Song of Solomon 7 commentary

The similitudes here are different from what they were before, and in the original refer to glorious and splendid clothing. Such honour have all his saints; and having put on Christ, they are distinguished by their beautiful and glorious apparel. They adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour in all things. Consistent believers honour Christ, recommend the gospel, and convince and awaken sinners. The church resembles the stately and spreading palm; while her love for Christ, and the obedience resulting therefrom, are precious fruit of the true Vine. The King is held in the galleries. Christ takes delight in the assemblies and ordinances of his people; and admires the fruit of his grace in them. When applied to the church and to each faithful Christian, all this denotes that beauty of holiness, in which they shall be presented to their heavenly Bridegroom.

The church, the believing soul, triumphs in its relation to Christ, and interest in him. She humbly desires communion with him. Let us walk together, that I may receive counsel, instruction, and comfort from thee; and may make known my wants and my grievances to thee, with freedom, and without interruption. Communion with Christ is what all that are made holy earnestly breathe after. And those who would converse with Christ, must go forth from the world. Wherever we are, we may keep up communion with God. Nor should we go where we cannot in faith ask him to go with us. Those who would go abroad with Christ, must begin early in the morning of their days; must begin every day with him, seek him early, seek him diligently. A gracious soul can reconcile itself to the poorest places, if it may have communion with God in them; but the most delightful fields will not satisfy, unless the Beloved is there. Let us not think to be satisfied with any earthly object. Our own souls are our vineyards; they should be planted with useful trees. We should often search whether we are fruitful in righteousness. Christ's presence will make the vine flourish, and the tender grapes appear, as the returning sun revives the gardens. If we can appeal to him, Thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee; if his Spirit witness with our spirit, that our souls prosper, it is enough. And we must beg of him to search and try us, to discover us to ourselves. The fruits and exercises of graces are pleasant to the Lord Jesus. These must be laid up, and always ready; that by our bringing forth much fruit, he may be glorified. It is all from him, therefore it is fit it should be all for him.

CHAPTER 7

So 7:1-13.

1. thy feet--rather, "thy goings" (Psa 17:5). Evident allusion to Is 52:7: "How beautiful ... are the feet of him ... that publisheth peace" (Shulamite, So 6:13).

shoes--Sandals are richly jewelled in the East (Lu 15:22; Ep 6:15). She is evidently "on the mountains," whither she was wafted (So 6:12), above the daughters of Jerusalem, who therefore portray her feet first.

daughter--of God the Father, with whom Jesus Christ is one (Mt 5:9), "children of (the) God" (of peace), equivalent to Shulamite (Psa 45:10-15; 2Co 6:18), as well as bride of Jesus Christ.

prince's--therefore princely herself, freely giving the word of life to others, not sparing her "feet," as in So 5:3; Ex 12:11. To act on the offensive is defensive to ourselves.

joints--rather, "the rounding"; the full graceful curve of the hips in the female figure; like the rounding of a necklace (as the Hebrew for "jewels" means). Compare with the English Version, Ep 4:13-16; Col 2:19. Or, applying it to the girdle binding together the robes round the hips (Ep 6:14).

cunning workman--(Psa 139:14-16; Ep 2:10, 22; 5:29, 30, 32).

2. navel--rather, "girdle-clasp," called from the part of the person underneath. The "shoes" (So 7:1) prove that dress is throughout presupposed on all parts where it is usually worn. She is "a bride adorned for her husband"; the "uncomely parts," being most adorned (1Co 12:23). The girdle-clasp was adorned with red rubies resembling the "round goblet" (crater or mixer) of spice-mixed wine (not "liquor," So 8:2; Is 5:22). The wine of the "New Testament in His blood" (Lu 22:20). The spiritual exhilaration by it was mistaken for that caused by new wine (Ac 2:13-17; Ep 5:18).

belly--that is, the vesture on it. As in Psa 45:13, 14, gold and needlework compose the bride's attire, so golden-colored "wheat" and white "lilies" here. The ripe grain, in token of harvest joy, used to be decorated with lilies; so the accumulated spiritual food (Joh 6:35; 12:24), free from chaff, not fenced with thorns, but made attractive by lilies ("believers," So 2:2; Ac 2:46, 47; 5:13, 14, in common partaking of it). Associated with the exhilarating wine cup (Zec 9:17), as here.

3. The daughters of Jerusalem describe her in the same terms as Jesus Christ in So 4:5. The testimonies of heaven and earth coincide.

twins--faith and love.

4. tower of ivory--In So 4:4, Jesus Christ saith, "a tower of David builded for an armory." Strength and conquest are the main thought in His description; here, beauty and polished whiteness; contrast So 1:5.

fishpools--seen by Burckhardt, clear (Re 22:1), deep, quiet, and full (1Co 2:10, 15).

Heshbon--east of Jordan, residence of the Amorite king, Sihon (Nu 21:25, &c.), afterwards held by Gad.

Bath-rabbim--"daughter of a multitude"; a crowded thoroughfare. Her eyes (So 4:1) are called by Jesus Christ, "doves' eyes," waiting on Him. But here, looked on by the daughters or Jerusalem, they are compared to a placid lake. She is calm even amidst the crowd (Pr 8:2; Joh 16:33).

nose--or, face.

tower of Lebanon--a border-fortress, watching the hostile Damascus. Towards Jesus Christ her face was full of holy shame (see on So 4:1; So 4:3); towards spiritual foes, like a watchtower (Ha 2:1; Mr 13:37; Ac 4:13), elevated, so that she looks not up from earth to heaven, but down from heaven to earth. If we retain "nose," discernment of spiritual fragrance is meant.

5. upon thee--the headdress "upon" her.

Carmel--signifying a well-cultivated field (Is 35:2). In So 5:15 He is compared to majestic Lebanon; she here, to fruitful Carmel. Her headdress, or crown (2Ti 4:8; 1Pe 5:4). Also the souls won by her (1Th 2:19, 20), a token of her fruitfulness.

purple--royalty (Re 1:6). As applied to hair, it expresses the glossy splendor of black hair (literally, "pendulous hair") so much admired in the East (So 4:1). While the King compares her hair to the flowering hair of goats (the token of her subjection), the daughters of Jerusalem compare it to royal purple.

galleries--(so So 1:17, Margin; Re 21:3). But Maurer translates here, "flowing ringlets"; with these, as with "thongs" (so Lee, from the Arabic translates it) "the King is held" bound (So 6:5; Pr 6:25). Her purple crowns of martyrdom especially captivated the King, appearing from His galleries (Ac 7:55, 56). As Samson's strength was in his locks (Jud 16:17). Here first the daughters see the King themselves.

6. Nearer advance of the daughters to the Church (Ac 2:47; 5:13, end). Love to her is the first token of love to Him (1Jo 5:1, end).

delights--fascinating charms to them and to the King (So 7:5; Is 62:4, Hephzi-bah). Hereafter, too (Zep 3:17; Mal 3:12; Re 21:9).

7. palm tree--(Psa 92:12). The sure sign of water near (Ex 15:27; Joh 7:38).

clusters--not of dates, as Moody Stuart thinks. The parallelism (So 7:8), "clusters of the vine," shows it is here clusters of grapes. Vines were often trained (termed "wedded") on other trees.

8. The daughters are no longer content to admire, but resolve to lay hold of her fruits, high though these be. The palm stem is bare for a great height, and has its crown of fruit-laden boughs at the summit. It is the symbol of triumphant joy (Joh 12:13); so hereafter (Re 7:9).

breasts--(Is 66:11).

the vine--Jesus Christ (Ho 14:7, end; Joh 15:1).

nose--that is, breath; the Holy Ghost breathed into her nostrils by Him, whose "mouth is most sweet" (So 5:16).

apples--citrons, off the tree to which He is likened (So 2:3).

9. roof of thy mouth--thy voice (Pr 15:23).

best wine--the new wine of the gospel kingdom (Mr 14:25), poured out at Pentecost (Ac 2:4, 13, 17).

for my beloved--(So 4:10). Here first the daughters call Him theirs, and become one with the bride. The steps successively are (So 1:5) where they misjudge her (So 3:11); So 5:8, where the possibility of their finding Him, before she regained Him, is expressed; So 5:9 (So 6:1; 7:6, 9; Joh 4:42).

causing ... asleep to speak--(Is 35:6; Mr 5:19, 20; Ac 2:47; Ep 5:14). Jesus Christ's first miracle turned water into "good wine kept until now" (Joh 2:10); just as the Gospel revives those asleep and dying under the law (Pr 31:6; Ro 7:9, 10, 24, 25; 8:1).

10. Words of the daughters of Jerusalem and the bride, now united into one (Ac 4:32). They are mentioned again distinctly (So 8:4), as fresh converts were being added from among enquirers, and these needed to be charged not to grieve the Spirit.

his desire is toward me--strong assurance. He so desires us, as to give us sense of His desire toward us (Psa 139:17, 18; Lu 22:15; Ga 2:20; 1Jo 4:16).

11. field--the country. "The tender grape (Maurer translates, flowers) and vines" occurred before (So 2:13). But here she prepares for Him all kinds of fruit old and new; also, she anticipates, in going forth to seek them, communion with Him in "loves." "Early" implies immediate earnestness. "The villages" imply distance from Jerusalem. At Stephen's death the disciples were scattered from it through Judea and Samaria, preaching the word (Ac 8:4-25). Jesus Christ was with them, confirming the word with miracles. They gathered the old fruits, of which Jesus Christ had sown the seed (Joh 4:39-42), as well as new fruits.

lodge--forsaking home for Jesus Christ's sake (Mt 19:29).

12. (Mr 1:35; Joh 9:4; Ga 6:10). Assurance fosters diligence, not indolence.

13. mandrakes--Hebrew, dudaim, from a root meaning "to love"; love apples, supposed to exhilarate the spirits and excite love. Only here and Ge 30:14-16. Atropa mandragora of Linnæus; its leaves like lettuce, but dark green, flowers purple, root forked, fruit of the size of an apple, ruddy and sweet-smelling, gathered in wheat harvest, that is, in May (Mariti, ii. 195).

gates--the entrance to the kiosk or summer house. Love "lays up" the best of everything for the person beloved (1Co 10:31; Php 3:8; 1Pe 4:11), thereby really, though unconsciously, laying up for itself (1Ti 6:18, 19).

How beautiful are thy feet with shoes - "How graceful is thy walking." In the sixth chapter the bridegroom praises the Shulamite, as we might express it, from head to foot. Here he begins a new description, taking her from foot to head.

The shoes, sandals, or slippers of the Eastern ladies are most beautifully formed, and richly embroidered. The majestic walk of a beautiful woman in such shoes is peculiarly grand. And to show that such a walk is intended, he calls her a prince's daughter.

The joints of thy thighs - Must refer to the ornaments on the beautiful drawers, which are in general use among ladies of quality in most parts of the East.

Thy navel is like a round goblet - This may also refer to some ornamental dress about the loins. These suppositions are rendered very probable from hundreds of the best finished and highly decorated drawings of Asiatic ladies in my own collection, where every thing appears in the drawings, as in nature.

A heap of wheat set about with lilies - This is another instance of the same kind. The richly embroidered dresses in the above drawings may amply illustrate this also. Ainsworth supposes the metaphor is taken from a pregnant woman; the child in the womb being nourished by means of the umbilical cord or navel string, till it is brought into the world. After which it is fed by means of the mother's breasts, which are immediately mentioned. Possibly the whole may allude to the bride's pregnancy.

Thy two breasts - Where the hair and breasts are fine, they are the highest ornaments of the person of a female.

Thy neck - as a tower of ivory - High, white, and ornamented with jewellery, as the tower of David was with bucklers. See on Sol 4:4 (note).

The fish - pools in Heshbon - Clear, bright, and serene. These must have been very beautiful to have been introduced here in comparison. These two fountains appear to have been situated at the gate that led from Heshbon to Rabba, or Rabboth Ammon. There is a propriety in this metaphor, because fountains are considered to be the eyes of the earth.

Thy nose - as the tower of Lebanon - There was doubtless a propriety in this similitude also, which cannot now be discerned. If we are to understand the similitude as taken from the projecting form of the nose, even here I see nothing striking in the metaphor; for surely the tower of Lebanon did not project from the mountain as the human nose does from the face. It is better to acknowledge that there was undoubtedly some fit resemblances; but in what circumstance we know not. But some commentators are always extolling the correctness of the imagery in those very difficult places, where no soul sees the similitude but themselves.

Shine head - like Carmel - Rising majestically upon thy neck, and above thy shoulders, as Mount Carmel does in its district. Carmel was the name of the mountain where Elijah had his contest with the prophets of Baal. See 1Kgs 18:19, etc.

The hair of thine head like purple - Ornamented with ribbons and jewellery of this tint.

The king is held in the galleries - Or is detained in the antechamber. His heart is captivated by thy person and conduct. Some understand the ringlets of the bride's hair.

How fair and how pleasant - Thou art every way beautiful, and in every respect calculated to inspire pleasure and delight.

Like to a palm tree - Which is remarkably straight, taper, and elegant.

And thy breasts to clusters of grapes - Dates are the fruit of the palm tree; they grow in clusters; and it is these, not grapes, which are intended.

I will go up to the palm tree - I will take hold on the boughs of this tree, and climb up by them, in order to gather the clusters of dates at the top. The rubric here in the old MS. interprets this of the cross of Christ.

The roof of thy mouth like the best wine - The voice or conversation of the spouse is most probably what is meant.

Causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak - As good wine has a tendency to cause the most backward to speak fluently when taken in moderation; so a sight of thee, and hearing the charms of thy conversation, is sufficient to excite the most taciturn to speak, and even to become eloquent in thy praises.

I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me - It is worthy of remark that the word which we translate his desire is the very same used Gen 3:16 : Thy desire, thy ruling appetite, תשוקתך teshukathech, shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. This was a part of the woman's curse. Now here it seems to be reversed; for the bride says, I am my beloved's, and his desire or ruling appetite and affection, תשוקתו teshukatho, is עלי ali, Upon Me. The old MS. translates this with considerable force: - "I to my leef, and to me the turnynge of him".

Let us go forth into the field - It has been conjectured that the bridegroom arose early every morning, and left the bride's apartment, and withdrew to the country; often leaving her asleep, and commanding her companions not to disturb her till she should awake of herself. Here the bride wishes to accompany her spouse to the country, and spend a night at his country house.

Let us get up early to the vineyards - When in the country, we shall have the better opportunity to contemplate the progress of the spring vegetation; and there she promises to be peculiarly affectionate to him.

The mandrakes give a smell - See the note on Gen 30:14, where the mandrake is particularly described; from which this passage will receive considerable light. The reader is requested to consult it.

All manner of pleasant fruits - Fruits new and old; flowers and herbs of every kind which the season could yield. The literal sense, allowing for the concealing metaphors, is, I believe, of a widely different nature from what is generally given. But this must be left to the reader's sagacity and prudence.

