Song of Solomon 2:5

flagons The Heb. "ashîshôthmeans raisin cakes, cp. Hosea 3:1, and is connected possibly with Arab. "assasa, -to found" or -establish," and so -cakes of pressed fruit." The LXX translate ἐν μύροις and the Vulg. floribus, under the impression that the Shulammite calls for restoratives to prevent fainting, just as smelling-salts are used in our day. But that can hardly be the case, as "ashîshôthwould not be suitable for this purpose, nor apples either, though, as we have seen, the sick desire apples for their smell. Her love and longing have brought her into a state of physical weakness, to bear up against which she needs stimulating and sustaining food. This the raisin cakes and apples would supply. The -flagons" of the A.V. is derived from the Rabbinic commentators, cp. Ibn Ezra on this verse, "ashîshôth, vessels of glass full of wine." But there is no support for it.

sick of love i.e. weakened and made faint by hope deferred and disappointed longing. Delitzsch's idea that she is fainting because of excessive delight is less likely. A country girl would scarcely be liable to an excess of weakness demanding restoratives of this kind from such a cause.