chastity and virtue, one on whom no light advances can be made, then let us honor and reward her. This fortress-wall shall be crowned as it were with a tower or battlement of silver. But "if she be a door,"light-minded and accessible to seduction Pro 7:11-12, then let us provide against assailants the protection of a cedar bar or panel.

Son 8:10

The bride herself replies with the pride of innocence and virtue already crowned. She has shown herself to be such a fortress-wall as her brothers have alluded to, and her reward has been the royal favor.

Son 8:11, Son 8:12

She next turns to the king, and commends her brothers to his favorable regard by means of another parable. Solomon owns a vineyard in Baal-hamon (possibly Baalbak, or identical with Amana (Conder)), situated in the warm and fertile plains of Coele-Syria, overshadowed by the heights of Lebanon Son 4:8. This vineyard he has let out to tenants etc.

The bride also has a vineyard of her own Son 1:6, her beauty and virtue faithfully guarded by these same brothers in time past. This vineyard now belongs to Solomon. Let him have "the thousand"which is his due - she is indeed herself henceforth entirely his - but let the faithful keepers have their meed as well. At least two hundred silverlings should be theirs - a double tithe of royal praise and honor.

Barnes: Sos 8:13-14

The poem having opened with the song of a chorus in praise of the king Son 1:2-4, concludes with a versicle recited by the bride, repeating the last words of her former strain Son 2:17, with one significant change. She no longer thinks of the possibility of separation. The "Mountains of Bether"(division) of Son 2:17, are now "Mountains of Besamim"(spices). His haunts and hers are henceforth the same (compare Son 4:6).

\brdrb \brdrs \brdrw30 \brsp20

Poole: Sos 8:3

The same expressions are used Son 2:6 . The sense is, He would not despise me for my forwardness in showing my affections to him, as men commonly do in like cases, but would kindly accept of my love, and return love for it.

Poole: Sos 8:4

This verse is here repeated again, from Son 2:7 3:5 , See Poole "2:7" , See Poole "Son 3:5" .

Poole: Sos 8:5

Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness? These Words are repeated from Son 3:6 , See Poole "Son 3:6" . This and the next clause are the words either,

1. Of the daughters of Jerusalem, or the friends of the bride and Bridegroom, admiring and congratulating this happy conjunction. Or,

2. Of the Bridegroom, who proposeth the question, that he may give the answer here following.

Leaning upon her Beloved which implies both great freedom and familiarity, and fervent affection, and dependence upon him. If these be the Bridegroom’ s words, he speaketh of himself in the third person, which is usual in the Hebrew language.

I raised thee up when thou wast fallen, and laid low, and wert dead in trespasses, and in the depth of misery I revived thee.

Under the apple tree under my own shadow; for she had compared him to an apple tree, and declared that under the shadow of the tree she had both delight and fruit, Son 2:3 , which is the same thing with this raising up.

There thy mother brought thee forth under that tree either the universal or the primitive church did conceive and bring thee forth.

Poole: Sos 8:6

Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: these are undoubtedly the words of the bride. The sense is, Let thy mind and thy heart be constantly set upon me, let me be engraven upon the tables of thine heart. He seems to allude to the engraven tablets which are frequently worn upon the breast, and to the signet on a man’ s arm or hand, which men prize at a more than ordinary rate, as appears from Jer 22:24 Hag 2:23 , and which are continually in their sight.

For love my love to thee, from whence this desire proceeds,

is strong as death which conquers every living thing, and cannot be resisted nor vanquished.

Jealousy or zeal ; my ardent love to thee, which also fills me with fears and jealousies, lest thou shouldst bestow thine affections upon others, and cool in thy love to me, or withdraw thy love from me; for true believers are subject to these passions.

Cruel Heb. hard; grievous and terrible , and sometimes ready to overwhelm me, and swallow me up; and therefore have pity upon me, and do not leave me.

Are coals of fire it burns and melts my heart like fire.

Poole: Sos 8:7

It is the nature of love in general, and of my love to thee, that it cannot be taken off, neither by terrors and afflictions, which are commonly signified in Scripture by waters and floods , Psa 32:6 52:7 , and elsewhere; not by temptations and allurements. Nothing but the presences and favour of the beloved person can quiet and satisy it. And therefore do not put me off with other things, but give me thyself, without whom, and in comparison of whom, I despise all other persons and things.

Poole: Sos 8:8

These are manifestly the words of the bride, still continuing her speech. The present church, which was that of the Jews, speaks of another future church, which was to consist of the Gentiles, which she calls

little because she was the younger sister, and then scarce had a being; and she calls her her

sister partly because she was so in the purpose of God, their common Father, though at present she was a stranger to him; and partly to intimate that the Gentile church should be admitted to the participation of the same privileges with that of the Jews.

She hath no breasts no grown and full breasts, as virgins have when they are ripe for marriage, Eze 16:7 . This signifies the present doleful estate of the Gentiles, which as yet were not grown up into a church estate, and wanted the milk or food of life, as for itself so also for its members.

What shall we do for our sister? teach us to know and perform our duty to them, which is to embrace them with sincere and fervent affections, to promote their coming in to Christ, and to rejoice in it, and not to envy it, and murmur at it, as the Jews did in the days of Christ and of his apostles.

In the day when she shall be spoken for to wit, for bringing her into the state of matrimony; when Christ and his apostles, and others, the first ministers of the gospel, who were members of the Jewish church, did speak and act for the conversion of the Gentiles.

Poole: Sos 8:9

This seems to be Christ’ s answer to the foregoing question of the Jewish church concerning their sister church of the Gentiles, for which they were very solicitous. Christ therefore engageth himself to take care of her, and to provide for her, as the matter doth require, and as suits best with her condition. If the Gentiles, when they are converted, shall be like a

wall strong and firm in faith, stedfast against all assaults and temptations, for a wall in Scripture use signifies strength, Isa 26:1 Jer 15:20 , and elsewhere,

we my Father, and I, and the Holy Ghost, as the principal builders, and my ministers as workers with and under us,

will build upon her a palace of silver will add more strength and beauty to her, will enlarge and adorn her, make her more amiable in mine eyes, and more visible and glorious in the eyes of the world.

And if she be as a door which is weaker than a wall, and where the enemy doth or may break in upon her; if she be weak in faith, and sometimes overcome by the tempter, yet we will not therefore reject and forsake her, but

we will enclose or (as many others render the word) strengthen, or fortify, her with boards of cedar , which are not only beautiful, but also strong and durable. If she be sincere, and open the door of her heart to me, though she be weak, I will come in to her, and make her stronger.

Poole: Sos 8:10

These seem to be the words of the Jewish church to Christ: O Lord, by thy grace I am what thou wouldst have my sister to be, a wall, and therefore do humbly beg and hope that, according to thy promise to her in that case, thou wilt build upon me a palace of silver.

My breasts like towers which stand out from and above the wall, and are an ornament and defence to it. Of the church’ s breasts, see before, Son 4:5 7:3,7 .

Then was I in his eyes as one that found favour when by his grace I was made a wall, he was well-pleased with me, and with his own workmanship in me.

Poole: Sos 8:11

Baal-hamon a place not far from Jerusalem, where Solomon had, as it seems, a noble vineyard.

Every one was to bring a thousand pieces of silver whereby he signifies both the vast extent of the vineyard, which required so many keepers, and its singular fertility, which afforded so great a rent.

Poole: Sos 8:12

My vineyard my church, which is oft compared to a vineyard, and is here opposed to Solomon’ s vineyard. It is much doubted and disputed whether this verse be spoken by Christ or by the spouse; the first clause seems to agree best to the former, and the following clause to the latter. Possibly the difficulty may be reconciled by ascribing the first clause to Christ, and the latter to the spouse; such interlocutions being familiar in this book, and in other writings of this kind. Which is mine : this repetition is not idle, but very emphatical, to show that Christ had a more eminent and special title to his vineyard, the church, than Solomon had to his vineyard, because it was purchased not by his money, but by his blood, and because it was his, not only for the short time of this present life, as Solomon’ s was, but to all eternity.

Is before me is under my own eye and care, and is not wholly committed to the care and management of others, as Solomon’ s was: I the Lord do keep it night and day , as we read, Isa 27:3 . I am with it to the end of the world , Mat 28:20 .

Thou, O Solomon must have a thousand: these are the church’ s return to Christ, who is here called Solomon, as he was Son 3:9,11 , as elsewhere he is called David. Dost thou, O Christ, keep thine own vineyard, which Solomon did not? Then surely it is meet that thou shouldst receive, and thou shalt receive, as large a revenue from thy vineyard as he did from his.

Those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred though the chief revenue belongeth and is justly given to thee, yet thy ministers who serve thee in thy vineyard shall have, and are allowed by thee to receive, some encouragement for their service. See 1Co 9:7 .

Poole: Sos 8:13

Thou that dwellest: the Hebrew word is of the feminine gender, which plainly showeth that Christ speaks hero to his spouse, being about to depart from her for a season, as the next verse showorb.

In the gardens not in the wilderness of the world, for believers are chosen or called out of the world , Joh 15:19 ; but in the church, the garden of God, which God hath fenced and appropriated to himself. He saith gardens , because of the many particular congregations into which the church is divided.

The companions the friends of the bride and Bridegroom,

hearken to thy voice diligently observe all thy words and carriages towards me, and all the transactions between thee and me.

Cause me to hear it when I am gone from thee, let me hear thy prayers, and praises, and the preaching of my gospel in the world.

Poole: Sos 8:14

Seeing we must part for a time, make haste, O my beloved Bridegroom, and speedily finish the work which thou hast to do in the world, that so thou mayst take me to thyself, that I may live in thine everlasting embraces. The words of this verse are borrowed from Son 2:17 . where they are explained.

Haydock: Sos 8:4

Jerusalem. Septuagint add, "by the armies and powers of the field," as [in] chap. ii. 7., and iii. 5. (Haydock) ---

The spouse presently awakes after the sixth night, and goes out. (Calmet) ---

Christ admonishes all not to disturb those who would serve him. (Worthington)

Haydock: Sos 8:5

Flowing. Thus speak the companions of the spouse; and the bridegroom, turning to her alone, reminds her of an adventure. The Jews would put this in the mouth of the spouse. (Calmet) ---

Corrupted. Hebrew and Septuagint, "fell in labour, there she was delivered who bore thee." (Haydock) ---

Christ redeemed Eve, who had been seduced to eat the forbidden fruit, and by his sacred blood on the cross, awoke and healed our fallen nature. (Calmet) ---

The court of heaven admires the Church of the Gentiles, and every pious soul ascending from this world, particularly the blessed Virgin [Mary]. The synagogue was corrupt, when she called for the death of the Son of God, and said, His blood be upon us, &c. [Matthew xxvii. 25.] We have no king but Cæsar. [John xix. 15.] (Worthington) ---

Grace must go before, that our free-will may also walk forward. (Menochius)

Haydock: Sos 8:6

Arm. Working by charity, Galatians v. 6. (Haydock) ---

Women in the east imprint what they like most on their bosom and arms, or carry bracelets and gems on those parts, with similar inscriptions, Osee ii. 2., and Isaias iii. 20. (Clement of Alexandria, Pæd. ii. 11.) ---

Christ must live in us. (Calmet) ---

Tota ejus species exprimatur in nobis. (St. Ambrose, Isaac viii.) ---

Jealousy. That is, zealous and burning love. (Challoner) ---

Hell. Or the grave, which subdues all. Love is a violent passion. (Calmet) ---

Nullus liber erit, si quis amare velit. (Prop. ii.) ---

Christ gave his life to redeem mankind, and the martyrs have joyfully endured torments and death, to evince their love. (Calmet) ---

Flames. Hebrew, "a flame of God," or most vehement. (Haydock)

Haydock: Sos 8:7

Drown it. As other fires may be extinguished. He who sinks under persecution, has not real charity. Temptation does not weaken a person, but shews what he is, Ecclesiasticus xxxiv. 9. (Calmet) ---

He shall. Worldlings will ridicule his parting with temporal delights, for those which do not appear: but the true lover will make no account of the former. (Calmet)

Haydock: Sos 8:8

Our sister. Christ styles the Church his own and the synagogue's sister, promising her many benefits. (Worthington) ---

The relations of the spouse wish to have her married, though she seemed young, Ezechiel xvi. 7. ---

Spoken to, concerning marriage, or its consummation, Genesis xxxiv. 6., and Daniel xiii. 57. (Calmet) ---

The synagogue had but few to give her proper instructions. (Menochius) ---

But Christ would provide her, if she were not wanting to herself. (Haydock)

Haydock: Sos 8:9

Cedar. Procuring for her a rich and steady husband to protect her. These are the words of the bridegroom. The Christian Church seemed weak at first. But her pastors and martyrs caused her to triumph over all the powers of hell. (Calmet) ---

Those who correspond with the first grace, are furnished with others. (Menochius)

Haydock: Sos 8:11

The. The bridegroom, in the character of a countryman, asserts that he would not give his vineyard or spouse (Calmet) for all the king's riches.

Haydock: Sos 8:12

Before me. I am satisfied with my spouse. ---

The peaceable. Hebrew and Septuagint, "Solomon." (Haydock) ---

Retain them, and also pay the keepers their wages. I envy not all the treasures of the world; nor would put them in competition with my vineyard, or spouse. The synagogue of Moses and Solomon degenerated, while the Church of Christ has continued faithful, and has always some good workmen. (St. Gregory; Ven. Bede, &c.) (Calmet)

Haydock: Sos 8:14

Flee. The Church consents that her beloved should ascend to heaven, as he still remains with her. (Ven. Bede; St. Bernard, ser. ix.) Qui habitat. (Calmet) ---

The whole Church militant requests that he would ascend thither, for the good of all his servants, begging for an abundant supply of grace, that we may ascend the high mountains of perfect charity, and zeal for God's honour; and that eh would make our souls such hills and gardens, adorned with all the flowers and fruits of virtue, in which he may vouchsafe to dwell. Amen. (Worthington) ---

Flee to heaven, and draw me with thee, chap. i. 4. (Menochius)

Gill: Sos 8:3

His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me. That is, when she should have the presence of Christ in her mother's house. Or the words are a petition that so it might be, "let his left hand", &c. ^g; or a declaration of what she did enjoy, "his left hand is under my head", &c. ^h; see Gill on Son 2:6.

Gill: Sos 8:4

I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up,

nor awake my love, until he please. The phrase, "by the roes and by the hinds of the field", used in Son 2:7; is here omitted; not as if the charge was less vehement and earnest here, for the form of expostulation seems rather to express more earnestness: for the words may be rendered, "why will ye", or "why should ye stir up, and why awake my love?" ⁱ being apprehensive they were about to do it; and which she dissuades from, as unreasonable and dangerous, and might be prejudicial to them as well as to her. The allusion is to virgins, that sung songs at marriages; one in the evening, lulling to sleep; and another in the morning, awaking and stirring up from it ^k.

Gill: Sos 8:5

(Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness?.... Which words are spoken by the daughters of Jerusalem, occasioned by her charge to them, by which they were excited to look more earnestly at her, whom Christ had indulged with so much nearness to him; at which they express their surprise, and describe her by her ascent "from the wilderness"; that is, of the world, out of which she was chosen and called; and from a state of nature, out of which she was brought; and was rising up in a state of grace to a state of glory; See Gill on Son 3:6;

leaning upon her beloved); faith in Christ, whom her soul loved, and who loved her, is signified hereby; see Isa 50:10; which is the grace by which believers lean on the person of Christ, for acceptance with God; on his righteousness, for justification; on his fulness, for the supply of their wants; and trust in his blood for pardon and cleansing, The word is only used in this place, and is differently rendered: by some, "casting herself" ^l on him; as sensible sinners do at first conversion, when they venture their souls on Christ, commit the care and keeping of them to him, and trust their whole salvation with him: by others, "joining, associating" ^m; cleaving to him, keeping company with him, from the use of the word ⁿ in the Arabic tongue; so such souls give up themselves to Christ; cleave to him, with full purpose of heart; walk with him, and walk on in him, as they have received him: by others, "rejoicing" or "delighting" ^o herself in him; in the view of his personal glory, transcendent excellencies, inexhaustible fulness, and searchable riches: the Septuagint version is, "strengthened", or "strengthening herself on her beloved"; deriving all her strength from him, to exercise grace, perform duty, withstand temptation, and persevere to the end, conscious of her own weakness; faith, in every sense of the word, is intended;

I raised thee up under the apple tree; not the words of Christ concerning the church, since the affixes are masculine; but what the church said concerning Christ, when leaning on his arm as she went along with him: so the words may be connected with the preceding, by supplying the word "saying", as Michaelis observes; relating a piece of former experience, how that when she was under the apple tree, sat under the shadow of it, Son 2:3; that is, under the ordinances of the Gospel; where, having no sensible communion with Christ for some time, he being as it were asleep, she, by her earnest prayers and entreaties, awaked him, and raised him up, to take notice of her; whereby she enjoyed much nearness to him, and familiarity with him;

there thy mother brought thee forth, there she brought thee forth that bare thee; which may be said either concealing the Old Testament church, who conceived hope of the coming of Christ, waited for it, and was often like a woman in pain until he was brought forth, which at length was done, to the joy of those that looked for him; or of the New Testament church, hoping, looking, waiting for the second coming of Christ, in the exercise of faith and prayer, and is like a woman in travail, and will be until he makes his appearance; and both may be meant, the one by the former, the other by the latter phrase, and may be the reason of the repetition of it. It may be applied to the apostles of Christ, who travailed in birth, until Christ was brought forth into the Gentile world, through the preaching of the Gospel; and so to all Gospel ministers, who are in like case until Christ be formed in the souls of men; which is no other than the new birth, and is attended with pain like that of a woman in travail; and every regenerate person may be said, in this sense, to be Christ's mother, as well as his brother and sister, Mat 12:50; and each of the above things are usually done under and by the means of the word and ordinances; which may be signified by the apple tree, or, however, the shadow of it.

