shepherds' tents--ministers in the sanctuary ([Psa 84:1]).
9. horses in Pharaoh's chariots--celebrated for beauty, swiftness, and ardor, at the Red Sea ([Ex 14:15]). These qualities, which seem to belong to the ungodly, really belong to the saints [Moody Stuart]. The allusion may be to the horses brought at a high price by Solomon out of Egypt ([2Ch 1:16], ). So the bride is redeemed out of spiritual Egypt by the true Solomon, at an infinite price ([Is 51:1]; [1Pe 1:18], ). But the deliverance from Pharaoh at the Red Sea accords with the allusion to the tabernacle ([So 1:5]; , ); it rightly is put at the beginning of the Church's call. The ardor and beauty of the bride are the point of comparison; ([So 1:4]) "run"; ([So 1:5]) "comely." Also, like Pharaoh's horses, she forms a great company ([Re 19:7], ). As Jesus Christ is both Shepherd and Conqueror, so believers are not only His sheep, but also, as a Church militant now, His chariots and horses ([So 6:4]).
10. rows of jewels--([Eze 16:11-13]). Olerius says, Persian ladies wear two or three rows of pearls round the head, beginning on the forehead and descending down to the cheeks and under the chin, so that their faces seem to be set in pearls ([Eze 16:11]). The comparison of the horses ([So 1:9]) implies the vital energy of the bride; this verse, her superadded graces ([Pr 1:9]; ; [1Ti 2:9]; [2Pe 1:5]).
11. We--the Trinity implied by the Holy Ghost, whether it was so by the writer of the Song or not ([Ge 1:26]; [Pr 8:30]; ). "The Jews acknowledged God as king, and Messiah as king, in interpreting the Song, but did not know that these two are one" [Leighton].
make--not merely give ([Ep 2:10]).
borders of gold, with studs of silver--that is, "spots of silver"--Jesus Christ delights to give more "to him that hath" ([Mt 25:29]). He crowns His own work in us ([Is 26:12]). The "borders" here are equivalent to "rows" ([So 1:10]); but here, the King seems to give the finish to her attire, by adding a crown (borders, or circles) of gold studded with silver spots, as in [Es 2:17]. Both the royal and nuptial crown, or chaplet. The Hebrew for "spouse" ([So 4:8]) is a crowned one ([Eze 16:12]; [Re 2:10]). The crown is given at once upon conversion, in title, but in sensible possession afterwards ([2Ti 4:8]).
12. While--It is the presence of the Sun of Righteousness that draws out the believer's odors of grace. It was the sight of Him at table that caused the two women to bring forth their ointments for Him ([Lu 7:37], ; [Joh 12:3]; [2Co 2:15]). Historically fulfilled ([Mt 2:11]); spiritually ([Re 3:20]); and in church worship ([Mt 18:20]); and at the Lord's Supper especially, for here public communion with Him at table amidst His friends is spoken of, as [So 1:4] refers to private communion ([1Co 10:16], ); typically ([Ex 24:9-11]); the future perfect fulfilment ([Lu 22:30]; [Re 19:9]). The allegory supposes the King to have stopped in His movements and to be seated with His friends on the divan. What grace that a table should be prepared for us, while still militant ([Psa 23:5])!
my spikenard--not boasting, but owning the Lord's grace to and in her. The spikenard is a lowly herb, the emblem of humility. She rejoices that He is well pleased with her graces, His own work ([Php 4:18]).
13. bundle of myrrh--abundant preciousness (Greek), ([1Pe 2:7]). Even a little myrrh was costly; much more a bundle ([Col 2:9]). Burrowes takes it of a scent-box filled with liquid myrrh; the liquid obtained by incision gave the tree its chief value.
he--rather, "it"; it is the myrrh that lies in the bosom, as the cluster of camphire is in the vineyards ([So 1:14]).
all night--an undivided heart ([Ep 3:17]; contrast [Jr 4:14]; [Eze 16:15], ). Yet on account of the everlasting covenant, God restores the adulteress ([Eze 16:60], ; [Ho 2:2], &c.). The night is the whole present dispensation till the everlasting day dawns ([Ro 13:12]). Also, literally, "night" ([Psa 119:147], ), the night of affliction ([Psa 42:8]).
14. cluster--Jesus Christ is one, yet manifold in His graces.
camphire--or, "cypress." The "hennah" is meant, whose odorous flowers grow in clusters, of a color white and yellow softly blended; its bark is dark, the foliage light green. Women deck their persons with them. The loveliness of Jesus Christ.
vineyards--appropriate in respect to Him who is "the vine." The spikenard was for the banquet ([So 1:12]); the myrrh was in her bosom continually ([So 1:13]); the camphire is in the midst of natural beauties, which, though lovely, are eclipsed by the one cluster, Jesus Christ, pre-eminent above them all.
En-gedi--in South Palestine, near the Dead Sea ([Jos 15:62]; [Eze 47:10]), famed for aromatic shrubs.
