Song of Solomon 2:1

Song of Solomon 2:1-2. In Song of Solomon 2:1 the bride speaks, describing herself as a humble meadow flower unfit to be in such a luxurious place as that in which she now finds herself, and in Song of Solomon 2:2 Solomon replies.

1. Render, I am a crocus of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.

the rose of Sharon The Heb. word chabhatstseleth, which occurs besides only in Isaiah 35:1, can hardly mean a rose. The LXX, Vulg., and Targ. to Isaiah 35:1 translate it -lily," but as we have shôshannâhfor lily in the next clause, it is probably some other flower. The Targum here gives narqôs rattîb, -the green narcissus," but Gesen. Thes. prefers the Syriac translation, Colchicum autumnaleor meadow saffron, a meadow flower like the crocus, white and violet in colour, and having poisonous bulbs. This is the most probable of the proposed identifications, though Tristram, Nat. Hist. of Bible, p. 476, decides for the sweet-scented narcissus, Narcissus tazetta, a native of Palestine, and a flower of which the natives are passionately fond. While it is in flower it is to be seen in all the bazaars, and the men as well as the women at that season always carry two or three blossoms which they are constantly smelling.

Sharon is generally supposed to be the great plain of Sharon to the S. of Carmel on the Mediterranean coast, stretching from Caesarea to Joppa. But the word probably means -a plain," and might, consequently, be applied by the inhabitants of any district to the plain in their neighbourhood. This is supported by the fact that Eusebius states that the district from Tabor to the Lake of Gennesaret was called Sharon, so here we may render either a crocus of Sharon, or of the plain, as in the LXX.

the lily Rather, a lily. Shôshannâhmust be a red flower; cp. Song of Solomon 5:13, "His lips are like lilies." Tristram, Nat. Hist. p. 464, identifies it with the scarlet Anemone coronaria. It is found everywhere, on all soils and in all situations. It meets every requirement of the allusions in Canticles and is one of the flowers called susanby the Arabs.