Song of Solomon 3

1. By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth : I sought him, but I found him not. 2 I said, I will rise now, and go about the city, In the streets and in the broad ways, I will seek him whom my soul loveth : I sought him, but I found him not. 3 The watchmen that go about the city found me : To whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth ? 4 It was but a little that I passed from them, When I found him whom my soul loveth : I held him, and would not let him go, Until I had brought him into my mother’s house, And into the chamber of her that conceived me. 5 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, By the roes, and by the hinds of the field, That ye stir not up, nor awaken love, Until it please.

6. Who is this that cometh up out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, With all powders of the merchant ? 7 Behold, it is the litter of Solomon ; Threescore mighty men are about it, Of the mighty men of Israel. 8 They all handle the sword, and are expert in war : Every man hath his sword upon his thigh, Because of fear in the night. 9 King Solomon made himself a palanquin Of the wood of Lebanon. 10 He made the pillars thereof of silver, The bottom thereof of gold, the seat of it of purple, The midst thereof being paved with love, From the daughters of Jerusalem. 11 Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon, With the crown wherewith his mother hath crowned him in the day of his espousals, And in the day of the gladness of his heart.

1-5. THE evening has come; the beloved has not made his appearance. Night reigns around the Shulamite, and in her heart. The scene which follows is entirely imaginary. It will appear but natural, if we remember that it is in an ecstasy or trance which the writer is describing. Godet.

The Bride’s First Dream.

Continuing her monologue of reminiscence, the bride relates to the chorus what appears to be an imaginary occurrence transacted in a dream (like that of 5:2-8). She is on her bed at dead of night, and seems to be seeking him “whom her soul loveth.” She traverses the city seeking him, and after meeting and obtaining no help from the watchmen, suddenly finds the object of her search, and brings him to her mother’s house and chamber. This short piece, which might be called “The unrest of love,” appears to consist of four stanzas (vs. 1-4), of which the first (v. 1), and second (v. 2), conclude with the refrain, “I sought him, but I found him not;” it is followed by the adjuration to the chorus (v. 5). Critics of principles the most opposed (Mercier, Ewald, Delitzsch) find here (as at 5:2-8) the narration of a dream, and certainly a dream-like tone pervades the whole.

4. I held him. This begins the fourth stanza. The bride’s mother is mentioned again at chaps. 6:9 and 8:2. 5. I charge you. This adjuration has the same meaning as before (see 2:7). It marks another principal pause in the poems.

Principal and central action of the Song, the bride’s entry into the city of David, and her marriage there with the king. The Targum and other Jewish interpreters regard this part of the poem as symbolizing the “first” entrance of the Church of the Old Testament into the land of promise, and her spiritual espousals, and communion with the King of kings, through the erection of Solomon’s temple and the institution of its acceptable worship. Christian Fathers, in a like spirit, make most things here refer to the espousals of the Church with Christ in the passion and resurrection, or the communion of Christian souls with Him in meditation thereon.

Bridal Procession and Royal Entry. Vs. 6-11.

Two or more citizens of Jerusalem, or the chorus of youths, companions of the bridegroom (Origen), describe the magnificent appearance of the bride borne in a royal litter, and then that of the king in festive joy wearing a nuptial crown.

6. Who is this; or, “Who is she?” (as at 6:10), an expression of admiration repeated also in chap. 8:5. In all three places it indicates the approach of the bride and the commencement of a new part of the Song. Out of the wilderness; or rather, up from, “Wilderness” here (Hebrew, “midbar”) is not an arid waste, but champaign or pasture-land, in contrast with the cultivated districts and garden enclosures round the city. T. L. K.

Like pillars of smoke. It is customary at Eastern marriages for virgins to lead the procession with silver gilt pots of perfumes. In the present instance so liberally were these rich perfumes burned, that at a distance pillars of smoke arose from them; and the perfume was so rich as to exceed in value and fragrancy all the powders of the merchant. Burder.—Frankincense and other perfumes are burned in such abundance round the bridal equipage that the whole procession appears from the distance to be one of moving wreaths and columns of smoke.

7. Probably the royal litter or palanquin in which the bride is borne, provided for her by the king’s care and affection, and surrounded by his own body-guard consisting of sixty mighties of the mighty men of Israel.

8. Because of fear in the night. Against night alarms. The king’s affection is expressed not only by the state in which the bride is conducted to the palace, but also by his solicitude for her ease and safety on the journey.

9-10. A more magnificent vehicle provided for the bride’s reception on her entrance into the city, in which perhaps the king goes forth to meet her. It has been made under Solomon’s direction of the costliest woods of the Lebanon; it is furnished with “pillars of silver” supporting a “canopy” (not “bottom”) “of gold,” with “a seat of purple cushions,” while “its interior is paved with (mosaic work or tapestry of) love from the daughters of Jerusalem;” the meaning being that this part of the adornment is a gift of love whereby the female chorus have testified their good-will to the bride, and desire to gratify the king. T. L. K.—Such of our readers as visited the “Crystal Palace” will at once call to mind the gorgeous howdahs and palanquins, rich in ivory, gold, and silver, which he saw in the Indian court, and which had been presented by an Eastern prince to the queen. Kitto.

11. Wherewith his mother crowned him. The king’s mother is, of course, Bathsheba, to whom he already owes the crown of his kingdom. This is the last mention of her in sacred history. The gladness of his heart. His deepest, purest gladness, greater than “the joy of harvest,” or than that of men “who divide the spoil” (Isa. 9:3), “the joy of the bridegroom over the bride” (Isa. 62:5). The same expression recurs in Isa. 30:29 and Ezek. 36:5.

This last verse, and indeed the whole of this part of the Song (3:6-5:1), is full of difficulty for those interpreters who adopt the hypothesis of the shepherd-lover. Compare the different and contradictory interpretations of Ewald, Umbreit, Renan, Bunsen, Holtzmann, and Ginsburg. Hitzig boldly cuts the knot, allowing indeed the whole to be (what it evidently is) a royal marriage, in which Solomon is throughout the happy and accepted bridegroom, but is thereby compelled to regard it as an episode only loosely connected with the main subject of the poem. T. L. K.