Song of Songs Chapter 1 (Troy’s Commentary)

A superlative Title for a Superlative Love Song, Author is Solomon, Date is the time of, Background and Setting,  Historical and Theological Themes, Interpretive Challenges.

“No doubt, as Delitzsch has observed, “no other book of Scripture has been so much abused by an unscientific spiritualizing and an over-scientific unspiritual treatment.” But the errors of commentators are generally gropings towards the light. The truth is more likely to be found in the mean between the two extremes. The allegorist gives the reins to his fancy and ends in absurdities; the literalist shuts himself up in his naturalism and forfeits the blessing of the Spirit. We trust that the following Exposition will show that there is a better way.”

Spence-Jones, H. D. M. (Ed.). (1909). Song of Solomon (p. xxiv). London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.

1 Solomon’s Song of Songs. 

(Her hearts desire for multiple shows of affection and close intimacy as soon as possible expresses itself in her prayer to Jesus Christ.  She prays earnestly….)

(All the upright, saints and angels adoring Solomon)

(Her testimony of her sin, yet lovely in Christ)

5 Dark am I, yet lovely,
    daughters of Jerusalem,
dark like the tents of Kedar,
    like the tent curtains of Solomon.”

(She continues her testimony giving the root cause of her being dark and stared at and feeling Judged and abandoned, so with grief over sin and hope for deliverance so says….)

6 “Do not stare at me because I am dark,
    because I am darkened by the sun.
My mother’s sons were angry with me
    and made me take care of the vineyards;
    my own vineyard I had to neglect. (1)”

(Her ardent desires)
7 “Tell me, you whom I love,
    where you graze your flock
    and where you rest your sheep at midday.
Why should I be like a veiled woman
    beside the flocks of your friends?”

(Friends/conscience/Solomon helping her get close to Solomon)

(Solomon Praising her noble fearless character)

(With her doves v. 15 eyes were fixed on him since v. 9, she delights in his presence and he is valuable and beautiful to her.  Note, she says this to no-one, she perfume is spreading and she is thinking this while he is near her or around.  “Table” in v.12 is better translated “around”)

(As her feelings for him heighten she is absolutely delighted with his praising her character and promising to make you more lovely more morally beautiful in Song 1:9-11) he now looks into her eyes and says)

She reciprocates realizing this type of fellowship is just starting

He affirms that this luxurious dwelling place is firm and most gloriously well covered.

Not putting names, dates, times, places nor specific details but

1. What is the idea here?
2. How does that idea fit into helping us grow, experience God’s Love, How will this deepen communion with God through Christ?
3. What does a man loving a woman have to do with Christ and the church in this verse?  What is similar about their love in this verse?  How is He/he loving her?  How is the lesser and greater Christ displaying love like that of Song 8:6-7?
4. How does the idea that love desires the strictest union with the object loved have to do with this text.
5. How does this text flow within the context of Spiritual Growth?  Where does it fit in?  Why is it needed?
6. What phase of growth is this happening in? and why now?
7. Just as courtship and marriages have their ups and downs but the general direction is stricter oneness so is the life of the growing Christian bride united to Christ.  They both grow in love and stricter union. Through Babe, Child, Young Man, Strong Young Man and Father.  Experiencing God’s Love in Christ through and to greater and greater degree’s of glory.

Commentary notes On the Song of Songs

Title

Song of Songs click here.

1:2-4  and Chapter 3:6-11    The woman is engaged to Solomon, the lesser Jesus Christ and looking forward to the wedding day.  What must I do to be ready?  I want to be close to my beloved!

 1:2-3

“Let”  Tradition Jewish marriage was set up by the parents with the Father leading.  The Father gives the bride.  God the Father gives God the Son a sinful bride to present to Himself perfect and holy.  The bride would trust that the father made the right choice.  The perfect match.

Wine gives physical pleasure but cannot be compared with those kisses which are the expression of the total commitment of the lover. Likewise, perfume can stir the feelings but there is no perfume quite like the name of your spouse.