Gill: Sos 8:6

Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm,.... These are still the words of the church, speaking to Christ as she walked along with him, as the affixes in the Hebrew text show; in which she desires to have a fixed abiding place in his heart; to continue firmly in his love, and to have further manifestations of it; to be always remembered and supported by him; to be ever on his mind, and constantly under his care and protection; and to have a full assurance of interest in his love, and in his power, which is the sealing work of his Spirit, Eph 1:13. The allusion seems to be to the high: priest, a type of Christ, who had the names of the children of Israel engraved on precious stones, and bore by him on his shoulders, and on his heart, for a memorial before the Lord continually; or to the names of persons, engraved on jewels, wore by lovers on their arms or breasts, or to their pictures put there; not to signets or seals wore on those parts, but to the names and images of persons impressed on them: the Ethiopians ^p understand it of something bound upon the arm, by which persons might be known, as was used in their country. The church's desire is, that she might be affectionately loved by Christ, be deeply fixed in his heart, be ever in his view, owned and acknowledged by him, and protected by the arm of his power. Her reasons follow:

for love is strong as death; that is, the love or the church to Christ, which caused her to make the above requests: death conquers all; against it there is no standing; such was the love of the church, it surmounted all difficulties that lay in the way of enjoying Christ; nothing could separate from it; she was conquered by it herself ^q; and could not live without him; a frown, an angry look from him, was as death unto her; yea, she could readily part with life and suffer death for his sake; death itself could not part her from him, or separate him from her love ^r; so that her love was stronger than death;

jealousy is cruel as the grave: the jealousy she had of Christ's love to her which was her weakness; and yet it was very torturing and afflicting, though at the same time it showed the greatness of her love to Christ: or "envy", that is of wicked men, she was the object of, which exceeds cruel wrath and outrageous anger, Pro 27:4; or rather her "zeal" ^s, which is no other than ardent love for Christ his Gospel, cause, and interest; which ate up and consumed her spirits, as the grave does what is cast into it. Psa 119:139. Virgil ^t gives the epithet of "cruel" to love;

the coals thereof are coals of fire; which expresses the fervency of her love to Christ, and zeal for the honour of his name: which, though sometimes cold and languid, is rekindled, and becomes hot and flaming; and is, like fire, insatiable, one of the four things that say, "It is not enough", Pro 30:16;

which hath a most vehement flame; nothing is, nor, common with other writers ^u, than to attribute flame to love, and to call it a fire; here a most vehement flame. Or, "the flame of Jah" or "Jehovah" ^w; an exceeding great one: the Hebrews use one or other of the names of God, as a superlative; so the mountains of God, and cedars of God, mean exceeding great ones; and here it expresses the church's love in the highest degree, in such a flame as not to be quenched, as follows: or it signifies, that the flame of love in her breast was kindled by the Lord himself ^x, by his Spirit, compared to fire; or by his love, shed abroad in her heart by him, Hence it appears to be false, what is sometimes said, that the name of God is not used in this Song; since the greatest of all his names, Jab or Jehovah, is here expressed.

Gill: Sos 8:7

Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it,.... The love of the church to Christ, which is inextinguishable and insuperable, by the many waters and floods of wicked and ungodly men; neither by their flattery and fair promises; nor by their cruel edicts, force and persecution; by neither can they withdraw the love of the saints from Christ, nor tempt them to desert his interest: nor by all the afflictions God is pleased to bring upon them; rather their love is increased thereby, which they consider as effects of the love, wisdom, and faithfulness of God, as designed for their good: nor even by their sins and corruptions; for though, through the aboundings of these, their love may wax cold, yet it never becomes extinct; it may be left, but not lost; its fervency may be abated, but that itself remains: nor by Satan's temptations, who sometimes comes in like a flood, threatening to carry all before him; but the Spirit lifts up a standard against him, and maintains his own work of faith and love, Isa 59:19; nor by the terrors of the law, and the apprehensions of divine wrath, they are sometimes pressed with, signified by waves and floods, Psa 88:6; nor by all the hardships and difficulties, scoffs and reproaches, which attend believers in their Christian race; which are so far from alienating their affections from Christ, that they rather endear him the more unto them, and make heaven, and the enjoyment of him there, the more desirable;

if a man would give, all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned; it is true of the love of Christ to his people, as also what is said before; but is rather to be understood of the love of the church to Christ; which is a grace so valuable, as not to be purchased with money: if this, or any other grace, is to be bought, it is to be bought without money and without price; it is to be had freely of Christ; and, where possessed, will not be parted with for anything that may be offered; if a rich man's whole estate was offered for it, to a lover of Christ; yea, the riches of the Indies, or the vast treasures of the whole globe, on condition of his parting with him, and deserting his cause and interest, and dropping or neglecting his love to him, it would be treated by him with the, almost disdain and contempt; see Phi 3:8. Now all this is used by the church as an argument to gain her request, "set me as a seal", &c. Son 8:6; since my soul is all in flames of love to thee, which cannot be quenched by all I suffer on thy account; nor will be parted with for all that the world can give me. This love of the church reaches to Christ, and to all that belong to him, even to a little sister, as in Son 8:8.

Gill: Sos 8:8

We have a little sister,.... Which seems to be the Gentile church, so called by the Jewish church; for as the church catholic, or universal, with respect to its parts, is called a mother, as often in this Song; so these parts, with respect to each other, as the Jewish and Gentile churches, may be called sisters; and the rather, as they belong to the same Father and family, are partakers of the same grace, and are of the same faith and religion as to the substance of them; and the object and nature of their worship the same, though as to circumstances different: and it may be observed that the Gentile church is not only sister to the Jewish church, but to Christ, and therefore she says, not I, but we, have such a sister; of which relation, see Son 4:9; also that she stood in this relation to Christ and to the Jewish church before the coming of Christ, and before the Gospel was preached to her, and she was called and separated from the world; as elect Gentiles are also called the sheep of Christ, and children of God, before that time, Joh 10:16. This church is described as a "little sister", younger in age than the Jewish church, and in some respects less honourable, Rom 3:1; the same with the younger son and brother, in the parable of the prodigal; little in esteem among men, especially the Jews, Eph 2:11; little in stature, light, knowledge, and faith, at first conversion; and but few in number, particularly at first, and in comparison of the world: and so the church of Christ, consisting both of Jews and Gentiles, is called a little flock, Luk 12:32. As a further description of her, it is added,

and she hath no breasts: is not arrived to years of ripeness, nor marriageable; see Eze 16:7; the time of her open espousal to Christ was not yet come: at this time she had no ministers nor ordinances, from whence she could have the sincere milk of the word, or share it with others; and it was some time after the Gospel came among the Gentiles before they had a settled ministry;

what shall we defer our sister? or, "what shall be done for her?" being moved with pity to her, in her forlorn and helpless condition, like a little infant, Eze 16:4; and willing to do anything for her that lay in her power, though seeming at a loss to know what to do for her: the believing Jews were very assisting to the Gentiles, in carrying the Gospel among them at first; and in supplying them with ministers, and with money too, to carry on the interest of Christ among them. The Jewish church here is not forgetful of the chief and principal agent, Christ, and therefore says, what shall we do? she was willing to do what she could; but she knew all would be insignificant without Christ, his agency and blessing. The time she was concerned what should be done for her in is,

in the day when she shall be spoken for, or "with", or "unto" ^y: when she should be wooed or treated with for marriage, by the ministers of the word, at the first preaching of the Gospel to her; or be spoken to by her enemies, by fair words, or severe menaces, to desert the faith. Or, "be spoken of" ^z; the fame of her be spread abroad, far and near, for her light, knowledge, and faith; for her profession, and her sufferings for it; and the concern is, how she should behave under all the noise and talk about her: or, "be spoken against" ^a; as she would be by unbelieving Jews, and by ignorant Heathens, for embracing the Christian religion, for receiving the Gospel of Christ, submitting to his ordinances, and professing his name, Act 28:22. Now the old church might be concerned, that she might stand firm to her faith and the profession of it, notwithstanding the reproaches and persecutions of men.

Gill: Sos 8:9

If she be a wall,.... Built upon a sure foundation; and firmly established in her faith on Christ, and love to him; and is constant therein, and stands as a wall against the attacks of enemies ^b;

we will build upon her a palace of silver; though at first but as a side wall, yet should become a complete habitation, even a palace for Christ, the King of kings, and, being designed for so illustrious an inhabitant, should be a "silver" one, denoting its worth, value, and splendour; the builders of it are the church and her ministers; though Christ is the principal builder, Zec 6:12. Or, "a tower of silver" ^c, signifying, that she should be well fortified, and be put into a posture of defence against her enemies: the Gentile church at first had but a very small appearance of a building, a foundation just laid, a side wall erected; but, in a short time, a noble structure, a stately tower, a silver palace, were built for God;

and if she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar; if the door of the Gospel was opened among the Gentiles, it should be succeeded to the building a holy temple to the Lord; which should be not only ornamented, but so well fenced, that it should not be in the power of their enemies to deface and demolish it: or if the door of their hearts was opened, to receive Christ, and his glorious train of grace, they should be adorned and beautified with a larger measure of them; or if being come into a church state, and the door of it was set open to receive good men, and exclude bad men, this would be to their honour comfort and safety: or this phrase is expressive of the finishing of the building, the gate or door being set up; though it rather seems to intend the low and mean estate of the Gentile church at first, when there was but little appearance of a building, only a door set up; which afterwards grew up into a stately and magnificent palace, like that of Solomon's, built of cedar boards of the wood of Lebanon; which may denote her fragrancy, perpetuity, and incorruptibleness.

Gill: Sos 8:10

I am a wall,.... The words of the little sister, or Gentile church; either wishing she was what was supposed, and desiring to be in a well settled state, "O that I was a wall!" or as asserting ^d that she was in such a state, well walled; God was a wall of fire about her; salvation was appointed as walls and bulwarks to her; she was one of the two walls Christ was a cornerstone unto, and cemented together; and was a wall built up of lively stones, of true believers, built on Christ, the foundation; and established in the doctrine of grace; and constant and immovable in her love to Christ;

and my breasts like towers; round, plump, and high; signifying that she was now marriageable; and the time of her being presented as a chaste virgin to Christ, and of her open espousals to him, was now come: of ministers of the word, of the Scriptures, and of the ordinances of the Gospel, as signified by breasts; see Gill on Son 4:5; which may be said to be "like towers": ministers of the word, because set for the defence of the Gospel; the Scriptures, because an armoury from whence saints are supplied with armour, to repel Satan's temptations, refute errors, and defend truth; and the ordinances of the Gospel, because they stand firm and immovable against all the efforts of men to subvert and abolish them; and these are peculiar to the Gentile church, under the Gospel dispensation;

then was I in his eyes as one that found favour; from the time that the Gentile church became a wall, firmly built on Christ, and was formed into a church state, and had a settled ministry and Gospel ordinances, she became acceptable to Christ, and was admitted to near communion with him; and not only her person, but her services, met with a favourable acceptance from him; and these privileges and blessings were the fruit of his love, layout, and good will, he bore to her; which before was secret and hidden, but now her breasts being fashioned, her time was a time of love, of the open love of Christ to her, and of her espousals to him: and when, as the words may be rendered, she was "as one that found peace" ^e; peace being made by the blood of Christ, and the partition wall broken down between Jew and Gentile, and they peaceably joined together in a Gospel church state; and when she enjoyed inward peace and tranquillity of mind, which is found in Christ, the word and ordinances; even all kind of prosperity, which peace, with the Hebrews, includes; every spiritual blessing, as reconciliation, justification, pardon, adoption, and eternal life, which are all the fruits and effects of divine favour, good will, grace, and love.

Gill: Sos 8:11

Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon,.... The little sister, or Gentile church, goes on to give an account of the success of the Gospel, the planting of churches, and the establishment of the interest of Christ in the Gentile world, together with the advantages that accrued to Christ from it; for not Solomon literally, but a greater than he, is here, Christ, the antitype of him, the Prince of peace; See Gill on Son 3:7. By the "vineyard" is meant the church, especially under the New Testament dispensation; so called, because separated from the world by sovereign grace; planted with precious and fruitful plants, which Christ has a property in, by his Father's gift and his own purchase; and therefore receives of the fruit of it; takes delight and pleasure to walk in it; and takes care to keep it in order, and to protect and preserve it: this is said to be at Baalhamon; perhaps the same with Baalgad, the names signifying much the same, and where Solomon might have a vineyard, Jos 11:17; the word signifies "the master", or "lord of a multitude" ^f; the Gentile world, consisting of a multitude of nations; and in which were many churches, and consisting of many persons;

he let out the vineyard unto keepers; to his apostles, and to ministers of the Gospel in succeeding times; and who have their employment in it; some to plant, others to water; some to prune, to reprove and correct for bad principles and practices, and others to support and uphold weak believers; and others to defend truth, and preserve the church from innovation in doctrine and worship: the "letting" it out to these agrees with the parables in Mat 20:1; where there seems to be an allusion to this passage. Christ is the proprietor of the vineyard, and the principal vinedresser; yet he makes use of his ministers to take the care of it, watch and keep it in order; for which purpose he lets, or "gives" ^g, it to them, as the word is, for he makes them in some sense owners; and they have an interest in the churches, and their life and comfort, greatly lie in the fruitfulness and well being of them; the vines are called "ours", Son 2:15;

everyone for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver; or shekels, amounting to about an hundred and fifty pounds; which shows the fruitfulness of the vineyard, that its produce should be worth so much; and the great usefulness of the Gospel ministry, in bringing souls to Christ; the fruit of his labour is as dear to him as pieces of silver, Luk 15:8. Christ's ministers are his rent gatherers, and the collectors of his fruit, Joh 15:16; and though they have different talents and success, yet, being honest and faithful, the meanest are reckoned to bring in the same as others, or what make for Christ's delight, pleasure, and glory; as will appear when the reckoning day comes, and an account will be given in, Mat 25:19.

Gill: Sos 8:12

My vineyard, which is mine, is before me,.... These are either the words of Christ, asserting and confirming his right and property in his vineyard, the church; and which he distinguishes from and prefers to all others; and which being said to be before him denotes his exact knowledge of every vine in it, not a plant escaping his watchful eye; his presence in it, his care of it, the delight and complacency he has therein: or else the words of the church, expressing her care, watchfulness, and diligence in the vineyard, and her concern for the welfare of the several vines and plants in it; see Son 1:6; And certain it is that the next clause is spoken by her:

thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand; a thousand pieces or shekels of silver, as before: the church is willing Christ should have all he desires and demands, his whole due and full revenue of glory from his people; for he is meant, and not Solomon literally, as many Jewish writers ^h acknowledge. And the church being now in his presence, and using familiarity with him, thus addresses him,

and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred; by which may be meant an honourable maintenance for themselves and families, and much esteem and respect among the people to whom they minister; this is the double honour in 1Ti 5:17. Christ has the greatest share, as in reason he should, being the proprietor of the vineyard, and having the chief care and oversight of it, and gives it its increase: however, faithful ministers have their reward, which lies greatly in the conversion of sinners, and edification of saints; for that is their joy, and crown of rejoicing; and in eternal happiness they shall enjoy hereafter, 1Th 2:19.

Gill: Sos 8:13

Thou that dwellest in the gardens,.... These are the words of Christ to the church, describing her by her habitation, and may be rendered, "O thou, inhabitress of the gardens" ⁱ; the word used being in the feminine gender, which determines the sense of it, as belonging to the church: but the Septuagint version renders it by a word in the masculine gender; and so Ambrose ^k, who interprets the words as spoken by the church to Christ; though he observes that Symmachus and Aquila interpret them as the words of Christ to the church. By the "gardens" are meant particular congregations, the dwelling places of the church, and where she has work to do by her ministers, to plant, water, prune, and dress the gardens; and of particular believers, whose business it is to attend on the ministry of the word, and other ordinances; and dwelling here may denote diligence and constant attendance here, and which is approved of by Christ, and well pleasing to him: and it is honourable, as well as profitable and delightful, to have a place in these gardens, and especially an abiding one; and indeed those, to whom Christ gives a place and a name here, are in no danger of being turned or driven out, as Adam was from Eden;

the companions hearken to thy voice; meaning either the divine Persons, the Father and the Holy Ghost, as Piscator; the companions of Christ, of the same nature, perfections, and glory with him; who listen to what the church and true believers say to them and to one another, Mal 3:16; or the angels, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra, the friends of Christ and his people, who hearken to the conversation of believers, in private and public; and especially to the Gospel, preached in the assembly of the saints, Eph 3:10; or rather the daughters of Jerusalem, who all along attend the bride in this Song, and are the virgins her companions, Psa 45:14; and it is a title that belongs to all truly gracious souls, Psa 122:8; who hearken to the voice of the church, to the Gospel, preached by her ministers; which is a joyful sound, and gives great delight and pleasure;

cause me to hear it; that is, her voice; so sweet and charming to him, as in Son 2:14; her voice in prayer and praise; in speaking of him, his person, offices, and grace, to others, and confessing his name before men. Some render the words, "preach me" ^l; and then the sense is, seeing the companions flock unto thee, and listen with great attention and pleasure to thy voice, take the opportunity of preaching me unto them; let my person, righteousness, and grace, be the subject of thy ministry: and which was done in the first times of the Gospel, by the apostles; has been, more or less, ever since, by faithful ministers; and will be continued until the second coming of Christ, prayed for in Son 8:14.