Shoes - Were anciently evidences of a free and comfortable state, whereas slaves and mourners used to go bare - foot.

Like fishpools - Full, and clear, and quiet, and pleasant. Heshbon - A pleasant and well watered city, beyond Jordan. The tower - Which was in all probability built by Solomon in the mountain of Lebanon, the northern border of the land of Israel towards Damascus; and therefore a very fit place for a watch - tower. Which looketh - There was another tower or building in or near Jerusalem, which was called the house of the forest of Lebanon, 1Kings 7:2.

Carmel - Eminent and pleasant to the eye, and fruitful as mount Carmel was. Which may denote that her mind was replenished with knowledge, and other excellent gifts of the Holy Ghost. Purple - Which colour was anciently much esteemed. Is held - In which he walks, and having once espied thee, is unable to take off his eyes from thee.

Delights - For those various lovely features which, are in thee.

Palm - tree - Tall and strait, or upright. And he seems to mention the palm - tree, rather than any other, because it is constantly green and flourishing, and grows upward in spite of all pressures.

I said - Within myself, I resolved. I will - Climb up, that so I may take hold of the boughs, which do not grow out of the sides, as in other trees, but only at the top of it. Take hold - Partly to prune and dress them, and partly to gather the fruit. The smell - Of thy breath; which is often called the breath of a man's nostrils.

Thy mouth - Thy speech, the palate being one of the principal instruments of speech. Wine - Grateful and refreshing for thee my beloved, who reapest the comfort and benefit of that pleasure which I take in thee. Causing - The most dull, and stupid, and sleepy persons to speak.

I am - This and the following verses contain the words of the bride, in answer to the bridegroom's endearing expressions delivered in the foregoing verses.

Go forth - That being retired from the crowd, we may more freely and sweetly converse together.

Early - The church having lost her beloved by her former laziness, now doubles her diligence. Vineyards - To particular congregations. Let us see - Let us inquire into the success of our labours, what souls are brought in and built up, and how they prosper and grow in grace. There - There I will discover the fervency of my affections to thee, and maintain communion with thee in thy holy ordinances.

Mandrakes - This Hebrew word is used Gen 30:14, 15, and the signification of it is very much doubted and disputed by interpreters. The word here signifies sweet and pleasant flowers, and therefore if it be understood of mandrakes, they were of another sort than ours, as flowers of the same kind in several climates have very different natures and qualities. At our gates - Brought thither by divers persons to congratulate our nuptials. All fruits - Fruits of this year and of the former. Which seems to be meant of the various fruits and operations of the Spirit, and degrees of grace in several believers.

1 HOw beautiful are thy feet with shoes , O princes daughter ! the joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman .

Which being the chief instrument of our motion from place to place, is oft used me[illegible: 1+ letters]onimically for the motion itself, and so may here signifie either the inward motions, the workings of the affections, or the outward motions, the steps or actions of the Life, both which are right and amiable in Believers.

Which were anciently evidences of a free and comfortable state, whereas slaves and mourners use to go baresoot, 2 Sam. 15. 30. Isa. 20. 4. which also in Women of high quality were adorned with Gold and other Ornaments; of which see Isa. 3. 18. These may also signifie that the Feet of Believers should be shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace. Eph. 6. 15.

Both by Birth, being born of God, and by disposition and deportment agreeable to that quality.

Either 1. The hollow place in which the Hip or Thigh-bone moveth and turneth itself: Or rather 2. The Hip or Thigh-bone which moveth there: for this is more fitly compared to a jewel well set. Some understand this of some Ornaments worn by Women upon those parts; for the word rendred joints may signifie girdles, or any Ornament which encompasseth any part of the Body, and the same words which signifie thighs are both in Hebrew, and other Languages, somtimes used concerning the legs. Which being admitted, this might seem to be understood of the Brides Garters about her Legs, which not unfitly follows the Shoes upon her Feet last mentioned. But this sense seems not to suit so well with the following comparison as the former doth.

Like jewels orderly and excellently set by a skilful Artist. So this signifies the uprightness and decency of her going, which depends very much upon the right scituation of the Hip or Thigh-bone, which when it is dislocated or disordered causeth a lameness or uncomeliness in going; whereby he understands the orderliness and amiableness of her conversation.

2 Thy navel is like a round goblet which wanteth not liquor : thy belly is like an heap of wheat , set about with lilies .

To which it is not unfitly compared because it is of a round form, and hollow, and hath windings and circlings in it.

Thy Navel is not only comely but fruitful. For the Navel is the proper instrument of nourishing the Child or Children which are in the Womb. And so this seems to signifie the Churches fruitfulness partly in her self, in cherishing and improving all the Graces and good motions of Gods Spirit within her; and principally in reference to those many Children which she bears and feeds in her Womb with the wholsom liquor of Gods Ordinances.

In which thy Children are for a time contained and fed.

i. e. Of wheat corn, round and swelling, as it is in Women with child, and full of nourishment, not only of Liquor▪ as was last said, but also of Meat, which may note the various provisions which Christ hath laid up in his Church according to the several capacities of her Children, Milk for Babes, and stronger Meat for those who are grown up.

Not for defence, which the Church doth not need, having the strong God for her Protector, but for Ornament and Beauty. Whereby is implied, that she is not only fruitful but beautiful, and that her Children are not only numerous and well fed, but also comely and delightful to the Eye, as Lilies are, and withal pure and innocent, in which respect both Christ and the Church are compared to Lilies, Cant. 1. 1, 2.

Marginal references: Heb. mixture.

3 * Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins .

Which is repeated from Ch. 4. 5. where it is explained.

Marginal references: Ch. 4. 5.

4 Thy neck is as a tower of ivory , thine eyes like the fishpools in Heshbon , by the gate of Bathrabbim: thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon , which looketh toward Damascus .

Of which see on Ch. 4. 4.

Clear, and smooth, and long, and streight, and erected.

Of which see on Ch. 1. 15. & 4. 1.

Full, and clear, and quiet, and pleasant. Possibly h[illegible: 1+ letters]re were two fishponds, which being conveniently seated in a large field, might bear some resemblance to the Eyes placed in the Head.

A pleasant and well watered City, beyond Iordan, as we may guess from Num. 32. where doubtless there were some eminent and well known fish-pools, as further appears by the exact description of the particular place here following, in which they were.

The instrument of smelling and discerning between pleasant and loaths[illegible: 1+ letters]m things; which may signifie the Churches sagacity in discerning between good and evil.

Which, though it be not elsewhere mentioned, was in all probability built by Solomon in the Mountain of Lebanon, which was the Northern Border of the Land of Israel towards Damascus, and therefore a very fit place for a watch Tower. To this Tower her Nose is compared, not for its greatness, but for its comely and convenient proportions, and beautiful aspect, which doubtless were in this as well as in the rest of Solomons Buildings.

Which words seem to be added to distinguish this from another Tower or Building, in, or near to Ierusalem, which was called the house of the forrest of Lebanon, 1 Kin. 7. 2.

5 Thine head upon thee is like Carmel , and the hair of thine head like purple , the king is held in the galleries .

Which may signifie the Churches Mind or Understanding, which is seated in the head.

Which is upon thee, or above the rest of thy Body.

Eminent and pleasant to the Eye and fruitful as Mount Carmel was, as hath been formerly noted. Which may note that her Mind was adorned and replenished with knowledge and other excellent Gifts of the Holy Ghost. Or, as others render it, like crimson or purple, which is called Carmel, 2 Chr. 2. 7. & 3. 14. because those fishes, out of which they had their purple, were taken in the Sea bordering upon Mount Carmel. And so the same thing is repeated in the next clause in other words.

Which colour was anciently much esteemed, and commended as by sacred, so also by prophane Writers.

In which he walketh, and having once espied thee, is captivated by thee, and unable or unwilling either to depart, or to take off his Eyes from thee, as if he were fast bound and chained to thee. The galleries may note either the Ordinances, or rather the Churches, in which Christ walketh, Rev. 2. 1. in which Christ and Believers converse together.

Marginal references: Or, crimson.; Heb. bound.

6 How fair and how pleasant art thou , O love, for delights !

It were infinite to reckon up all the particulars of thy Beauty, in one word, thou art universally amiable beyond Expression.

For those various lovely features which are in thee, and for the great and manifold delights which are or may be enjoyed in conversing with thee.

7 This thy stature is like to a palm-tree , and thy breasts to clusters of grapes .

Tall and streight, or upright, as a Tree. And he seems to mention the Palm-tree, rather than any other, partly because it grows more directly upward than other Trees; and partly because it is constantly green and flourishing, and groweth upward in spight of all pressures, and therefore was used in festival solemnities, Lev. 23. 40. Ioh. 12. 13. and was a symbol of Victory, Rev. 7. 9. In all which respects it fitly represents the state of Believers.

Large, and round, and full of juice. See on v. 3. This particular is added as an evidence of her maturity and married estate, and of her fruitfulness.

Which word may easily be supplied out of the next verse. Although the fruit of the Palm-tree also is said to grow in clusters.

8 I said , I will go up to the palm-tree , I will take hold of the boughs thereof : now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples .

Within my self, I resolved.

I will climb up, that so I may take hold, as it follows of the boughs, which do not grow out of the sides, as in other trees, but only at the top of it.

Partly to prune and dress them, and partly to gather the fruit. Whereby is signified Christs care of his Church, and his delight in her.

Of thy breath; which is oft called the breath of, or in, a mans nostrils, Gen. 7. 22. Isa. 2. 22. Lam. 4. 20.

Either 1. Common Apples, which sometimes yield a very pleasant smell: Or 2. Odoriferous Apples. See on chap. 2. 5.

9 And the roof of thy mouth like the best wine , for my beloved , that goeth down sweetly causing the lips of those that are asleep, to speak .

Either 1. Thy speech, the pala[illegible: 1+ letters]e being one of the principal instruments of Speech: Or rather 2. Thy taste, whereof the Palate or Roof of the Mouth is the most proper and principal instrument, Iob 34. 3. But then this is not to be understood actively of her tast, but passively of the tast or relish, which her beloved had of her; as in the foregoing clause, the smell of her nose was not meant subjectively or actively of that sense of smelling which was seated in her Nose, but objectively or passively of the breath of her Nostrils, which was sweet to the smell of her beloved.

Grateful and refreshing.

Either 1. For thee my beloved, who reapest the comfort and benefit of that pleasure which I take in thee: Or 2. For me thy beloved, or, according to thy usual expression, for my beloved. Which words Christ takes as it were out of her Mouth, and repeats them emphatically. Which agrees very well to the stile and usage of these dramatical and amatorious Writings. And this clause further intimates the Churches Loyalty or Faithfulness to Christ, that she reserves her self, and all her Loves for Christ alone.

Whereas bad Wire either goeth down slowly and tediously, or is not permitted to go down at all; Heb. that walketh directly, or, that moveth itself aright, which is given as the Character of good Wine, Pro. 23. 31.

Causing the most dull, and stupid, and sleepy headed persons to speak, and that fluently and eloquently, which is a common effect of good Wine.

Marginal references: Pro. 23. 31. Heb.; Heb. streightly.; Or, of the ancient.

10 I am my beloveds , and his desire is towards me .

This and the following verses contain the words of the Bride, in answer to the Bridegrooms most indearing Expressions delivered in the foregoing verses.

I perceive, and am fully satisfied, that he heartily loves me. It is my duty to have my desire towards him as my Husband, according to Gods Sentence, Gen. 3. 16. but it is a wonderful condescension in him, that his desire is towards me.

Marginal references: Ch. 2. 16. & 6. 3.

11 Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field : let us lodge in the villages :

That being retired from the crowd, we may more freely and sweetly converse together, and may observe the state of the fruits of the Earth.

In one of the villages, as Cities is put for one of the Cities, Judg. 12. 7.

12 Let us get up early to the vineyards , let us see if the vines flourish, whether the tender grapes appear, and the pomgranates bud forth : there will I give thee my loves .

The Church having offended and lost her beloved by her former laziness, now doubles her diligence, and discovers how earnestly she was set upon the following work.

To particular congregations. See Cant. 6. 1. Isa. 5. 1.

Let us enquire into the success of our Labours, what Souls are brought in and built up, how they prosper and grow in Grace, whether they abound in good Works, &c.

There I will discover the sincerity and fervency of my affections to thee, and maintain communion with thee in thy holy Ordinances.

Marginal references: Heb. open.

13 The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old , which I have laid up for thee , O my beloved.

This Hebrew word is used Gen. 30. 14, 15. and the signification of it is very much doubted and disputed by Interpreters; of which see my Latin Synopsis on that place. But this is certain that the word signifies sweet and pleasant flowers, and therefore if it be understood of Mandrakes, they were of another sort than ours, as it is no unusual thing for flowers of the same kind in several Climates to have very differing Natures and Qualities.

Either 1. Growing there upon the Walls, or in Gardens, or Orchards, near the door of our dwelling-House: Or rather 2. Brought thither by divers Persons to congratulate and adom our Nuptials, or laid up for our entertainment, as may be gathered from the nature of the fruits, which were not only new, and growing, but also old, and laid up, as it here follows.

Fruits of this year, and of the former, that the variety might delight. Which seems to be spiritually meant of the various fruits and operati[illegible: 1+ letters]ns of the Spirit, and degrees of Grace in several Believers.

Which have been produced by my Ministry for thy Service and Glory.

Sol 7:1 1 a How beautiful are thy steps in the shoes,      O prince’s daughter!

The noun נדיב, which signifies noble in disposition, and then noble by birth and rank (cf. the reverse relation of the meanings in generosus), is in the latter sense synon. and parallel to מלך and שׂר; Shulamith is here called a prince’s daughter because she was raised to the rank of which Hannah, 1Sa 2:8, cf. Psa 113:8, speaks, and to which she herself, 6:12 points. Her beauty, from the first associated with unaffected dignity, now appears in native princely grace and majesty. פּעם (from פּעם, pulsare, as in nunc pede libero pulsanda tellus) signifies step and foot, - in the latter sense the poet. Heb. and the vulgar Phoen. word for רגל; here the meanings pes and passus (Fr. pas, dance-step) flow into each other. The praise of the spectators now turns from the feet of the dancer to her thighs: 1 b The vibration of thy thighs like ornamental chains,      The work of an artist’s hands.

