Song of Solomon 4
Butler1. BEHOLD, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair;
Thine eyes are as doves behind thy veil:
Thy hair is as a flock of goats,
That lie along the side of mount Gilead.
2. Thy teeth are like a flock of ewes that are newly shorn,
Which are come up from the washing;
Whereof every one hath twins,
And none is bereaved among them.
3. Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet,
And thy mouth is comely:
Thy temples are like a piece of a pomegran- ate
Behind thy veil.
4. Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an armoury,
Whereon there hang a thousand bucklers,
All the shields of the mighty men.
5. Thy two breasts are like two fawns that are twins of a roe,
Which feed among the lilies.
6. Until the day be cool, and the shadows flee away,
I will get me to the mountain of myrrh,
And to the hill of frankincense.
7. Thou art all fair, my love;
And there is no spot in thee.
8. Come with me from Lebanon, my bride,
With me from Lebanon:
Look from the top of Amana,
From the top of Senir and Hermon,
From the lions’ dens,
From the mountains of the leopards.
9. Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my bride;
Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes,
With one chain of thy neck.
10. How fair is thy love, my sister, my bride!
How much better is thy love than wine!
And the smell of thine ointments than all manner of spices!
11. Thy lips, O my bride, drop as the honeycomb:
Honey and milk are under thy tongue;
And the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.
12. A garden shut up is my sister, my bride;
A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
13. Thy shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits;
Henna with spikenard plants,
14. Spikenard and saffron,
Calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense;
Myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices.
15. Thou art a fountain of gardens,
A well of living waters,
And flowing streams from Lebanon.
16. Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south;
Blow upon my garden, that the spices there- of may flow out.
Let my beloved come into his garden,
And eat his precious fruits.
5: 1 I am come into my garden, my sister, my bride:
I have gathered my myrrh with my spice;
I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;
I have drunk my wine with my milk.
Eat, O friends;
Drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.
1-16. In the current strain of the Song the respective parties extol each other’s charms as if in a pleasing rivalry, laboring each to outdo the other in these mutual testimonies to their high appreciation of each other. The reader will be struck with the Oriental and pastoral cast of the imagery under which these points of personal beauty are set before us. Shepherd life furnishes a large share of the illustrations. The standard of what is deemed fair and beau- tiful is that of the children of the East in those early ages of our race. H. C.
The Bridegroom’s Commendation of the Bride. Vs. 1-6.
The king in a lyric song of five stanzas com- mends the beauty of the bride by images taken from various scenes and objects in different parts of his kingdom (vs. 1-5). The bride brief- ly answers (v. 6). T. L. K.
1,2. Here, as in chap. 1: 15, the sense of the Hebrew is precisely: “Thine eyes are doves;” not, Thou hast eyes like a dove. The poetic conception is full and strong. The dove is the embodiment of whatever is tender, delicate, loving; so her eyes were best described by the one word, doves. A charming sight to the shepherd was his flock of goats, seeming to hang suspended from the beetling crags of Mount Gilead; such was the hair of the bride. So, too, the perfectly pastoral scene of a flock of ewes, fresh from their washing, with each her twins attending like a setting of jewels; such were her teeth. Utility is one element of beauty. A barren ewe would be a deformity and a grief—a thing out of order and in bad taste. H. C.
1. The hair of the Eastern goats is of a delicate silky softness, and bears a great resemblance to the fine curls of a woman’s hair. Bochart.—Some of them had a fleece so fine that it was almost as soft as silk, such as was that spun by the women for the use of the tabernacle (Ex. 35:26). To this hair allusion seems here to be made in respect to its softness, as well as length and thickness. Bishop Patrick.—2. By this comparison are admirably expressed the evenness, whiteness, just proportions, and unbroken series of the set of teeth.