Gill: Sos 8:14

Make haste, my beloved,.... These are the words of the church, to Christ, calling him her "beloved"; a title often used in this Song, see Son 1:13; and is continued to the last; for Christ was still the object of her love; and she had now a comfortable sense of her interest in him, and claimed it; and makes use of this title, not only to distinguish him from others, but to obtain her request the more easily, that he would "make haste", and come; which may either be understood of his speedy coming in the flesh, and appearing on Mount Zion and in the temple, where the spicy and sweet smelling incense was offered; or of his spiritual presence, in his house and upon the mountains, and in all the assemblies of Zion, where the prayers and praises of the saints go up to God, as sweet odours, perfumed with the incense of Christ's mediation: or the petition may respect the first spread of the Gospel throughout the Gentile world; which, being like a box of ointment opened, would diffuse the savour of the knowledge of Christ everywhere: or rather it expresses the breathings of the New Testament church after the second coming of Christ, being the last petition of the church in this Song; and with which she closes it, as John does the Revelation, and with it the whole canon of Scripture in like manner, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus", that is, come quickly: and when the church says "make haste", she does not desire Christ to come before the appointed time, nor will he; his coming may and will be hastened indeed, yet in his own time; but it shows her eager and earnest desire after it, being as it were impatient for it. The word, may be rendered, "flee away" ^m; not that the church desired Christ to depart from her; she valued his presence at another rate; but she being weary of a sinful troublesome world, and breathing after everlasting rest in another, desires him to remove from hence, and take her with him to heaven, where she might enjoy his presence without any disturbance;

and be thou like to a roe, or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices; where spices and aromatic plants grow, as on Lebanon: of Christ, compared to a roe or a young hart; see Gill on Son 2:9. These creatures being remarkable for their swiftness ⁿ in running upon mountains and other high places, see Hab 3:19; the church desires that Christ would be as swift in his motion as those creatures, and come quickly and speedily, and take her with him to the "spicy mountains", the heavenly state, and all the joys and glories of it; and there have everlasting and uninterrupted communion with Christ; be out of the reach of every troublesome enemy; be in the utmost safety and security; and in the possession of pleasures that will never end. This state may be expressed by "mountains of spices": because of the height and sublimity of it; and because of the permanency and everlasting duration of it; and because of its delightfulness and pleasantness; where will be fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Sos 8:3

¹ tn See the notes on 2:6, which is parallel to this verse.

NET Notes: Sos 8:4

¹ tn Heb “daughters of Jerusalem.”

² tn Heb “Why arouse or awaken …?” Although the particle מָה (mah) is used most often as an interrogative pronoun (“What?” “Why?”), it also can be used as a particle of negation. For example, “How (מָה) could I look at a girl?” means “I have not looked at a girl!” (Job 31:1); “What (מַה) do we have to drink?” means “We have nothing to drink” (Exod 15:24); “What (מַה) part do we have?” means “We have no part” (1 Kgs 12:16); and “Why (מַה) arouse or awaken love?” means “Do not arouse or awaken love!” (Song 8:4). See HALOT 551 s.v. מָה C.

NET Notes: Sos 8:5

¹ sn The imagery of v. 6 is romantic: (1) His mother originally conceived him with his father under the apple tree, (2) his mother gave birth to him under the apple tree, and (3) the Beloved had now awakened him to love under the same apple tree. The cycle of life and love had come around full circle under the apple tree. While his mother had awakened his eyes to life, the Beloved had awakened him to love. His parents had made love under the apple tree to conceive him in love, and now Solomon and his Beloved were making love under the same apple tree of love.

² tn Or “went into labor.” The verb חָבַל (khaval, “become pregnant”) is repeated in 8:6b and 8:6c, and has a two-fold range of meaning: (1) transitive: “to conceive [a child]” and (2) intransitive: “to be in travail [of childbirth]” (HALOT 286 s.v. IV חבל). In 8:6b it denotes “to conceive,” and in 8:6c it is “to be in travail [of childbirth].”

NET Notes: Sos 8:6

¹ sn In the ancient Near East חוֹתָם (khotam, “seal”) was used to denote ownership and was thus very valuable (Jer 22:24; Hag 2:23; Eccl 17:22). Seals were used to make a stamp impression to identify the object as the property of the seal’s owner (HALOT 300 s.v. I חוֹתָם). Seals were made of semi-precious stone upon which was engraved a unique design and an inscription, e.g., LMLK [PN] “belonging to king […].” The impression could be placed upon wet clay of a jar or on a writing tablet by rolling the seal across the clay. Because it was a valuable possession its owner would take careful precautions to not lose it and would keep it close to him at all times.

² tn The term לֵבָב (levav, “heart”) is used figuratively here as (1) a metonymy (container for the thing contained) for his chest over which the cylinder seal was hung or (2) a metonymy (concrete body part for the abstract emotions with which it is associated) for his emotions, such as love and loyalty to the Beloved (e.g., Judg 16:25; Ruth 3:7; 1 Sam 25:36; 2 Sam 13:28; 1 Kgs 8:66) (HALOT 514-15 s.v. לֵב) (see H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 40-58).

sn There were two kinds of cylinder seals in the ancient Near East, namely, those worn around one’s neck and those worn around one’s wrist. The typical Mesopotamian seal was mounted on a pin and hung on a string or necklace around one’s neck. The cylinder seal hung around one’s neck would, figuratively speaking, rest over the heart (metonymy of association). The Beloved wished to be to Solomon like a cylinder seal worn over his heart. She wanted to be as intimate with her lover as the seal worn by him (W. W. Hallo, “‘As the Seal Upon Thy Heart’: Glyptic Roles in the Biblical World,” BRev 2 [1985]: 26).

³ tn Literally “cylinder-seal” or “seal.” The term חוֹתָם (khotam, “cylinder-seal”) is repeated in 8:6 for emphasis. The translation above uses the terms “cylinder seal” and “signet” simply for the sake of poetic variation. The Beloved wanted to be as safe and secure as a cylinder seal worn on the arm or around the neck, hanging down over the heart. She also wanted to be placed on his heart (emotions), like the impression of a cylinder seal is written on a document. She wanted to be “written” on his heart like the impression of a cylinder seal, and kept secure in his love as a signet ring is worn around his arm/hand to keep it safe.

⁴ tn Alternately, “wrist.” In Palestine cylinder seals were often hung on a bracelet worn around one’s wrist. The cylinder seal was mounted on a pin hanging from a bracelet. The cylinder seal in view in Song 8:6 could be a stamp seal hung from a bracelet of a type known from excavations in Israel. See W. W. Hallo, “‘As the Seal Upon Thy Heart’: Glyptic Roles in the Biblical World,” BRev 2 (1985): 26.

⁵ sn It was a common practice in the ancient world to compare intense feelings to death. The point of the expression “love is as strong as death” means that love is extremely strong. The expression “love is as cruel as Sheol” may simply mean that love can be profoundly cruel. For example: “His soul was vexed to death,” means that he could not stand it any longer (Judg 16:16). “I do well to be angry to death,” means that he was extremely angry (Jonah 4:9). “My soul is sorrowful to death,” means that he was exceedingly sorrowful (Matt 26:38 = Mark 14:34) (D. W. Thomas, “A Consideration of Some Unusual Ways of Expressing the Superlative in Hebrew,” VT 3 [1953]: 220-21).

⁶ tn Alternately, “jealousy.” The noun קִנְאָה (qin’ah) has a wide range of meanings: “jealousy” (Prov 6:34; 14:30; 27:4), “competitiveness” (Eccl 4:4; 9:6), “anger” (Num 5:14, 30), “zeal” (2 Kgs 10:16; Pss 69:10; 119:139; Job 5:2; Sir 30:24), and “passion” (Song 8:6). The Hebrew noun is related to the Akkadian and Arabic roots that mean “to become intensely red” or “become red with passion,” suggesting that the root denotes strong emotion. Although קִנְאָה is traditionally rendered “jealousy” (KJV, RSV, NASB, NIV), the parallelism with אַהֲבָה (’ahavah, “love”) suggests the nuance “passion” (NJPS). Coppes notes, “This word is translated in the KJV in a bad sense in Song 8:6, ‘jealousy is as cruel as the grave,’ but it could be taken in a good sense in parallel with the preceding, ‘ardent zeal is as strong as the grave’” (TWOT 2:803).

⁷ tn Heb “harsh” or “severe.”

⁸ tn Heb “Its flames are flames of fire.”

⁹ tn The noun שַׁלְהֶבֶתְיָה (shalhevetyah, “mighty flame”) is related to the nouns שַׁלְהֶבֶת (shalhevet, “flame”), לֶהָבָה (lehavah, “flame”), and לַהַב (lahav, “flame”), all of which are derived from the root להב “to burn, blaze, flame up” (HALOT 520 s.v. לַהַב). The form שַׁלְהֶבֶתְיָה is an unusual noun pattern with (1) a prefix ־שׁ that is common in Akkadian but rare in Hebrew; it has an intensive adjective meaning, (2) a feminine ־ת ending, and (3) a suffix ־יָה whose meaning is debated. The suffix ־יָה has been taken in three ways by scholars and translators: (1) יָה is an abbreviated form of the divine name יהוה (“Yahweh”), functioning as a genitive of source: “the flame of the Lord” (NASB). The abbreviated form יָהּ is used only in poetic texts as a poetic variation of יהוה (e.g., Exod 15:2; 17:16; Pss 68:5, 19; 77:12; 89:9; 94:7, 12; 102:19; 104:35; 105:45; 106:1, 48; 111:1; 112:1; 113:1, 9; 115:17, 18; 116:19; 117:2; 118:5, 14, 17-19; 122:4; 130:3; 135:1, 3, 4, 21; 146:1, 10; 147:1, 20; 148:1, 14; 149:1, 9; 150:1, 6; Isa 12:2; 26:4; 38:11). However, the Masoretes did not point the text as שַׁלְהֶבֶת־יָהּ (shalhevet-yah) with maqqep and daghesh in the הּ, as would be the case with the divine name. (2) Thomas suggests that, just as אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) and אֵל (’el) are sometimes used to express superlatives or intensive ideas, so יָה expresses the superlative/intensive: “a mighty flame” (D. W. Thomas, “A Consideration of Some Unusual Ways of Expressing the Superlative in Hebrew,” VT 3 [1953]: 209-24). Examples of אֱלֹהִים (’elohim): “a mighty wind” (Gen 1:2), “a mighty prince” (Gen 23:6), “a great struggle” (Gen 30:8), “a great fire” (Job 1:16), “an exceeding great city” (Jonah 3:3). Examples of אֵל (’el): “the mighty mountains” (Ps 36:7) and “the mighty cedars” (Ps 80:11). Examples of יָה (yah) suffixed: “darkest gloom” (Jer 2:31), “mighty deeds” (Jer 32:19), and “mighty deeds” (Ps 77:12). (3) The most likely view is that יָה is an intensive adjectival suffix, similar to –iy and –ay and –awi in Aramaic, Akkadian, and Arabic: “a most vehement flame” (KJV), “a mighty flame” (RSV, NIV), and “a blazing flame” (NJPS). This also best explains “darkest gloom” (Jer 2:31), and “mighty deeds” (Jer 32:19) (see S. Moscati, Comparative Grammar, 81, §12.18, and 83, §12.23).

NET Notes: Sos 8:7

¹ tn Heb “rivers.”

² tn Heb “all the wealth of his house.”

³ tn Heb “for love.” The preposition בְּ (bÿ) on בָּאַהֲבָה (ba’ahavah, “for love”) indicates the price or exchange in trading (HALOT 105 s.v. בְּ 17), e.g., “Give me your vineyard in exchange for silver [בְּכֶסֶף, bÿkhesef]” (1 Kgs 21:6).

⁴ tn Heb “he/it.” The referent (the offer of possessions) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Some English versions take the referent to be the man himself (ASV “He would utterly be condemned”; NAB “he would be roundly mocked”). Others take the offer as the referent (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV “it”).

⁵ tn The root בּוּז (buz, “to despise”) is repeated for emphasis: בּוֹז יָבוּזּוּ (boz yavuzu). The infinitive absolute frequently is used with the imperfect of the same root for emphasis. The point is simply that love cannot be purchased; it is infinitely more valuable than any and all wealth. Love such as this is priceless; no price tag can be put on love.

NET Notes: Sos 8:8

¹ sn The Beloved’s brothers knew that once a couple is betrothed, sexual temptations would be at their greatest. Thus, in v. 9 they devise a plan to protect the purity of their sister: If she is a virtuous young woman, they would reward her; however, if she is prone to temptation, they will restrain her and guard her from promiscuity.

NET Notes: Sos 8:9

¹ sn The simile if she is a wall draws a comparison between the impregnability of a city fortified with a strong outer wall and a virtuous young woman who successfully resists any assaults against her virginity. The term חוֹמָה (khomah, “wall”) often refers to an outside fortress wall that protects the city from enemy military attacks (e.g., Lev 25:29-30; Josh 6:5; 1 Kgs 3:1; Neh 2:8; 12:27; Jer 1:8; 15:20).

² sn The term טִירָה (tirah, “battlement, turret”) refers to the row of stones along the top of a fortress wall, set for the defense and stability of the wall (Ezek 46:23; cf. HALOT 374 s.v. טִירָה). This structure is connected with military operations set in defense of a siege.

³ sn The verb צוּר (tsur, “to surround, encircle, enclose”) is often used in military contexts in reference to the siege or defense of a fortress city: (1) setting up military positions (siege walls) to surround a besieged city (e.g., Isa 29:3); (2) encircling and laying siege to a city (e.g., Deut 20:12, 19; 2 Sam 11:1; 1 Kgs 15:27; 16:17; 20:1; 2 Kgs 6:24-25; 17:5; 19:9; 24:11; 1 Chr 20:1; Isa 21:2; 29:3; Jer 21:4, 9; 32:2; 37:5; 39:1; Ezek 4:3; Dan 1:1); (3) enclosing a city with sentries (e.g., Isa 29:3); (4) shutting a person within a city (1 Sam 23:8; 2 Sam 20:15; 2 Kgs 16:5); and (5) barricading a city door shut to prevent the city from being broken into and conquered (e.g., Song 8:7) (HALOT 1015 s.v. I צור).

⁴ tn Heb “a board.” The singular noun לוּחַ (lukha, “board, plank”) may denote a singular of number or a collective.

⁵ sn An interesting semantic parallel involving the “door/bar” motif in ancient Near Eastern texts comes from an Assyrian charm against an enemy: “If he is a door, I will open your mouth; but if he is a bar, I will open your tongue.” Obviously, the line in the Song is not an incantation; the formula is used in a love motif. Cited by J. Ebeling, “Aus dem Tagewerk eines assyrischen Zauberpriesters,” MAOG 5 (1931): 19.

NET Notes: Sos 8:10

¹ sn The noun מִגְדָּל (migdal, “tower”) can refer to the watchtowers of a fortified city (2 Kgs 17:9; 18:8; 2 Chr 26:9), projecting median towers along the fortified city wall which were crucial to the defense of the city (2 Chr 14:6; 26:15; 32:5), or fortress towers in the countryside set for the defense of the land (Judg 9:52; 2 Chr 27:4; Ezek 27:11) (HALOT 544 s.v. I מִגְדָּל). The Beloved mixes metaphors by describing her breasts with a comparison of sense and a comparison of sight: (1) Comparison of sense: She successfully defended her virginity and sexual purity from seduction, as fortress towers defended the city. (2) Comparison of sight: Just as the fortress towers along a city wall projected out at the corners of the wall, the Beloved’s breasts finally developed into beautiful “towers” (see 8:8 when she had no breasts as a young girl).

² tn Heb “peace.” An eloquent wordplay is created by the use of the noun שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “peace, favor”) in 8:10b and the name שְׁלֹמֹה (shÿlomoh, “Solomon”) in 8:11a. The Beloved found “favor” (שָׁלוֹם) in the eyes of Solomon (שְׁלֹמֹה). She won his heart because she was not only a beautiful young woman (“my breasts were like fortress towers”), but a virtuous woman (“I was a wall”).

³ tn Heb “Then I became in his eyes as one who finds peace.”

NET Notes: Sos 8:11

¹ tn Heb “gave.”

NET Notes: Sos 8:12

¹ sn The term כֶּרֶם (kerem, “vineyard”) is used literally in 8:11 in reference to Solomon’s physical vineyard, but in 8:12 it is used figuratively (hypocatastasis) in reference to the Beloved: כַּרְמִי (karmi, “my vineyard”). Throughout the Song, the term כֶּרֶם (“vineyard”) is used figuratively (Song 1:6; 2:15; 8:12). In 8:12 it is used in reference to either (1) herself, (2) her choice of whom to give herself to in love, or (3) her physical body. In contrast to Solomon’s physical vineyard, whose fruit can be bought and sold (8:11), she is not for sale: She will only give herself freely to the one whom she chooses to love.

² tn Each of the three terms in this line has the 1st person common singular suffix which is repeated three times for emphasis: כַּרְמִי (karmi, “my vineyard”), שֶׁלִּי (shelli, “which belongs to me”), and לְפָנָי (lÿfana, “at my disposal”). In contrast to King Solomon, who owns the vineyard at Baal-Hamon and who can buy and sell anything in the vineyard that he wishes, she proclaims that her “vineyard” (= herself or her body) belongs to her alone. In contrast to the vineyard, which can be leased out, and its fruit, which can be bought or sold, her “vineyard” is not for sale. Her love must and is to be freely given.

³ tn Heb “[it is] before me.” The particle לְפָנָי (lÿfana) can denote “at the disposal of” (e.g., Gen 13:9; 20:15; 24:51; 34:10; 47:6; Jer 40:4; 2 Chr 14:6) (HALOT 9 s.v. פָּנֶה 4.f; BDB 817 s.v. פנה 4.a.f). Similar to Akkadian ana pan “at the disposal of” (AHw 2:821.a, paragraph 20), the term is used in reference to a sovereign (usually a land-owner or king) who has full power over his property to dispose of as he wishes, e.g., “The whole country is at your disposal [לְפָנֶיךָ, lÿfaneka]” (Gen 13:9). In Song 8:12 the form לְפָנָי has the 1st person common singular suffix: “My vineyard, which belongs to me, is at my disposal.”

NET Notes: Sos 8:13

¹ tn The term מַקְשִׁיבִים (maqshivim) is in the Hiphil stem which denotes an intense desire to hear someone’s voice, that is, to eagerly listen for someone’s voice (e.g., Jer 6:17) (HALOT 1151 s.v. קשׁב 1). The participle functions verbally and denotes a continual, ongoing, durative action.

² tc The editors of BHS suggests that גַם אָנִי (gam ’ani, “me also”) should be inserted. Although there is no textual evidence for the insertion, it seems clear that the 1st person common singular referent is emphatic in MT הַשְׁמִיעִינִי (hashmi’ini, “Let me hear it!”).

