Song of Solomon 5

Chap. V. Ver. 1-16. Another dream, which introduces a description of the Messiah, as the beloved of the Church.—In the close of the preceding chapter, the bride, that is, the church, had been wishing and praying for the influences of the Holy Spirit, to awaken her energies, and warm and invigorate her piety, that her Beloved, coming into his garden, might show his approbation, or, as it is metaphorically expressed, “eat his pleasant fruits.” The verse which opens this chapter, which ought not to have been separated from the preceding, is the answer of the bridegroom, expressing his delight in her conduct and conversation. “I am come into my garden;” i. e. the church; (see (Song of Solomon 4:12).) “I have gathered my spices;”

(ch. iv. 13, 14.) “I have eaten my honey (from the comb) meaning, listened to her conversation; (ch. iv. 11.) “I have drunk my wine,” I have received the utmost pleasure in the evidence of thy love and attachment; and then he turns round to his companions, and invites them to partake with him the pleasures of her conversation. “Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.” —The marriage feast, we must recollect, was kept open during all the seven days appropriated to its celebration. The following verses relate another dream, more evidently so than that in (Song of Solomon 3)for it is not easy to describe a dream in language more correct and beautiful than this: ‘I slept, but my heart waked.”

Indeed, upon that hypothesis, all the circumstances are natural and easy; but upon any other, utterly inexplicable. The object of this dream is evidently to introduce a portrait of the Beloved, who is described as fair and beautiful, tall and majestic, and clothed in royal apparel. In applying this allegorically, there is no doubt but it must refer to the Messiah, the same illustrious person who is described in the 45th Psalm, as “fairer than the children of men, clothed in glory and majesty;” his garments richly perfumed, and his hand wielding the sceptre of the church and of the world. (Compare that Psalm throughout.)

Notes on the verses

Chap. V. Ver. 1. Drink abundantly.—See margin. On the mystical devotion of the Persians, and other Asiatics, see the Author’s “New Translation,” Preliminary Essay. In reference to true religion, it can mean nothing but that hink the nipples on a white rapture or fervour of devotion, sometimes experienced by eminently pious persons, but which should not be considered as essential to its reality. Ver. 3. I have washed my feet.—A Hindoo, (who never wears shoes within doors,) wipes or washes his feet before he retires to rest; and if called up in the night, will often plead, that he shall daub his feet.—Ward’s Hindoos. Ver. 4. By the hole of the door.—This refers to the locks or latchets of the ancients, somewhat like those in our own country villages.

• captivated.”—— With Ver. 5. Dropped with myrrh.—That is, with liquid perfume of the East. Ver. 6. Fainted.—Williams, “fainted;” as we should say, ready to drop. “With one __. Ver. 7. The watchmen.—That is, the guards of the palace. See chapter iii. 3.— Took away my veil.—That is, drew it on one side, to see who I __ Ver. 8. That ye tell him.—Hebrew, “What should ye tell him? That I am sick with love.”—Williams. Compare ch. ii. 5. Ver. 10. White and ruddy.—So avid is described. (1 Samuel 16:12).—The chiefest.—See margin. The tallest and most comely youth were doubtless appointed to this office. Ver. 11. His head as the most fine gold.—Most refer this to his splendid crown, but perhaps it may refer to the internal value; so Solomon calls the skull “the golden bowl.”

((Ecclesiastes 12:6).)——Locks are bushy.—As the branches of the palm tree.—Michaelis. Ver. 12. Washed with milk.—{Rather, “His eyes are as doves;” —the deep blue pigeon, the common dove in the East, whose brilliant plumage vibrates around his neck every sparkling hue, every dazzling flash of colour. And this pigeon standing amid “the torrents of water,” or the foam of a waterfall, would be a blue centre with a bright space, like the iris of the eye, surrounded by the white. This idea has not escaped the poets of Hindostan; for the following passage is found in the Gitagovinda: “‘The glances of her eyes played like a pair of water birds of azure plumage, that sport near a full blown lotos in a pool, in the season of dew.”’]—Bagster.—Fitly set.—See margin, Percy renders it, “sitting at the full streams.”

Ver. 13. As sweet flowers.—See margin; referring doubtless to the beard and whiskers, no inconsiderable feature of masculine beauty, in the East.—His lips like lilies.—The beautiful red Syrian lilies. Compare ch. iv. 3. Ver. 24. As gold rings set with the beryl.—Hebrew, tarshish, which the Rabbins say, was sea-green. This is supposed to mean the fingers being covered with rings.—His belly.—This word certainly includes the whole trunk of the body, which, being compared to ivory, overlaid with sapphires, may intend the royal garments, blue and white, Esther viii. 15.; or, as others think, the body itself, covered with a blue robe. Ver. 15. Upon sockets.—Williams, “pedestals.”——Countenance as Lebanon.—That is, his figure tall and majestic.