Balchin, J. A. (1994). The Song of Songs. In D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, & G. J. Wenham (Eds.), New Bible commentary: 21st century edition (4th ed., p. 620). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press.

Canticles 1:3,

“Because of the savor of thy good ointment, thy name is as ointment poured forth; therefore do the virgins love thee”; compared with, I John 2:20, “But ye have an unction from the holy One, and ye know all things.”

Spiritual understanding primarily consists in this sense, or taste of the moral beauty of divine things; so that no knowledge can be called spiritual, any further than it arises from this, and has this in it. But secondarily, it includes all that discerning and knowledge of things of religion, which depends upon, and flows from such a sense.

“She calls him a king, but this is not to be understood literally; rather it is the language of love.”   Garrett, D. A. (1993). Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of songs (Vol. 14, p. 385). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

“Name”

The same may be observed also of God’s name. But these two meanings of these phrases are near akin; as one’s name or glory is that by which one’s excellency is manifested, shines abroad and is made known, so Christ, who is the essential glory of God and is that word, idea or essential character by which he is known to himself and his glory shines in his own eyes.

This person (The Messiah) was often called the “name of the Lord” (wherein possibly there is some reference to that place where God says, “my name is in him” [Exodus 23:21])   When the Scripture speaks of God’s name as placed in the temple, there is an allusion rather to a written abiding name than a name pronounced by a vanishing sound. For a written name only is capable of being properly placed or fixed to remain in a place. And therefore, this fixing of God’s name is expressed by recording his name (Exodus 20:24). A written name stands as a representation of him whose name it is, and therein is like an image. So Christ is the Father’s representation and express image and character, as the expression is in the original of Hebrews 1:3. “The brightness of his glory, and the character2 of his person.” In the temple there was as it were the image and character of God, which was also called his name. This same person, that is so called, appeared in the shechinah in the temple, and is called the “brightness of God’s glory.” As now ’tis frequently the manner of representing of God on paper and in books not by a picture, as other things are represented, but by the characters of God’s name, and particularly the Hebrew characters of the name יהוה, with beams of an effulgent glory about it.3  There God’s “NAME” and his “GLORY” are the same. So again, Isaiah 59:19, “They shall fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun.”

1:4

1:4 “Chambers” she is thinking of the most intimate pleasurable time alone with her beloved on their wedding day.  Looking forward to being out of the desert and into the promised land with the lesser Christ, Solomon, and God the ones she loves.

“hurry”  She does “hurry” fearlessly, obediently and swiftly run to Him like a mare in battle Song 1:9

Ephesians 5:15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, 16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

Her “spirit God had stirred” (Ezra 1:5 ) to pursue this close intimate relationship with Solomon.

And there are other seasons of special communion of the saints with Christ, wherein Christ doth in an especial manner rejoice over his saints, and as their bridegroom brings them into his chambers, that they also may be glad and rejoice in him (Canticles 1:4).  Jonathan Edwards

“Chambers” a place where close intimacy happen between lovers, closed off to outsiders.

“We will be glad and rejoice..”

A benevolent propensity of heart is exercised, not only in seeking to promote the happiness of the being2 towards whom it is exercised, but also in rejoicing in his happiness. Even as gratitude for benefits received will not only excite endeavors to requite the kindness we receive, by equally benefiting our benefactor; but also, if he be above any need of us, or we have nothing to bestow, and are unable to repay his kindness, it will dispose us to rejoice in his prosperity. JE

1:5  “Dark like the tents of Kedar”

Balanced thoughts and proper religious emotions start with “Dark am I,….”   A sense of sin, death, guilt when confronted with sin, see it in Christ, fear no punishment but still hate all that remaining sin yet delight in the holiness of heart that is being renewed in His image.