³ tn The imperative הַשְׁמִיעִינִי (hashmi’ini) functions as a request. The lover asks his beloved to let him hear her beautiful voice (e.g., Song 2:14).

Geneva Bible: Sos 8:3

^{( b )} His left hand [should be] under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.

^{( b )} Read (Son 2:6).

Geneva Bible: Sos 8:4

^{( c )} I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not, nor awake [my] love, until he please.

^{( c )} Read (Son 3:5).

Geneva Bible: Sos 8:6

^{( d )} Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm: for love [is] strong as death; jealousy [is] cruel as the grave: the coals of it [are] coals of fire, [which hath a] most vehement flame.

^{( d )} The spouse desires Christ to be joined in perpetual love with him.

Geneva Bible: Sos 8:8

^{( e )} We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?

^{( e )} The Jewish Church speaks this of the Church of the Gentiles.

Geneva Bible: Sos 8:9

^{( f )} If she [is] a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she [is] a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar.

^{( f )} If she is sure and fast, she is fit for her husband to dwell in.

Geneva Bible: Sos 8:10

^{( g )} I [am] a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour.

^{( g )} The Church promises fidelity and constancy.

Geneva Bible: Sos 8:11

^{( h )} Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon; he let out the vineyard to keepers; every one for the fruit of it was to bring a thousand [pieces] of silver.

^{( h )} This is the vineyard of the Lord hired out, (Mat 21:33).

Geneva Bible: Sos 8:13

Thou that dwellest in the ^{( i )} gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear [it].

^{( i )} Christ dwells in his Church, whose voice the faithful hear.

Geneva Bible: Sos 8:14

^{( k )} Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of spices.

^{( k )} The Church desires Christ that if he depart from them, yet he would haste to help them in their troubles.

Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Sos 8:1-14

1 The love of the church to Christ.

6 The vehemency of love.

8 The calling of the Gentiles.

14 The church prays for Christ's coming.

MHCC: Sos 8:1-4

The church wishes for the constant intimacy and freedom with the Lord Jesus that a sister has with a brother. That they might be as his brethren, which they are, when by grace they are made partakers of a Divine nature. Christ is become as our Brother; wherever we find him, let us be ready to own our relation to him, and affection for him, and not fear being despised for it. Is there in us an ardent wish to serve Christ more and better? What then have we laid up in store, to show our affection to the Beloved of our souls? What fruit unto holiness? The church charges all her children that they never provoke Christ to withdraw. We should reason with ourselves, when tempted to do what would grieve the Spirit.

MHCC: Sos 8:5-7

The Jewish church came up from the wilderness, supported by Divine power and favour. The Christian church was raised from a low, desolate condition, by the grace of Christ relied on. Believers, by the power of grace, are brought up from the wilderness. A sinful state is a wilderness in which there is no true comfort; it is a wandering, wanting state: There is no coming out of this wilderness, but leaning on Christ as our Beloved, by faith; not leaning to our own understanding, nor trusting in any righteousness of our own; but in the strength of him, who is the Lord our Righteousness. The words of the church to Christ which follow, entreat an abiding place in his love, and protection by his power. Set me as a seal upon thine heart; let me always have a place in thine heart; let me have an impression of love upon thine heart. Of this the soul would be assured, and without a sense thereof no rest is to be found. Those who truly love Christ, are jealous of every thing that would draw them from him; especially of themselves, lest they should do any thing to provoke him to withdraw from them. If we love Christ, the fear of coming short of his love, or the temptations to forsake him, will be most painful to us. No waters can quench Christ's love to us, nor any floods drown it. Let nothing abate our love to him. Nor will life, and all its comforts, entice a believer from loving Christ. Love of Christ, will enable us to repel and triumph over temptations from the smiles of the world, as well as from its frowns.

MHCC: Sos 8:8-12

The church pleads for the Gentiles, who then had not the word of God, nor the means of grace. Those who are brought to Christ themselves, should contrive what they may do to help others to him. Babes in Christ are always seen among Christians, and the welfare of their weak brethren is an object of continual prayer with the stronger believers. If the beginning of this work were likened to a wall built upon Him the precious Foundation and Corner-stone, then the Gentile church would become as a palace for the great King, built of solid silver. If the first preaching of the gospel were as the making a door through the wall of partition, that door should be lasting, as cased with boards of durable cedar. She shall be carefully and effectually protected, enclosed so as to receive no damage. The church is full of care for those yet uncalled. Christ says, I will do all that is necessary to be done for them. See with what satisfaction we should look back upon the times and seasons, when we were in his eyes as those that find favour. Our hearts are our vineyards, which we must keep with all diligence. To Christ, and to his praise, all our fruits must be dedicated. All that work for Christ, work for themselves, and shall be unspeakable gainers by it.

MHCC: Sos 8:13-14

These verses close the conference between Christ and his church. He first addresses her as dwelling in the gardens, the assemblies and ordinances of his saints. He exhorts her to be constant and frequent in prayers, supplications, and praises, in which he delights. She replies, craving his speedy return to take her to be wholly with Him. The heavens, those high mountains of sweet spices, must contain Christ, till the times come, when every eye shall see him, in all the glory of the better world. True believers as they are looking for, so they are hastening to the coming of that day of the Lord. Let every Christian endeavour to perform the duties of his station, that men may see his good works, and glorify his heavenly Father. Continuing earnest in prayer for what we want, our thanksgivings will abound, and our joy will be full; our souls will be enriched, and our labours prospered. We shall be enabled to look forward to death and judgment without fear. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Matthew Henry: Sos 8:1-4

Here, I. The spouse wishes for a constant intimacy and freedom with the Lord Jesus. She was already betrothed to him, but, the nuptials being yet not solemnized and published (the bride, the Lamb's wife, will not be completely ready till his second coming), she was obliged to be shy and to keep at some distance; she therefore wishes she may be taken for his sister, he having called her so (Son 5:1), and that she might have the same chaste and innocent familiarity with him that a sister has with a brother, an own brother, that sucked the breasts of the same mother with her, who would therefore be exceedingly tender of her, as Joseph was of his brother Benjamin. Some make this to be the prayer of the Old Testament saints for the hastening of Christ's incarnation, that the church might be the better acquainted with him, when, forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he should also himself likewise take part of the same, and not be ashamed to call them brethren. It is rather the wish of all believers for a more intimate communion with him, that they might receive the Spirit of sanctification, and so Christ must be as their brother, that is, that they might be as his brethren, which then they are when by grace they are made partakers of a divine nature, and he that sanctifies, and those that are sanctified, are both of one, Heb 2:11, etc. It becomes brethren and sisters, the children of the same parents, that have been nursed at the same breast, to be very loving to and tender of one another; such a love the spouse desires might be between her and her beloved, that she might call him brother. 2. She promises herself then the satisfaction of making a more open profession of her relation to him than at present she could make: " When I should find thee without, any where, even before company, I would kiss thee, as a sister does her own brother, especially her little brother that is now sucking the breasts of her mother "(for so some understand it); "I would use all the decent freedom with thee that could be, and should not be despised for it, as doing any thing unbecoming the modesty of my sex."The church, since Christ's incarnation, can better own him than she could before, when she would have been laughed at for being so much in love with one that was not yet born. Christ has become as our brother; wherever we find him, therefore, let us be ready to own our relation to him and affection for him, and not fear being despised for it, nor regard that any more than David did when he danced before the ark. If this be to be vile, I will be yet more vile. Nay, let us hope that we shall not be despised so much as some imagine. Of the maid-servants of whom thou hast spoken I shall be had in honour. Wherever we find the image of Christ, though it be without, among those that do not follow him with us, we must love it, and testify that love, and we shall not be despised for it, but catholic charity will gain us respect. 3. She promises to improve the opportunity she should then have for cultivating an acquaintance with him (Son 8:2): " I would lead thee, as my brother, by the arm, and hang upon thee; I would show thee all the house of my precious things, would bring thee into my mother's house, into the church, into the solemn assemblies (Son 3:4), into my closet"(for there the saints have most familiar communion with Christ), "and there thou wouldst instruct me "(so some read it), as brethren inform their sisters of what they desire to be instructed in. Those that know Christ shall be taught of him; and therefore we should desire communion with Christ that we may receive instruction from him. He has come that he might give us an understanding. Or, "My mother would instruct me when I have thee with me."It is the presence of Christ in and with his church that makes the word and ordinances instructive to her children, who shall all be taught of God. 4. She promises him to bid him welcome to the best she had; she would cause him to drink of her spiced wine and the juice of her pomegranate, and bid him welcome to it, wishing it better for his sake. The exercise of grace and the performance of duty are spiced wine to the Lord Jesus, very acceptable to him, as expressive of a grateful sense of his favours. Those that are pleased with Christ must study to be pleasing to him; and they will not find him hard to be pleased. He reckons hearty welcome his best entertainment; and, if he have that, he will bring his entertainment along with him. 5. She doubts not but to experience his tender care of her and affection to her (Son 8:3), that she should be supported by his power and kept from fainting in the hardest services and sufferings ( His left hand shall be under my head ) and that she should be comforted with his love - His right hand should embrace me. Thus Christ laid his right hand upon John when he was ready to die away, Rev 1:17. See also Dan 10:10, Dan 10:18. It may be read as it is Son 2:6, His left hand is under my head (for the words are the same in the original) and so it expresses an immediate answer to her prayer; she was answered with strength in her soul, Psa 138:3. While we are following hard after Christ his right hand sustains us, Psa 63:8. Underneath are the everlasting arms. 6. She charges those about her to take heed of doing any thing to interrupt the pleasing communion she now had with her beloved (Son 8:4), as she had done before, when he thus strengthened and comforted her with his presence (Son 2:7): Let me charge you, O you daughters of Jerusalem, and reason with you, Why should you stir up, and why should you awake, my love, until he will? The church, our common mother, charges all her children that they never do any thing to provoke Christ to withdraw, which we are very prone to do. Why should you put such an affront upon him? Why should you be such enemies to yourselves? We should thus reason with ourselves when we are tempted to do that which will grieve the Spirit. "What! Am I weary of Christ's presence, that I affront him and provoke him to depart from me? Why should I do that which he will take so unkindly and which I shall certainly repent of?"

Matthew Henry: Sos 8:5-7

Here, I. The spouse is much admired by those about her. It comes in in a parenthesis, but in it gospel-grace lies as plain, and as much above ground, as any where in this mystical song: Who is this that comes up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? Some make these the words of the bridegroom, expressing himself well pleased with her reliance on him and resignation of herself to his guidance. They are rather the words of the daughters of Jerusalem, to whom she spoke (Son 8:4); they see her, and bless her. The angels in heaven, and all her friends on earth, are the joyful spectators of her bliss. The Jewish church came up from the wilderness supported by the divine power and favour, Deu 32:10, Deu 32:11. The Christian church was raised up from a low and desolate condition by the grace of Christ relied on, Gal 4:27. Particular believers are amiable, nay, admirable, and divine grace is to be admired in them, when by the power of that grace they are brought up from the wilderness, leaning with a holy confidence and complacency upon Jesus Christ their beloved. This bespeaks the beauty of a soul, and the wonders of divine grace, 1. In the conversion of sinners. A sinful state is a wilderness, remote from communion with God, barren and dry, and in which there is no true comfort; it is a wandering wanting state. Out of this wilderness we are concerned to come up, by true repentance, in the strength of the grace of Christ, supported by our beloved and carried in his arms. 2. In the consolation of saints. A soul convinced of sin, and truly humbled for it, is in a wilderness, quite at a loss; and there is no coming out of this wilderness but leaning on Christ as our beloved, by faith, and not leaning to our own understanding, nor trusting to any righteousness or strength of our own as sufficient for us, but going forth, and going on, in the strength of the Lord God, and making mention of his righteousness, even his only, who is the Lord our righteousness. 3. In the salvation of those that belong to Christ. We must go up from the wilderness of this world having our conversation in heaven; and, at death, we must remove thither, leaning upon Christ, must live and die by faith in him. To me to live is Christ, and it is he that is gain in death.

II. She addresses herself to her beloved.

1. She puts him in mind of the former experience which she and others had had of comfort and success in applying to him. (1.) For her own part: " I raised thee up under the apple tree, that is, I have many a time wrestled with thee by prayer and have prevailed. When I was alone in the acts of devotion, retired in the orchard, under the apple-tree "(which Christ himself was compared to, Son 2:3), as Nathanael under the fig-tree (Joh 1:48), "meditating and praying, then I raised thee up, to help me and comfort me,"as the disciples raised him up in the storm, saying, Master, carest thou not that we perish? (Mar 4:38), and the church (Psa 44:23), Awake, why sleepest thou? Note, The experience we have had of Christ's readiness to yield to the importunities of our faith and prayer should encourage us to continue instant in our addresses to him, to strive more earnestly, and not to faint. I sought the Lord, and he heard me, Psa 34:4. (2.) Others also had like experience of comfort in Christ, as it follows there (Psa 34:5), They looked unto him, as well as I, and were lightened. There thy mother brought thee forth, the universal church, or believing souls, in whom Christ was formed, Gal 4:15. They were in pain for the comfort of an interest in thee, and travailed in pain with great sorrow (so the word here signifies); but they brought thee forth; the pangs did not continue always; those that had travailed in convictions at last brought forth in consolations, and the pain was forgotten for joy of the Saviour's birth. By this very similitude our Saviour illustrates the joy which his disciples would have in his return to them, after a mournful separation for a time, Joh 16:21, Joh 16:22. After the bitter pangs of repentance many a one has had the blessed birth of comfort; why then may not I?

2. She begs of him that her union with him might be confirmed, and her communion with him continued and made more intimate (Son 8:6): Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm. (1.) "Let me have a place in thy heart, an interest in thy love."This is that which all those desire above any thing that know how much their happiness is bound up in the love of Christ. (2.) "Let me never lose the room I have in thy heart; let thy love to me be ensured, as that deed which is sealed up not to be robbed. Let nothing ever prevail either to separate me from thy love, or, by suspending the communications of it, to deprive me of the comfortable sense of it."(3.) "Let me be always near and dear to thee, as the signet on thy right hand, not to be parted with (Jer 22:24), engraven upon the palms of thy hands (Isa 49:14), be loved with a peculiar love."(4.) "Be thou my high priest; let my name be written on thy breast-plate, nearer thy heart, as the names of all the tribes were engraven like the engravings of a signet in twelve precious stones on the breast-plate of Aaron, and also on two precious stones on the two shoulders or arms of the ephod,"Exo 28:11, Exo 28:12, Exo 28:21. (5.) "Let thy power be engaged for me, as an evidence of thy love to me; let me be not only a seal upon thy heart, but a seal upon thy arm; let me be ever borne up in thy arms, and know it to my comfort."Some make these to be the words of Christ to his spouse, commanding her to be ever mindful of him and of his love to her; however, if we desire and expect that Christ should set us as a seal on his heart, surely we cannot do less than set him as a seal on ours.

3. To enforce this petition, she pleads the power of love, of her love to him, which constrained her to be thus pressing for the tokens of his love to her.

(1.) Love is a violent vigorous passion. [1.] It is strong as death. The pains of a disappointed lover are like the pains of death; nay, the pains of death are slighted, and made nothing of, in pursuit of the beloved object. Christ's love to us was strong as death, for it broke through death itself. He loved us, and gave himself for us. The love of true believers to Christ is strong as death, for it makes them dead to every thing else; it even parts between soul and body, while the soul, upon the wings of devout affections, soars upward to heaven, an even forgets that it is yet clothed and clogged with flesh. Paul, in a rapture of this love, knew not whether he was in the body or out of the body. By it a believer is crucified to the world. [2.] Jealousy is cruel as the grave, which swallows up and devours all; those that truly love Christ are jealous of every thing that would draw them from him, and especially jealous of themselves, lest they should do any thing to provoke him to withdraw from them, and, rather than do so, would pluck out a right eye and cut off a right hand, than which what can be more cruel? Weak and trembling saints, who conceive a jealousy of Christ, doubting of his love to them, find that jealousy to prey upon them like the grave; nothing wastes the spirits more; but it is an evidence of the strength of their love to him. (3.) The coals thereof, its lamps, and flames, and beams, are very strong, and burn with incredible force, as the coals of fire that have a most vehement flame, a flame of the Lord (so some read it), a powerful piercing flame, as the lightning, Psa 29:7. Holy love is a fire that begets a vehement heat in the soul, and consumes the dross and chaff that are in it, melts it down like wax into a new form, and carries it upwards as the sparks towards God and heaven.

(2.) Love is a valiant victorious passion. Holy love is so; the reigning love of God in the soul is constant and firm, and will not be drawn off from him either by fair means or foul, by life or death Rom 8:38. [1.] Death, and all its terrors, will not frighten a believer from loving Christ: Many waters, though they will quench fire, cannot quench this love, no, nor the floods drown it, Son 8:7. The noise of these waters will strike no terror upon it; let them do their worst, Christ shall still be the best beloved. The overflowing of these waters will strike no damp upon it, but it will enable a man to rejoice in tribulation. Though he slay me, I will love him and trust in him. No waters could quench Christ's love to us, nor any floods drown it; he waded through the greatest difficulties, even seas of blood. Love sat king upon the floods; let nothing then abate our love to him. [2.] Life, and all its comforts, will not entice a believer from loving Christ: If a man could hire him with all the substance of his house, to take his love off from Christ and set it upon the world and the flesh again, he would reject the proposal with the utmost disdain; as Christ, when the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them were offered him, to buy him off from his undertaking, said, Get thee hence, Satan. It would utterly be contemned. Offer those things to those that know no better. Love will enable us to repel and triumph over temptations from the smiles of the world, as much as from its frowns. Some give this sense of it: If a man would give all the substance of his house to Christ, as an equivalent instead of love, to excuse it, it would be contemned. He seeks not ours, but us, the heart, not the wealth. If I give all my goods to feed the poor, and have not love, it is nothing, 1Co 13:1. Thus believers stand affected to Christ: the gifts of his providence cannot satisfy them without the assurances of his love.

