10. The Gentile Church's joy at its free admission to gospel privileges ([Ac 15:30], ). 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 ([Ep 2:11-22]).
breasts ... towers--alluding to the silver palace, which the bridal virgins proposed to build on her ([So 8:9]). "Breasts" of consolation ([Is 66:11]); faith and love ([1Th 5:8]); opposed to her previous state, "no breasts" ([So 8:8]; [2Th 1:3]). Thus [Eze 16:46], was fulfilled, both Samaria and the Gentiles being joined to the Jewish gospel Church.
favour--rather, "peace." The Gentile Church too is become the Shulamite ([So 6:13]), or peace-enjoying bride of Solomon, that is, Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace ([Ro 5:1]; [Ep 2:14]). Reject not those whom God accepts ([Nu 11:28]; [Lu 9:49]; [Ac 15:8], ). Rather, superadd to such every aid and privilege ([So 8:9]).
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 ([Mt 21:33-43]).
Baal-hamon--equivalent to the owner of a multitude; so Israel in Solomon's day ([1Ki 4:20]); so [Is 5:1], "a very fruitful hill" abounding in privileges, as in numbers.
thousand pieces--namely, silverlings, or shekels. The vineyard had a thousand vines probably; a vine at a silverling ([Is 7:23]), referring to this passage.
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 ([Ro 8:2-4]; [1Co 6:20]; [Ga 5:13]; [1Pe 2:16]), after having paid what justice and His will require should be paid to others (1Co 7:29-31; 9:14). "Before me" may also mean "I will never lose sight of it" (contrast [So 1:6]) [Moody Stuart]. She will not keep it for herself, though so freely given to her, but for His use and glory ([Lu 19:13]; [Ro 6:15]; [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 ([Ga 6:7]; [He 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]).
13. Jesus Christ's address to her; now no longer visibly present. Once she "had not kept" her vineyard ([So 1:6]); now she "dwells" in it, not as its owner, but its superintendent under Jesus Christ, with vinedressers ("companions"), for example, Paul, &c. ([Ac 15:25], ), under her ([So 8:11], ); 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 ([So 2:14], end; [Ac 6:4]; , ).
14. (See on [So 2:17]). As she began with longing for His first coming ([So 1:2]), so she ends with praying for His second coming ([Psa 130:6]; [Php 3:20], ; [Re 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 ([So 2:17]), God's justice dividing us from God. (2) Those "of leopards" ([So 4:8]), sin, the world, and Satan. (3) That "of myrrh and aloes" ([So 4:6], ), the sepulchre of Calvary. (4) Those "of spices," here answering to "the hill of frankincense" ([So 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 ([He 4:14], ; [Re 8:3], ); 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]).