The double-sided thighs, viewed from the spine and the lower part of the back, are called מתנים; from the upper part of the legs upwards, and the breast downwards (the lumbar region), thus seen on the front and sidewise, חלצים or ירכים. Here the manifold twistings and windings of the upper part of the body by means of the thigh-joint are meant; such movements of a circular kind are called חמּוּקים, from חמק, Sol 5:6. חלאים is the plur. of חלי = (Arab.) ḥaly, as חבאים (gazelles) of צבי = zaby. The sing. חלי (or חליה = Arab. hulyah) signifies a female ornament, consisting of gold, silver, or precious stones, and that (according to the connection, Pro 25:2; Hos 2:15) for the neck or the breast as a whole; the plur. חל, occurring only here, is therefore chosen because the bendings of the loins, full of life and beauty, are compared to the free swingings to and fro of such an ornament, and thus to a connected ornament of chains; for חם are not the beauty-curves of the thighs at rest, - the connection here requires movement. In accordance with the united idea of חל, the appos. is not מעשׂי, but (according to the Palestin.) מעשׂה (lxx, Targ., Syr., Venet.). The artist is called אמּן (ommân) (the forms אמן and אמן are also found), Syr. avmon, Jewish-Aram. אוּמן; he has, as the master of stability, a name like ימין, the right hand: the hand, and especially the right hand, is the artifex among the members.Vid., Ryssel’s Die Syn. d. Wahren u. Guten in d. Sem. Spr. (1873), p. 12.

The eulogists pass from the loins to the middle part of the body. In dancing, especially in the Oriental style of dancing, which is the mimic representation of animated feeling, the breast and the body are raised, and the forms of the body appear through the clothing.

Sol 7:2 2 Thy navel is a well-rounded basin -    Let not mixed wine be wanting to it    Thy body is a heap of wheat,    Set round with lilies.

In interpreting these words, Hitzig proceeds as if a “voluptuary” were here speaking. He therefore changes שׁררך into שׁררך, “thy pudenda.” But (1) it is no voluptuary who speaks here, and particularly not a man, but women who speak; certainly, above all, it is the poet, who would not, however, be so inconsiderate as to put into the mouths of women immodest words which he could use if he wished to represent the king as speaking. Moreover (2) שׁר = (Arab.) surr, secret (that which is secret; in Arab. especially referred to the pudenda, both of man and woman), is a word that isVid., Tebrîzi, in my work entitled Jud.-Arab. Poesien, u.s.w. (1874), p. 24. foreign to the Heb. language, which has for “Geheimnis” secret the corresponding word סוד (vid., under Psa 2:2; Psa 25:14), after the root-signification of its verbal stem (viz., to be firm, pressed together); and (3) the reference - preferred by Döpke, Magnus, Hahn, and others, also without any change of punctuation - of שׁר to the interfeminium mulieris, is here excluded by the circumstance that the attractions of a woman dancing, as they unfold themselves, are here described. Like the Arab. surr, שׁר (= shurr), from שׁרר, to bind fast, denotes properly the umbilical cord, Eze 16:4, and then the umbilical scar. Thus, Pro 3:8, where most recent critics prefer, for לשׁרּך, to read, but without any proper reason, לשׁרך = לשׁארך, “to thy flesh,” the navel comes there into view as the centre of the body, - which it always is with new-born infants, and is almost so with grown-up persons in respect of the length of the body, - and as, indeed, the centre. whence the pleasurable feeling of health diffuses its rays of heat. This middle and prominent point of the abdomen shows itself in one lightly clad and dancing when she breathes deeply, even through the clothing; and because the navel commonly forms a little funnel-like hollow (Böttch.: in the form almost of a whirling hollow in the water, as one may see in nude antique statues), therefore the daughters of Jerusalem compare Shulamith’s navel to a “basin of roundness,” i.e., which has this general property, and thus belongs to the class of things that are round. אגּן does not mean a Becher (a cup), but a Bechen (basin), pelvis; properly a washing basin, ijjanah (from אגן = ajan, to full, to wash = כּבּס); then a sprinkling basin, Exo 24:6; and generally a basin, Isa 22:24; here, a mixing basin, in which wine was mingled with a proportion of water to render it palatable (κρατήρ, from κεραννύναι, temperare), - according to the Talm. with two-thirds of water. In this sense this passage is interpreted allegorically, Sanhedrin 14 b, 37 a, and elsewhere (vid., Aruch under מזג). מזג .)מז is not spiced wine, which is otherwise designated (Sol 8:2), but, as Hitzig rightly explains, mixed wine, i.e., mixed with water or snow (vid., under Isa 5:22). מזג is not borrowed from the Greek μίσγειν (Grätz), but is a word native to all the three chief Semitic dialects, - the weaker form of מסך, which may have the meaning of “to pour in;” but not merely “to pour in,” but, at that same time, “to mix” (vid., under Isa 5:22; Pro 9:2). סהר, with אגּן, represents the circular form (from סהר = סחר), corresponding to the navel ring; Kimchi thinks that the moon must be understood (cf. שׂהרון, lunula): a moon-like round basin; according to which the Venet., also in Gr., choosing an excellent name for the moon, translates: ῥἀντιστρον τῆς ἑκάτης. But “moon-basin” would be an insufficient expression for it; Ewald supposes that it is the name of a flower, without, however, establishing this opinion. The “basin of roundness” is the centre of the body a little depressed; and that which the clause, “may not mixed wine be lacking,” expresses, as their wish for her, is soundness of health, for which no more appropriate and delicate figure can be given than hot wine tempered with fresh water.

The comparison in 3b is the same as that of R. Johanan’s of beauty, Mezîa 84 a: “He who would gain an idea of beauty should take a silver cup, fill it with pomegranate flowers, and encircle its rim with a garland of roses.”See my Gesch. d. Jüd. Poesie, p. 30 f. Hoch (the German Solomon) reminds us of the Jewish marriage custom of throwing over the newly-married pair the contents of a vessel wreathed with flowers, and filled with wheat or corn (with money underneath), accompanied with the cry, פּרוּ וּרבוּ be fruitful and multiply.

To the present day, winnowed and sifted corn is piled up in great heaps of symmetrical half-spherical form, which are then frequently stuck over with things that move in the wind, for the purpose of protecting them against birds. “The appearance of such heaps of wheat,” says Wetstein (Isa. p. 710), “which one may see in long parallel rows on the thrashing-floors of a village, is very pleasing to a peasant; and the comparison of the Song; Sol 7:3, every Arabian will regard as beautiful.” Such a corn-heap is to the present day called ṣubbah, while ‛aramah is a heap of thrashed corn that has not yet been winnowed; here, with ערמה, is to be connected the idea of a ṣubbah, i.e., of a heap of wheat not only thrashed and winnowed, but also sifted (riddled). סוּג, enclosed, fenced about (whence the post-bibl. סיג, a fence), is a part. pass. such as פּוּץ, scattered (vid., under Psa 92:12). The comparison refers to the beautiful appearance of the roundness, but, at the same time, also the flesh-colour shining through the dress; for fancy sees more than the eyes, and concludes regarding that which is veiled from that which is visible. A wheat-colour was, according to the Moslem Sunna, the tint of the first created man. Wheat-yellow and lily-white is a subdued white, and denotes at once purity and health; by πυρός wheat one thinks of πῦρ - heaped up wheat developes a remarkable heat, a fact for which Biesenthal refers to Plutarch’s Quaest. In accordance with the progress of the description, the breasts are now spoken of:

Sol 7:3 3 Thy two breasts are like two fawns,    Twins of a gazelle.

Sol 4:5 is repeated, but with the omission of the attribute, “feeding among lilies,” since lilies have already been applied to another figure. Instead of תּאומי there, we have here מּאמי (taǒme), the former after the ground-form ti'âm, the latter after the ground-form to'm (cf. נּאלי, Neh 8:2, from גּאל = גּאל).

Sol 7:4 4a Thy neck like an ivory tower.

The article in חשּׁן may be that designating species (vid., under Sol 1:11); but, as at Sol 7:5 and Sol 4:4, it appears to be also here a definite tower which the comparison has in view: one covered externally with ivory tablets, a tower well known to all in and around Jerusalem, and visible far and wide, especially when the sun shone on it; had it been otherwise, as in the case of the comparison following, the locality would have been more definitely mentioned. So slender, so dazzlingly white, is imposing, and so captivating to the eye did Shulamith’s neck appear. These and the following figures would be open to the objection of being without any occasion, and monstrous, if they referred to an ordinary beauty; but they refer to Solomon’s spouse, they apply to a queen, and therefore are derived from that which is most splendid in the kingdom over which, along with him, she rules; and in this they have the justification of their grandeur. 4 ba Thine eyes pools in Heshbon,        At the gate of the populous (city).Hesbhon, formerly belonging to the Amorites, but at this time to the kingdom of Solomon, lay about 5 1/2 hours to the east of the northern point of the Dead Sea, on an extensive, undulating, fruitful, high table-land, with a far-reaching prospect. Below the town, now existing only in heaps of ruins, a brook, which here takes it rise, flows westward, and streams toward the Ghôr as the Nahr Hesbán. It joins the Jordan not far above its entrance into the Dead Sea. The situation of the town was richly watered. There still exists a huge reservoir of excellent masonry in the valley, about half a mile from the foot of the hill on which the town stood. The comparison here supposes two such pools, but which are not necessarily together, though both are before the gate, i.e., near by, outside the town. Since שׁער, except at Isa 14:31, is fem., רבּים־בּים, in the sense of עם רבּתי, Lam 1:1 (cf. for the non-determin. of the adj., Eze 21:25), is to be referred to the town, not to the gate (Hitz.); Blau'sIn Merx' Archiv. III 355. conjectural reading, bath-'akrabbim, does not recommend itself, because the craggy heights of the “ascent of Akrabbim” (Num 34:4; Jos 15:3), which obliquely crossVid., Robinson’s Phys. Geogr. p. 51. the Ghôr to the south of the Dead Sea, and from remote times formed the southern boundary of the kingdom of the Amorites (Jdg 1:36), were too far off, and too seldom visited, to give its name to a gate of Heshbon. But generally the crowds of men at the gate and the topography of the gate are here nothing to the purpose; the splendour of the town, however, is for the figure of the famed cisterns like a golden border. בּרכה (from בּרך, to spread out, vid., Genesis, p. 98; Fleischer in Levy, I 420 b) denotes a skilfully built round or square pool. The comparison of the eyes to a pool means, as WetsteinZeitschr. für allgem. Erdkunde, 1859, p. 157 f. remarks, “either thus glistening like a water-mirror, or thus lovely in appearance, for the Arabian knows no greater pleasure than to look upon clear, gently rippling water.” Both are perhaps to be taken together; the mirroring glance of the moist eyes (cf. Ovid, De Arte Am. ii. 722):“Adspicies obulos tremulo fulgore micantes, Ut sol a liquida saepe refulget aqua” and the spell of the charm holding fast the gaze of the beholder. 4 bb Thy nose like the tower of Lebanon,        Which looks towards Damascus.

This comparison also places us in the midst of the architectural and artistic splendours of the Solomonic reign. A definite town is here meant; the art. determines it, and the part. following appositionally without the art., with the expression “towards Damascus” defining it more nearly (vid., under Sol 3:6), describes it. הלּמנון designates here “the whole Alpine range of mountains in the north of the land of Israel” (Furrer); for a tower which looks in the direction of Damascus (פּני, accus., as את־פּני,   1Sa 22:4) is to be thought of as standing on one of the eastern spurs of Hermon, or on the top of Amana (Sol 4:8), whence the Amana (Barada) takes its rise, whether as a watch-tower (2Sa 8:6), or only as a look-out from which might be enjoyed the paradisaical prospect. The nose gives to the face especially its physiognomical expression, and conditions its beauty. Its comparison to a tower on a lofty height is occasioned by the fact that Shulamith’s nose, without being blunt or flat, formed a straight line from the brow downward, without bending to the right or left (Hitzig), a mark of symmetrical beauty combined with awe-inspiring dignity. After the praise of the nose it was natural to think of Carmel; Carmel is a promontory, and as such is called anf el-jebel (“nose of the mountain-range”).

Sol 7:5 5 aa Thy head upon thee as Carmel.

We say that the head is “on the man” (2Ki 6:31; Judith 14:18), for we think of a man ideally as the central unity of the members forming the external appearance of his body. Shulamith’s head ruled her form, surpassing all in beauty and majesty, as Carmel with its noble and pleasing appearance ruled the land and sea at its feet. From the summit of Carmel, clothed with trees) Amo 9:3; 1Ki 18:42), a transition is made to the hair on the head, which the Moslem poets are fond of comparing to long leaves, as vine leaves and palm branches; as, on the other hand, the thick leafy wood is called (vid., under Isa 7:20) comata silva (cf. Oudendorp’s Apuleii Metam. p. 744). Grätz, proceeding on the supposition of the existence of Persian words in the Song, regards כרמל as the name of a colour; but (1) crimson is designated in the Heb.-Pers. not כרמל, but כרמיל, instead of תולעת שׁני (vid., under Isa 1:18; Pro 31:21); (2) if the hair of the head (if ראשׁך might be directly understood of this) may indeed be compared to the glistening of purple, not, however, to the listening of carmese or scarlet, then red and not black hair must be meant. But it is not the locks of hair, but the hair in locks that is meant. From this the eulogium finally passes to the hair of the head itself. 5 ab The flowing hair of thy head like purple -        A king fettered by locks.

Hitzig supposes that כרמל reminded the poet of כּרמיל (carmese), and that thus he hit upon ארגּמן (purple); but one would rather think that Carmel itself would immediately lead him to purple, for near this promontory is the principal place where purple shell-fish are found (Seetzen’s Reisen, IV 277 f.). דּלּה (from דּלל, to dangle, to hang loose, Job 28:4, Arab. tadladal) is res pendula, and particularly coma pendula. Hengst. remarks that the “purple” has caused much trouble to those who understand by דלה the hair of the head. He himself, with Gussetius, understand by it the temples,tempus capitis; but the word רקּה is used (Sol 4:3) for “temples,” and “purple-like” hair hanging down could occasion trouble only to those who know not how to distinguish purple from carmese. Red purple, ארגּמן (Assyr. argamannu, Aram., Arab., Pers., with departure from the primary meaning of the word, ארגּון ,drow eht), which derives this name from רגם = רקם, material of variegated colour, is dark-red, and almost glistening black, as Pliny says (Hist. Nat. ix. 135): Laus ei (the Tyrian purple) summa in colore sanguinis concreti, nigricans adspectu idemque suspectu (seen from the side) refulgens, unde et Homero purpureus dicitur sanguis. The purple hair of Nisus does not play a part in myth alone, but beautiful shining dark black hair is elsewhere also called purple, e.g., πυρφύρεος πλόκαμος in Lucian, πορφυραῖ χαῖται in Anacreon. With the words “like purple,” the description closes; and to this the last characteristic distinguishing Shulamith there is added the exclamation: “A king fettered by locks!” For רהטים, from רהט, to run, flow, is also a name of flowing locks, not the ear-locks (Hitz.), i.e., long ringlets flowing down in front; the same word (Sol 1:17) signifies in its North Palest. form רחיט (Chethı̂b), a water-trough, canalis. The locks of one beloved are frequently called in erotic poetry “the fetters” by which the lover is held fast, for “love wove her net in alluring ringlets” (Deshâmi in Joseph and Zuleika).Compare from the same poet: “Alas! thy braided hair, a heart is in every curl, and a dilemma in every ring” (Deut. Morg. Zeit. xxiv. 581).