Matthew Henry: Sos 8:8-12

Christ and his spouse having sufficiently confirmed their love to each other, and agreed it to be on both sides strong as death and inviolable, they are here, in these verses, like a loving husband and his wife, consulting together about their affairs, and considering what they should do. Yoke-fellows, having laid their hearts together, lay their heads together, to contrive about their relations and about their estates; and, accordingly, this happy pair are here advising with one another about a sister, and a vineyard.

I. They are here consulting about their sister, their little sister, and the disposing of her.

1. The spouse proposes her case with a compassionate concern (Son 8:8): We have a little sister and she has no breasts (she has not grown up to maturity); what shall we do for this little sister of ours in the day that she shall be spoken for, so as that we may do well for her? (1.) This may be understood as spoken by the Jewish church concerning the Gentile world. God has espoused the church of the Jews to himself, and she was richly endowed, but what shall become of the poor Gentiles, the barren that has not borne, and the desolate? Isa 54:1. Their condition (say the pious Jews) is very deplorable and forlorn; they are sisters, children of the same fathers, God and Adam, but they are little, because not dignified with the knowledge of God; they have no breasts, no divine revelation, no scriptures, no ministers, no breasts of consolation drawn out to them, when they might suck, being strangers to the covenants of promise, no breasts of instruction themselves to draw out to their children, to nourish them, 1Pe 2:2. What shall we do for them? We can but pity them, and pray for them. Lord, what wilt thou do for them? The saints, in Solomon's time, might know, from David's psalms, that God had mercy in store for them, and they begged it might be hastened to them. Now the tables are turned; the Gentiles are betrothed to Christ, and ought to return the kindness by an equal concern for the bringing in of the Jews again, our eldest sister, that once had breasts, but now has none. If we take it in this sense, the unbelieving posterity of these pious Jews contradicted this prayer of their fathers; for, when the day came that the Gentiles should be spoken for and courted to Christ, instead of considering what to do for them they plotted to do all they could against them, which filled up the measure of their iniquity, 1Th 2:16. Or, (2.) It may be applied to any other that belong to the election of grace, but are yet uncalled. They are remotely related to Christ and his church, and sisters to them both, other sheep that are not of this fold, Joh 10:16; Act 18:10. They have no breasts, none yet fashioned (Eze 16:7), no affection to Christ, no principle of grace. The day will come when they shall be spoken for, when the chosen shall be called, shall be courted for Christ, by the ministers, the friends of the bridegroom. A blessed day it will be, a day of visitation. What shall we do, in that day, to promote the match, to conquer their coyness, and persuade them to consent to Christ and present themselves chaste virgins to him? Note, Those that through grace are brought to Christ themselves should contrive what they may do to help others to him, to carry on the great design of his gospel, which is to espouse souls to Christ and convert sinners to him from whom they have departed.

2. Christ soon determines what to do in this case, and his spouse agrees with him in it (Son 8:9): " If she be a wall, if the good work be once begun with the Gentiles, with the souls that are to be called in, if the little sister, when she shall be spoken for by the gospel, will but receive the word, and build herself upon Christ the foundation, and frame her doings to turn to the Lord, as the wall is in order to the house, we will build upon her a palace of silver, or build her up into such a palace; we will carry on the good work that is begun, till the wall become a palace, the wall of stone a palace of silver,"which goes beyond the boast of Augustus Caesar, that what he found brick he left marble. This little sister, when once she is joined to the Lord, shall be made to grow into a holy temple, a habitation of God through the Spirit, Eph 2:21, Eph 2:22. If she be a door, when this palace comes to be finished, and the doors of this wall set up, which was the last thing done (Neh 7:1), then we will enclose here with boards of cedar; we will carefully and effectually protect her, that she shall receive no damage. We will do it; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, all concur in contriving, carrying on, and crowning, the blessed work when the time comes. Whatever is wanting shall be set in order, and the work of faith shall be fulfilled with power. Though the beginnings of grace be small, the latter end shall greatly increase. The church is in care concerning those that are yet uncalled. "Let me alone,"says Christ; "I will do all that which is necessary to be done for them. Trust me with it."

3. The spouse takes this occasion to acknowledge with thankfulness his kindness to her, Son 8:10. She is very willing to trust him with her little sister, for she herself had had great experience of his grace, and, for her part, she owed her all to him: I am a wall, and my breasts like towers. This she speaks, not as upbraiding her little sister that had no breasts, but comforting her concerning her, that he who had made her what she was, who had built her up upon himself and made her to grow up to maturity, could and would do the same kindness for those whose case she bore upon her heart. Then was I in his eyes as one that found favour. See, (1.) What she values herself upon, her having found favour in the eyes of Jesus Christ. Those are happy, truly happy, and for ever so, that have the favour of God and are accepted of him. (2.) How she ascribes the good work of God in her to the good-will of God towards her: "He has made me a wall and my breasts as towers, and then, in that instance more than in any thing, I experienced his love to me." Hail, thou that art highly favoured, for in thee Christ is formed. (3.) What pleasure God takes in the work of his own hands. When we are made as a wall, as a brazen wall (Jer 1:18; Jer 15:20), that stands firmly against the blast of the terrible ones (Isa 25:4), then God takes delight in us to do us good. (4.) With what joy and triumph we ought to speak of God's grace towards us, and with what satisfaction we should look back upon the special times and seasons when we were in his eyes as those that find favour; these were days never to be forgotten.

II. They are here consulting about a vineyard they had in the country, the church of Christ on earth considered under the notion of a vineyard (Son 8:11, Son 8:12): Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon, had a kingdom in the possession of a multitude, a numerous people. As he was a type of Christ, so his vineyard was a type of the church of Christ. Our Saviour has given us a key to these verses in the parable of the vineyard let out to the unthankful husbandmen, Mat 21:33. The bargain was that, every one of the tenants having so much of the vineyard assigned him as would contain 1000 vines, he was to pay the annual rent of 1000 pieces of silver; for we read (Isa 7:23) that in a fruitful soil there were 1000 vines at 1000 silverlings. Observe, 1. Christ's church is his vineyard, a pleasant and peculiar place, privileged with many honours; he delights to walk in it, as a man in his vineyard, and is pleased with its fruits. 2. He has entrusted each of us with his vineyard, as keepers of it. The privileges of the church are that good thing which he has committed to us, to be kept as a sacred trust. The service of the church is to be our business, according as our capacity is. Son, go work today in my vineyard. Adam, in innocency, was to dress the garden, and to keep it. 3. He expects rent from those that are employed in his vineyard and entrusted with it. He comes, seeking fruit, and requires gospel-duty of all those that enjoy gospel-privileges. Every one, of what rank or degree soever, must bring glory and honour to Christ, and do some service to the interest of his kingdom in the world, in consideration of what benefit and advantage they enjoy by their share of the privileges of the vineyard. 4. Though Christ has let out his vineyard to keepers, yet still it is his, and he has his eye always upon it for good; for, if he did not watch over it night and day (Isa 27:1, Isa 27:2), the watchmen, to whom he has let it out, would keep it but in vain, Psa 127:1. Some take these for Christ's words (Son 8:12): My vineyard, which is mine, is before me; and they observe how he dwells upon his property in it: It is my vineyard, which is mine; so dear is his church to him, it is his own in the world (Joh 13:1), and therefore he will always have it under his protection; it is his own, and he will look after it. 5. The church, that enjoys the privileges of the vineyard, must have them always before her. The keeping of the vineyard requires constant care and diligence. They are rather the words of the spouse: My vineyard, which is mine, is before me. She has lamented her fault and folly in not keeping her own vineyard (Son 1:6), but now she resolves to reform. Our hearts are our vineyards, which we must keep with all diligence; and therefore we must have a watchful jealous eye upon them at all times. 6. Our great care must be to pay our rent for what we hold of Christ's vineyard, and to see that we do not go behind-hand, nor disappoint the messengers he sends to receive the fruits (Mat 21:34): Thou, O Solomon! must have 1000, and shalt have. The main of the profits belong to Christ; to him and his praise all our fruits must be dedicated. 7. If we be careful to give Christ the praise of our church-privileges, we may then take to ourselves the comfort and benefit of them. If the owner of the vineyard have had his due, the keepers of it shall be well paid for their cares and pains; they shall have 200, which sum, no doubt, was looked upon as a good profit. Those that work for Christ are working for themselves, and shall be unspeakable gainers by it.

Matthew Henry: Sos 8:13-14

Christ and his spouse are here parting for a while; she must stay below in the gardens on earth, where she has work to do for him; he must remove to the mountains of spices in heaven, where he has business to attend for her, as an advocate with the Father. Now observe with what mutual endearments they part.

I. He desires to hear often from her. She is ready at her pen; she must be sure to write to him; she knows how to direct (Son 8:13): " Thou that, for the present, dwellest in the gardens, dressing and keeping them till thou remove from the garden below to the paradise above - thou, O believer! whoever thou art, that dwellest in the gardens of solemn ordinances, in the gardens of church-fellowship and communion, the companions are so happy as to hear thy voice, cause me to hear it too."Observe, 1. Christ's friends should keep a good correspondence one with another, and, as dear companions, speak often to one another (Mal 3:16) and hearken to one another's voice; they should edify, encourage, and respect one another. They are companions in the kingdom and patience of Christ, and therefore, as fellow-travellers, should keep up mutual freedom, and not be shy of, nor strange to, one another. The communion of saints is an article of our covenant, as well as an article of our creed, to exhort one another daily, and be glad to be exhorted by another. Hearken to the voice of the church, as far as it agrees with the voice of Christ; his companions will do so. 2. In the midst of our communion with one another we must not neglect our communion with Christ, but let him see our countenance and hear our voice; he here bespeaks it: " The companions hearken to thy voice; it is a pleasure to them; cause me to hear it. Thou makest thy complaints to them when any thing grieves thee; why does thou not bring them to me, and let me hear them? Thou art free with them; be as free with me; pour out thy heart to me."Thus Christ, when he left his disciples, ordered them to send to him upon every occasion. Ask, and you shall receive. Note, Christ not only accepts and answers, but even courts his people's prayers, not reckoning them a trouble to him, but an honour and a delight, Pro 15:8. We cause him to hear our prayers when we not only pray, but wrestle and strive in prayer. He loves to be pressingly importuned, which is not the manner of men. Some read it, " Cause me to be heard; thou hast often an opportunity of speaking to thy companions, and they hearken to what thou sayest; speak of me to them; let my name be heard among them; let me be the subject of thy discourse.""One word of Christ"(as archbishop Usher used to say) "before you part."No subject is more becoming, or should be more pleasing.

II. She desires his speedy return to her (Son 8:14): Make haste, my beloved, to come again, and receive me to thyself; be thou like a roe, or a young hart, upon the mountains of spices; let no time be lost; it is pleasant dwelling here in the gardens, but to depart, and be with thee, is far better; that therefore is what I wish, and wait, and long for. Even so, come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Observe, 1. Though Jesus Christ be now retired, he will return. The heavens, those high mountains of sweet spices, must contain him till the times of refreshing shall come; and those times will come, when every eye shall see him, in all the pomp and power of the upper and better world, the mystery of God being finished and the mystical body completed. 2. True believers, as they are looking for, so they are hastening to, the coming of that day of the Lord, not that they would have him make more haste than good speed, but that the intermediate counsels may all be fulfilled, and then that the end may come - the sooner the better. Not that they think him slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but thus they express the strength of their affections to him and the vastness of their expectations from him when he comes again. 3. Those only that can in sincerity call Christ their beloved, their best beloved, can, upon good grounds, desire him to hasten his second coming. As for those whose hearts go a whoring after the world, and who set their affections on the things of the earth, they cannot love his appearing, but dread it rather, because then the earth, and all the things of it which they have chosen for their portion, will be burnt up. But those that truly love Christ long for his second coming, because it will be the crown both of his glory and their bliss. 4. The comfort and satisfaction which we sometimes have in communion with God in grace here should make us breathe the more earnestly after the immediate vision and complete fruition of him in the kingdom of glory. The spouse, after an endearing conference with her beloved, finding it must break off, concludes with this affectionate request for the perfecting and perpetuating of this happiness in the future state. The clusters of grapes that meet us in this wilderness should make us long for the full vintage in Canaan. If a day in his courts be so sweet, what then will an eternity within the veil be! If this be heaven, O that I were there! 5. It is good to conclude our devotions with a joyful expectation of the glory to be revealed, and holy humble breathings towards it. We should not part but with the prospect of meeting again. It is good to conclude every sabbath with thoughts of the everlasting sabbath, which shall have no night at the end of it, nor any week-day to come after it. It is good to conclude every sacrament with thoughts of the everlasting feast, when we shall sit down with Christ at his table in his kingdom, to rise no more, and drink of the wine new there, and to break up every religious assembly in hopes of the general assembly of the church of the first-born, when time and days shall be no more: Let the blessed Jesus hasten that blessed day. Why are his chariot-wheels so long a coming? Why tarry the wheels of his chariots?

Keil-Delitzsch: Sos 8:3-4

Resigning herself now dreamily to the idea that Solomon is her brother, whom she may freely and openly kiss, and her teacher besides, with whom she may sit in confidential intercourse under her mother's eye, she feels herself as if closely embraced by him, and calls from a distance to the daughters of Jerusalem not to disturb this her happy enjoyment:

3 His left hand is under my head,

And his right doth embrace me:

4 I adjure you, ye daughters of Jerusalem,

That ye awake not and disturb not love

Till she please!

Instead of תּהת ל , "underneath,"there is here, as usual, תּהת (cf. Son 8:5 ). Instead of אם ... ואם in the adjuration, there is here the equivalent מה ... ומה ; the interrogative מה , which in the Arab. ma becomes negat., appears here, as at Job 31:1, on the way toward this change of meaning. The per capreas vel per cervas agri is wanting, perhaps because the natural side of love is here broken, and the ἔρως strives up into ἀγάπη . The daughters of Jerusalem must not break in upon this holy love-festival, but leave it to its own course.

Keil-Delitzsch: Sos 8:5

5 a Who is this coming up out of the wilderness,

Leaning on her beloved?

The third Acts; Son 3:6, began with a similar question to that with which the sixth here commences. The former closed the description of the growth of the love-relation, the latter closes that of the consummated love-relation. Instead of "out of the wilderness,"the lxx has "clothed in white"( λελευκανθισμένη ); the translator has gathered mit|chauweret from the illegible consonants of his MS before him. On the contrary, he translates מתחוּרת correctly by ἐπιστηριζομένη (Symm. ἐπερειδομένη , Venet. κεκμηκυῖα ἐπί , wearily supporting herself on ...), while Jerome renders it unsuitably by deliciis affluens , interchanging the word with מתפּנּקת . But התרפּק , common to the Heb. with the Arab. and Aethiop., signifies to support oneself, from רפק , sublevare (French, soulager ), Arab. rafaḳa , rafuḳa , to be helpful, serviceable, compliant, irtafaḳa , to support oneself on the elbow, or (with the elbow) on a pillow (cf. rafîk , fellow-traveller, rufḳa , a company of fellow-travellers, from the primary idea of mutually supporting or being helpful to each other); Aethiop. rafaḳa , to encamp for the purpose of taking food, ἀνακλίνεσθαι (cf. Joh 13:23). That Shulamith leant on her beloved, arose not merely from her weariness, with the view of supplementing her own weakness from his fulness of strength, but also from the ardour of the love which gives to the happy and proud Solomon, raised above all fears, the feeling of his having her in absolute possession. The road brings the loving couple near to the apple tree over against Shulamith's parental home, which had been the witness of the beginning of their love.

5 b Under the apple tree I waked thy love:

There thy mother travailed with thee;

There travailed she that bare thee.

The words, "under the apple tree I waked thee," עוררתּיך , might be regarded as those of Shulamith to Solomon: here, under this apple tree, where Solomon met with her, she won his first love; for the words cannot mean that she wakened him from sleep under the apple tree, since עורר has nowhere the meaning of הקיץ and העיר here given to it by Hitzig, but only that of "to stir, to stir up, to arouse;"and only when sleep or a sleepy condition is the subject, does it mean "to shake out of sleep, to rouse up"( vid ., under Son 2:7). But it is impossible that "there"can be used by Shulamith even in the sense of the shepherd hypothesis; for the pair of lovers do not wander to the parental home of the lover, but of his beloved. We must then here altogether change the punctuation of the text, and throughout restore the fem. suffix forms as those originally used: עוררתּיך , חבּלתך אמּך ,

(Note: חבּלתך , penult . accented, and Lamed with Pathach in P. This is certainly right. Michlol 33 a adduces merely ילדתך of the verse as having Kametz , on account of the pause, and had thus in view חבּ , with the Pathach under Lamed . But P. has also יל , with Pathach under Daleth , and so also has H, with the remark בּ פתחין (viz., here and Jer 22:26). The Biblia Rabbinica 1526 and 1615 have also the same pointing, Pathach under Daleth . In the printed list of words having Pathach in pause, this word is certainly not found. But it is found in the MS list of the Ochla veochla , at Halle.)

and ילדתך (cf. שׁו , Isa 47:10), in which we follow the example of the Syr. The allegorizing interpreters also meet only with trouble in regarding the words as those of Shulamith to Solomon. If התפיח were an emblem of the Mount of Olives, which, being wonderfully divided, gives back Israel's dead (Targ.), or an emblem of Sinai (Rashi), in both cases the words are more appropriately regarded as spoken to Shulamith than by her. Aben-Ezra correctly reads them as the words of Shulamith to Solomon, for he thinks on prayers, which are like golden apples in silver bowls; Hahn, for he understands by the apple tree, Canaan, where with sorrow his people brought him forth as their king; Hengstenberg, rising up to a remote-lying comparison, says, "the mother of the heavenly Solomon is at the same time the mother of Shulamith."Hoelemann thinks on Sur. 19:32 f., according to which 'Isa, Miriam's son, was born under a palm tree; but he is not able to answer the question, What now is the meaning here of the apple tree as Solomon's birthplace? If it were indeed to be interpreted allegorically, then by the apple tree we would rather understand the "tree of knowledge"of Paradise, of which Aquila, followed by Jerome, with his ἐκεῖ διεφθάρη , appears to think, - a view which recently Godet approves of;

(Note: Others, e.g. , Bruno von Asti († 1123) and the Waldensian Exposition, edited by Herzog in the Zeit. für hist. Theol. 1861: malum = crux dominica . Th. Harms (1870) quotes Son 2:3, and remarks: The church brings forth her children under the apple tree, Christ. Into such absurdities, in violation of the meaning of the words, do the allegorizing interpreters wander.)

there Shulamith, i.e. , poor humanity, awakened the compassionate love of the heavenly Solomon, who then gave her, as a pledge of this love, the Protevangelium , and in the neighbourhood of this apple tree, i.e. , on the ground and soil of humanity fallen, but yet destined to be saved, Shulamith's mother, i.e. , the pre-Christian O.T. church, brought forth the Saviour from itself, who in love raised Shulamith from the depths to regal honour. But the Song of Songs does not anywhere set before us the task of extracting from it by an allegorizing process such far-fetched thoughts. If the masc. suff. is changed into the fem., we have a conversation perfectly corresponding to the situation. Solomon reminds Shulamith by that memorable apple tree of the time when he kindled within her the fire of first love; עורר elsewhere signifies energy (Psa 80:3), or passion (Pro 10:12), put into a state of violent commotion; connected with the accus. of the person, it signifies, Zec 9:13, excited in a warlike manner; here, placed in a state of pleasant excitement of love that has not yet attained its object. Of how many references to contrasted affections the reflex. התע is capable, is seen from Job 17:8; Job 31:29; why not thus also עורר ?