The sons of Ishmael, it is said, use the rough, shaggy skins of their black goats for the outward covering of their tents. And, to the traveller’s eye they have an intensely black appearance in the desert, beneath the rays of a bright sun. And, most surely, were man in his best estate, placed under the beams of the brighter Sun of Righteousness, blacker far than the wild Arab’s tent would he be. Even of a burning lamp, as one has said, when placed in the rays of the sun, nothing can be seen but the black wick.  Andrew Miller

“lovely”

1. Understanding Christ’s righteousness applied to our account is needed to be believed to cast out fear of punishment. 1 John 4

She contrasts her darkness and loveliness with a Dark evil dwelling place and a beautiful holy curtain.   “Dark am I yet lovely”  Dark the tents of evil Kedar.  Yet lovely like the holy curtains of Solomon.    The contrast is between evil that she abhors and her moral beauty that is lovely.

1:5-6

She is in “Slave labor” and needs redemption.  She is being morally despised outside a covenant relationship with God, beside the flocks of Solomon’s friends. Song 1:7

“Do not despise me”    Please, I know my parents tried to kill your father, I know Im a natural born enemy, but now I love God, and you  are forgiving. I want His love shown to me over and over again through Solomon, hopefully my soon to be husband.

1:6  “Do not stare”

“Do not look disdainfully upon me”

Masculine and plural.  She is asking Solomon and his friends to not stare or look down upon her with distain because she was a slave enemy outside the flock of Solomon’s friends.

Do not judge me based on external moral appearances, I am dark, but I have the flame of God in me.  (following the same idea of dark being a sign of worshipping false gods and immorality) the yet lovely is because of the flame of God in her, the Spirit.

Basically she is wanting a revelation of his/His “Doves eyes by streams of water, washed in milk, reposed by the full water springs.”  Song 5:12  She feels eyes of judgment because her mind is on her past sinful life but she doesn’t want to be stared at.

1.  Literally the words are, Do not see me that I am; i.e. do not regard me as being, because I am.

Spence-Jones, H. D. M. (Ed.). (1909). Song of Solomon (p. 4). London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.

1.  She uses a wordplay with “vineyard”: because she had to tend the family vineyard, she could not take care of her own “vineyard,” meaning her body

Garrett, D. A. (1993). Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of songs (Vol. 14, p. 387). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

Example

Prostitute who washed the feet of Jesus with her tears and hair and then anointed Him with Fragrant oil.  How would the pharisee look at the prostitute?  How would Jesus look at the prostitute?  She would be thinking do not stare at the obvious outward appearance for I am dark with sin but yet I am lovely born again in heart, a born again virgin at heart Ez. 36:26 with Song of Songs 8:6  NASB  Notice the comparison of hearts.  Compare the Jews heart toward the prostitute (which is what she felt like she was being treated like Song 1:7) and the heart of Jesus toward the mournful, repentant prostitute at the feet of Jesus.

1:6  “Angry” or”were severe to”

1:6  “Made me”

She was is forced labor, sold into slavery.  Needing redemption. Working hard for a taskmaster.  (The Law or Satan)  No freedom here, only misery, hopelessness, painful day after day labor.  All seems meaningless married to the Law.  Sinful thinking…”If I do this God will love me”  thinking you have to be good or do something to earn salvation from God.

“Made me”  slavery to sin.  Paul says going back to fear of punishment or obeying laws to try to earn God’s favor and Grace is slavery.  Galatians 2:4

1:6 “vineyard”

A vineyard is what we are entrusted with to cultivate it and make it fruitful.  As a part of one’s estate.  It need not be neglected but taken care of.  Taken her testimony of how she was darkened as explaining her feelings of other’s looking at her with distain in descending order.  This will get at the root cause of her feelings of being morally rejected by the King.

“My own vineyard.”

This is her vineyard.  Her angry mothers son made her take care of “the vineyards.”  Plural.  She neglected her vineyard.  Of the vineyards she is supposed to be taking care of she neglects hers.  The one she had ownership over. “My own vineyard I have neglected” she says.  The foxes were destroying her blossoming vineyard until they both worked together to catch them Song 2:15.

“Did not guard”  Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”  A love Song above all others would have a bride who guarded her heart above all else.  Here she confesses God would have wanted her to take care of and catch the foxes that destroy her own vineyard, but her vineyard she neglected, did not keep or guard.