Goethe in his Westöst. Divan presents as a bold yet moderate example: “There are more than fifty hooks in each lock of thy hair;” and, on the other hand, one offensively extravagant, when it is said of a Sultan: “In the bonds of thy locks lies fastened the neck of the enemy.” אסוּר signifies also in Arab. frequently one enslaved by love: asîruha is equivalent to her lov.Samaschshari, Mufaṣṣal, p. 8.

The mention of the king now leads from the imagery of a dance to the scene which follows, where we again hear the king’s voice. The scene and situation are now manifestly changed. We are transferred from the garden to the palace, where the two, without the presence of any spectators, carry on the following dialogue.

Sol 7:6 6 How beautiful art thou, and how charming,    O love, among delights!

It is a truth of all-embracing application which is here expressed. There is nothing more admirable than love, i.e., the uniting or mingling together of two lives, the one of which gives itself to the other, and so finds the complement of itself; nor than this self-devotion, which is at the same time self-enrichment. All this is true of earthly love, of which Walther v. d. Vogelweide says: “minne ist sweier herzen wünne” love is the joy of two hearts, and it is true also of heavenly love; the former surpasses all earthly delights (also such as are purely sensuous, Ecc 2:8), and the latter is, as the apostle expresses himself in his spiritual “Song of Songs,” 1Co 13:13, in relation to faith and hope, “greater than these,” greater than both of them, for it is their sacred, eternal aim. In יפית it is indicated that the idea, and in נעמתּ that the eudaemonistic feature of the human soul attains its satisfaction in love. The lxx, obliterating this so true and beautiful a promotion of love above all other joys, translate ἐν ταῖς τρυφαῖς σου (in the enjoyment which thou impartest). The Syr., Jerome, and others also rob the Song of this its point of light and of elevation, by reading אהמה O beloved! instead of אהבה. The words then declare (yet contrary to the spirit of the Hebrew language, which knows neither אהוּמה nor אהוּמתי as vocat.) what we already read at Sol 4:10; while, according to the traditional form of the text, they are the prelude of the love-song, to love as such, which is continued in Sol 8:6.

Sol 7:7-8

When Solomon now looks on the wife of his youth, she stands before him like a palm tree with its splendid leaf-branches, which the Arabians call ucht insân (the sisters of men); and like a vine which climbs up on the wall of the house, and therefore is an emblem of the housewife, Psa 128:3. 7 Thy stature is like the palm tree;    And thy breasts clusters. 8 I thought: I will climb the palm,    Grasp its branches;    And thy breasts shall be to me    As clusters of the vine,    And the breath of thy nose like apples,

Shulamith stands before him. As he surveys her from head to foot, he finds her stature like the stature of a slender, tall date-palm, and her breasts like the clusters of sweet fruit, into which, in due season its blossoms are ripened. That קומתך (thy stature) is not thought of as height apart from the person, but as along with the person (cf. Eze 13:18), scarcely needs to be remarked. The palm derives its name, tāmār, from its slender stem rising upwards (vid., under Isa 17:9; Isa 61:6). This name is specially given to the Phoenix dactylifera, which is indigenous from Egypt to India, and which is principally cultivated (vid., under Gen 14:7), the female flowers of which, set in panicles, develope into large clusters of juicy sweet fruit. These dark-brown or golden-yellow clusters, which crown the summit of the stem and impart a wonderful beauty to the appearance of the palm, especially when seen in the evening twilight, are here called אשׁוכלות (connecting form at Deu 32:32), as by the Arabians 'ithkal, plur. 'ithakyl (botri dactylorum). The perf. דּמתה signifies aequata est = aequa est; for דּמה, R. דם, means, to make or to become plain, smooth, even. The perf. אמרתּי, on the other hand, will be meant retrospectively. As an expression of that which he just now purposed to do, it would be useless; and thus to notify with emphasis anything beforehand is unnatural and contrary to good taste and custom. But looking back, he can say that in view of this august attractive beauty the one thought filled him, to secure possession of her and of the enjoyment which she promised; as one climbs (עלה with בּ, as Psa 24:3) a palm tree and seizes (אחז, fut. אחז, and אאחז with בּ, as at Job 23:11) its branches (סנסנּים, so called, as it appears,Also that סנסן is perhaps equivalent to סלסל (זלזל, תלתל), to wave hither and thither, comes here to view. after the feather-like pointed leaves proceeding from the mid-rib on both sides), in order to break off the fulness of the sweet fruit under its leaves. As the cypress (sarwat), so also the palm is with the Moslem poets the figure of a loved one, and with the mystics, of God;Vid., Hâfiz, ed. Brockhaus, II p. 46. and accordingly the idea of possession is here particularly intended. ויהיוּ־נא denotes what he then thought and aimed at. Instead of בּתּמר,   Sol 7:9, the punctuation בּתּמר is undoubtedly to be preferred. The figure of the palm tree terminates with the words, “will grasp its branches.” It was adequate in relation to stature, but less so in relation to the breasts; for dates are of a long oval form, and have a stony kernel. Therefore the figure departs from the date clusters to that of grape clusters, which are more appropriate, as they swell and become round and elastic the more they ripen. The breath of the nose, which is called אף, from breathing hard, is that of the air breathed, going in and out through it; for, as a rule, a man breathes through his nostrils with closed mouth. Apples present themselves the more naturally for comparison, that the apple has the name תּפּוּח (from נפח, after the form תּמכוּף), from the fragrance which it exhales.

Sol 7:9 9 aa And thy palate like the best wine. יין הטּוב is wine of the good kind, i.e., the best, as רע אושׁת, Pro 6:24, a woman of a bad kind, i.e., a bad woman; the neut. thought of as adject. is both times the gen. of the attribute, as at Pro 24:25 it is the gen. of the substratum. The punctuation כּיּין הטּוב (Hitz.) is also possible; it gives, however, the common instead of the delicate poetical expression. By the comparison one may think of the expressions, jungere salivas oris (Lucret.) and oscula per longas jungere pressa moras (Ovid). But if we have rightly understood Sol 4:11; Sol 5:16, the palate is mentioned much rather with reference to the words of love which she whispers in his ears when embracing her. Only thus is the further continuance of the comparison to be explained, and that it is Shulamith herself who continues it. 9 ab Which goes down for my beloved smoothly,        Which makes the lips of sleepers move.

The dramatic structure of the Song becomes here more strongly manifest than elsewhere before. Shulamith interrupts the king, and continues his words as if echoing them, but again breaks off. The lxx had here לדודי in the text. It might notwithstanding be a spurious reading. Hitzig suggests that it is erroneously repeated, as if from Sol 7:11. Ewald also (Hohesl. p. 137) did that before, - Heiligstedt, as usual, following him. But, as Ewald afterwards objected, the line would then be “too short, and not corresponding to that which follows.” But how shall לדודי now connect itself with Solomon’s words? Ginsburg explains: “Her voice is not merely compared to wine, because it is sweet to everybody, but to such wine as would be sweet to a friend, and on that account is more valuable and pleasant.” But that furnishes a thought digressing εἰς ἄλλο γένος; and besides, Ewald rightly remarks that Shulamith always uses the word דודי of her beloved, and that the king never uses it in a similar sense. He contends, however, against the idea that Shulamith here interrupts Solomon; for he replies to me (Jahrb. IV 75): “Such interruptions we certainly very frequently find in our ill-formed and dislocated plays; in the Song, however, not a solitary example of this is found, and one ought to hesitate in imagining such a thing.” He prefers the reading לדּודים beloved ones, although possibly לדודי, with î, abbreviated after the popular style of speech from îm, may be the same word. But is this ledodim not a useless addition? Is excellent wine good to the taste of friends merely; and does it linger longer in the palate of those not beloved than of those loving? And is the circumstance that Shulamith interrupts the king, and carried forward his words, not that which frequently also occurs in the Greek drama, as e.g., Eurip. Phoenissae, v. 608? The text as it stands before us requires an interchange of the speakers, and nothing prevents the supposition of such an interchange. In this idea Hengstenberg for once agrees with us. The Lamed in ledodi is meant in the same sense as when the bride drinks to the bridegroom, using the expression ledodi. The Lamed in למישׁרים is that of the defining norm, as the Beth in במי, Pro 23:31, is that of the accompanying circumstance: that which tastes badly sticks in the palate, but that which tastes pleasantly glides down directly and smoothly. But what does the phrase וגו דּובב שׂף mean? The lxx translate by ἱκανούμενος χείλεσί μου καὶ ὀδοῦσιν, “accommodating itself (Sym. προστιθέμενος) to my lips and teeth.” Similarly Jerome (omitting at least the false μου), labiisque et dentibus illius ad ruminandum, in which דּבּה, rumor, for דובב, seems to have led him to ruminare. Equally contrary to the text with Luther’s translation: “which to my friend goes smoothly goes, and speaks of the previous year;” a rendering which supposes ישׁנים (as also the Venet.) instead of ישׁנים (good wine which, as it were, tells of former years), and, besides, disregards שׁפתי. The translation: “which comes at unawares upon the lips of the sleepers,” accords with the language (Heiligst., Hitz.). But that gives no meaning, as if one understood by ישׁנים, as Gesen. and Ewald do, una in eodem toro cubantes; but in this case the word ought to have been שׁכבים. Since, besides, such a thing is known as sleeping through drink or speaking in sleep, but not of drinking in sleep, our earlier translation approves itself: which causes the lips of sleepers to speak. This interpretation is also supported by a proverb in the Talm. Jebamoth 97 a, Jer. Moeed Katan, iii. 7, etc., which, with reference to the passage under review, says that if any one in this world adduces the saying of a righteous man in his name (רוחשׁות or מרחשׁות), שׂפתותיו דובבות בקבר. But it is an error inherited from Buxtorf, that דובבות means there loquuntur, and, accordingly, that דובב of this passage before us means loqui faciens. It rather means (vid., Aruch), bullire, stillare, manare (cogn. זב, טף, Syn. רחשׁ), since, as that proverb signifies, the deceased experiences an after-taste of his saying, and this experience expresses itself in the smack of the lips; and דּובב, whether it be part. Kal or Po. = מדובב, thus: brought into the condition of the overflowing, the after-experience of drink that has been partaken of, and which returns again, as it were, ruminando. The meaning “to speak” is, in spite of Parchon and Kimchi (whom the Venet., with its φθεγγόμενος, follows), foreign to the verb; for דּבּה also means, not discourse, but sneaking, and particularly sneaking calumny, and, generally, fama repens. The calumniator is called in Arab. dabûb, as in Heb. רכיל.

We now leave it undecided whether in דובב, of this passage before us, that special idea connected with it in the Gemara is contained; but the roots דב and זב are certainly cogn., they have the fundamental idea of a soft, noiseless movement generally, and modify this according as they are referred to that which is solid or fluid. Consequently דּבב, as it means in lente incedere (whence the bear has the name דּב), is also capable of being interpreted leniter se movere, and trans. leniter movere, according to which the Syr. here translates, quod commovet labia mea et dentes meos (this absurd bringing in of the teeth is from the lxx and Aq.), and the Targ. allegorizes, and whatever also in general is the meaning of the Gemara as far as it exchanges דובבות for רוחשות (vid., Levy under רחשׁ). Besides, the translations qui commovet and qui loqui facit fall together according to the sense. For when it is said of generous wine, that it makes the lips of sleepers move, a movement is meant expressing itself in the sleeper speaking. But generous wine is a figure of the love-responses of the beloved, sipped in, as it were, with pleasing satisfaction, which hover still around the sleepers in delightful dreams, and fill them with hallucinations.

Sol 7:10 10 I am my beloved’s      And to me goeth forth his desire.

After the words “I am my beloved's,” we miss the “and my beloved is mine” of Sol 6:3, cf. Sol 2:16, which perhaps had dropped out. The second line here refers back to Gen 3:16, for here, as there, תּשׁוּקה, from שׁוּק, to impel, move, is the impulse of love as a natural power. When a wife is the object of such passion, it is possible that, on the one side, she feels herself very fortunate therein; and, on the other side, if the love, in its high commendations, becomes excessive, oppressed, and when she perceive that in her love-relation she is the observed of many eyes, troubled. It is these mingled feelings which move Shulamith when she continues the praise so richly lavished on her in words which denote what she might be to the king, but immediately breaks off in order that, as the following verse now shows, she might use this superabundance of his love for the purpose of setting forth her request, and thus of leading into another path; her simple, child-like disposition longs for the quietness and plainness of rural life, away from the bustle and display of city and court life.

Sol 7:11 11 Up, my lover, we will go into the country,      Lodge in the villages.

Hitzig here begins a new scene, to which he gives the superscription: “Shulamith making haste to return home with her lov.” The advocate of the shepherd-hypothesis thinks that the faithful Shulamith, after hearing Solomon’s panegyric, shakes her head and says: “I am my beloved's.” To him she calls, “Come, my beloved;” for, as Ewald seeks to make this conceivable: the golden confidence of her near triumph lifts her in spirit forthwith above all that is present and all that is actual; only to him may she speak; and as if she were half here and half already there, in the midst of her rural home along with him, she says, “Let us go out into the fields,” etc. In fact, there is nothing more incredible than this Shulamitess, whose dialogue with Solomon consists of Solomon’s addresses, and of answers which are directed, not to Solomon, but in a monologue to her shepherd; and nothing more cowardly and more shadowy than this lover, who goes about in the moonlight seeking his beloved shepherdess whom he has lost, glancing here and there through the lattices of the windows and again disappearing. How much more justifiable is the drama of the Song by the French Jesuit C. F. Menestrier (born in Sion 1631, died 1705), who, in his two little works on the opera and the ballet, speaks of Solomon as the creator of the opera, and regards the Song as a shepherd-play, in which his love-relation to the daughter of the king of Egypt is set forth under the allegorical figures of the love of a shepherd and a shepherdess!Vid., Eugène Despris in the Revue politique et litteraire 1873. The idea was not new. This also was the sentiment of Fray Luis de Leon; vid., his Biographie by Wilkens (1866), p. 209.

For Shulamith is thought of as a רעה shepherdess, Sol 1:8, and she thinks of Solomon as a רעה shepherd. She remains so in her inclination even after her elevation to the rank of a queen. The solitude and glory of external nature are dearer to her than the bustle and splendour of the city and the court. Hence her pressing out of the city to the country. השׂדה is local, without external designation, like rus (to the country).     כּפרים (here and at 1Ch 27:25) is plur. of the unused form כּפר (constr. כּפר, Jos 18:24) or כּפר, Arab. kafar (cf. the Syr. dimin. kafrûno, a little town), instead of which it is once pointed כּפר,    1Sa 6:18, of that name of a district of level country with which a multitude of later Palest. names of places, such as כּפר נחוּם, are connected. Ewald, indeed, understands kephārim as at Sol 4:13 : we will lodge among the fragrant Al-henna bushes. But yet בּכּף cannot be equivalent to תּחת הכפרים; and since לין (probably changed from ליל) and השׁכים,   Sol 7:13, stand together, we must suppose that they wished to find a bed in the henna bushes; which, if it were conceivable, would be too gipsy-like, even for a pair of lovers of the rank of shepherds (vid., Job 30:7). No. Shulamith’s words express a wish for a journey into the country: they will there be in freedom, and at night find shelter (בכף, as 1Ch 27:25 and Neh 6:2, where also the plur. is similarly used), now in this and now in that country place. Spoken to the supposed shepherd, that would be comical, for a shepherd does not wander from village to village; and that, returning to their home, they wished to turn aside into villages and spend the night there, cannot at all be the meaning. But spoken of a shepherdess, or rather a vine-dresser, who has been raised to the rank of queen, it accords with her relation to Solomon, - they are married, - as well as with the inexpressible impulse of her heart after her earlier homely country-life. The former vine-dresser, the child of the Galilean hills, the lily of the valley, speaks in the verses following.

