Song of Solomon 6

Chap. VI. Ver. 1—13. The church, in the absence of her heavenly spouse, anticipates his speedy return: he returns, and repeats and amplifies his commendations of her.—The commendations of her beloved by the spouse, excite others to seek him with her, to whom she gives a farther description of his beauty and glory. At the same time she expresses herself confident that he was not far off; that he was only in the gardens; and as he had signified his love to her, and accepted her vows of love to him, she doubted not but that he would soon return to her. While she expresses her confidence in this, he suddenly re-appears, and again expresses his admiration and attachment to her person, partly in the same language as he had before employed, and partly in other terms, no less affectionate and beautiful.

She is compared to Tirzah and Jerusalem, the two most beautiful cities of Judea, and to their bannered turrets; or perhaps to an army in military array, with all its banners gleaming to the sun. He then confesses himself enamoured with her charms, and declares that, though he had seen ‘threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number,” she remained unrivalled in his affections and lily-pure, can delight himself in sinful mortals? What saith the prophet Zephaniah, in his name, to the Jewish church? “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love; he will joy over thee with singing.” ((Zephaniah 3:17); compare (Isaiah 62:5).) In the latter verses of this chapter, the bride (the Lamb’s wife) is compared, for her opening virtues, to the rising dawn; and her beauty to the moon for softness, and to the sun for splendour—and to what else? ‘An army with banners,” say our translators; but the original says nothing of an “army,” and the banners, or streamers, here intended, should seem to be celestial, and related to the sky; but whether they relate to the eccentric path of a comet, the coruscations of the Northern lights, or some other splendid meteor, we presume not to decide. All the real beauty and glory which the church possesses, or its individual members, is certainly of celestial origin. Whatever moral dress she wears, or whatever spiritual beauty she exhibits, it is “‘ the comeliness” which the Lord hath “put upon” her: ((Ezekiel 16:10).) and as to her splendour and glory, we know that it arises solely from being “clothed with the Sun,” even the Sun of righteousness. ((Malachi 4:2). (Revelation 12:1).) Chap. VII. Ver. 1—13. This chapter we think very unhappily translated, and by many improperly expounded. It has

Notes on the verses

Chap. VI. Ver. 4. Tirzah—signifies “delectable,” and is supposed to have received its name from the beauty of its situation.
Ver. 12. Like the chariots of Ammi-nadib.—See margin. This has been generally taken as a proper name, but it may be applied to the mind being carried away with joy, or transport.
Ver. 13. Shulamite.—Williams, “Solima.” “Bride of Solomon,” Good, Boothroyd, and others.—The company of the armies.—Perhaps meteors in the sky; compare ver. 10. But it may be applied to a chorus of musicians, or