“Do not stare at me”  I am dark,

She is dark skinned and being stared at with distain.  Why do they look down on her.  What stigma is there that is related to a person of dark skin that causes someone who looks at them to distain them at the time of Solomon’s reign?  It is very clear that Solomon conscripted slave laborers who were natural born enemies of God to do the work in the vineyards.  1 Kings 9:20-21  the dark skinned slave laborers were enemies of God.  There the Israelites looked at them with distain!  They treated them like immoral prostitutes.  Like people in sin and continuous rebellion against God like a prostitute. Song 1:7  “Why should I be treated like a veiled woman”  A veiled woman was a prostitute.  Her Mother’s son’s is a reference to who enslaved her.  The sons of a her mother’s husband enslaved her.  Not her true father.  The ones that enslaved her are not her true relatives.  She is bound to a yoke of slavery in their vineyards.  Solomon’s vineyards.  She is not in the flock of Solomon’s friends.  Song 1:7  She is “beside” them  and not one of his “friends” but an enemy working slave labor in a literal grape vineyard.  Because her grape vineyard she neglected. God would want her to take care of her vineyard, but she neglected her God given responsibilities of producing fruit with what God gave her.

2 Chron. 8:8

Darkened by the sun is why they are staring at her she was an enemy not worthy of marriage to Solomon.  By outward appearances yes, she did not fit the part and did not want to be judged or stared at because of it.  She wanted her sunburn and the stigma that came with it to be overlooked by the one/One she loves.

Song 1:6-7,8,9  Transitioning

She just asked the daughters of Jerusalem to not stare at her in judgement and neither does Solomon.  Yet with eyes like doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set on the one He loves and delighting to wisely answer her request the one she loves says in 1:7

She asks him, her shepherd and king “where”.  She is looking for a location for a reason and he lets her know how to get there in 1:8 and then compliments her character in 1:9 in accordance with what a husband ought to do Prov. 31:28-30

Canticles 1:7 

“Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon.”

Ezekiel 34:23, “And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and shall be their shepherd.” Ezekiel 37:24, “And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd.”

Leviticus 16:7He shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the doorway of the tent of meeting.

More than likely just the idea of following Godly people and finding rest from forced labor.

How do I get out of this slave labor in the hot noon day sun?   Answer:  Follow the tracks left behind by experienced sheep that followed their shepherd out to find nourishment.

Jeremiah 6:2-42 I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman. 3 The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place.

Unlike a prostitute that finds as many husbands as possible to get as much money from them as she can.  She wants only one husband.

Gen. 48:15 “Shepherd”

Gen. 49:24 “Shepherd”  Messiah

Ez. 20:37,

Numbers 27:16-1827:16-18 27:16-18  Leaders of Israel were called shepherds

Solomon pastured his flock among the lilies.  She is a lily.  She is a beautiful morally excellent lily grazing in the valley of humility fellowshipping with other lilies.  Song of Solomon 6:3
“I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine, He who pastures his flock among the lilies.”

“you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.”  Ephesians 2:12  She was a sunburnt Gentile enemy of God.  but born again Song 8:6 NASB

Next to the tents of the shepherd is where she can feed her flock and find rest for them.  Next to the tents of the shepherds is where she will feel unashamed and not stared at?

“where” Matt 15:8

Zech 11:7   During Solomon’s reign God led His people to Himself through their union with Christ and Solomon’s wise leadership.

1:8

He answers first by letting her know how he see’s her.  Husband Christ answers, “Most beautiful”  He wants us to know that he/He is attracted to dwell in a holy heart with a holy people.  So He reminds us about who we are and his/His view of us.  We are morally “most beautiful”

No matter what she thinks about herself which many things may be true in order to humiliation she is also one in Christ.  From His eyes she is most morally beautiful because of her union with Christ and He see’s His Beauty is her beauty/Beauty.

His perspective is important because if she thought he saw her as she saw herself apart from him then she would not draw near.  She doesn’t want all those feelings of being rejected, judged, abandoned, looked down upon, stared at due to current or past sins, she doesn’t want to sense his displeasure against sin but experience His love and grace.

