Song of Solomon 4:8 Chap. Song of Solomon 5:1. A true Lover's Pleading With Song of Solomon 4:8 a new song, representing another scene, begins. In it the peasant lover of the Shulammite comes to beseech her to flee from the mountain region where she is detained, the home of wild beasts and the scen... [ Continue Reading ]
Song of Solomon 5:1. The great question regarding this verse is how the perfect tenses in it are to be understood. Some maintain that they must be rigorously taken as perfects; others think that they should be understood in one or other of the modified perfect senses which this tense may have in Heb... [ Continue Reading ]
_I sleep, but my heart waketh_ This clause states the circumstances under which the succeeding action takes place. As the dream is narrated at a later time, the participles should be rendered by the past tense, I WAS SLEEPING, _but my heart_ WAS AWAKE. it is _the voice of_, &c. Rather, HARK! MY LOV... [ Continue Reading ]
Song of Solomon 5:2 to Song of Solomon 6:3. A Dream On the hypothesis we have adopted, a night must be supposed to intervene between Song of Solomon 5:1. After the interview with the king and that with her lover night came; and as she slept she dreamed one of those troubled dreams consisting of a s... [ Continue Reading ]
As all commentators remark, the reasons for not opening the door are of a very trifling kind, and such as are insurmountable only in dreams. _my coat_ or _tunic_, a garment, generally of linen, worn next the skin by both men and women. The man's tunic reached to the knee, the woman's was longer. _... [ Continue Reading ]
_by the hole_of the door] Lit. FROM _the hole_, i.e. the hole usually to be found in doors. This was not an opening through which the hand was inserted to unbolt the door, but one through which women could look out upon and speak with men, without being unduly exposed to observation themselves. Thro... [ Continue Reading ]
_and my hands dropped_&c. Rather, _while my hands dropped myrrh. sweet smelling myrrh_ Heb. _môr -ôbhçr_, lit. _flowing myrrh_, is that which flows out from the bark of the myrrh shrub of itself, and is specially valued, cp. Song of Solomon 5:13. It is called also _môr dĕrôr_, -freely flowing myrrh... [ Continue Reading ]
_had withdrawn himself_ Lit. _had turned away_. This disappointment is just such as comes in dreams. _my soul failed when he spake_ R.V. MY SOUL HAD FAILED ME WHEN HE SPAKE. This is the explanation of his departure. She had fainted when she heard his voice, and when she came to herself and opened t... [ Continue Reading ]
In this dream all goes ill with her, in comparison with the former dream (Song of Solomon 3:1 ff.). Oettli suggests that this is due to the anxious state of mind in which she lay down to sleep, shrinking from the return of her undesired lover (Song of Solomon 4:6). _that went about the city_ R.V. r... [ Continue Reading ]
_I charge you_ Better, _I adjure you, if ye find my beloved, what shall ye say unto him? That I am sick of love_. The connexion here is difficult. The Shulammite's loss was only in a dream, and how can the author represent her as carrying over her dream loss into real life? The answer made by some i... [ Continue Reading ]
_What is thy beloved more than_another _beloved_ This is the reply of the daughters of Jerusalem. The A.V. gives the meaning correctly enough, but there is considerable perplexity as to the exact translation of the Heb. As the italics in the A.V. shew, there is no Heb. word corresponding to _another... [ Continue Reading ]
_white_ The Heb. _tsach_is an adj. derived from _tsâchach_, -to shine" or -glow," -to be brightly white." Here, and in Lamentations 4:7, where the word is used of the colour of the skin, it means a clear, white complexion. In the latter passage the phrase is, -more _tsach_than milk" contrasted with... [ Continue Reading ]
_bushy_ Heb. _taltallîm_occurs in the O.T. only here, and is a derivative from _tâlal_or _tal_= -to hang loosely down," and then -to throw down," but its exact meaning is uncertain. The A.V. margin gives the translation -curled" or -curling," but it probably represents the view that the word means -... [ Continue Reading ]
_His eyes_, &c. R.V. HIS EYES ARE LIKE DOVES BESIDE THE WATER BROOKS. Here the idea is different from that in Song of Solomon 1:15 and Song of Solomon 4:1. It is not the innocent dove-like look of the eye that is referred to. The eyes themselves, or at least the pupils of the eyes, are compared to d... [ Continue Reading ]
_as a bed of spices_ Rather, _as a bed of_ BALSAM SHRUBS. Probably we should read the plur. _beds_as in Song of Solomon 6:2, to correspond with the plur. _cheeks_. The Heb. for -bed" is _-arûghâh_derived from _-âragh_, -to mount up," and signifying a raised flower-bed. Cp. Driver on _Joel, Camb. Bib... [ Continue Reading ]
_gold rings_ Rather, CYLINDERS OF GOLD. In Esther 1:6, which is the only place in the O.T. besides this where the word occurs in a similar sense, it probably means -rods" or -cylinders." Here it refers to the delicately rounded fingers forming the hand. _set_ Cp. Exodus 28:17. _the beryl_ Better,... [ Continue Reading ]
_His legs_ Heb. _shôq_is the part of the leg below the knee. _pillars of marble_ i.e. white and firm like marble or ALABASTER. Here, seeing the lover is an Oriental, and therefore brown in complexion, alabaster would be the better comparison. _sockets_ Perhaps rather, BASES of fine gold. _his cou... [ Continue Reading ]
_His mouth_ Lit. _his palate_, but here as elsewhere the mouth as the organ of speech. is _most sweet_ Rather, _is sweetnesses_. The meaning is that his mouth utters nothing but pleasant things; cp. Proverbs 16:21. "This touch gives animation to the beautiful statue which has been described." Oettl... [ Continue Reading ]