—3. Lips like a thread of scarlet—that is, thin and slender, and of a bright red color, giving sweetness and grace to the discourse. Her neck, tall and slender, erect, moulded according to the most elegant proportions and adorned with gold and jewels, is happily compared with a tower of well-known elegance and distinction in the citadel of Zion, adorned with every variety of splendid armory. Bishop Lowth.
5. The reader will bear in mind that in Oriental usage the bosom was uncovered equally with the neck, and hence it was no offence against modesty and delicacy to speak of it as we would speak of the cheeks or of the eyes. The veil covered the bosom equally with the face—no more. H. C.
6. The bride, repeating some of her own words at chap. 2:17, and modestly interrupting the flow of the king’s commendations (compare 7:9), says that she would now fain withdraw till eventide “to the mount of myrrh and hill of frankincense,” some quiet spot, it may be, in the garden of the palace which is the scene of their present meeting (Delitzsch). The dialogue is resumed in the evening (v. 7) of the same day. T. L. K.
No one, certainly, will question the beauty of this passage from the sacred idyl. It greets us with the freshness of morning-land upon it. Spice-winds and balm imbue the words. The tremulous shafts of the Eastern dawn are hardly more clear and pure from taint than are these lines from the touch of artificial or meretricious ornament. No passage of the earlier poetry of any land breathes a sweeter aroma of nature throughout it; and none more deftly, with an intuitive grace that outruns art and mocks imitation, selects the most picturesque forms and types to set forth its object. The poet must always accept it as a triumph not of practice, but of genius; not of artifice, but of nature, in his domain; while the Christian believer, finding in it the devout ascription to the Lord of love for His Church, which He was wont to meet for communion on the summits of Jerusalem, the very “mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense,” will recognize the spiritual meaning which consecrates it, and will admire the wisdom which has preserved it for us. The Church walks here an Eastern maiden, pure as the morning, serene as evening, beloved with more than lover’s tenderness by Him who is her Lord, with no spot on her, all fair and noble. And it belongs to us, to all who honor and love the Church, to make her now what he foresaw her, who wrote of her before Christ came. R. S. S.
The King’s Invitation. Chaps. 4:7-5:1.
The king again meeting the bride expresses once more his love and admiration in the sweetest and tenderest terms and figures. She is for him “all fair” (v. 7) in her spotless purity. He calls her now (v. 8) “bride” for the first time, to mark it as the hour of their espousals, and “sister-bride” (vs. 9, 10) to express the likeness of thought and feeling which henceforth unites them.
8. The right understanding of the whole Song appears to depend on the interpretation of this one verse. The order and collocation of words in the Hebrew is grand and significant. With me from Lebanon, O bride, with me from Lebanon thou shalt come, shalt look around (or wander forth) from the height (literally, “head”) of Amana, from the height of Shenir and Hermon, from dens of lions, from mountain-haunts of leopards. It is evidently a solemn invitation from the king in the sense assigned by Theodoret and others, comparing Psalm 45:10, 11, “Forget thy people and thy father’s house, so shall the king desire thy beauty.” Four peaks in the same mountain-system are here named as a poetical periphrasis for Northern Palestine, the region in which is situated the native home of the bride.
9-11. Expansion of the opening words (v.
7), “thou art all fair.” The similes employed refer no longer to mere graces of corporeal form, as might be said of the former description (vs. 1-5), but to those of adornment, speech and gesture, as expressions of inward character and sentiment.
12-15. The loveliness and purity of the bride are now set forth under the image of a paradise or garden fast barred against intruders, filled with rarest plants of excellent fragrance, and watered by abundant streams. Prov. 5: 15-20 has images similar to those in this and other parts of the Song. T. L. K.—A garden whose fruits and even its odors were sacred for its proprietor alone; a fountain sealed, yielding its waters to him only, such was his beloved spouse, chaste and true to her vows, to the covenant of her God. So the living Church, so every true Christian, yields the heart’s love to Christ supremely, to Christ alone. Naturally the Song at this point expatiates afresh upon the charms of such wedded love. The main source of the imagery is an Oriental fruit and flower garden, filled with the fragrant spice-bearing plants of the East. H. C.