Sol 7:12-13 12 In the morning we will start for the vineyards,      See whether the vine is in bloom,      Whether the vine-blossoms have opened,      The pomegranates budded -      There will I give thee my love. 13 The mandrakes breathe a pleasant odour,      And over our doors are all kinds of excellent fruits,      New, also old,      Which, my beloved, I have kept for thee.

As the rising up early follows the tarrying over night, the description of that which is longed for moves forward. As השׁכּים is denom. of שׁכם, and properly signifies only to shoulder, i.e., to rise, make oneself ready, when early going forth needs to be designated it has generally בּבּקר (cf. Jos 6:15) along with it; yet this word may also be wanting, 1Sa 9:26; 1Sa 17:16. נשׁךּ לכּר = נשׁב ונלך לבר, an abbreviation of the expression which is also found in hist. prose, Gen 19:27; cf. 2Ki 19:9. They wished in the morning, when the life of nature can best be observed, and its growth and progress and striving upwards best contemplated, to see whether the vine had opened, i.e., unfolded (thus, Sol 6:11), whether the vine-blossom (vid., at Sol 2:13) had expanded (lxx ἤνθησεν ὁ κυπρισμός), whether the pomegranate had its flowers or flower-buds (הנצוּ, as at Sol 6:11); פּתּח is here, as at Isa 48:8; Isa 60:11, used as internally transitive: to accomplish or to undergo the opening, as also (Arab.) fattaḥVid., Fleischer, Makkari, 1868, p. 271. is used of the blooming of flowers, for (Arab.) tafttaḥ (to unfold). The vineyards, inasmuch as she does not say כּרמינוּ, are not alone those of her family, but generally those of her home, but of her home; for these are the object of her desire, which in this pleasant journey with her beloved she at once in imagination reaches, flying, as it were, over the intermediate space. There, in undisturbed quietness, and in a lovely region consecrating love, will she give herself to him in the entire fulness of her love. By דּדי she means the evidences of her love (vid., under Sol 4:10; Sol 1:2), which she will there grant to him as thankful responses to his own. Thus she speaks in the spring-time, in the month Ijjar, corresponding to our Wonnemond (pleasure-month, May), and seeks to give emphasis to her promise by this, that she directs him to the fragrant “mandragoras,” and to the precious fruits of all kinds which she has kept for him on the shelf in her native home. דּוּדי (after the form לוּלי), love’s flower, is the mandragora officinalis, L., with whitish green flowers and yellow apples of the size of nutmegs, belonging to the Solanaceae; its fruits and roots are used as an aphrodisiac, therefore this plant was called by the Arabs abd al-sal'm, the servant of love, postillon d'amour; the son of Leah found such mandrakes (lxx Gen 30:14, μῆλα μανδραγορῶν) at the time of the vintage, which falls in the month of Ijjar; they have a strong but pleasant odour. In Jerusalem mandrakes are rare; but so much the more abundantly are they found growing wild in Galilee, whither Shulamith is transported in spirit. Regarding the מגדים (from מגד, occurring in the sing. exclusively in the blessing of Moses, Deut 33), which in the Old Testament is peculiar to the Song, vid., Sol 4:13, Sol 4:16. From “over our doors,” down to “I have kept for thee,” is, according to the lxx, Syr., Jerome, and others, one sentence, which in itself is not inadmissible; for the object can precede its verb, Sol 3:3, and can stand as the subject between the place mentioned and the verb, Isa 32:13, also as the object, 2Ch 31:6, which, as in the passage before us, may be interpunctuated with Athnach for the sake of emphasis; in the bibl. Chald. this inverted sequence of the words is natural, e.g., Dan 2:17. But such a long-winded sentence is at least not in the style of the Song, and one does not rightly see why just “over our doors” has the first place in it. I therefore formerly translated it as did Luther, dividing it into parts: “and over our doors are all kinds of precious fruits; I have,” etc. But with this departure from the traditional division of the verse nothing is gained; for the “keeping” (laying up) refers naturally to the fruits of the preceding year, and in the first instance can by no means refer to fruits of this year, especially as Shulamith, according to the structure of the poem, has not visited her parental home since her home-bringing in marriage, and now for the first time, in the early summer, between the barley harvest and the wheat harvest, is carried away thither in her longing. Therefore the expression, “my beloved, I have kept for thee,” is to be taken by itself, but not as an independent sentence (Böttch.), but is to be rendered, with Ewald, as a relative clause; and this, with Hitz., is to be referred to ישׁנים (old). Col refers to the many sorts of precious fruits which, after the time of their ingathering, are divided into “new and old” (Mat 13:52). The plur. “our doors,” which as amplif. poet. would not be appropriate here, supposes several entrances into her parents’ home; and since “I have kept” refers to a particular preserving of choice fruits, al does not (Hitzig) refer to a floor, such as the floor above the family dwelling or above the barn, but to the shelf above the inner doors, a board placed over them, on which certain things are wont to be laid past for some particular object. She speaks to the king like a child; for although highly elevated, she yet remains, without self-elation, a child.

The Beauty of the Church; The Complacency of Christ in His Church.

1 How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter! the joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman. 2 Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor: thy belly is like a heap of wheat set about with lilies. 3 Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins. 4 Thy neck is as a tower of ivory; thine eyes like the fishpools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim: thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus. 5 Thine head upon thee is like Carmel, and the hair of thine head like purple; the king is held in the galleries. 6 How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights! 7 This thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes. 8 I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples; 9 And the roof of thy mouth like the best wine for my beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak.

The title which Jesus Christ here gives to the church is new: O prince's daughter! agreeing with Ps. xlv. 13, where she is called the king's daughter. She is so in respect of her new birth, born from above, begotten of God, and his workmanship, bearing the image of the King of kings, and guided by his Spirit. She is so by marriage; Christ, by betrothing her to himself, though he found her mean and despicable, has made her a prince's daughter. She has a princely disposition, something in her truly noble and generous; she is daughter and heir to the prince of the kings of the earth. If children, then heirs. Now here we have,

I. A copious description of the beauty of the spouse, which, some think, is given by the virgins her companions, and that those were they who called upon her to return; it seems rather to be given by Christ himself, and to be designed to express his love to her and delight in her, as before, ch. iv. 1, &c., and ch. vi. 5, 6. The similitudes are here different from what they were before, to show that the beauty of holiness is such as nothing in nature can reach; you may still say more of it, and yet still come short of it. That commendation of the spouse, ch. iv., was immediately upon the espousals (ch. iii. 11), this upon her return from a by-path (ch. vi. 13); yet this exceeds that, to show the constancy of Christ's love to his people; he loves them to the end, since he made them precious in his sight and honourable. The spouse had described the beauty of her beloved in ten particulars (ch. v. 11, &c.); and now he describes her in as many, for he will not be behindhand with her in respects and endearments. Those that honour Christ he will certainly honour, and make honourable. As the prophet, in describing the corruptions of degenerate Israel, reckons from the sole of the foot even unto the head (Isa. i. 6), so here the beauties of the church are reckoned from foot to head, that, as the apostle speaks, when he is comparing the church, as here, to the natural body (1 Cor. xii. 23), more abundant honour might be bestowed on those parts of the body which we think to be less honourable, and which therefore lacked honour, v. 24. 1. Her feet are here praised; the feet of Christ's ministers are beautiful in the eyes of the church (Isa. lii. 7), and her feet are here said to be beautiful in the eyes of Christ. How beautiful are thy feet with shoes! When believers, being made free from the captivity of sin (Acts xii. 8), stand fast in the liberty with which they are made free, preserve the tokens of their enfranchisement, have their feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and walk steadily according to the rule of the gospel, then their feet are beautiful with shoes; they tread firmly, being well armed against the troubles they meet with in their way. When we rest not in good affections, but they are accompanied with sincere endeavors and resolutions, then our feet are beautified with shoes. See Ezek. xvi. 10. 2. The joint of the thighs are here said to be like jewels, and those curiously wrought by a cunning workman. This is explained by Eph. iv. 16 and Col. ii. 19, where the mystical body of Christ is said to be held together by joints and bands, as the hips and knees (both which are the joints of the thighs) serve the natural body in its strength and motion. The church is then comely in Christ's eyes when those joints are kept firm by holy love and unity, and the communion of saints. When believers act in religion from good principles, and are steady and regular in their whole conversation, and turn themselves easily to every duty in its time and place, then the joints are like jewels. 3. The navel is here compared to a round cup or goblet, that wants not any of the agreeable liquor that one would wish to find in it, such as David's cup that ran over (Ps. xxiii. 5), well shaped, and not as that miserable infant whose navel was not cut, Ezek. xvi. 4. The fear of the Lord is said to be health to the navel. See Prov. iii. 8. When the soul wants not that fear then the navel wants not liquor. 4. The belly is like a heap of wheat in the store-chamber, which perhaps was sometimes, to make show, adorned with flowers. The wheat is useful, the lilies are beautiful; there is every thing in the church which may be to the members of that body either for use or for ornament. All the body is nourished from the belly; it denotes the spiritual prosperity of a believer and the healthful constitution of the soul all in good plight. 5. The breasts are like two young roes that are twins, v. 3. By the breasts of the church's consolations those are nourished who are born from its belly (Isa. xlvi. 3), and by the navel received nourishment in the womb. This comparison we had before, ch. iv. 5. 6. The neck, which before was compared to the tower of David (ch. iv. 4), is here compared to a tower of ivory, so white, so precious; such is the faith of the saints, by which they are joined to Christ their head. The name of the Lord, improved by faith, is to the saints as a strong and impregnable tower. 7. The eyes are compared to the fish-pools in Heshbon, or the artificial fish-ponds, by a gate, either of Jerusalem or Heshbon, which is called Bath-rabbim, the daughter of a multitude, because a great thoroughfare. The understanding, the intentions of a believer, are clean and clear as these ponds. The eyes, weeping for sin, are as fountains (Jer. ix. 1), and comely with Christ. 8. The nose is like the tower of Lebanon, the forehead or face set like a flint (Isa. l. 7), undaunted as that tower was impregnable. So it denotes the magnanimity and holy bravery of the church, or (as others) a spiritual sagacity to discern things that differ, as animals strangely distinguish by the smell. This tower looks towards Damascus, the head city of Syria, denoting the boldness of the church in facing its enemies and not fearing them. 9. The head like Carmel, a very high hill near the sea, v. 5. The head of a believer is lifted up above his enemies (Ps. xxvii. 6), above the storms of the lower region, as the top of Carmel was, pointing heaven-ward. The more we get above this world, and the nearer to heaven, and the more secure and serene we become by that means, the more amiable we are in the eyes of the Lord Jesus. 10. The hair of the head is said to be like purple. This denotes the universal amiableness of a believer in the eyes of Christ, even to the hair, or (as some understand it) the pins with which the hair is dressed. Some by the head and the hair understand the governors of the church, who, if they be careful to do their duty, add much to her comeliness. The head like crimson (so some read it) and the hair like purple, the two colours worn by great men.

II. The complacency which Christ takes in his church thus beautified and adorned. She is lovely indeed if she be so in his eyes; as he puts the comeliness upon her, so it is his love that makes this comeliness truly valuable, for he is an unexceptionable judge. 1. He delighted to look upon his church, and to converse with it, rejoicing in that habitable part of his earth: The king is held in the galleries, and cannot leave them. This is explained by Ps. cxxxii. 13, 14, The Lord has chosen Zion, saying, This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell; and Ps. cxlvii. 11, The Lord takes pleasure in those that fear him. And, if Christ has such delight in the galleries of communion with his people, much more reason have they to delight in them, and to reckon a day there better than a thousand. 2. He was even struck with admiration at the beauty of his church (v. 6): How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love! How art thou made fair! (so the word is), "not born so, but made so with the comeliness which I have put upon thee." Holiness is a beauty beyond expression; the Lord Jesus is wonderfully pleased with it; the outward aspect of it is fair; the inward disposition of it is pleasant and highly agreeable, and the complacency he has in it is inexpressible. O my dearest for delights! so some read. 3. He determined to keep up communion with his church. (1.) To take hold of her as of the boughs of a palm-tree. He compares her stature to a palm-tree (v. 7), so straight, so strong, does she appear, when she is looked upon in her full proportion. The palm-tree is observed to flourish most when it is loaded; so the church, the more it has been afflicted, the more it has multiplied; and the branches of it are emblems of victory. Christ says, "I will go up to the palm-tree, to entertain myself with the shadow of it (v. 8) and I will take hold of its boughs and observe the beauty of them." What Christ has said he will do, in favour to his people; we may be sure he will do it, for his kind purposes are never suffered to fall to the ground; and if he take hold of the boughs of his church, take early hold of her branches, when they are young and tender, he will keep his hold and not let them go. (2.) To refresh himself with her fruits. He compares her breasts (her pious affections towards him) to clusters of grapes, a most pleasant fruit (v. 7), and he repeats it (v. 8): They shall be (that is, they shall be to me) as clusters of the vine, which make glad the heart. "Now that I come up to the palm-tree thy graces shall be exerted and excited." Christ's presence with his people kindles the holy heavenly fire in their souls, and then their breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, a cordial to themselves and acceptable to him. And since God, at first, breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and breathes the breath of the new life still, the smell of their nostrils is like the smell of apples, or oranges, which is pleasing and reviving. The Lord smelt a sweet savour from Noah's sacrifice, Gen. viii. 21. And, lastly, the roof of her mouth is like the best wine (v. 9); her spiritual taste and relish, or the words she speaks of God and man, which come not from the teeth outward, but from the roof of the mouth, these are pleasing to God. The prayer of the upright is his delight. And, when those that fear the Lord speak one to another as becomes them, the Lord hearkens, and hears with pleasure, Mal. iii. 16. It is like that wine which is, [1.] Very palatable and grateful to the taste. It goes down sweetly; it goes straightly (so the margin reads it); it moves itself aright, Prov. xxiii. 31. The pleasures of sense seem right to the carnal appetite, and go down smoothly, but they are often wrong, and, compared with the pleasure of communion with God, they are harsh and rough. Nothing goes down so sweetly with a gracious soul as the wine of God's consolations. [2.] It is a great cordial. The presence of Christ by his Spirit with him people shall be reviving and refreshing to them, as that strong wine which makes the lips even of those that are asleep (that are ready to faint away in a deliquium), to speak. Unconverted sinners are asleep; saints are often drowsy, and listless, and half asleep; but the word and Spirit of Christ will put life and vigour into the soul, and out of the abundance of the heart that is thus filledthe mouth will speak. When the apostles were filled with the Spirit they spoke with tongues the wonderful works of God (Acts ii. 10, 12); and those who in opposition to being drunk with wine, wherein is excess, are filled with the Spirit, speak to themselves in psalms and hymns, Eph. v. 18, 19. When Christ is thus commending the sweetness of his spouse's love, excited by the manifestation of his, she seems to put in that word, for my beloved, as in a parenthesis. "Is there any thing in me that is pleasant or valuable? As it is from, so it is for my beloved." Then he delights in our good affections and services, when they are all for him and devoted to his glory.