Clearly Solomon is leading her soul at this point.  She ask Solomon a question, of course Solomon answer is going to be consistent with God’s will.  Solomon ruled with a theocratic monarchy therefore he guided her with the unmeasurable wisdom that came from God.  His answer to “Follow” and “Rest..” would be something God would want her to do because her shepherd king told her what to do.  If she obeyed then she is obeying God.  If she listen’s to Solomon this will then prove her love to God and that she is not an enemy but at peace with God.

It is the responsibility of the wife to obey her husband Eph. 5.  Here the bride is told to “follow”  and “graze”  Then in 1:9 Solomon compliments her for obeying, Highly values her moral excellency Song 1:10 and then promise to make her more holy and precious to himself in metaphoric language.

After asking how to get closer to Christ.  The shepherd will  let you know.  Listen and sincerely obey.  Its the listening and obeying that will get you the reward.

1:9-11

Solomon’s lips start dripping myrrh and become sweetness itself as he compliments her moral beauty, love, her love and faithfulness bound around her neck, the command’s of God written on her heart, adorning her like jewels on a necklace making her beautiful in his eyes.

She has been overcoming fears of rejection by understanding God’s love for her as His love in her enflamed her heart to pursue the One and one her heart loved.  In pursuing a close intimate relationship with Solomon she is doing what God would want her to do so she is drawing near to both of them. It is both of them, God and Solomon, whom she loves.  So somewhere between the friends letting her know that she could get close to Solomon by “following the tracks of the sheep and resting her young goats by the tents of the shepherds”1:8  and Solomon meeting her and complimenting her in 1:9 she has been adorned with the beauty of the law of God on her heart, summed up in Love.

“Mare”  Swift, not waisting any time in the pursuit of the one she loves.  Fearless, even though she was a born enemy of his father (1 Kings 9:20-21), knowing Solomon to be a wise, forgiving, prince of peace she fears no evil from him.

“Harnessed” She is in a battle and harnessed. Harnessed to royalty.  In battle for his majesty.  This is her vocation, the context is that of a battle.  It is a battle for a natural born enemy of Solomon’s father to fear no evil punishment or rightly deserved hard labor, yea she deserved worse even the wrath of God. She kept in mind and love the fact in her heart that Solomon was the prince of peace, wise and loving possessing the love of God in him, for that love is more delightful than wine.  Understand Solomon to be loving and seeing the love of God through him casts out all fear of punishment from the King so she is able to move forward in her pursuit.  Fear of rightly deserved punishment would have stopped her in her tracks.  But following the tracks of other sheep that feared no evil from the king she also got close to the shepherd calling her by her understanding of his love.  Jer. 31:3

Here is love, the flame of God, on fire, in fast, persevering, fearless pursuit of the one she loves.

“Jewels”  the Jewels are the commands of God written on her heart.  Summed up in Love to God, love to God was written on her heart, the fulfillment of the law.  “Let love and faithfulness never leave you, bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart” and as a bride adorns herself for the wedding so will you adorn your heart with the beauty of the Lord as you gaze upon Him or his love through a mediator.

1:9 “Mare”

“goodly horse in the battle” Zechariah 10:3

1:10  Beautiful same word in Is. 52:7  Beautiful= beloved, costly, precious

1:11  “We”

Solomon, God, the angels, all of his people, watchmen, daughters of Jerusalem, shepherds.  They all are the “we”  all have their part in her sanctification and Solomon makes the promise speaking for everyone, that they will make her more morally beautiful.  Not only because she is family, sister, but because she has the flame of God in her, unyielding in it’s pursuit of the object of it’s affection Song 8:6.

He has just complimented her moral character, her inner beauty using the illustration or metaphor of Jewels because of their valuable, precious and adorning nature. Now

Romans 6:14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

Romans 8:28-29; Phil. 1:6

1:12-14  How is she feeling and thinking right about now?