15. fair--He discerns beauty in her, who had said, "I am black" ([So 1:5]), because of the everlasting covenant ([Psa 45:11]; [Is 62:5]; [Ep 1:4],).
doves' eyes--large and beautiful in the doves of Syria. The prominent features of her beauty ([Mt 10:16]), gentleness, innocence, and constant love, emblem of the Holy Ghost, who changes us to His own likeness ([Ge 8:10], ; [Mt 3:16]). The opposite kind of eyes ([Psa 101:5]; [Mt 20:15]; [2Pe 2:14]).
16. Reply of the Bride. She presumes to call Him beloved, because He called her so first. Thou callest me "fair"; if I am so, it is not in myself; it is all from Thee ([Psa 90:17]); but Thou art fair in Thyself ([Psa 45:2]).
pleasant--([Pr 3:17]) towards Thy friends ([2Sa 1:26]).
bed ... green--the couch of green grass on which the King and His bride sit to "rest at noon." Thus her prayer in [So 1:7] is here granted; a green oasis in the desert, always found near waters in the East ([Psa 23:2]; [Is 41:17-19]). The scene is a kiosk, or summer house. Historically, the literal resting of the Babe of Beth-lehem and his parents on the green grass provided for cattle ([Lu 2:7], ). In this verse there is an incidental allusion, in [So 1:15], to the offering ([Lu 2:24]). So the "cedar and fir" ceiling refers to the temple (1Ki 5:6-10; 6:); type of the heavenly temple ([Re 21:22]).
17. our house--see on [So 1:16]; but primarily, the kiosk ([Is 11:10]), "His rest." Cedar is pleasing to the eye and smell, hard, and never eaten by worms.
fir--rather, "cypress," which is hard, durable, and fragrant, of a reddish hue [Gesenius, Weiss, and Maurer]. Contrasted with the shifting "tents" ([So 1:5]), His house is "our house" ([Psa 92:13]; [Ep 2:19]; [He 3:6]). Perfect oneness of Him and the bride ([Joh 14:20]; ). There is the shelter of a princely roof from the sun ([Psa 121:6]), without the confinement of walls, and amidst rural beauties. The carved ceiling represents the wondrous excellencies of His divine nature.
Chapter 2
[So 2:1-17].
1. rose--if applied to Jesus Christ, it, with the white lily (lowly, [2Co 8:9]), answers to "white and ruddy" ([So 5:10]). But it is rather the meadow-saffron: the Hebrew means radically a plant with a pungent bulb, inapplicable to the rose. So Syriac. It is of a white and violet color [Maurer, Gesenius, and Weiss]. The bride thus speaks of herself as lowly though lovely, in contrast with the lordly "apple" or citron tree, the bridegroom ([So 2:3]); so the "lily" is applied to her ([So 2:2]),
Sharon--([Is 35:1], 2). In North Palestine, between Mount Tabor and Lake Tiberias ([1Ch 5:16]). Septuagint and Vulgate translate it, "a plain"; though they err in this, the Hebrew Bible not elsewhere favoring it, yet the parallelism to valleys shows that, in the proper name Sharon, there is here a tacit reference to its meaning of lowliness. Beauty, delicacy, and lowliness, are to be in her, as they were in Him ([Mt 11:29]).
2. Jesus Christ to the Bride ([Mt 10:16]; [Joh 15:19]; [1Jo 5:19]). Thorns, equivalent to the wicked ([2Sa 23:6]; [Psa 57:4]).
daughters--of men, not of God; not "the virgins." "If thou art the lily of Jesus Christ, take heed lest by impatience, rash judgments, and pride, thou thyself become a thorn" [Luther].
3. Her reply. apple--generic including the golden citron, pomegranate, and orange apple ([Pr 25:11]). He combines the shadow and fragrance of the citron with the sweetness of the orange and pomegranate fruit. The foliage is perpetual; throughout the year a succession of blossoms, fruit, and perfume ([Jas 1:17]).
among the sons--parallel to "among the daughters" ([So 2:2]). He alone is ever fruitful among the fruitless wild trees ([Psa 89:6]; [He 1:9]).
I sat ... with ... delight--literally, "I eagerly desired and sat" ([Psa 94:19]; [Mr 6:31]; [Ep 2:6]; [1Pe 1:8]).
shadow--([Psa 121:5]; [Is 4:6]; ; ). Jesus Christ interposes the shadow of His cross between the blazing rays of justice and us sinners.
fruit--Faith plucks it ([Pr 3:18]). Man lost the tree of life ([Ge 3:22], ). Jesus Christ regained it for him; he eats it partly now ([Psa 119:103]; [Joh 6:55], ; [1Pe 2:3]); fully hereafter ([Re 2:7]; 22:2, 14); not earned by the sweat of his brow, or by his righteousness ([Ro 10:1-21]). Contrast the worldling's fruit ([De 32:32]; [Lu 15:16]).
