Song of Solomon

Song of Solomon 2

17 verses · Wisdom · Old Testament

1I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. 2As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. 3As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, his fruit was sweet to my taste. 4He brought me to the banquet hall. His banner over me is love. 5Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples; for I am faint with love. 6His left hand is under my head. His right hand embraces me. 7I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, or by the hinds of the field, that you not stir up, nor awaken love, until it so desires.
8The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping on the mountains, skipping on the hills. 9My beloved is like a roe or a young deer. Behold, he stands behind our wall! He looks in at the windows. He glances through the lattice.
10My beloved spoke, and said to me, “Rise up, my love, my beautiful one, and come away. 11For behold, the winter is past. The rain is over and gone. 12The flowers appear on the earth. The time of the singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. 13The fig tree ripens her green figs. The vines are in blossom. They give out their fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.” 14My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places of the mountainside, let me see your face. let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely. 15Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that plunder the vineyards; for our vineyards are in blossom. 16My beloved is mine, and I am his. He browses among the lilies. 17Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a roe or a young deer on the mountains of Bether.

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1 commentator · 17 notes on this chapter

John GillParticular Baptist / High Calvinist · 1746–176317

The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.

Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.

v. 1

I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. Whether Christ, or the church, is here speaking, is not certain: most of the Jewish writers (t), and some Christian interpreters (u), take them to be the words of the church, expressing the excellency of…

v. 2

As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. These are manifestly the words of Christ concerning his church, whom he calls "my love"; see Gill on Sol 1:9; and was his love still, though in such company, and in such an uncomfortable condition…

v. 3

As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons,.... As the apple tree, in a garden or orchard, excels and is preferable to the wild barren trees of a forest (k), especially it appears so when laden with choice fruit; so the…

World English Bible — Public domain