World Bible Commentary OT

The governing topic is the question, What enhances the woman’s beauty? The man and the chorus desire to adorn her with expensive ornaments of gold and silver. This sentiment is not bad, and it is born of love for her, but it substitutes a superficial embellishment for true adornments. She asserts rather that her desirability is enhanced by her fragrances of spikenard, myrrh, and henna and that her beauty is enhanced by the love of her lover. She gives off the fragrance of spikenard as she waits for him to come to her. She will have him, like her myrrh, between her breasts. He is like henna in that he adorns the beauty of her, the vineyard. The fragrance of these perfumes is like love itself; it is invisible but powerful and sweet. Her real adornment, she asserts, is the groom and the love she has for him.

“Your Love is more delightful than wine” “Pleasing is your perfumes, Your Name is like perfume poured out”  His name going forth is like perfume and is pleasing when the aroma is caught by those who sense it..

This is a context verse.  Meaning She confesses sin then She prays to Him, he answered, she obeyed, He compliments and promises to demonstrate His sanctifying Love and while He is complimenting and promising her, is when 1:12 is put in context.  When in His complimenting presence her name is like perfume poured out like His was in Song 1:3  Her communion with Him is pleasing to Him and she wants it to be.  In this context she imagines Him like a sachet of myrrh resting close to her bosom.  He is worth dying for in order to have Him close to her heart where she can enjoy Him and Glorify God forever!  In this context also she is thinking “I have seen this beauty and that one but when I get the Christ he is a cluster of Henna Blossoms”  More Beautiful than all and at every angle or cluster.

1:12 “My perfume spread”

Her soul changing, Her worship, adoration, love drawing out, flowing out, radiant in all directions of life, heart and longings, desires and affections.  Her incense, how does she smell, When I blow a kiss in my garden what is the fragrance God smells.   When His presence hits you and you feel it better than before or more in abundance, this is the kiss, what do you do with this earnest of your inheritance, will you produce fruit for your Lord or will you take his love gift of assurance as a token to rest in your battle and yes its okay to rest but don’t stop fighting, pride will lerk here if you can’t see it then your probably to high, so remember “Dark am I”  “Come Down from lebanon”

1:13

“Myrrh”  Worth dying for in order to have him close to my heart.  Also,  “I would take a grenade for you” “This infinitely beautiful rose, this spotless and fragrant lily, was once despised with the loathsome spittle of wicked men, and was torn and rent by their rage, and it was for you, O believers, the vials of God’s wrath against your sins were poured out upon it. Here is a sweet bundle of myrrh for you to lie in your bosom forever. He is as the apple tree among the trees of the wood: you may sit down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit will be sweet to your taste.”

1:14-15

1. Holy Ghost. It appears that the Holy Spirit is the holiness or excellency and delight of God, because our communion with God, and with Christ, consists in our partaking of the Holy Ghost: 2 Cor. 13:14; 1 Cor. 6:17; 1 John 3:24.  Edwards

1:15

The repetition of the interjection “behold” suggests that the king was smitten by the charms of this maiden. She is very sweet and fair to him. His attention is focused on her eyes: “Your eyes are doves.” The dove is a natural symbol of love. He gazes into those eyes and sees only purity and innocence. To the ancients, the eyes were an index to character.

Smith, J. E. (1996). The wisdom literature and Psalms (So 1:15). Joplin, MO: College Press Pub. Co.

1:16

“our bed”  our place of comfort, dwelling place, place we meet and fellowship.  How lovely is our dwelling place oh, Lord Almighty.

1:17

Hos. 14:4    I will aheal their apostasy, I will blove them freely, For My anger has cturned away from them. 5  I will be like the adew to Israel; He will blossom like the blily, And he will 1take root like the cedars of cLebanon. 6  His shoots will 1sprout, And his 2beauty will be like the aolive tree And his fragrance like the cedars of bLebanon. 7  Those who alive in his shadow Will 1again raise bgrain, And they will blossom like the vine. His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon.

Isaiah 32:17–18, “And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.”

Their dwelling place (beams of their house) of their hearts is “firmly rooted”

Jonathan Edward Blank Bible notes

The Song of Solomon.]