4. Historically fulfilled in the joy of Simeon and Anna in the temple, over the infant Saviour ([Lu 2:25-38]), and that of Mary, too (compare [Lu 1:53]); typified ([Ex 24:9-11]). Spiritually, the bride or beloved is led ([So 2:4]) first into the King's chambers, thence is drawn after Him in answer to her prayer; is next received on a grassy couch under a cedar kiosk; and at last in a "banqueting hall," such as, Josephus says, Solomon had in his palace, "wherein all the vessels were of gold" (Antiquities, 8:5,2). The transition is from holy retirement to public ordinances, church worship, and the Lord's Supper ([Psa 36:8]). The bride, as the queen of Sheba, is given "all her desire" ([1Ki 10:13]; [Psa 63:5]; [Ep 3:8], ; [Php 4:19]); type of the heavenly feast hereafter ([Is 25:6], ).
his banner ... love--After having rescued us from the enemy, our victorious captain ([He 2:10]) seats us at the banquet under a banner inscribed with His name, "love" ([1Jo 4:8]). His love conquered us to Himself; this banner rallies round us the forces of Omnipotence, as our protection; it marks to what country we belong, heaven, the abode of love, and in what we most glory, the cross of Jesus Christ, through which we triumph ([Ro 8:37]; [1Co 15:57]; [Re 3:21]). Compare with "over me," "underneath are the everlasting arms" ([De 33:27]).
5. flagons--Maurer prefers translating, "dried raisin cakes"; from the Hebrew root "fire," namely, dried by heat. But the "house of wine" ([So 2:4], Margin) favors "flagons"; the "new wine" of the kingdom, the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
apples--from the tree ([So 2:3]), so sweet to her, the promises of God.
sick of love--the highest degree of sensible enjoyment that can be attained here. It may be at an early or late stage of experience. Paul ([2Co 12:7]). In the last sickness of J. Welch, he was overheard saying, "Lord, hold thine hand, it is enough; thy servant is a clay vessel, and can hold no more" [Fleming, Fulfilling of the Scriptures]. In most cases this intensity of joy is reserved for the heavenly banquet. Historically, Israel had it, when the Lord's glory filled the tabernacle, and afterwards the temple, so that the priests could not stand to minister: so in the Christian Church on Pentecost. The bride addresses Christ mainly, though in her rapture she uses the plural, "Stay (ye) me," speaking generally. So far from asking the withdrawal of the manifestations which had overpowered her, she asks for more: so "fainteth for" ([Psa 84:2]): also Peter, on the mount of transfiguration ([Lu 9:33]), "Let us make ... not knowing what he said."
6. The "stay" she prayed for ([So 2:5]) is granted ([De 33:12], ; [Psa 37:24]; [Is 41:16]). None can pluck from that embrace ([Joh 10:28-30]). His hand keeps us from falling ([Mt 14:30], ); to it we may commit ourselves ([Psa 31:5]).
left hand--the left is the inferior hand, by which the Lord less signally manifests His love, than by the right; the secret hand of ordinary providence, as distinguished from that of manifested grace (the "right"). They really go together, though sometimes they seem divided; here both are felt at once. Theodoret takes the left hand, equivalent to judgment and wrath; the right, equivalent to honor and love. The hand of justice no longer is lifted to smite, but is under the head of the believer to support ([Is 42:21]); the hand of Jesus Christ pierced by justice for our sin supports us. The charge not to disturb the beloved occurs thrice: but the sentiment here, "His left hand," &c., nowhere else fully; which accords with the intensity of joy ([So 2:5]) found nowhere else; in [So 8:3], it is only conditional, "should embrace," not "doth."
7. by the roes--not an oath but a solemn charge, to act as cautiously as the hunter would with the wild roes, which are proverbially timorous; he must advance with breathless circumspection, if he is to take them; so he who would not lose Jesus Christ and His Spirit, which is easily grieved and withdrawn, must be tender of conscience and watchful ([Eze 16:43]; [Ep 4:30]; ; [1Th 5:19]). In Margin, title of [Psa 22:1], Jesus Christ is called the "Hind of the morning," hunted to death by the dogs (compare [So 2:8], , where He is represented as bounding on the hills, [Psa 18:33]). Here He is resting, but with a repose easily broken ([Zep 3:17]). It is thought a gross rudeness in the East to awaken one sleeping, especially a person of rank.
my love--in Hebrew, feminine for masculine, the abstract for concrete, Jesus Christ being the embodiment of love itself ([So 3:5]; ), where, as here, the context requires it to be applied to Him, not her. She too is "love" ([So 7:6]), for His love calls forth her love. Presumption in the convert is as grieving to the Spirit as despair. The lovingness and pleasantness of the hind and roe ([Pr 5:19]) is included in this image of Jesus Christ.
Canticle II.--([So 2:8-3:5])--John the Baptist's Ministry.
8. voice--an exclamation of joyful surprise, evidently after a long silence. The restlessness of sin and fickleness in her had disturbed His rest with her, which she had professed not to wish disturbed "till He should please." He left her, but in sovereign grace unexpectedly heralds His return. She awakes, and at once recognizes His voice ([1Sa 3:9], ; [Joh 10:4]); her sleep is not so sinfully deep as in [So 5:2].
leaping--bounding, as the roe does, over the roughest obstacles ([2Sa 2:18]; [1Ch 12:8]); as the father of the prodigal "had compassion and ran" ([Lu 15:20]).