With שׁמּה Solomon's words are continued, but not in such a way as that what follows also took place under the apple tree. For Shulamith is not the child of Beduins, who in that case might even have been born under an apple tree. Among the Beduins, a maiden accidentally born at the watering-place (menhîl ), on the way (rahîl ), in the dew (ṭall ) or snow (thelg ), is called from that circumstance Munêhil , Ruhêla , Talla , or Thelga .

(Note: Vid ., Wetstein's Inschriften (1864), p. 336.)

The birthplace of her love is not also the birthplace of her life. As התפוח points to the apple tree to which their way led them, so שׁמה points to the end of their way, the parental home lying near by (Hitzig).

The lxx translates well: ἐκεῖ ὠδίνησέ σε ἡ μήτηρ σου , for while the Arab. ḥaḅida means concipere , and its Pi ., ḥabbada , is the usual word for gravidam facere , חבּל in the passage before us certainly appears to be

(Note: The Arab. ḥabilat , she has conceived, and is in consequence pregnant, accords in the latter sense with ḥamilat , she bears, i.e. , is pregnant, without, however, being, as Hitzig thinks, of a cognate root with it. For ḥamal signifies to carry; הבל , on the contrary, to comprehend and to receive (whence also the cord, figuratively, the tie of love, liaison , as enclosing, embracing, is called ḥabl , הבל ), and like the Lat. concipere and suscipere , is used not only in a sexual, but also in an ethical sense, to conceive anger, to take up and cherish sorrow. The Assyr. ìáä , corresponding to the Heb. בן , is explained from this Arab. ḥabl , concipere . On the supposition that the Heb. had a word, חבל , of the same meaning as the Arab. ḥabl , then חבּל might mean concipiendo generare ; but the Heb. sentence lying before us leads to the interpretation eniti .)

a denom. Pi . in the sense of "to bring forth with sorrow"( חבלי היּלדה ). The lxx further translates: ἐκεῖ ὠδίνησέ σε ἡ τεκοῦσά σε , in which the σε is inserted, and is thus, as also by the Syr., Jerome, and Venet., translated, with the obliteration of the finite ילדתך , as if the reading were ילדתּך . But not merely is the name of the mother intentionally changed, it is also carried forward from the labour, eniti, to the completed act of birth.

Keil-Delitzsch: Sos 8:6-7

After Solomon has thus called to remembrance the commencement of their love-relation, which receives again a special consecration by the reference to Shulamith's parental home, and to her mother, Shulamith answers with a request to preserve for her this love.

6 Place me as a signet-ring on thy heart,

As a signet-ring on thine arm!

For strong as death is love;

Inexorable as hell is jealousy:

Its flames are flames of fire,

A flame of Jah.

7 Mighty waters are unable to quench such love,

And rivers cannot overflow it.

If a man would give

All the wealth of his house for love, -

He would only be contemned.

The signet-ring, which is called חותם ( חתם , to impress), was carried either by a string on the breast, Gen 38:18, or also, as that which is called טבּעת denotes (from טבע , to sink into), on the hand, Jer 22:24, cf. Gen 41:42; Est 3:12, but not on the arm, like a bracelet, 2Sa 1:10; and since it is certainly permissible to say "hand"for "finger,"but not "arm"for "hand,"so we may not refer "on thine arm"to the figure if the signet-ring, as if Shulamith had said, as the poet might also introduce her as saying: Make me like a signet-ring ( כּחותם ) on thy breast; make me like a signet-ring "on thy hand,"or "on thy right hand."The words, "set me on thy heart,"and "(set me) on thine arm,"must thus also, without regard to "as a signet-ring,"express independent thoughts, although שׂימני is chosen ( vid ., Hag 2:23) instead of קחני , in view of the comparison.

(Note: Of the copy of the Tôra , which was to be the king's vade -mecum , it is said, Sanhedrin 21 b : עושה אותה כמין קמיע ותולה בזרוע , but also there the amulet is thought of not as fastened to the finger, but as wound round the arm.)

Thus, with right, Hitzig finds the thought therein expressed: "Press me close to thy breast, enclose me in thine arms."But it is the first request, and not the second, which is in the form עכל־זרועך , and not על־זרועתיך ( שׁימני ), which refers to embracing, since the subject is not the relation of person and thing, but of person and person. The signet-ring comes into view as a jewel, which one does not separate from himself; and the first request is to this effect, that he would bear her thus inalienably (the art. is that of the specific idea) on his heart (Exo 28:29); the meaning of the second, that he would take her thus inseparably as a signet-ring on his arm (cf. Hos 11:3 : "I have taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms"), so that she might lie always on his heart, and have him always at her side (cf. Psa 110:5): she wishes to be united and bound to him indissolubly in the affection of love and in the community of life's experience.

The reason for the double request following כּי , abstracted from the individual case, rises to the universality of the fact realized by experience, which specializes itself herein, and celebrates the praise of love; for, assigning a reason for her "set me,"she does not say, "my love,"nor "thy love,"but אהבה , "love"(as also in the address at Son 7:7). She means love undivided, unfeigned, entire, and not transient, but enduring; thus true and genuine love, such as is real, what the word denotes, which exhausts the conception corresponding to the idea of love.

קנאה , which is here parallel to "love,"is the jealousy of love asserting its possession and right of property; the reaction of love against any diminution of its possession, against any reserve in its response, the "self-vindication of angry love."

(Note: Vid., my Prolegomena to Weber's Vom Zorne Gottes (1862), p. 35 ss.)

Love is a passion, i.e. , a human affection, powerful and lasting, as it comes to light in "jealousy."Zelus , as defined by Dav. Chyträus, est affectus mixtus ex amore et ira, cum videlicet amans aliquid irascitur illi, a quo laeditur res amata , wherefore here the adjectives עזּה (strong) and קשׁה (hard, inexorable, firm, severe) are respectively assigned to "love"and "jealousy,"as at Gen 49:7 to "anger"and "wrath."It is much more remarkable that the energy of love, which, so to say, is the life of life, is compared to the energy of death and Hades; with at least equal right ממּות and משּׁאול (might be used, for love scorns both, outlasts both, triumphs over both (Rom 8:38.; 1Co 15:54.). But the text does not speak of surpassing, but of equality; not of love and jealousy that they surpass death and Hades, but that they are equal to it. The point of comparison in both cases is to be obtained from the predicates. עז , powerful, designates the person who, being assailed, cannot be overcome (Num 13:28), and, assailing, cannot be withstood (Jdg 14:18). Death is obviously thought of as the assailer (Jer 9:20), against which nothing can hold its ground, from which nothing can escape, to whose sceptre all must finally yield ( vid ., Ps 49). Love is like it in this, that it also seizes upon men with irresistible force (Böttcher: "He whom Death assails must die, whom Love assails must love"); and when she has once assailed him, she rests not till she has him wholly under her power; she kills him, as it were, in regard to everything else that is not the object of his love. קשׁה , hard (opposed to רך , 2Sa 3:39), σκληρός , designates one on whom no impression is made, who will not yield (Psa 48:4; Psa 19:4), or one whom stern fate has made inwardly stubborn and obtuse (1Sa 1:15). Here the point of comparison is inflexibility; for Sheol, thought of with שׁאל , to ask ( vid ., under Isa 5:14), is the God-ordained messenger of wrath, who inexorably gathers in all that are on the earth, and holds them fast when once they are swallowed up by him. So the jealousy of love wholly takes possession of the beloved object not only in arrest, but also in safe keeping; she holds her possession firmly, that it cannot be taken from her (Wisd. 2:1), and burns relentlessly and inexorably against any one who does injury to her possession (Pro 6:34 f.). But when Shulamith wishes, in the words, "set me,"etc., to be bound to the heart and to the arm of Solomon, has she in the clause assigning a reason the love in view with which she loves, or that with which she is loved? Certainly not the one to the exclusion of the other; but as certainly, first of all, the love with which she wishes to fill, and believes that she does fill, her beloved. If this is so, then with "for strong as death is love,"she gives herself up to this love on the condition that it confesses itself willing to live only for her, and to be as if dead for all others; and with "inexorable as hell is jealousy,"in such a manner that she takes shelter in the jealousy of this love against the occurrence of any fit of infidelity, since she consents therein to be wholly and completely absorbed by it.

To קנאה , which proceeds from the primary idea of a red glow, there is connected the further description of this love to the sheltering and protecting power of which she gives herself up: "its flames, רשׁפיה , are flames of fire;"its sparkling is the sparkling of fire. The verb רשף signifies, in Syr. and Arab., to creep along, to make short steps; in Heb. and Chald., to sparkle, to flame, which in Samar. is referred to impetuosity. Symmachus translates, after the Samar. (which Hitzig approves of): ἁι ὁρμαὶ αὐτοῦ ὁρμαὶ πύρινοι ; the Venet., after Kimchi, ἄνθρακες , for he exchanges רשׁף with the probably non.-cogn. רצפה ; others render it all with words which denote the bright glancings of fire. רשׁפּי (so here, according to the Masora; on the contrary, at Psa 76:4, רשׁפּי ) are effulgurations; the pred. says that these are not only of a bright shining, but of a fiery nature, which, as they proceed from fire, so also produce fire, for they set on fire and kindle.

(Note: The Phoen. Inscriptions, Citens . xxxvii., xxxviii., show a name for God, רשפי חץ , or merely רשף , which appears to correspond to Ζεὺς Κεραύνιος on the Inscriptions of Larnax ( vid ., Vogué's Mélanges Archéologiques, p. 19). רשפי are thus not the arrows themselves (Grätz), but these are, as it were, lightnings from His bow (Psa 76:4).)

Love, in its flashings up, is like fiery flashes of lightning; in short, it is שׁלהבתיה ,

(Note: Thus in the Biblia Rabbinica and P. H. with the note מלהחדא ולא מפיק . Thus by Ben-Asher, who follows the Masora. Cf. Liber Psalmorum Hebr. atque Lat . p. 155, under Psa 118:5; and Kimchi, Wörterb., under אפל and שלהב . Ben-Naphtali, on the other hand, reads as two words, שׁלהבת יהּ . [Except in this word, the recensions of Ben-Asher and Ben-Naphtali differ only "de punctis vocalibus et accentibus ." Strack's Prolegomena , p. 28.])

which is thus to be written as one word with ה raphatum , according to the Masora; but in this form of the word יה is also the name of God, and more than a meaningless superlative strengthening of the idea. As להבה is formed from the Kal להב to flame (R. לב , to lick, like להט , R. לט , to twist), so is שׁלהבת , from the Shafel שׁלהב , to cause to flame; this active stem is frequently found, especially in the Aram., and has in the Assyr. almost wholly supplanted the Afel ( vid ., Schrader in Deut. Morg. Zeit. xxvi. 275). שׁלהבת is thus related primarily to להבה , as inflammatio to (Ger.) steplang7 Flamme ; יה thus presents itself the more naturally to be interpreted as gen. subjecti . Love of a right kind is a flame not kindled and inflamed by man (Job 20:26), but by God - the divinely-influenced free inclination of two souls to each other, and at the same time, as is now further said, Son 8:7 , Son 8:7 , a situation supporting all adversities and assaults, and a pure personal relation conditioned by nothing material. It is a fire-flame which mighty waters ( רבּים , great and many, as at Hab 3:15; cf. עזּים , wild, Isa 43:16) cannot extinguish, and streams cannot overflow it (cf. Psa 69:3; Psa 124:4) or sweep it away (cf. Job 14:19; Isa 28:17). Hitzig adopts the latter signification, but the figure of the fire makes the former more natural; no heaping up of adverse circumstances can extinguish true love, as many waters extinguish elemental fire; no earthly power can suppress it by the strength of its assault, as streams drench all they sweep over in their flow - the flame of Jah is inextinguishable.

Nor can this love be bought; any attempt to buy it would be scorned and counted madness. The expressions is like Pro 6:30 f., cf. Num 22:18; 1Co 13:3. Regarding הון (from הוּן , (Arab.) han , levem esse ), convenience, and that by which life is made comfortable, vid ., at Pro 1:13. According to the shepherd-hypothesis, here occurs the expression of the peculiar point of the story of the intercourse between Solomon and Shulamith; she scorns the offers of Solomon; her love is not to be bought, and it already belongs to another. But of offers we read nothing beyond Song Son 1:11, where, as in the following Son 8:12, it is manifest that Shulamith is in reality excited in love. Hitzig also remarks under Son 1:12 : "When the speaker says the fragrance of her nard is connected with the presence of the king, she means that only then does she smell the fragrance of nard, i.e. , only his presence awakens in her heart pleasant sensations or sweet feelings."Shulamith manifestly thus speaks, also emphasizing Son 6:12, the spontaneousness of her relation to Solomon; but Hitzig adds: "These words, Son 1:12, are certainly spoken by a court lady."But the Song knows only a chorus of the "Daughters of Jerusalem"- that court lady is only a phantom, by means of which Hitzig's ingenuity seeks to prop up the shepherd-hypothesis, the weakness of which his penetration has discerned. As we understand the Song, Son 8:7 refers to the love with which Shulamith loves, as decidedly as Son 8:6 to the love with which she is loved. Nothing in all the world is able to separate her from loving the king; it is love to his person, not love called forth by a desire for riches which he disposes of, not even by the splendour of the position which awaited her, but free, responsive love with which she answered free love making its approach to her. The poet here represents Shulamith herself as expressing the idea of love embodied in her. That apple tree, where he awaked first love in her, is a witness of the renewal of their mutual covenant of love; and it is significant that only here, just directly here, where the idea of the whole is expressed more fully, and in a richer manner than at Son 7:7, is God denoted by His name, and that by His name as revealed in the history of redemption. Hitzig, Ewald, Olshausen, Böttcher, expand this concluding word, for the sake of rhythmic symmetry, to שׁלהבתיה שׁלהבת יהּ its flames are flames of Jah; but a similar conclusion is found at Psa 24:6; Psa 48:7, and elsewhere.

"I would almost close the book,"says Herder in his Lied der Lieder (Song of Songs), 1778, "with this divine seal. It is even as good as closed, for what follows appears only as an appended echo."Daniel Sanders (1845) closes it with Son 8:7, places Son 8:12 after Son 1:6, and cuts off Son 1:8-11, Son 1:13, Son 1:14, as not original. Anthologists, like Döpke and Magnus, who treat the Song as the Fragmentists do the Pentateuch, find here their confused medley sanctioned. Umbreit also, 1820, although as for the rest recognising the Song as a compact whole, explains Son 8:8-14 as a fragment, not belonging to the work itself. Hoelemann, however, in his Krone des Hohenliedes Crown of the Song, 1856 (thus he names the "concluding Act,"Son 8:5-14), believes that there is here represented, not only in Son 8:6, Son 8:7, but further also in Son 8:8-12, the essence of true love - what it is, and how it is won; and then in Son 8:13 f. he hears the Song come to an end in pure idyllic tones.

We see in Son 8:8 ff. the continuation of the love story practically idealized and set forth in dramatic figures. There is no inner necessity for this continuance. It shapes itself after that which has happened; and although in all history divine reason and moral ideas realize themselves, yet the material by means of which this is done consists of accidental circumstances and free actions passing thereby into reciprocal action. But Son 8:8 ff. is the actual continuance of the story on to the completed conclusion, not a mere appendix, which might be wanting without anything being thereby missed. For after the poet has set before us the loving pair as they wander arm in arm through the green pasture-land between Jezreel and Sunem till they reach the environs of the parental home, which reminds them of the commencement of their love relations, he cannot represent them as there turning back, but must present to us still a glimpse of what transpired on the occasion of their visit there. After that first Act of the concluding scene, there is yet wanting a second, to which the first points.

Keil-Delitzsch: Sos 8:8

The locality of this scene is Shulamith's parental home. It is she herself who speaks in these words:

8 We have a sister, a little one,

And she has no breasts:

What shall we do with our sister

In the day when she will be sued for?