Desiring Communion with Christ; The Love of the Church to Christ.

10 I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me. 11 Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages. 12 Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves. 13 The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.

These are the words of the spouse, the church, the believing soul, in answer to the kind expressions of Christ's love in the foregoing verses.

I. She here triumphs in her relation to Christ and her interest in him, and in his name will she boast all the day long. With what a transport of joy and holy exultation does she say (v. 10), "I am my beloved's, not my own, but entirely devoted to him and owned by him." If we can truly say that Christ is our best beloved, we may be confident that we are his and he will save us, Ps. cxix. 94. The gracious discoveries of Christ's love to us should engage us greatly to rejoice in the hold he has of us, his sovereignty over us and property in us, which is no less a spring of comfort than a bond of duty. Intimacy of communion with Christ should help clear up our interest in him. Glorying in this, that she is his, to serve him, and reckoning that her honour, she comforts herself with this, that his desire is towards her, that is, he is her husband; it is a periphrasis of the conjugal relation, Gen. iii. 16. Christ's desire was strongly towards his chosen remnant, when he came from heaven to earth to seek and save them; and when, in pursuance of his undertaking, he was even straitened till the baptism of blood he was to pass through for them was accomplished, Luke xii. 50. He desired Zion for a habitation; this is a comfort to believers that, whosoever slights them, Christ has a desire towards them, such a desire as will again bring him from heaven to earth to receive them to himself; for he longs to have them all with him, John xvii. 24; xiv. 3.

II. She humbly and earnestly desires communion with him (v. 11, 12): "Come, my beloved, let us take a walk together, that I may receive counsel, instruction, and comfort from thee, and may make known my wants and grievances to thee, with freedom, and without interruption." Thus Christ can walk with the two disciples that were going to the village called Emmaus, and talked with them, till he made their hearts burn within them. Observe here, 1. Having received fresh tokens of his love, and full assurances of her interest in him, she presses forward towards further acquaintance with him; as blessed Paul, who desired yet more and more of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, Phil. iii. 8. Christ has made it to appear how much his desire is towards us, and we are very ungrateful if ours be not towards him. Note, Communion with Christ is that which all that are sanctified earnestly breathe after; and the clearer discoveries he makes to them of his love the more earnestly do they desire it. Sensual pleasures pall the carnal appetite, and soon give it surfeit, but spiritual delights whet the desires, the language of which is, Nothing more than God, but still more and more of him. Christ had said, I will go up to the palm-tree. Come, saith she, Let us go. The promises Christ has made us of communion with him are not to supersede, but quicken and encourage, our prayers for that communion. 2. She desires to go forth into the fields and villages to have this communion with him. Those that would converse with Christ must go forth from the world and the amusements of it, must avoid every thing that would divert the mind and be a hindrance to it when it should be wholly taken up with Christ; we must contrive how to attend upon the Lord without distraction (1 Cor. vii. 35), for therefore the spouse here covets to get out of the noise of the town. Let us go forth to him without the camp, Heb. xiv. 13. Solitude and retirement befriend communion with God; therefore Isaac went out into the field to meditate and pray. Enter into thy closet, and shut thy door. A believer is never less alone than when alone with Christ, where no eye sees. 3. Having business to go abroad, to look after their grounds, she desires the company of her beloved. Note, Wherever we are, we may keep up our communion with God, if it be not our own fault, for he is always at our right hand, his eye always upon us, and both his word and his ear always nigh us. By going about our worldly affairs with heavenly holy hearts, mixing pious thoughts with common actions, and having our eyes ever towards the Lord, we may take Christ along with us whithersoever we go. Nor should we go any whither where we cannot in faith ask him to go along with us. 4. She is willing to rise betimes, to go along with her beloved: Let us get up early to the vineyards. It intimates her care to improve opportunities of conversing with her beloved; when the time appointed has come, we must lose no time, but, as the woman (Mark xvi. 2), go very early, though it be to a sepulchre, if we be in hopes to meet him there. Those that will go abroad with Christ must begin betimes with him, early in the morning of their days, must begin every day with him, seek him early, seek him diligently. 5. She will be content to take up her lodging in the villages, the huts or cottages which the country people built for their shelter when they attended their business in the fields; there, in these mean and cold dwellings, she will gladly reside, if she may but have her beloved with her. His presence will make them fine and pleasant, and convert them into palaces. A gracious soul can reconcile itself to the poorest accommodations, if it may have communion with God in them. 6. The most pleasant delightful fields, even in the spring-time, when the country is most pleasant, will not satisfy her, unless she have her beloved with her. No delights on earth can make a believer easy, unless he enjoy God in all.

III. She desires to be better acquainted with the state of her own soul and the present posture of its affairs (v. 12): Let us see if the vine flourish. Our own souls are our vineyards; they are, or should be, planted with vines and pomegranates, choice and useful trees. We are made keepers of these vineyards, and therefore are concerned often to look into them, to examine the state of our own souls, to seek whether the vine flourishes, whether our graces be in act and exercise, whether we be fruitful in the fruits of righteousness, and whether our fruit abound. And especially let us enquire whether the tender grape appear and whether the pomegranates bud forth, what good motions and dispositions there are in us that are yet but young and tender, that they may be protected and cherished with a particular care, and may not be nipped, or blasted, or rubbed off, but cultivated, that they may bring forth fruit unto perfection. In this enquiry into our own spiritual state, it will be good to take Christ along with us, because his presence will make the vine flourish and the tender grape appear, as the returning sun revives the gardens, and because to him we are concerned to approve ourselves. If he sees the vine flourish, and the tender grape appear—if we can appeal to him, Thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee,—if his Spirit witness with our spirit that our souls prosper, it is enough. And, if we would be acquainted with ourselves, we must beg of him to search and try us, to help us in the search, and discover us to ourselves.

IV. She promises to her beloved the best entertainment she can give him at her country seat; for he will come in to us, and sup with us, Rev. iii. 20. 1. She promises him her best affections; and, whatever else she had for him, it would utterly be contemned if her heart were not entire for him: "There therefore will I give thee my love; I will repeat the professions of it, honour thee with the tokens of it; and the out-goings of my soul towards thee in adorations and desires shall be quickened and enlarged, and my heart offered up to thee in a holy fire." 2. She promises him her best provision, v. 13. "There we shall find pleasant odours, for the mandrakes give a smell;" the love-flowers or lovely ones (so the word signifies), or the love-fruits; it was something that was in all respects very grateful, so valuable that Rachel and Leah had like to have fallen out above it, Gen. xxx. 14. "We shall also find that which is good for food, as well as pleasant to the eye, all the rarities that the country affords: At our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits." Note, (1.) The fruits and exercises of grace are pleasant to the Lord Jesus. (2.) These must be carefully laid up for him, devoted to his service and honour, must be always ready to us when we have occasion for them, as that which is laid up at our gates, that, by our bringing forth much fruit, he may be glorified, John xv. 18. (3.) There is a great variety of these pleasant fruits, with which our souls should be well stocked; we must have all sorts of them, grace for all occasions, new and old, as the good householder has in his treasury, not only the products of this year, but remainders of the last, Matt. xiii. 52. We must not only have that ready to us, for the service of Christ, which we have heard, and learned, and experienced lately, but must retain that which we have formerly gathered; nor must we content ourselves only with what we have laid up in store in the days of old, but, as long as we live, must be still adding something new to it, that our stock may increase, and we may be thoroughly furnished for every good work. (4.) Those that truly love Christ will think all they have, even their most pleasant fruits, and what they have treasured up most carefully, too little to be bestowed upon him, and he is welcome to it all; if it were more and better, it should be at his service. It is all from him, and therefore it is fit it should be all for him.

CHAP. VII. Verſ. 1. How beautiful are thy [illegible: 1 letter]eet with ſhooes, &c.]

BEfore hee had deſcribed her from head to foot, now back again, from foot to head; taking in ten parts of his Spouſe, concerning whom (ſuch was his love) hee thought hee could never ſay ſufficient: Hee begins at the loweſt and moſt abject part, the feet, not without admiration of them. O quam pulchri ſunt pedes tui! O how beautiful are thy feet with ſhooes, &c! A temporal calling honours our profeſſion: ſo ſome underſtand it. Others make the meaning to bee, the Churches being ſhod with the preparation of the Goſpel of peace; ready preſt to run with patience the race that is ſet before her; To run, is active, to run with patience, is paſſive.Epheſ. 6.15. Heb. 12.1. This Princes daughter, (Atalanta-like) can only skill of this running with patience: as being ſhod with Tachaſh-skin, Ezek. 16.10. (beſtowed upon her by her Spouſe, as a love-token) that is, with ſound affections, and holy actions. Whereas wicked men are carried captive by the devill, (as the Egyptians once were by the Aſſyrians, Iſa. 20.4.) naked and bare-foot, and ſo periſh from the way, Pſal. 2.12.

O Princes daughter] Thou that haſt him for thy father, in whoſe hands are all the corners of the earth, and is ſupream King of the Univerſe. This is ſuch a priviledge and preferment, as St. John ſtands amazed at, 1 Joh. 3.1. Behold, ſaith he, qualem & quantum, what manner of love the Father hath ſhewed unto us, that wee ſhould bee called the ſons and daughters of God Almighty, 2 Cor. 6.18. All priviledges are ſummed up in this, and John 1.12. it is called a power or prerogative royal: [non-Latin text not transcribed]. it is to bee of the blood Royal of heaven: It is to be an heir of God, and coheir with Chriſt. Kings can make their firſt-born onely heirs, as Jehoſaphat, 2. Chron. 21.3. But all Gods children are firſt-born, and ſo, higher than the Kings of the earth, Pſal. 89.27.

The joynts of thy thighs are like jewels, &c.] i. e. Thy loyns are compaſſed with the girdle of truth: for ſo ſome render it, The compaſſing of thy thighs or loyns. And here, if ever, ungirt, unbleſt. Gird up therefore the loyns of your mindes, 1 Pet. 1.13. gird your ſelves and ſerve God, Luk. 17.8. Girding implies readineſs, nimbleneſs, handineſs, handſomeneſs. A looſe, diſcinct, and diffluent minde, is unfit for holy actions.

Verſ. 2. Thy navell is like a round goblet, &c.] There be that expound this text of the two Sacraments. The navell is Baptiſm that nouriſheth new-born babes in the womb of the Church. See hence the uſe of it, even to Infants; who can receive nouriſhment by the navell, though they can neither take nor chew, nor ſuck meat with hand or mouth. Note this againſt Anabaptiſts (ſaith Mr. Cotton upon theſe words) this navell never wants liquor: there is a continual matter of inſtruction and comfort to bee fetcht from Baptiſm againſt all temptations. A Chriſtian (ſaith Chryſoſtome) ſhould never ſtep out of doors, or lye down in his bed, or go into his cloſet, but hee ſhould remember that word, Abrenuncio, I forſake the devill and all his works, &c. Luther tells of a certain holy virgin, that uſed to quench the Devills fiery darts with the water of Baptiſm: For as often as ſhee was tempted to do any thing not beſeeming her profeſſion, ſhee would reſiſt the devil, ſtedfaſt in the faith, and ſtop his mouth with this ſhort, but full anſwer, Chriſtiana ſum, I am a Chriſtian, I have been Baptized into the death of Chriſt, I have alſo put on Chriſt by Baptiſm, I am a votary, the vows of God are upon me, &c. But what an horrible ſhame is that to the Papiſts, and what a ſore ſtumbling-block muſt it needs be to the poor Jews that live amongſt them, that in Rome a Jewiſh maid may not be admitted into the ſtews of whoredome, unleſs ſhe will be firſt baptized? This is related and bewayled by Eſpencaeus a moderate Papiſt.De contin. lib. 3. cap. 4.

Thy belly is like an heap of wheat, ſet about with Lillies] Some underſtand hereby that other Sacrament of the Lords Supper, called an heap of wheat, for its ſtore of excellent nouriſhment: and ſaid to bee ſet about with lillies, that is, with Chriſtians, white and of holy converſation. Baſil calls ſuch, ſtars of the world, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. and flowers of the Churches. Chryſoſtome calls them earthly Angels: and ſaith, that they were Puriores coelo, purer than the heaven in their common converſation: but eſpecially when they came to the Lords table, that dreadfultable, as hee calleth it; whereunto all muſt come with the beſt preparation they can make, waſh and bee clean, waſh their hands in innocency before they compaſs Gods Altar: waſh their hearts, Jer. 4.14. their feet, John 13.10. Hee that is waſhed (ſc. for the out-ſide) needeth not ſave to waſh his feet, but is clean every whit. An alluſion to thoſe, that having bathed their bodies, foul their feet by going out of the Bath, and ſo are fain to waſh them again. The inwards and the feet in a ſacrifice were to bee waſhed above the reſt, becauſe the intrails contain the excrements, and the legs tread in the dirt. The ſoul is apt to gather ſoil by medling with earthly things, though lawful: how much more to be defiled with the ſoot of ſin, as if ſhee had lain among the pots? All Chriſts Nazarites, his Votaries, muſt come to his feaſt purer than ſnow, whiter than milk, &c. Lam, 4.7. ſith at this Sacrament they do renew the Nuptials of Chriſt; and take a corporal oath to cleave cloſe to him with full purpoſe of heart all the days of their lives. As for thoſe that preſume to come unpreparedly, that want their wedding garment, they are no otherwiſe bidden to the feaſt of the King, than Haman was to Queen Eſthers. Sin brought to the Sacrament, petitions againſt a man, as Eſther did againſt Haman at the banquer of wine;Eſth. 7.2, 6. pick out that time, and he ſhall find God no leſs angry, than Haman did Ahaſuerus. For this is that which the Lord hath ſaid, I will be ſanctified in all them that draw neer unto mee. Of communicants God ſeems to ſay, as Solomon did of Adonijah, If hee ſhew himſelf a worthy man, there, ſhall not one hair of him fall to the earth: but if wickedneſs bee found in him, he ſhall die, 1 King. 1.52.