See no. 147.1 See “Miscellanies,” no. 303.2 See Isaiah 5:1. See note on Canticles 6:13 and Canticles 8:5. See note on Canticles 1:4, and Canticles 8:8–12, [and] Canticles 1:9. See note on Canticles 1:5, no. 458;3 “Scripture,” no. 460.4

The book of Solomon’s Song. The figures of speech used in this book, many of them are very agreeable to those used in Isaiah 5:1–7. Besides Christ’s being there called “my beloved,” compare with that fifth of Isaiah the following parts of this song: Canticles 1:6; Canticles 2:12–13, Canticles 2:15; Canticles 4:12–16; Canticles 5:1; Canticles 6:2–3, Canticles 6:11; Canticles 7:12–13; Canticles 8:11–13. Particularly compare Canticles 1:13–14; Canticles 2:2, Canticles 2:16; Canticles 4:13–14; Canticles 5:1; Canticles 6:2–3; Canticles 7:7–8, with Isaiah 5:7. Also compare these and other places in Solomon’s Song with Isaiah 35:1–2, Isaiah 55:13, Isaiah 41:19, Isaiah 60:21, Isaiah 61:3, Numbers 24:6, Psalms 1:3, Jeremiah 17:8, Ezekiel 47:12, Psalms 80:8–15, Isaiah 27:2–3.

See Jeremiah 12:7.5

See “Notes,” no. 231.6 See notes on Ephesians 5:18. See no. 336.7

for the Messiah.” See Basnage’s History of the Jews, p. 367.1 See note on Canticles 8:5.2 See SSS, preface to this book, and also to the book of Proverbs.3

Canticles 1:1.]

Preface to book of Proverbs, SSS, and also to this book.4 See agreement with Psalms 45, “Scripture,” no. 507.5

Canticles 1:4.]

This verse affords7 two good arguments that this song is no human love song. 1. Because the first person singular and plural are here used promiscuously. “Draw me, we will run after thee. The king hath brought me into his chambers. We will be glad and rejoice in thee; we will remember thy love more than wine.” If this was intended for the language of an earthly lover or sweetheart, how comes she to speak of herself thus in the plural number? ‘Tis evident ’tis because more than one person is signified, and respect is plainly had to the virgins mentioned in the last clause of the preceding verse, “the virgins love thee.” ‘Tis the nature of earthly love to dislike a rival, and to be averse to plurality. But she speaks of the virgins’ loving her loved,8 and having enjoyed his love, with manifest approbation and delight. So in the beginning of the Canticles 6, when the daughters of Jerusalem desire to seek the beloved of the spouse that they may enjoy him with her, she don’t disapprove of, but forwards it by directing them, according to their desire, where they may find him. See also Canticles 3:10–11. And by using the singular and plural thus promiscuously, ’tis evident that the spouse that is speaking, though one spouse, yet is more persons than one. 2. The last clause, “The upright love thee.” (1) It shows that this song is not a profane but an holy love song. Why should a lascivious lover take notice of this with such delight and pleasure, that the upright loved her beloved? The same word9 is used all over the Old Testament to signify the saints. Therefore it might have been translated, “the saints,” or “the sincerely godly love thee.” (2) When it is said in the last clause of this verse, “the upright love,” ’tis natural to suppose the same to be meant as in the last clause of the preceding verse, “the virgins love thee,” and so, that the virgins are the saints, who are spiritual virgins, and that ’tis the saints that were intended by the plural pronoun “we” in the verse. And how well does this agree with what we suppose, viz. that this song is intended as a song of love between Christ and the church, or the assembly of the saints.

“Draw me; we will run after thee.” The meaning don’t seem to be, “Draw me, and then we will run after thee.” But when the spouse says, “we will run after thee,” her request seems to be answered, as appears, because in the next words she says, “the king has brought me into his chambers.” She had no sooner made this request, but as ever she was aware, her soul “made her like the chariots of Amminadib” [Canticles 6:12].1