Between Son 8:8 and Son 8:7 is a blank. The figure of the wanderers is followed by the figure of the visitors. But who speaks here? The interchange of the scene permits that Shulamith conclude the one scene and begin the other, as in the first Act; or also that at the same time with the change of scene there is an interchange of persons, as e.g. , in the third Act. But if Shulamith speaks, all her words are not by any means included in what is said from Son 8:8 to Son 8:10. Since, without doubt, she also speaks in Son 8:11 f., this whole second figure consists of Shulamith's words, as does also the second of the second Acts; Son 3:1-5. But there Shulamith's address presents itself as the narrative of an experience, and the narrative dramatically framed in itself is thoroughly penetrated by the I of the speaker; but here, as e.g. , Ewald, Heiligst., and Böttch. explain, she would begin with a dialogue with her brothers referable to herself, one that had formerly taken place-that little sister, Ewald remarks under Son 8:10, stands here now grown up she took notice of that severe word formerly spoken by her brothers, and can now joyfully before all exclaim, taking up the same flowery language, that she is a wall, etc. But that a monologue should begin with a dialogue without any introduction, is an impossibility; in this case the poet ought to have left the expression, "of old my mother's sons said,"to be supplemented by the reader or hearer. It is true, at Son 3:2; Son 5:3, we have a former address introduced without any formal indication of the fact; but it is the address of the narrator herself. With Son 8:8 there will thus begin a colloquy arising out of present circumstances. That in this conversation Son 8:8 appertains to the brothers, is evident. This harsh steplang7 entweder oder ( aut ... aut ) is not appropriate as coming from Shulamith's mouth; it is her brothers alone, as Hoelemann rightly remarks, who utter these words, as might have been expected from them in view of Son 1:6. But does Son 8:8 belong also to them? There may be two of them, says Hitzig, and the one may in Son 8:9 reply to the question of the other in Son 8:8; Shulamith, who has heard their conversation, suddenly interposes with Son 8:10. But the transition from the first to the second scene is more easily explained if Shulamith proposes the question of Son 8:8 for consideration. This is not set aside by Hitzig's questions: "Has she to determine in regard to her sister? and has she now for the first time come to do nothing in haste?"For (1) the dramatic figures of the Song follow each other chronologically, but not without blanks; and the poet does not at all require us to regard Son 8:8 as Shulamith's first words after her entrance into her parental home; (2) but it is altogether seeming for Shulamith, who has now become independent, and who has been raised so high, to throw out this question of loving care for her sister. Besides, from the fact that with Son 8:8 there commences the representation of a present occurrence, it is proved that the sister here spoken of is not Shulamith herself. If it were Shulamith herself, the words of Son 8:8, Son 8:9 would look back to what had previously taken place, which, as we have shown, is impossible. Or does Son 6:9 require that we should think of Shulamith as having no sister? Certainly not, for so understood, these words would be purposeless. The "only one,"then, does not mean the only one numerically, but, as at Pro 4:3, it is emphatic (Hitzig); she is called by Solomon the "only one"of her mother in this sense, that she had not one her equal.

Thus it is Shulamith who here speaks, and she is not the "sister"referred to. The words, "we have a sister ... ,"spoken in the family circle, whether regarded as uttered by Shulamith or not, have something strange in them, for one member of a family does not need thus to speak to another. We expect: With regard to our sister, who is as yet little and not of full age, the question arises, What will be done when she has grown to maturity to guard her innocence? Thus the expression would have stood, but the poet separates it into little symmetrical sentences; for poetry present facts in a different style from prose. Hoelem. has on this remarked that the words are not to be translated: we have a little sister, which the order of the words וגו אחות ק would presuppose, Gen 40:20; cf. 2Sa 4:4; 2Sa 12:2 f.; Isa 26:1; Isa 33:21. "Little"is not immediately connected with "sister,"but follows it as an apposition; and this appositional description lays the ground for the question: We may be now without concern; but when she is grown up and will be courted, what then? "Little"refers to age, as at 2Ki 5:2; cf. Gen 44:20. The description of the child in the words, "she has no breasts,"has neither in itself nor particularly for Oriental feeling anything indecent in it (cf. mammae sororiarunt , Eze 16:7). The ל following מה־נּעשׂה is here not thus purely the dat. commodi , as e.g. , Isa 64:3 (to act for some one), but indiff. dat. (what shall we do for her?); but מה is, according to the connection, as at Gen 27:37; 1Sa 10:2; Isa 5:4, equivalent to: What conducing to her advantage? Instead of בּיּום , the form בּיום lay syntactically nearer (cf. Exo 6:28); the art. in בּיּום is, as at Ecc 12:3, understood demonst.: that day when she will be spoken for, i.e. , will attract the attention of a suitor. בּ after דּבּר may have manifold significations ( vid ., under Psa 87:3); thus the general signification of "concerning,"1Sa 19:3, is modified in the sense of courting a wife, 1Sa 25:39. The brothers now take speech in hand, and answer Shulamith's question as to what will have to be done for the future safety of their little sister when the time comes that she shall be sought for:

Keil-Delitzsch: Sos 8:9

9 If she be a wall,

We will build upon her a pinnacle of silver;

And if she be a door,

We will block her up with a board of cedar-wood.

The brothers are the nearest guardians and counsellors of the sister, and, particularly in the matter of marriage, have the precedence even of the father and mother, Gen 24:50, Gen 24:55; Gen 34:6-8.. They suppose two cases which stand in contrast to each other, and announce their purpose with reference to each case. Hoelem. here affects a synonymous instead of the antithetic parallelism; for he maintains that אם ( ואם ) ... אם nowhere denotes a contrast, but, like sive ... sive , essential indifference. But examples such as Deu 18:3 ( sive bovem, sive ovem ) are not applicable here; for this correl. אם ... אם , denoting essential equality, never begins the antecedents of two principal sentences, but always stands in the component parts of one principal sentence. Wherever ואם ... אם commences two parallel conditional clauses, the parallelism is always, according to the contents of these clauses, either synonymous, Gen 31:50; Amo 9:2-4; Ecc 11:3 (where the first ואם signifies ac si , and the second sive ), or antithetic, Num 16:29 f.; Job 36:11 f.; Isa 1:19 f. The contrast between חומה (from חמה , Arab. ḥaman , Modern Syr. chamo , to preserve, protect) and דּלת (from דּלל , to hang loose, of doors, Pro 26:14, which move hither and thither on their hinges) is obvious. A wall stands firm and withstands every assault if it serves its purpose (which is here presupposed, where it is used as a figure of firmness of character). A door, on the contrary, is moveable; and though it be for the present closed ( דלת is intentionally used, and not פּתח , vid ., Gen 19:6), yet it is so formed that it can be opened again. A maiden inaccessible to seduction is like a wall, and one accessible to it is like a door. In the apodosis, Son 8:9, the lxx correctly renders טירת by ἐπάλξεις ; Jerome, by propugnacula . But it is not necessary to read טירת . The verb טור , cogn. דור , signifies to surround, whence tirah (= Arab. duâr ), a round encampment, Gen 25:16, and, generally, a habitation, Psa 69:25; and then also, to range together, whence תּוּר , a rank, row (cf. Arab. thur and daur , which, in the manifoldness of their meanings, are parallel with the French tour ), or also tirah , which, Eze 46:23 ( vid ., Keil), denotes the row or layer of masonry, - in the passage before us, a row of battlements (Ew.), or a crown of the wall (Hitz.), i.e. , battlements as a wreath on the summit of a wall. Is she a wall, - i.e. , does she firmly and successfully withstand all immoral approaches? - then they will adorn this wall with silver pinnacles (cf. Isa 54:12), i.e. , will bestow upon her the high honour which is due to her maidenly purity and firmness; silver is the symbol of holiness, as gold is the symbol of nobility. In the apodosis 9b, על צוּר is not otherwise meant than when used in a military sense of enclosing by means of besieging, but, like Isa 29:3, with the obj.-accus., of that which is pressed against that which is to be excluded; צור here means, forcibly to press against, as סגר , Gen 2:21, to unite by closing up.

ארז לוּח is a board or plank (cf. Eze 27:5, of the double planks of a ship's side) of cedar wood (cf. Zep 2:14, ארזה , cedar wainscot). Cedar wood comes here into view not on account of the beautiful polish which it takes on, but merely because of its hardness and durability. Is she a door, i.e. , accessible to seduction? They will enclose this door around with a cedar plank, i.e. , watch her in such a manner that no seducer or lover will be able to approach her. By this morally stern but faithful answer, Shulamith is carried back to the period of her own maidenhood, when her brothers, with good intention, dealt severely with her. Looking back to this time, she could joyfully confess:

Keil-Delitzsch: Sos 8:10

10 I was a wall,

And my breasts like towers;

Then I became in his eyes

Like one who findeth peace.

In the language of prose, the statement would be: Your conduct is good and wise, as my own example shows; of me also ye thus faithfully took care; and that I met this your solicitude with strenuous self-preservation, has become, to my joy and yours, the happiness of my life. That in this connection not אני חומה , but חומה אני has to be used, is clear: she compares herself with her sister, and the praise she takes to herself she takes to the honour of her brothers. The comparison of her breasts to towers is suggested by the comparison of her person to a wall; Kleuker rightly remarks that here the comparison is not of thing with thing, but of relation with relation: the breasts were those of her person, as the towers were of the wall, which, by virtue of the power of defence which they conceal within themselves, never permit the enemy, whose attention they attract, to approach them. The two substantival clauses, murus et ubera mea instar turrium , have not naturally a retrospective signification, as they would in a historical connection ( vid ., under Gen 2:10); but they become retrospective by the following "then I became,"like Deu 26:5, by the historical tense following, where, however, it is to be remarked that the expression, having in itself no relation to time, which is incapable of being expressed in German, mentions the past not in a way that excludes the present, but as including it. She was a wall, and her breasts like the towers, i.e. , all seductions rebounded from her, and ventured not near her awe-inspiring attractions; then ( אז , temporal, but at the same time consequent; thereupon, and for this reason, as at Psa 40:8; Jer 22:15, etc.) she became in his (Solomon's) eyes as one who findeth peace. According to the shepherd-hypothesis, she says here: he deemed it good to forbear any further attempts, and to let me remain in peace (Ewald, Hitz., and others). But how is that possible? מצא שׁלום בעיני is a variation of the frequently occurring מצא חן בעיני , which is used especially of a woman gaining the affections of a man, Est 2:17; Deu 24:1; Jer 31:2 f.; and the expression here used, "thus I was in his eyes as one who findeth peace"is only the more circumstantial expression for, "then I found ( אז מצאתי ) in his eyes peace,"which doubtless means more than: I brought it to this, that he left me further unmolested; שׁלום in this case, as syn. of חן , means inward agreement, confidence, friendship, as at Psa 41:10; there it means, as in the salutation of peace and in a hundred other cases, a positive good. And why should she use שׁלום instead of חן , but that she might form a play upon the name which she immediately, Son 8:11 , thereafter utters, שׁלמה , which signifies, 1Ch 22:9, "The man of peace."That Shulamith had found shalom (peace) with Shelomoh (Solomon), cannot be intended to mean that uninjured she escaped from him, but that she had entered into a relation to him which seemed to her a state of blessed peace. The delicate description, "in his eyes,"is designed to indicate that she appeared to him in the time of her youthful discipline as one finding peace. The כ is כ veritatis , i.e. , the comparison of the fact with its idea, Isa 29:2, or of the individual with the general and common, Isa 13:6; Eze 26:10; Zec 14:3. Here the meaning is, that Shulamith appeared to him corresponding to the idea of one finding peace, and thus as worthy to find peace with him. One "finding peace"is one who gains the heart of a man, so that he enters into a relation of esteem and affection for her. This generalization of the idea also opposes the notion of a history of seduction. מוחאת is from the ground-form matsiat , the parallel form to מוצאת , 2Sa 18:22. Solomon has won her, not by persuasion or violence; but because she could be no other man's, he entered with her into the marriage covenant of peace (cf. Pro 2:17 with Isa 54:10).

Keil-Delitzsch: Sos 8:11-12

It now lies near, at least rather so than remote, that Shulamith, thinking of her brothers, presents her request before her royal husband:

11 Solomon had a vineyard in Baal-hamon;

He committed the vineyard to the keepers,

That each should bring for its fruit

A thousand in silv.

12 I myself disposed of my own vineyard:

The thousand is thine, Solomon,

And two hundred for the keepers of its fruit!

The words לשׁ היה כּרם are to be translated after כרמוגו , 1Ki 21:1, and לידידי ... , Isa 5:1, "Solomon had a vineyard"(cf. 1Sa 9:2; 2Sa 6:23; 2Sa 12:2; 2Ki 1:17; 1Ch 23:17; 1Ch 26:10), not "Solomon has a vineyard,"which would have required the words לשׁ כרם , with the omission of היה . I formerly explained, as also Böttcher: a vineyard became his, thus at present is his possession; and thus explaining, one could suppose that it fell to him, on his taking possession of his government, as a component part of his domain; but although in itself לו היה can mean, "this or that has become one's own"( e.g. , Lev 21:3), as well as "it became his own,"yet here the historical sense is necessarily connected by היה with the נתן foll.: Solomon has had ... , he has given; and since Solomon, after possession the vineyard, would probably also preserve it, Hitzig draws from this the conclusion, that the poet thereby betrays the fact that he lived after the time of Solomon. But these are certainly words which he puts into Shulamith's mouth, and he cannot at least have forgotten that the heroine of his drama is a contemporary of Solomon; and supposing that he had forgotten this for a moment, he must have at least once read over what he had written, and could not have been so blind as to have allowed this היה which had escaped him to stand. We must thus assume that he did not in reality retain the vineyard, which, as Hitzig supposes, if he possessed it, he also "probably"retained, whether he gave it away or exchanged it, or sold it, we know not; but the poet might suppose that Shulamith knew it, since it refers to a piece of land lying not far from her home. For המון בּעל , lxx Βεελαμών , is certainly the same as that mentioned in Judith 8:3, according to which Judith's husband died from sunstroke in Bethulia, and was buried beside his fathers "between Dothaim and Balamoon "

(Note: This is certainly not the Baal-meon (now Maïn ) lying half an hour to the south of Heshbon; there is also, however, a Meon (now Maïn ) on this the west side of Jordan, Nabal's Maon, near to Carmel. Vid ., art. "Maon,"by Kleuker in Schenkel's Bibl. Lex .)

(probably, as the sound of the word denotes, Belmen , or, more accurately, Belmaïn , as it is also called in Judith 4:4, with which Kleuker in Schenkel's Bibl. Lex ., de Bruyn in his Karte , and others, interchange it; and חמּון , Jos 19:28, lying in the tribe of Asher). This Balamoon lay not far from Dothan, and thus not far from Esdräelon ; for Dothan lay (cf. Judith 3:10) south of the plain of Jezreel, where it has been discovered, under the name of Tell Dotan , in the midst of a smaller plain which lies embosomed in the hills of the south.

(Note: Vid ., Robinson's Physical Geogr. of the Holy Land , p. 113; Morrison's Recovery of Jerusalem (1871), p. 463, etc.)

The ancients, since Aquila, Symm., Targ., Syr., and Jerome, make the name of the place Baal-hamon subservient to their allegorizing interpretation, but only by the aid of soap-bubble-like fancies; e.g. , Hengst. makes Baal-hamon designate the world; nothrim [keepers], the nations; the 1000 pieces in silver, the duties comprehended in the ten commandments. Hamon is there understood of a large, noisy crowd. The place may, indeed, have its name from the multitude of its inhabitants, or from an annual market held there, or otherwise from revelry and riot; for, according to Hitzig,

(Note: Cf. also Schwarz' Das heilige Land , p. 37.)

there is no ground for co-ordinating it with names such as Baal-gad and Baal-zephon , in which Baal is the general, and what follows the special name of God. Amon , the Sun-God, specially worshipped in Egyptian Thebes, has the bibl. name אמון , with which, after the sound of the word, accords the name of a place lying, according to Jer. Demaï ii. 1, in the region of Tyrus, but no אמון . The reference to the Egypt. Amon Ra , which would direct rather to Baalbec, the Coele-Syrian Heliupolis, is improbable; because the poet would certainly not have introduced into his poem the name of the place where the vineyard lay, if this name did not call forth an idea corresponding to the connection. The Shulamitess, now become Solomon's, in order to support the request she makes to the king, relates an incident of no historical value in itself of the near-lying Sunem (Sulem), situated not far from Baal-hamon to the north, on the farther side of the plain of Jezreel. She belongs to a family whose inheritance consisted in vineyards, and she herself had acted in the capacity of the keeper of a vineyard, Son 1:6, - so much the less therefore is it to be wondered at that she takes an interest in the vineyard of Baal-hamon, which Solomon had let out to keepers on the condition that they should pay to him for its fruit-harvest the sum of 1000 shekels of silver (shekel is, according to Ges. §120. 4, Anm. 2, to be supplied).

יבא , since we have interpreted היה retrospectively, might also indeed be rendered imperfect. as equivalent to afferebat, or, according to Ewald, §136 c , afferre solebat ; but since נתן = ἐξέδοτο , Mat 21:33, denotes a gift laying the recipients under an obligation, יבא is used in the sense of יבא ( אשׁר ) למען ; however, למען is not to be supplied (Symm. ἐνέγκη ), but יבא in itself signifies afferre debebat (he ought to bring), like יע , Dan 1:5, they should stand (wait upon), Ewald, §136 g . Certainly נארים does not mean tenants, but watchers, - the post-bibl. language has חכר , to lease, קבּל , to take on lease, chikuwr, rent, e.g. , Mezîa ix. 2, - but the subject here is a locatio conductio ; for the vine-plants of that region are entrusted to the "keepers"for a rent, which they have to pay, not in fruits but in money, as the equivalent of a share of the produce (the ב in בּפר is the ב pretii ). Isa 7:23 is usually compared; but there the money value of a particularly valuable portion of a vineyard, consisting of 1000 vines, is given at "1000 silverlings"(1 shekel); while, on the other hand, the 1000 shekels here are the rent for a portion of a vineyard, the extent of which is not mentioned. But that passage in Isaiah contains something explanatory of the one before us, inasmuch as we see from it that a vineyard was divided into portions of a definite number of vines in each. Such a division into mekomoth is also here supposed. For if each "keeper"to whom the vineyard was entrusted had to count 1000 shekels for its produce, then the vineyard was at the same time committed to several keepers, and thus was divided into small sections (Hitzig). It is self-evident that the gain of the produce that remained over after paying the rent fell to the "keepers;"but since the produce varied, and also the price of wine, this gain was not the same every year, and only in general are we to suppose from Son 8:12, that it yielded on an average about 20 per cent. For the vineyard which Shulamith means in Son 8:12 is altogether different from that of Baal-hamon. It is of herself she says, Son 1:6, that as the keeper of a vineyard, exposed to the heat of the day, she was not in a position to take care of her own vineyard. This her own vineyard is not her beloved (Hoelem.), which not only does not harmonize with Son 1:6 (for she there looks back to the time prior to her elevation), but her own person, as comprehending everything pleasant and lovely which constitutes her personality (4:12-5:1), as îøê is the sum-total of the vines which together form a vineyard.