Verſ. 3. Thy two breaſts are like two young roes] Freſh and luſty, even and equal. Underſtand the two Teſtaments; hereunto reſembled for their perfect agreement, amiable proportion, and ſwift running all the world over in a ſhort time. Euſebius ſaith, that the Doctrine of both Teſtaments was preſently after our Saviours reſurrection carried abroad into all countries as it were, upon Eagles wings. The like may be ſaid of Luther and his Collegues in Germany at the firſt Reformation there, which, as lightning, was ſoon ſeen from one end of the heaven to the other. So mightily grew the Word of God, and prevailed, Act. 19.20. See the Notes on chap. 4.5.

Verſ. 4. Thy neck is as a Tower of Ivory] Moſt ſmooth, white, and upright. Some do hereby underſtand Magiſtrates, that ſupport the State, as the neck doth the head. I bear up the pillars of it, ſaith David. Others will have the Miniſters meant, who being aloft in the Church, are to the ſame inſtead of watch-towers, or towers of defence. And eſpecially then when they are in their pulpits (called towers in the Hebrew, Neh. 8.4.) reading and expounding Gods law unto his people.

Thine eyes like the fiſh-pools in Heſhbon] Glazed with tears of compunction and compaſſion (Nam faciles motus mens generoſa capit) and well cleared to look into her own heart and life. Tears inſtead of gems, were the ornaments of Davids bed, ſaith Chryſoſtome: And ſurely that ſweet ſinger never ſang more melodiouſly, than when his heart was broken moſt penitentially, Pſal. 6. & 51. Thus birds in the ſpring ſing moſt ſweetly when it rains moſt ſadly: and tears of true contrition are pillulae lucis, pills made on purpoſe to clear the eye-ſight. When John wept, the ſealed book was ſet open to him, Lilium lachryma ſua ſeritur. Light is ſown for the righteous.

Thy noſe is as the tower of Lebanon, &c.] Si verborum faciem conſideremus, quid poterit magis dici ridiculum? ſaith Titleman upon the words. If we look upon the out-ſide onely of this text, what may ſeem to have been ſpoken more ridiculous? Is it ſo great a commendation to have a noſe like a tower? That which wee muſt here-hence learn, is, that ſeeing Chriſt is now riſen again, and aſcended up into heaven, wee ought to bear our noſes aloft, as it were: ſavouring things of the Spirit of Chriſt, diſcerning things that are excellent, and by a Spiritual ſagacity, aſpiring to eternity.

That looketh toward Damaſcus] The chief City of Syria, having its name from the bloody excurſions of theeves, as Peter Martyr thinketh: or elſe,Pet. Mart. in 1 Reg. 16. as others, from the blood of righteous Abel there ſpilled, whence the place was called Damſech, a bag of blood.

Verſ. 5. Thine head upon thee is like Carmel] This head is Chriſt himſelf: for hee is the ſole head of his Church. God hath put all things under his feet (hence hee is here compared to Carmel, becauſe hee is high over all) and given him to bee head over all things, (that is, over all perſons) in the Church, Epheſ. 1.18, 22. Angels are under Chriſt as an head of government, of influence, of confirmation, not of redemption, as the Saints are. The Angels are great friends to the Church, but not members of it, Heb. 2.16. The Church, Chriſt ſanctified and waſhed with his blood, Epheſ. 5.26. Not ſo the Angels: He was but a poor patron of the Popes Head-ſhip, that ſaid, (and as he thought, very wiſely too) that hee had read in ſome Vocabulary that Cephas ſignified an head; therefore Peter was head of the Church. But if that ſhould have been granted him, yet it would not follow, that the Pope is therefore ſo too: For Belarmine (a better ſcholar by far) is forced to ſay, Forte non eſt de jure divino Rom: Pontificem Petro ſuccedere, Perhaps it is not by any divine right,Lib. 2. de Rom. Pontif. c. 12. that the Pope ſucceedeth Peter. And again, Rom: Pontificem Petro ſuccedere non habetur expreſſe in Scripturis, It is not expreſly ſet down in the Scriptures, that the Pope ſucceedeth Peter.

And the hairs of thine head like purple] Which was the colour of Kings and Princes. The Saints (called here the hair of the Churches head, for their number or multitude) are Princes in all lands, Pſal. 45.16. yea, they are Kings in righteouſneſs, as Melchiſedech was a King, but ſomewhat obſcure. Compare Mat. 13.17. with Luke 10.24. Many righteous (ſaith one) Many Kings (ſaith the other) have deſired to ſee thoſe things that yee ſee, &c.

The King is held in the galleries] i. e. There is no King in the world ſo great and glorious, but might finde in his heart to bee tied to theſe walks, and to bee held priſoner in the ſight of thee and thy bravery: Like as King James (comming firſt into the publique Library at Oxford, and viewing the little chains wherewith each book there is tied to its place) wiſhed,Rex Platon. pag. 123. that if ever it were his deſtiny to bee a priſoner, that Library might bee his priſon, thoſe books his fellow-priſoners, thoſe chains his fetters. Pſal. 138.4, 5. & 119. 72. The Pſalmiſt ſhews by prophecying, that even Kings, comming to taſte the excellency of the comforts of godlineſs, and to feel the power of Gods Word, ſhould ſing for joy of heart, and greatly acknowledge the excelling glory of Chriſts Spouſe the Church. See Davids deſire, Pſal. 27.4. & 84. throughout. Conſtantine and Valentinian (two Emperours) called themſelves Vaſallos Chriſti (as Socrates reports) the Vaſſals of Chriſt: and Theodoſius, another Emperour, profeſſed, that it was more honour and comfort to him to be membrum Eccleſiae, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Plutarch quam caput Imperit, a member of the Church, than head of the Empire. Nay, Numa, ſecond King of Rome (though but a Heathen) held it an higher honour to ſerve God, than to reign over men. Some Interpreters by the King here, underſtand Chriſt, coveting the Churches beauty, Pſal. 45.12. and held faſt bound unto her in the bands of pure affection, of ſpiritual wedlock.

Verſ. 6. How fair and how pleaſant art thou, O love, for delight] Emphatica haec admodum ſunt, cum toties exclamatio ponatur, ſaith one. This is a moſt Emphatical exclamation, proceeding from admiration; and importing, that all that hee could ſay of her, was too little; Well might the Prophet ſay, As the Bridegroom rejoyceth over his Bride, ſo doth thy God over thee, Iſa. 62.5. Hence hee can make no end here of commending her: but, having finiſhed one praiſe, hee preſently begins another. This yields infinite matter of comfort to the Saints, that Chriſt loves them ſo dearly, prizeth them ſo highly, praiſeth them ſo heartily: Howbeit, let not them hereupon turn again to folly, Pſal. 85.8. or give way to carnal ſecurity. Laetemur in domino, ſed caveamus à recidivo. Argue not from mercy to liberty, (that's the Devils Logick) but from mercy to duty, as thoſe good ſouls do, Ezra 9.13, 14. Having received ſuch and ſuch, both privative and poſitive favours, ſhould we again break thy commandments? There is ſo much unthankfulneſs and diſ-ingenuity in ſuch an entertainment of mercy, that holy Ezra thinks heaven and earth would bee aſhamed of it; Shall wee continue in ſin that grace may abound, ſaith the Apoſtle, Rom. 6.1? And it is as if hee ſhould ſay, that were moſt unreaſonable, and to a good heart, impoſſible. A man may as well ſay, the ſea burns, or fire cools, as that aſſurance of Chriſts love breeds careleſs and looſe living: They that hold ſo, know not the compulſive power of Chriſts love, 2 Cor. 5.14. nor what belongs to the life of God, Eph. 4.18.

Verſ. 7. This thy feature is like to a palm-tree] This thy whole ſtature and feature of body (that hath been already pourtraied and deſcribed particularly and piece-meal) is like to a palm-tree, ſtrong and ſtraight, freſh and flouriſhing; ſo that thou maiſt ſay with the palm in the Emblem, Nec premor, nec perimor. Pliny, Ariſtotle, Plutarch, and Gellius, have written of the palm-tree, that it is alwaies green, bearing pleaſant fruit: and that it will not bow downward or grow crooked, though heavy weights bee hanged upon it. The Church is all this and more, ever green, even in the winter of affliction, when the oak loſeth her leaves. (See the Note on chap. 1.16.) full of the fruits of righteouſneſs, which are by Jeſus Chriſt unto the glory and praiſe of God, Phil. 1.11. (See the Notes on chap. 4.14. & 6.11.) Neither can ſhe be long kept under by any preſſure of perſecution or heavy affliction: Premi poteſt, opprimi non poteſt. As Paul, when ſtoned, ſtarted up with Sic petitur coelum, Sic, Sic oportet intrare. Tyrants might curſe the Saints (as hee did that cryed out to thoſe ancient Confeſſours, O miſeri, num vobis deſunt reſtes & rupes? O wretches, cannot you hang or drown your ſelves, but that I muſt bee thus troubled with you to put you to death?) but cruſh them they never could. The valour of the patients, the ſavageneſs of the perſecutors have ſtriven together, till both exceeding nature and belief, bred wonder and aſtoniſhment in beholders and readers. Hence Trajan forbade Pliny to ſeek after Chriſtians: But if any were brought to him, to puniſh them. Antoninus Pius ſet forth an Edict in Aſia, that no Chriſtian ſhould bee perſecuted. For, ſaid hee, it is their joy to dye, they are conquerours, and do overcome you, &c.

Trucidabantur & multiplicabantur, ſaith Auguſtine of the ancient Martyrs: they were Martyred, and yet they were multiplied. Plures efficimur quoties metimur, ſaith Tertullian, the more we are cropt, the more we are increaſed; as the Lilly is increaſed by its own juyce that flows from it.Plin. Hence, Rev. 7.9. the Saints, that by their victorious faith overcame the world, are brought in with palm-branches in their hands, in token of victory. Plutarch tells us, that the Babylonians made three hundred and ſixty commodities of the palm-tree: and did therefore very highly honour it. The world hath a great deal of benefit by the Church, could they but ſee it. (For Abſ que ſtationibus non ſtaret mandus, were it not for the Saints, a ſhort work would the Lord make upon the earth, and cut it ſhort in righteouſneſs, Rom. 9.28.) And great is the gain of godlineſs; even an hundred fold here, and life eternal hereafter. Who would not then turn ſpiritual merchant? who would not paſs from ſtrength to ſtrength, and flouriſh in Gods houſe like a palm-tree,Pſal. 29.12. till hee attain to the meaſure of the ſtature of the fulneſs of Chriſt? Eph. 4.13.

And thy breaſts to cluſters of grapes] Not well-faſhioned onely, as Ezek. 16.7. but full-ſtrutting with milk, yea, with wine, plenty and dainty, to lay hunger, and ſlake thirſt, to nouriſh and cheriſh her children, even as the Lord doth the Church. Eph. 5.29. See the Note on chap. 4.5.

Verſ. 8. I ſaid, I will go up to the palm-tree, &c.] I ſaid it, and I will do it: for Chriſti dicere eſt facere, together with Chriſts word there goes forth a power, as it did, Luk. 5.17. David ſaid hee would confeſs his ſins, and take heed to his waies, Pſal. 32.5. & 39.1. and accordingly hee did it. Shall Chriſt purpoſe and promiſe mercy to his people, and not perform it? Is hee yea and nay? 2 Cor. 1.19. can hee ſay and unſay? doth not the conſtant experience of all ages fully confute any ſuch fond conceit of him? The Saints will not lye, Iſa. 63.8. Chriſt cannot, Tit. 1.2. Hee will not ſuffer his faithfulneſs to fail, nor alter the thing that is gone out of his lips, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Pſal. 89.33. All his ſayings are the iſſue of a moſt faithful and right will, void of all inſincerity and falſhood. Now when Chriſt promiſeth to climb his palm-tree, and to take hold of the boughes thereof, hee meaneth, that hee will dwell moſt familiarly with his Church, even in the branches thereof: pruning and trimming it, and accepting the fruits of his Spirit in his Spouſe. Or thus, Hee will ſo joyn himſelf unto his Church, as hee may cauſe her to bee fruitful, hee will lay hold on her boughes, which are very fit, and apt to climb; ſo covertly and elegantly noting the work of ſpiritual generation. The effect follows.

Now alſo thy breaſts ſhall bee as cluſters of the vine] Whatſoever they have been heretofore, now at this time, and for ever hereafter they ſhall be delightful to mee, and nouriſhable to thy children, who ſhall ſuck and be ſatisfied, Iſa. 66.11. Albeit ſome Interpreters of good note conceive, that all this is nothing elſe but a figurative deſcription of Chriſts perfect conjunction with his Church in the Kingdom of heaven, and of the unſpeakable pleaſure which Chriſt will take in her for ever.

And the ſmell of thy noſe like apples] i. e. The breath that comes out of thy noſtrils is ſweet as ſpice-apples. The breath that the Church draweth into her lungs, and ſends out again, is the ſpirit of grace: without which ſhee can as little live, as wee can without ayr. This ſweet Spirit is the joy of her heart, and the breath of her noſtrils: and thereby ſhee draws many into her company. If that bee true that one here noteth, that the fruit of the palm partaketh of the nature, both of the grape, having a ſweet and pleaſant juyce, and of the apple, for pleaſant meat, it may well ſignifie, that the Word of God is both meat and drink to the ſoul.

Verſ. 9. And the roof of thy mouth like the beſt vine] Her word and doctrine (for the palate is an inſtrument of ſpeech) often before commended by Chriſt,Inſtrumenta novem, &c. and here again, like as ſhee comes over it in him the ſecond time, chap. 3.13.16. See the Note there. This hee reſembleth to the beſt, and moſt generous wine: Such the Word of Gods grace is to thoſe that have Spiritual palates, that do not carry fel in aure, their galles in their ears, (as ſome creatures are ſaid to do) that have their ears healed, (as Demoſthenes ſaid of his Athenians) and their inward ſenſes habitually exerciſed to diſcern good and evill. The doctrine of the Church ſeems to ſome bitter and grievous: it goeth down like the waters of Marah, Pauſanias, Ariſtot. or that water that cauſed the curſe in caſe of jealouſie, Numb. 5. It becomes a ſavour of death unto him, as the viper is killed with palm-branches, and vultures with oyl of roſes. But this is meerly their own fault; For doth not my Word do good to them that are good? ſaith the Lord, Micah 2.6. Excellently St. Auſtin, Adverſarius eſt nobis, quamdin ſumus & ipſi nobis: quamdiu tu tibi inimicus es, inimicum habebis ſermonem Dei. Gods Word is an enemy to none but to ſuch as are enemies to themſelves, and ſinners againſt their own ſouls. This holy word in the mouths of Gods Miniſters is like Moſes his rod; which, while held in his hand, flouriſhed, and brought forth almonds: but being caſt to the ground, it became a ſerpent. The application is eaſie. See the Note on chap. 1.2.