13,14,15. Seven kinds of spices (some of them with Indian names, e.g., aloes, spikenard, saffron) are enumerated as found in this symbolic garden. They are for the most part pure exotics which have formed for countless ages articles of commerce in the East, and were brought at that time in Solomon’s ships from Southern Arabia, the great Indian peninsula, and perhaps the islands of the Indian archipelago. Such exotics may have been cultivated by Solomon in some of his “pardesim,” but the picture here is best regarded as a purely ideal one, having no corresponding reality but in the bride herself. The beauties and attractions of both north and south, of Lebanon with its streams of sparkling water and fresh mountain-air, of En-gedi with its tropical climate and henna plantations, of the spice-groves of Arabia Felix, and of the rarest products of the distant mysterious Ophir, must all combine to furnish out one glorious representation, “Thou art all fair!” T. L. K.
15. A living fountain bursting forth at the foot of the garden; a well-spring of cold flowing waters like those from the sides of Lebanon, fill out the ideal of this paradise of spicery and beauty, which means simply the charms of person and of character seen by the king in his bride. Let it be a perpetual inspiration toward more holiness that our Saviour finds an object of complacent regard in every grateful emotion of our souls toward Him; in every thought and deed of love and service; in all our homage, in all our sympathy, in all our trust. At this point and in this view the prayer of the bride in the closing verse is beautifully significant. H. C.
16. Awake, O north wind. The bride’s brief reply, declaring her affection for the king and willingness to belong to him. My garden in the first clause becomes his in the second. T. L. K.—As the breezes draw forth and waft along the sweet odors of a garden of spices, so God’s Spirit stirs the emotions of love, calls forth the aspirations of faith, of prayer, of gratitude; indeed, of all holy affections and purposes. H. C.
This is the prayer of the Church, “Oh, let not then the inspirations of the Holy Spirit and His manifold gifts be wanting unto me; but breathe perpetually upon me, as the north and the south wind do upon this garden; then shall I be a paradise indeed; and not only fill the world with the sweet odor of the knowledge of Christ, but take the boldness to invite Him, the beloved of my soul, to come and reap the delightful fruits of His own care and labor.” Bishop Patrick.
Precious fruits. The soul that has the life and the love of Christ in it cannot help producing fruit. It does so not by an outward, arbitrary law, but by the sweet inward, vital law of life and growth. And therefore it is that the free, unconstrained outpourings of the heart in a godly life—the natural, spontaneous, practical responses of the love of believers to the love of Christ—are more frequently in the New Testament called fruits than works. “Let my beloved come into His garden and eat His pleasant fruits.” Fruitfulness is the peculiar distinction and glory of Christ’s disciples. It is the result toward which all their efforts tend—the ultimate and highest object of their existence. They are united to Christ, quickened by His Spirit, enjoy all the means and privileges of grace, the dew of Divine love, the sunshine of Divine righteousness, the showers and breezes of Divine mercy, in order that they may bring forth fruit; and that more and more abundantly. We are to clothe the spiritual life of the Gospel—the precepts, the examples, the atoning death, the justifying righteousness of Christ, with an outward conduct becoming its purity and dignity. We are to embody the spiritualities of the unseen life in forms of daily life and conversation, such as will worthily represent their glory and grace. A beautiful character impresses itself upon the very features of the body, so that, looking upon the lines of the countenance, we can read the soul within, and are attracted to admire and love it; and thus should the life of faith within—the reflex loveliness of Christ’s character in the soul—exhibit itself in the homely garb of our outward every-day life, in order that those who cannot see the seal of the Spirit—the inward evidence of the doctrine of Christ, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it—may see its outward luminous sign in a living epistle, known and read of all men. Every Christian’s life should be like the opal, exhibiting its pure transparency, the beautiful hues of grace; or like a prism, refracting the clear bright light of heaven into a seven-colored spectrum of honesty, truthfulness, purity, kindliness, meekness, heavenliness, usefulness. Macmillan.