Of this figurative vineyard she says: לפני שׁלּי כּרמי . This must mean, according to Hitzig, Hoelem., and others, that it was under her protection; but although the idea of affectionate care may, in certain circumstances, be connected with לפני , Gen 17:18; Pro 4:3, yet the phrase: this or that is לפני , wherever it has not merely a local or temporal, but an ethical signification, can mean nothing else than: it stands under my direction, Gen 13:9; Gen 20:15; Gen 47:6; 2Ch 14:6; Gen 24:51; 1Sa 16:16. Rightly Heiligst., after Ewald: in potestate mea est . Shulamith also has a vineyard, which she is as free to dispose of as Solomon of his at Baal-hamon. It is the totality of her personal and mental endowments. This vineyard has been given over with free and joyful cordiality into Solomon's possession. This vineyard also has keepers (one here sees with what intention the poet has chosen in Son 8:11 just that word נארים ) - to whom Shulamith herself and to whom Solomon also owes it that as a chaste and virtuous maiden she became his possession. These are her brothers, the true keepers and protectors of her innocence. Must these be unrewarded? The full thousands, she says, turning to the king, which like the annual produce of the vineyard of Baal-hamon will thus also be the fruit of my own personal worth, shall belong to none else, O Solomon, than to thee, and two hundred to the keepers of its fruit! If the keepers in Baal-hamon do not unrewarded watch the vineyard, so the king owes thanks to those who so faithfully guarded his Shulamith. The poetry would be reduced to prose if there were found in Shulamith's words a hint that the king should reward her brothers with a gratification of 200 shekels. She makes the case of the vineyard in Baal-hamon a parable of her relation to Solomon on the one hand, and of her relation to her brothers on the other. From מאתים , one may conclude that there were two brothers, thus that the rendering of thanks is thought of as מעשׂר (a tenth part); but so that the 200 are meant not as a tax on the thousand, but as a reward for the faithful rendering up of the thousand.

Keil-Delitzsch: Sos 8:13

The king who seems to this point to have silently looked on in inmost sympathy, now, on being addressed by Shulamith, takes speech in hand; he does not expressly refer to her request, but one perceives from his words that he heard it with pleasure. He expresses to her the wish that she would gratify the companions of her youth who were assembled around her, as well as himself, with a song, such as in former times she was wont to sing in these mountains and valleys.

13 O thou (who art) at home in the gardens,

Companions are listening for thy voice;

Let me hear!

We observe that in the rural paradise with which she is surrounded, she finds herself in her element. It is a primary feature of her character which herein comes to view: her longing after quietness and peace, her love for collectedness of mind and for contemplation; her delight in thoughts of the Creator suggested by the vegetable world, and particularly by the manifold soft beauty of flowers; she is again once more in the gardens of her home, but the address, "O thou at home in the gardens!"denotes that wherever she is, these gardens are her home as a fundamental feature of her nature. The חברים are not Solomon's companions, for she has come hither with Solomon alone, leaning on his arm. Also it is indicated in the expression: "are listening for thy voice,"that they are such as have not for a long time heard the dear voice which was wont to cheer their hearts. The חבר are the companions of the former shepherdess and keeper of a vineyard, Son 1:6 f., the playmates of her youth, the friends of her home. With a fine tact the poet does not represent Solomon as saying חבריך nor חברינוּ : the former would be contrary to the closeness of his relation to Shulamith, the latter contrary to the dignity of the king. By חברים there is neither expressed a one-sided reference, nor is a double-sided excluded. That "for thy voice"refers not to her voice as speaking, but as the old good friends wish, as singing, is evident from השׁמיעני in connection with Son 2:14, where also קולך is to be supplied, and the voice of song is meant. She complies with the request, and thus begins:

Keil-Delitzsch: Sos 8:14

14 Flee, my beloved,

And be thou like a gazelle,

Or a young one of the harts,

Upon spicy mountains.

Hitzig supposes that with these words of refusal she bids him away from her, without, however, as "my beloved"shows, meaning them in a bad sense. They would thus, as Renan says, be bantering coquetry. If it is Solomon who makes the request, and thus also he who is addressed here, not the imaginary shepherd violently introduced into this closing scene in spite of the words "(the thousand) is thine, Solomon"(Son 8:12), then Shulamith's ignoring of his request is scornful, for it would be as unseemly if she sang of her own accord to please her friends, as it would be wilful if she kept silent when requested by her royal husband. So far the Spanish author, Soto Major, is right (1599): jussa et rogata id non debuit nec potuit recusare . Thus with "flee"she begins a song which she sings, as at Son 2:15 she commences one, in response to a similar request, with "catch us."Hoelem. finds in her present happiness, which fills her more than ever, the thought here expressed that her beloved, if he again went from her for a moment, would yet very speedily return to his longing, waiting bride.

(Note: Similarly Godet: The earth during the present time belongs to the earthly power; only at the end shall the bridegroom fetch the bride, and appear as the heavenly Solomon to thrust out the false and fleshly, and to celebrate the heavenly marriage festival.)

But apart from the circumstance that Shulamith is no longer a bride, but is married, and that the wedding festival is long past, there is not a syllable of that thought in the text; the words must at least have been אלי בּרח , if ברח signified generally to hasten hither, and not to hasten forth. Thus, at least as little as סב , Son 2:17, without אלי , signifies "turn thyself hither,"can this בּרח mean "flee hither."The words of the song thus invite Solomon to disport himself, i.e. , give way to frolicsome and aimless mirth on these spicy mountains. As sov lecha is enlarged to sov demeh -lecha , Son 2:17, for the sake of the added figures ( vid ., under Son 2:9), so here berahh-lecha (Gen 27:43) is enlarged to berahh udemeh (udǎmeh ) lecha . That "mountains of spices"occurs here instead of "cleft mountains,"Son 2:17, has its reason, as has already been there remarked, and as Hitzig, Hoelem., and others have discovered, in the aim of the poet to conclude the pleasant song of love that has reached perfection and refinement with an absolutely pleasant word.

But with what intention does he call on Shulamith to sing to her beloved this בּרח , which obviously has here not the meaning of escaping away (according to the fundamental meaning, transversum currere ), but only, as where it is used of fleeting time, Job 9:25; Job 14:2, the sense of hastening? One might suppose that she whom he has addressed as at home in gardens replied to his request with the invitation to hasten forth among the mountains, - an exercise which gives pleasure to a man. But (1) Solomon, according to Son 2:16; Son 6:2 f., is also fond of gardens and flowers; and (2) if he took pleasure in ascending mountains, it doubled his joy, according to Son 4:8, to share this joy with Shulamith; and (3) we ask, would this closing scene, and along with it the entire series of dramatic pictures, find a satisfactory conclusion, if either Solomon remained and gave no response to Shulamith's call, or if he, as directed, disappeared alone, and left Shulamith by herself among the men who surrounded her? Neither of these two things can have been intended by the poet, who shows himself elsewhere a master in the art of composition. In Son 2:17 the matter lies otherwise. There the love-relation is as yet in progress, and the abandonment of love to uninterrupted fellowship places a limit to itself. Now, however, Shulamith is married, and the summons is unlimited. It reconciles itself neither with the strength of her love nor with the tenderness of the relation, that she should with so cheerful a spirit give occasion to her husband to leave her alone for an indefinite time. We will thus have to suppose that, when Shulamith sings the song, "Flee, my beloved,"she goes forth leaning on Solomon's arm out into the country, or that she presumes that he will not make this flight into the mountains of her native home without her. With this song breaking forth in the joy of love and of life, the poet represents the loving couple as disappearing over the flowery hills, and at the same time the sweet charm of the Song of Songs, leaping gazelle-like from one fragrant scene to another, vanishes away.

Constable: Sos 5:2--8:5

IV. THE MATURING PROCESS 5:2--8:4

In this last major section of the book the married love of Solomon and the Shulammite is in view. This stage of love is not without its share of problems. However the king and his bride worked through them, and these chapters provide insight into dealing effectively with basic marriage difficulties.

"Here we are given the beloved's perspective. Of the 111 lines, 80 in this section are the words of the girl. This is really her book."⁷⁴

Constable: Sos 8:1-4

D. Increased Intimacy 8:1-4

The Shulammite's desire for her husband's love continued to increase throughout their marriage (vv. 1-3).

8:1 Ancient Near Easterners frowned on public displays of intimate affection unless closest blood relatives exchanged them. It was perhaps for this reason that the wife wished that her husband was her brother.

8:2-3 Here the wife pictures herself playfully leading her husband as an older sister or mother would lead a younger brother or son. Solomon and the Shulammite were close friends as well as lovers (cf. 5:1, 16). As his wife she desired his caresses (v. 3).

8:4 Solomon again urged his wife's friends not to try to awaken her love for him artificially but to let love take its natural course (cf. 2:7; 3:5). Her love was now fully alive and needed no further stimulation.

This section (5:2-8:4) that began with estrangement ends with the lovers entwined in each other's arms.

Constable: Sos 8:5-7

V. THE CONCLUSION 8:5-7

These verses summarize the theme of the book.

8:5a Evidently these are the words of the daughters of Jerusalem. The couple is coming up out of the wilderness. The "wilderness" connoted Israel's 40 years of trials to the Jewish mind. The couple had emerged from their trials successfully too (i.e., insecurity, 1:5-6; the "foxes," 2:15; and apathy, 5:2-7). The "wilderness" also symbolized God's curse (cf. Jer. 22:6; Joel 2:3). The couple had likewise overcome the curse of disharmony that God had placed on Adam and Eve by their love for one another (cf. Gen. 3:16).

8:5b The Shulammite reminded her husband (masculine "you" in Hebrew) of the beginning of their love. The apple tree was a symbol of love in ancient poetry because of its beauty, fragrance, and sweet fruit. She had given him a type of new birth by awakening him to love.

8:6-7 She asked to be his most valued possession; she wanted him to be jealous over her in the proper sense (cf. Prov. 6:34).

"The word seal' (hotam) refers to an engraved stone used for authenticating a document or other possession. This could be suspended by a cord around the neck (over the heart) as in Genesis 38:18. The word hotam can also refer to a seal ring' worn on the hand (in Song of Songs 5:14 hand' is used to mean arm'). The hotam was something highly precious to the owner and could be used symbolically for a person whom one valued [cf. Jer. 22:24; Hag. 2:23]. . . . The bride was asking Solomon that he treasure her, that he regard her as a prized seal."⁸⁴

She next described the love they shared. It was as powerful as death, as controlling as the grave, as passionate as fire, as irresistible as a river, and priceless. Such love comes from God: "the . . . flame of the Lord" (v. 6). No one can purchase love. It is only available as a gift.

"With this homily, the bride has delivered the great moral lesson of the book. . . .

"She was prepared to be a loyal and faithful wife, but Solomon ultimately had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines (1 Kings 11:3). No wonder she, not he, delivers the moral lesson of the book. He was totally unqualified to speak on the issue of godly dedicated love. He knew the physical side of it, but apparently he did not know the love she cherished."⁸⁵

Constable: Sos 8:8-14

VI. THE EPILOGUE 8:8-14

Verses 8-12 flash back to the Shulammite's life before meeting Solomon and their first encounter. Verses 13-14 reveal their final mature love.

Constable: Sos 8:8-12

A. The Past 8:8-12

8:8-9 These words by the Shulammite's older brothers (cf. 1:6) reveal their desire to prepare her for a proper marriage. Comparing her to a wall may mean that she might use self-restraint and exclude all unwarranted advances against her purity. If she behaved this way, her brothers would honor her by providing her with various adornments. However if she proved susceptible to these advances as an open door, they would have to guard her purity for her by keeping undesirable individuals from her.

8:10 She had proved to be like a wall rather than a door. Consequently she had become a great delight to Solomon.

8:11-12 The site of "Baal-hamon" is unknown. Evidently Solomon leased part of his vineyard to the Shulammite's brothers who put her to work in it (1:6). There she met Solomon. Her own vineyard probably refers to her own person (cf. 1:6).⁸⁶ The Shulammite promised to give all of herself to Solomon freely whereas he needed to pay those who worked in his literal vineyard wages.

Constable: Sos 8:13-14

B. The Present 8:13-14

These verses reflect the desire that Solomon and the Shulammite still felt for each other. Solomon seems to have spoken verse 13 and the Shulammite verse 14. The mountains probably refer to her breasts (cf. 2:17; 8:14).

The narrative closes with a call for the lover to return to his beloved. Many students of the Bible have noted the similarity with how the whole Bible ends: "Come, Lord Jesus" (Rev. 22:20).⁸⁷

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 8 (Chapter Introduction)

Overview

Son 8:1, The love of the church to Christ; Son 8:6, The vehemency of love; Son 8:8, The calling of the Gentiles; Son 8:14, The church prays for Christ’s coming.

Poole: The Song of Songs 8 (Chapter Introduction)

OF SOLOMON CHAPTER 8

The church expresseth her desire of familiarity with Christ, Son 8:1 , by the entertainment she would make him, Son 8:2,3 . She charges the daughters of Jerusalem not to disturb her. Beloved, Son 8:4 . A commendation of the church for her faith in Christ, Son 8:5 . She prayeth for full assurance of his love; her invincible desire, Son 8:6 ; which is insatiable, Son 8:7 . The calling of the Gentiles, with their intent, and her condition, Son 8:8-13 . Christ’ s coming prayed for, Son 8:14 .

Oh that thou wert as my brother most intimate, and free, and familiar with me, as brethren and sisters commonly are,

that sucked the breasts of my mother! that came out of the same womb, and sucked the same breasts, and consequently were brother and sister by father and mother too; for such are most dear to one another. See Gen 43:29 Deu 13:6 . Heb. sucking the breasts , &c.; so she wisheth that he were as a little sucking brother, with whom she might innocently and inoffensively delight herself, as sister: do with such a brother. The church here expresseth her passionate desire of a stricter union and closer communion with Christ than yet she had attained. And in particular these may be the breathings of the ancient Jewish church after Christ’ s incarnation, whereby he was to be their brother, Rom 8:29 Heb 2:11,12 , and a sucking infant.

Without in the open streets; I might then express my affections to thee, and kiss thee openly, without any scandal or contempt. Or, without , i.e. come forth from the Father’ s bosom into the world, Joh 16:28 .

I would kiss thee I would demonstrate my reverence, and subjection, and affection to thee, of all which kissing was a token in those times and places, as hath been oft observed in divers foregoing texts.

Yet I should not be despised then should I not be ashamed or censured, as if I had done an indecent or immodest action, because such expressions of love are usual amongst persons so nearly and dearly related.

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 8 (Chapter Introduction)

(Son 8:1-4) Desire for communion with Christ.

(Son 8:5-7) The vehemence of this desire.

(Son 8:8-12) The church pleads for others.

(Son 8:13, Son 8:14) And prays for Christ's coming.

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 8 (Chapter Introduction)

The affections between Christ and his spouse are as strong and lively here, in this closing chapter of the song, as ever, and rather more so. I. The spouse continues her importunity for a more intimate communion and fellowship with him (Son 8:1-3). II. She charges the daughters of Jerusalem not to interrupt her communion with her beloved (Son 8:4); and they, thereupon, admire her dependence on him (Son 8:5). III. She begs of her beloved, whom she raises up by her prayers (Son 8:5), that he would by his grace confirm that blessed union with him to which she was admitted (Son 8:6, Son 8:7). IV. She makes intercession for others also, that care might be taken of them (Son 8:8, Son 8:9), and pleases herself with the thoughts of her own interest in Christ and his affection to her (Son 8:10). V. She owns herself his tenant for a vineyard she held of him at Baal-hamon (Son 8:11, Son 8:12). VI. The song concludes with an interchanging of parting requests. Christ charges his spouse that she should often let him hear from her (Son 8:13), and she begs of him that he would hasten his return to her (Son 8:14).

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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Bullock, C. Hassell. An Introduction to the Poetic Books of the Old Testament. Chicago: Moody Press, 1979.

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.

_____. "The Old Testament Love Songs and Their Use in the New Testament." Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 24:2 (June 1981):97-105.

_____. The Song of Solomon. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries series. Leicester, Eng., and Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1984.

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Constable, Thomas L. "Analysis of Bible Books--Old Testament." Paper submitted for course 685 Analysis of Bible Books--Old Testament. Dallas Theological Seminary, January 1967.

Crenshaw, James. Old Testament Wisdom. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1981.

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Deere, Jack S. "Song of Songs." In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, pp. 1009-25. Edited by John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck. Wheaton: Scripture Press Publications, Victor Books, 1985.

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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 8 (Chapter Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO SONG OF SOLOMON 8

This chapter begins with an ardent wish of the church for a free and intimate converse with Christ; declaring what she would do to him, and for him, should she have such an interview with him, Son 8:1; what familiarity should be between them, Son 8:3; charging the daughters of Jerusalem not to give him any disturbance, Son 8:4. Upon which they inquire who she was that was in such a posture they saw her in, Son 8:5; when the church, instead of giving them an answer, says some things concerning her beloved, on whom they saw her leaning; and makes some requests to him for more nearness to him, and manifestations of his love to her; urged from the strength her love and affections to him, which was invincible, Son 8:6. Next follows a speech of the church about her little sister; expressing a concern for her, and what she would do to her and with her, Son 8:8; and the answer of the little sister, declaring what she, was, and what she enjoyed, Son 8:10; then the words of the church again, concerning her husband's vineyard; the place, keepers, and profit of it, Son 8:11. And the chapter, and with it the Song, is concluded with a request of Christ to the church, that he might hear her voice, Son 8:13; and with a petition of hers to him, that he would come quickly to her, Son 8:14.