Canticles 1:5.] SSS.2

Canticles 1:5–6.] See no. 86.3

“I am black.” Denoting her outward meanness, obscurity, and affliction, often denoted by darkness or blackness in Scripture. So Christ was without form or comeliness. This meanness and affliction is in great measure owing to the contempt and hard usage of false churches and false professors, which appears very much in their keeping them under and in a state of servitude to serve their temporal interests, and to maintain their worship. Thus the Protestants in popish countries are obliged to help maintain the Romish church, and the Dissenters in England are forced to pay tithes to the Church of England, and among those of the same profession, true Christians are commonly kept under and obliged to serve false professors.4

“As the tents of Kedar,” etc. Externally, in outward form, and by my worldly circumstances, like “the tents of Kedar,” black, coarse, and homely, but inwardly and spiritually glorious and beautiful, like the pure, rich, embroidered curtains of Solomon, either in his palace, or temple, or royal pavilion. Like Moses’ tabernacle, whose outward covering was badgers’ skins, but its inward curtains fine linen, and blue, purple, and scarlet.5

See also no. 458.6 Canticles 1:6.] SSS.7 Canticles 1:7.] SSS.8

Canticles 1:8. “Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock.”] SSS.9

Canticles 1:9.

“I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh’s chariots.”] The horses draw the chariot of the king; so the church as it were draws the chariot of Christ. Christ rides as it were on a chariot of salvation, on the chariot of the word of truth. The word runs and is glorified, and thereby Christ is conveyed; but the church draws this chariot, especially the ministers of the gospel. The church is the pillar and ground of truth. Ministers bring Christ to men, and carry him through the world, and make manifest the savor of his name; and herein they are like the angels who are spoken of as Christ’s chariots. The horses that drew the chariots of the king of Egypt were beautiful, strong, and swift, for Egypt was famed above any country for its excellent horses; and Pharaoh had the best in the country to draw his chariots. It was a “company of horses” that drew Pharaoh’s chariots united together; so is the church, and so are true ministers of the gospel. Christ proceeds in the course of things in his providence, and especially in his church towards his end that he aims at, and will in the consummation of things arrive to, as a prince proceeds in a chariot towards his royal city, palace, and throne. See notes on Ezekiel’s wheels.1 And he is pleased to make his disciples the instruments of this his progress.

Kings were wont to go forth to war with chariots and horses. So believers, and especially ministers, are like Christ’s horses to draw his chariots in war. Zechariah 10:3, “And hath made them as his goodly horse in the battle.” Oftentimes the church is represented as his army, as in this song Christ compares her to a “company of two armies” [Canticles 6:13]. So Revelation 19. They are represented as the armies of heaven, following him on white horses Revelation 19:14]. The church in this song is said to be “terrible as an army with banners” [Canticles 6:4]. And in Canticles 4:4, her neck is said to be “like the tower of David builded for an armory, wherein there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men.” And Canticles 7:4, the same is represented by a “tower of ivory,” and her nose as the “tower of Lebanon.” And Canticles 8:10, she is compared to a wall, and her breasts to towers.

Corol. Such kind of comparisons as these are a great argument that this song is no human love song. These things agree with the typical representations of the church in the congregation of Israel that went out of Egypt, who went up harnessed, and were encamped in the wilderness, always as an army with banners marshaled in military order.

SSS.2 Canticles 1:10.] SSS.3 Canticles 1:11.] SSS.4

Canticles 1:12.

“My spikenard.”] The spikenard of the perfumed ointment with which she was anointed to fit her for the company of her beloved. See Mark 14:3, Matthew 26:6, John 12 at the beginning, and Luke 7 at the latter end. SSS.5

Canticles 1:14.] SSS.6 Canticles 1:15. “Doves’ eyes.”] SSS.7

Canticles 1:16.

“Also our bed is green.”] Which represents two things. 1. The pleasantness of it, green being the emblem of love and joy. 2. The fruitfulness of it. From this bed springs the offspring of Christ and his church, which do spring up as the grass and willows by the water courses, as is said elsewhere.

“Green.” SSS.8

Just Thinking

If you could communicate the principle, the idea and the context, then let the hearer make the application to life here on earth with their husband, reciprocal love between Christ and  believers, reciprocal love between a Jew and whatever true idea they had of the messiah.

She wants, expresses and is reminded that she is in a most intimate relationship with the king.

This intimate love relationship