Chap. 5:1. My sister, my bride. So the king addresses the bride (my sister-bride) for the last time, declaring his supreme satisfaction and love.
Eat, O friends. These last words are best understood as a salutation from the king to his assembled guests, bidding them partake at the banquet in the gladness of his heart. A parallel might be found in Psalm 22:26, where Messiah at the close of His sufferings salutes his friends, the poor, and as they eat at His table gives them His royal blessing. So ends this day of outward festivity and supreme heart-joy. The Song of Songs attains its highest elevation, and its former half is fitly closed. The second half of the poem commences (v. 2) with a change of tone and reaction of feeling similar to that of chap. 3:1. It terminates with the sealing (8:6,7) of yet deeper love. T. L. K.
Note on vs. 2-5. It is doubtless due to Oriental taste that so much is said of personal attractions, and that such a standard of personal beauty is assumed. But there is no disputing over questions of taste. The love of beauty was in our common nature in Paradise. Our Maker provided a large place for this element in our constitution, wisely designing it should conduce both to honorable marriage, and to its ministries of good to our race. It should be carefully noticed, moreover, that this book represents the parties as fascinated with each other’s society and as mutually enjoying in a high degree the loveliness of spring, the fragrance of sweet odors, the charms of music, the beauty of flowers—in short, all the joys of this fair world which blend so perfectly with pure and chaste love in human bosoms. A due regard to these features of the book ought to vindicate it from the aspersions sometimes thrown upon it, of having a morally pernicious tendency. In order to do justice to the author of this book and to those who placed it in the sacred canon, let us ask how it came to pass that men of pure mind, living in the ancient East, could have tastes so unlike ours? In answer, two facts have paramount influence: First, that general society was scarcely ever mixed. Outside the family circle the sexes rarely intermingled in society. A little reflection will show that the laws of taste and propriety in regard to what shall be considered delicate are determined largely by the fact of mixed society. Many things are tolerated in the presence of only one sex, which would be deemed entirely inadmissible in the presence of both. 2. A second fact pertains to different modes of dress. By the general law of language it is not indelicate to speak of those parts of the person which are usually exposed, uncovered, e.g., the face, the eyes, the hair, the neck, the hands. If we see beauty in these exposed parts of the person, we never think it a violation of delicacy to speak of it. Now the people of the ancient East wore less clothing than we do, and covered less of the person. Especially they did not cover the bosom, and hence spake naturally of this as one point of personal beauty, as we now sometimes hear of the fair and beautiful neck. Suffice it to give the facts as they are, and to say that we must not impute to them indelicacy of mind and impurity of heart, because their tastes and standard of judgment differ from our own. I add, further, that in my view a fair translation of this book should aim to give its spirit rather than its precise letter; for obviously it should labor to make the book to us what it was to Solomon and his first readers—equally chaste and delicate in its allusions; equally far from liability to unhallowed associations. H. C.
The two prominent and radical ideas connected with an Oriental garden are protection and productiveness. The word for garden is the same in Hebrew and Arabic. The primary meaning of this word is to cover, conceal, hide. From this primary comes a secondary meaning having a twofold application as to a garden—namely, first, that which is covered in the sense of being itself surrounded or protected; and, second, that which covers, conceals, deeply shadows the ground by reason of the abundance and luxuriance of its foliage. The fullest scriptural descriptions of an Oriental garden are contained in the Song of Songs, especially at chaps. 4 : 12-16 and 5 : 1, where the description opens with a reference to this radical idea of protection. This system of protection is to secure the garden against incursions on the part of robbers or wild beasts (Lam. 2 : 6). It also separates or marks off that part of the land which is subject to especial care and cultivation (Gen. 2 : 8, 16). It also indicates that portion in which the owner has a more peculiar, jealous, and unshared interest (Song of Songs 4 : 16 ; 8 : 12). The applications of the above facts will readily suggest themselves when the term “garden” is considered as a scriptural figure, as that to which the people of God are compared, as in Isa. 5 : 7, or as that which is used typically of the individual lover of God, as in the Song of Songs. The same comparisons and types are similarly employed in Arabic poetry.