For my Beloved] Theſe are Chriſts words: but hee ſpeaks as if the Church ſpake; to ſhew her great affection, that had dedicated all her good things to him. Some read it thus, which goeth ſtraight to my well-beloved, q. d. It is ſuch excellent wine as I would wiſh it, or ſend it even to the deareſt and beſt friend I have,Prov. 23.31. even to her that I love as my ſelf, if not before my ſelf. Or thus, which ſprings and ſparkles in the cup.

1 Cor. 1. Cauſing the lips of thoſe that are a ſleep to ſpeak] Utterance is called a gift, and dumb Chriſtians are blame-worthy as well as dumb Miniſters. Wee ſhould all ſtrive to an holy ability and dexterity of ſavoury diſcourſe. And for this end, the Word of Chriſt ſhould dwell richly in us in all wiſdom: our hearts ſhould endite a good matter, that our tongues might bee as the pen of a ready writer. Let there bee a good treaſure within in our hearts, and the law of kindneſs will ſoon be in our lips: for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth ſpeaketh. Graceleſs men are gagd by the devill, they cannot ſo much as liſp out one ſyllable of good language; if they attempt it, they ſhew themſelves but bunglers, and ſay Sibbolath for Shibboleth: you may ſoon ſee they ſpeak by rote, and not by experience. But thoſe that have well drunk of this wine of the Word, made effectual by the Spirit, talk luſtily,Act. 2.4, 11, 14 yea, their tongues never lin talking and preaching forth the praiſes of him who hath drawn them out of darkneſs into his marvelous light: they ſpeak as the Spirit gives them utterance. Thoſe that were in a dead ſleep of ſin, are ſoon ſet a work to awake and ſing, Iſa. 26.19. This ſhould ſtir us up to ſtudy the Word of God, and there-hence to learn language. The hundreth and nineteenth Pſalm is by David ſet before it as a Poem of commendation, mentioning it in every verſe, teſtimonies, laws, ſtatutes, &c. Like as when a book is ſet forth, verſes of commendation are oft prefixed. Such another, but far ſhorter is that, Pſal. 19. verſ. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. The Holy Ghoſt doth ſo much the more highly there extoll it, becauſe men are wont to have it in very light account, and to hold it a diſparagement, to be eloquent and mighty in the Scriptures.

Verſ. 10. I am my Beloveds] I ſee I am ſo, ſaith the Spouſe, by that ample commendation that hee hath now again given mee, notwithſtanding all my former failings in duty towards him. There fall out ſome fallings out betwixt married couples ſometimes; but then they fall in again: they cannot fadge together haply ſo well at firſt, but being well pieced again, they love better than before: So is it here, The ſins wee commit make no change in Chriſt, no ſubſtantial alteration. For, firſt, upon the ſame grounds hee choſe us, hee loves us ſtill: hee choſe us freely becauſe hee would; hee choſe us for his love, and loves us for his choice. Secondly, there is the ſame bent of minde and frame of heart towards him remains in us ſtill. And therefore, as there is a tranſient act of ſin paſſeth from us, ſo a tranſient act of chaſtiſement for ſin may paſs from him. Chriſt looked upon Peter, after his denial, with the ſame familiarity as before. Jehoſhuah the High-Prieſt, though hee were ſo ill cloathed, and had Satan at his right hand to accuſe him, yet hee ſtood before the Angel, Zech. 3.1. Chriſt did not abhor his preſence, nor reject his ſervice. Ephraim repenting after his revolt, is re-entertained with all ſweetneſs, Jer. 31.20. See the Note on chap. 2.16. & 6.3.

And his deſire is towards mee] His deſirous affection, hee loves mee as paſſionately as any woman doth her deareſt husband, Gen. 3.16. his love to mee is wonderful, paſſing the love of women; His deſire is ſo toward mee, that as Livia, by obeying her husband Auguſtus, commanded him, and might have what ſhe would of him: ſo may I of Chriſt. Compare Gen. 4.7. with Iſa. 45.11. The Church here well underſtood the latitude of that royal charter: and makes it a prop to her Faith, and a pledge for her perſeverance.

Verſ. 11. Come my Beloved, let us go forth into the field] Being now fully aſſured of Chriſts love, ſhee falls a praying; ſhee makes five requeſts unto him in a breath as it were. 1 That hee would come. 2 Go forth with her into the field. 3 Lodge with her in the villages. 4 Get up early to the vineyards. 5 See if the vine flouriſh, pomegranates bud, &c. And further promiſeth, that there ſhee will give him her loves. Aſſurance of Chriſts love is the ſweet-meats of the feaſt of a good conſcience, ſaid Father Latimer. Now it were to bee wiſhed, that every good ſoul whiles it is banqueting with the Lord Chriſt by full aſſurance (as once Eſther did with Ahaſuerus) would ſeaſonably bethink it ſelf what ſpecial requeſts it hath to make unto him, what Hamans to hang up, what ſturdy luſts to ſubdue, what holy boons to beg, &c. How ſure might they be to have what they would, even to the whole of his Kingdome! Suitours at Court obſerve their molliſſima fandi Tempora, their fitteſt opportunities of ſpeaking, and they ſpeed accordingly. A Courtier gets more many times by one ſuit, than a trades-man can do with twenty years pains-taking: So a faithful prayer, made in a fit ſeaſon, in a time when God may bee found, (as David hath it) is very ſucceſsful.Pſal. 32.6. Beggery here is the beſt trade, as one ſaid; Common beggery is indeed the eaſieſt and pooreſt trade: but prayer is the hardeſt and richeſt. The firſt thing that ſhe here begs of him, is, that hee would come, and that quickly: and this wee all daily pray, Thy Kingdome come, both that of grace, and the other of glory. The Jews alſo, in their expectation of a Meſſiah, pray almoſt in every prayer they make, Thy Kingdome come, and that Bimherah Bejamenu, quickly, even in our days; that wee may behold the King in his beauty. Let our hearts deſire and prayer to God be for thoſe poor ſeduced ſouls, that they may be ſaved: And the rather, becauſe they have a zeal of God and his Kingdom, but not according to knowledge, Rom. 10.1, 2. As alſo, becauſe their Progenitours prayed hard for us: and ſo ſome take it to bee the ſenſe of the Spouſes ſecond requeſt here. Let us go forth into the field, that is, into the world, (for the field in the parable is the world, Mat. 13.38.) let us propagate the Goſpel all abroad, and ſend forth ſuch as may teach all nations, Mat. 28.19. and reveal the myſtery that hath been kept ſecret ſince the world began, that obedience may bee every where yielded to the faith. Rom. 16.25, 26.

Let us lodge in the villages] That is, in the particular Churches: for, Tom. 3. p. 81. viliſſimus pagus, eſt palatium eburneum, in quo eſt Paſtor & credentes aliqui, ſaith Luther: the pooreſt village is to Chriſt and his Spouſe an ivory palace, if there bee but in it a godly Miniſter, and ſome few beleevers. Melanchthon going once upon ſome great ſervice for the Church of Chriſt, and having many fears of the good ſucceſs of his buſineſs, was much cheared up and confirmed by a company of poor women and children,Selneccer: paedag. Chriſt. whom he found praying together for the labouring Church, and caſting it by faith into Chriſts everlaſting arms.

Verſ. 12. Let us get up early to the Vineyards] Heb. Let us morning it: A. Gel. l. 3. c. 29 Manicemus (that's Gellius his word) Let's up betime, and at it. Here ſhee promiſeth not to bee found henceforth, unready, drowſie, ſluggiſh: but night and day to watch and attend that hour, and to enquire and learn out all the ſigns and tokens when ſhee may come to bee perfectly knit to Chriſt. But it is worthy our obſervation, that ſhee would neither go any way, or do any thing without Chriſts company: for ſhee had lately felt the grief of being without him, though but for a ſmall moment, as the Prophet hath it. Shee had felt her ſelf that while in the ſuburbs of hell, as it were. Shee therefore holds him as faſt as the reſtored cripple did Peter and John, Acts 3.11. ſhee cleaves as cloſe to him, as Ruth did to Naomi, or Eliſha did to his maſter Elijah, when now hee knew hee ſhould bee taken from his head, 2 Kin. 2.2. Shee ſeems here to ſpeak to Chriſt, as once Barach did to Deborah, If thou wilt go with mee, Judg. 4.8. then I will go: but if thou wilt not go with mee, I will not go. And whereas ſhee ſeemeth (as the forwarder of the two) to excite and exhort Chriſt to get up early, to viſit the Vines, &c. wee may not imagine any unwillingneſs in him to the performance of his Office, as Shepheard and Biſhop of our ſouls;1 Pet. 2.25. or any need on his part to bee quickned and counſelled by her, (as Manoah was by his wife, or Aquila by Priſcilla, whence ſhee is ſet before him, Rom. 16.3.) for who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counſellor, hath taught him? Iſa. 40.13. But the Church requeſteth theſe things of Chriſt for her own incouragement, and further benefit; that having his continual preſence and fellowſhip, ſhee may the more chearfully and ſucceſſefully go on with her duty. So when wee preſs God with arguments in prayer, it is not ſo much to perſwade him to help us, (for the Father himſelf loveth you,John 16.27. Homer. ſaith Chriſt, and needs no arguments [non-Latin text not transcribed] to incite or intice him, to ſhew us mercy) as to perſwade our own hearts to more faith, love, humility, &c. that wee may be in a capacity to receive that mercy, that of his own accord hee hath for us; and even waits to confer upon us. Iſa. 30.18. Look how a man that would make a bladder capacious to hold ſweet ſpices, hee blows it, and rubs it, and blows it, and rubs it many times over, to make it hold the more: ſo it is here. And as when a man that is in a ſhip plucks a rock, it ſeems as if hee pluckt the rock nearer the ſhip, when as in very deed, the ſhip is plucked nearer the rock: So when Gods people think they draw God to them with their arguments, in truth they draw themſelves nearer to God; who ſometimes aſcribeth that to us which is his own work,Aug. that we may abound more and more. Certum eſt nos facere quod facimus, ſed ille facit ut faciamus: True it is, that wee do what wee do, but it is hee that giveth us to do what wee do in his ſervice. The bowls of the Candle-ſtick had no oyl, but that which dropped from the Olive-branches.

Whether the tender grape appear] Heb. open, and ſo prove it ſelf to bee a grape; which in the bud can hardly bee diſcerned. True grace may bee doubted of ſo long as it is ſmall and feeble. Weak things are oft ſo obſcured with their contraries, that it remaineth uncertain, whether they bee or no.Mark 9.24. Hee that cryed out, and that with tears, I beleeve, Lord help mine unbeleef, (that is, my weak faith,) could not well tell whether hee had any faith at all or not. Adde growth to grace, and it will be out of queſtion. Mean while that's a ſweet promiſe, Iſa. 44.3. I will pour my Spirit upon thy ſeed, and my bleſſing upon thy buds. And again, Iſa. 65.8. Thus ſaith the Lord; As the new wine is found in the Cluſter, and one ſaith, Deſtroy it not, for a bleſſing is in it: ſo will I do for my ſervants ſake, that I may not deſtroy them all.

And the Pomegranates bud forth] See the note on chap. 4.13.

There will I give thee my loves] i. e. The fruition of my graces, and fruits of thy faith, thanks, good works, &c. And this is that which Chriſt requireth of us all: viz. that wee beſtow all our loves upon him, even the livelieſt and warmeſt of our affections. Love him wee muſt truly, that there bee no halting, and totally, that there bee no halving: Hold him wee muſt, better, dearer to us than ten ſons, &c. and communicate all our loves to him as beſt worthy: What hee gives us back again, wee may beſtow upon others; wee may love other things, but no otherwiſe than as they convey love to us from Chriſt, and may bee means of drawing our affections unto Chriſt. We muſt love all things elſe as they have a beam of Chriſt in them, and may lead us to him: accounting that wee rightly love our ſelves no further, than wee love the Lord Jeſus Chriſt with a love of complacency.

Verſ. 13. The Mandrakes give a ſmell] Loves and Mandrakes grow both upon one Hebrew root: and Tremellius renders it not Mandrakes, out lovely flowers, yeelding a ſavour, pleaſant to the eye, and ſweet to the ſmell. The Chaldee Paraphraſt calleth it Balſam. Legeſis Auguſt. lib. 22. contra Fauſt. Manichaeum cap. 56. Jun: in Geneſ. 30.14. Druſ. in fine comment in Ruth. Aben-ezra ſaith, that Mandrakes are fragrant, and yield a pleaſant favour, that they have head and hands like unto a man. But how they ſhould be good to cauſe conception, hee wondreth, ſith by nature they are cold. Auſtin ſaith, that hee made trial, and could not finde any ſuch operation to bee in them, and that Rachel coveted them meerly for their rarity, beauty, and ſweetneſs. There is enough of theſe in the Church to draw all hearts unto her; but that many men have brawny breaſts, and horny heart-ſtrings.

And at our gates are all manner of pleaſants] Or, delicacies, precious and pleaſant commodities, whether fruits, metals, gems, jewels, quicquid in deliciis habetur, whatſoever is excellent and exquiſite in any kinde. This is the import of the Hebrew word. There is nothing of any worth but it is to bee found in the Church. Her wiſe Merchants, not content with the pearl of price, ſeek out other goodly pearls, common gifts, which alſo have their uſe and excellency, Mat. 13.45, 46. they learn to maintain good works, or honeſt profeſſions for neceſſary uſes; theſe things are good and profitable to men, Tit. 3.8, 14. Some think that the Holy Ghoſt here alludeth to the order of old (and ſtill in uſe) of ſtrawing the wedding-houſe doors with ſweet-ſmelling flowers. Others to the cuſtomes of thoſe that have Orchards, to lay up their fruits over the gate-houſe.

New and old] As a good ſtorer that hath plenty and variety wherewith to pleaſe all palates, new for delights, and old for wholeſomeneſs. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Mat. 13.52. Extrudit copioſ[illegible: 1 letter] & alacriter. The good Scribe, well inſtructed to the Kingdome of heaven, throweth out of his treaſury things new and old, new for the nice, and old for the ſtronger ſtomach. Some delight in the ſweetneſs of things, (as in new wine). David tells them, the Word is ſweeter than live-hony dropping from the hony-comb. Others ſay, the old is better, are all for profit, as elder people, he tells them there, 'tis better than gold, Pſal. 19. In the Churches ſtore-houſe, men ſhall bee ſure to meet with all that heart can wiſh, or need require.

Which I have laid up for thee, Oh my Beloved] Propter te, Domine, propter te, [non-Latin text not transcribed], dixit ille Graculus Auguſto. is the Churches Motto. As all his ſprings are in her, and all his offices and efficacies for her, ſo all that ſhee has and is, is onely for him, and a great deal more ſhee could beteem him. Let Ephraim (that empty vine) bear fruit to himſelf. Hoſ. 10.1. and thoſe hypocrites, Zech. 7.5. faſt to themſelves; Chriſts hidden ones hide all for him, ſet up and ſeek him in all they do or ſuffer, are wholly devoted to his ſole ſervice.