The prominent idea of an Oriental garden is utility; utility associated with beauty, utility never sacrificed to beauty, utility in the way of productiveness, fruitfulness. The utility of an Oriental garden is exhibited and developed especially in three respects : First, fruit-bearing. The garden abounds with trees producing fruit, such as the date-palm, fig, orange, pomegranate, mulberry, sycamore, lime, besides many other fruits, and oftentimes vegetables. Second, perfumes. It is well known how exceedingly fond Orientals are of aromatics, sweet-smelling perfumes ; and how by them the same are delicately compounded and extensively used. It is also well known what an extensive use and what an important significance incense, sweet-smelling perfumes, had in the ceremonial worship of the ancient Hebrews. Accordingly Oriental gardens were and are devoted in a considerable portion to the rearing of plants, both exhaling perfume as they stood in the garden and producing various aromatics as articles of commerce. Third, the trees and plants of an Oriental garden are, in many cases, made to serve various other useful objects, as, for example, the date-palm, the uses of which are very many, so that a person who owns twenty date-palm trees alone is considered to be not badly off. Arabic poetry celebrates three hundred uses which the date-palm serves.
The cultivation and development of the garden to reach the highest degree of productiveness is constantly and variously sought in Oriental lands, and attained with remarkable degrees of success. The methods and implements of garden husbandry are to a considerable extent primitive and imperfect. This is well known ; but it is not equally well known how wonderful are those conditions of nature in Oriental lands which more than make up for deficiencies in human art. Thus, in Syria, the many natural fountains, the topography of the land, etc.; in Egypt, the character of the soil, the action of the Nile upon and through the soil, the fertilizing deposits brought down by the Nile during its annual inundation, the heavy dews, etc.; and in most Oriental lands, the tropical character of the climate, the uniformity of the temperature, and various other natural conditions, securing the development, productiveness, and luxuriant growth of plants. With these natural conditions, all are more or less familiar ; but with another condition of nature, serving greatly the same purpose, perhaps all are not equally well acquainted. It is mentioned with remarkable scientific accuracy in Song of Songs 4 : 16, where we read, “Awake, O north wind ; and come, thou south ; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.” The north and south winds are wonderful agents in the Orient for promoting garden growth and fruitfulness. Three facts about these winds should be noticed : First, while the east and west winds are blighting, the north and south winds are very beneficent in their effects. The north wind is a strong cool, refreshing wind, which has the effect of strengthening the root, fibre, growth, entire life of the plant. The south wind is a warm, soft, moist breeze, whose genial influence greatly tends to hasten growth, to ripen fruit, to draw forth the perfume of flowers. Second, the north and south winds are very remarkable, on account of the abundant fertilizing moisture and particles which they carry about. This was known and appreciated in the earlier years of human history. Later it became known to and celebrated by the Greeks at the time of the military expeditions of Alexander the Great to India. Third, Wind blows from a colder to a warmer point. A map of the eastern hemisphere shows us that an immense amount of land lies north of the equator, and an immense amount of sea lies south of the equator. From April to October, therefore, the land lying north of the equator gets fiercely heated up by the torrid sunshine ; and consequently a strong wind is brought in from the sea, blowing steadily through this half of the year from the south. From October to April, the sun shines more in-
tensely over the ocean lying to the south; and consequently a strong wind sets from land to sea, blowing with similar steadiness, through this other half of the year, from the north. And so the strengthening, fertilizing, fructifying north and south winds are also the uniform, prevailing, constantly blowing winds throughout the year, and year after year. And so the