Song of Solomon 6:4

6:4-10 All the real excellence and holiness on earth centre in the church. Christ goes forth subduing his enemies, while his followers gain victories over the world, the flesh, and the devil. He shows the tenderness of a Redeemer, the delight he takes in his redeemed people, and the workings of his own grace in them. True believers alone can possess the beauty of holiness. And when their real character is known, it will be commended. Both the church and believers, at their first conversion, look forth as the morning, their light being small, but increasing. As to their sanctification, they are fair as the moon, deriving all their light, grace, and holiness from Christ; and as to justification, clear as the sun, clothed with Christ, the Sun of righteousness, and fighting the good fight of faith, under the banners of Christ, against all spiritual enemies.

Song of Solomon 6:4 . Thou art beautiful — These are the words of Christ, who had now again manifested himself to his church; as Tirzah — A very pleasant city, the royal seat of the kings of Israel; comely as Jerusalem — Which was beautiful, both for its situation and for its goodly buildings; terrible as an army, &c. — To her enemies, whom God will certainly destroy.

(4) Beautiful . . . as Tirzah. —There is no sufficient reason for the employment of Tirzah side by side with Jerusalem in this comparison but the fact that they were both capitals, the one of the northern, the other of the southern kingdom. This fixes the date of the composition of the poem within certain limits (see Excursus I.). Jeroboam first selected the ancient sanctuary of Shechem for his capital; but, from some unexplained cause, moved the seat of his government, first to Penuel, on the other side Jordan, and then to Tirzah, formerly the seat of a petty Canaanite prince. (See 1Kings 12:25 ; 1Kings 14:17 ; 1Kings 15:21 ; 1Kings 15:33 ; 1Kings 16:6 ; 1Kings 16:8 ; 1Kings 16:15 ; 1Kings 16:18 ; 1Kings 16:23 ; Joshua 12:24 .) Robinson identified Tirzah with Tellûzah, not far from Mount Ebal, which agrees with Brocardus, who places Thersa on a high mountain, three degrees from Samaria to the east. Tirzah only remained the capital till the reign of Omri, but comes into notice again as the scene of the conspiracy of Menahem against Shallum ( 2Kings 15:14-16 ). The LXX. translate Tirzah by εὐδοκία , Vulg. suavis ; and the ancient versions generally adopt this plan, to avoid, as Dr. Ginsburg thinks, the mention of the two capitals, because this made against the Solomonic authorship. As Jerusalem.—See Lamentations 2:15.

As to the idea involved in a comparison so strange to us, we notice that this author is especially fond of finding a resemblance between his love and familiar localities (see Song of Solomon 5:15; Song of Solomon 7:4-5); nor was it strange in a language that delighted in personifying a nation or city under the character of a maiden (Isaiah 47:1), and which, ten centuries later, could describe the new Jerusalem as a bride coming down from heaven adorned for her husband (Revelation 21:9, seqq.). An army with banners.—Heb. nidgalôth, participle of niphal conjugation = bannered. (Comp.— “And what are cheeks, but ensigns oft, That wave hot youth to fields of blood?”)

The section might be entitled, "Renewed declaration of love after brief estrangement." Songs 6:4 Tirzah ... Jerusalem - Named together as the then two fairest cities of the land. For Jerusalem compare Psalm 48:2. "Tirzah" (i. e., "Grace" or "Beauty ")was an old Canaanite royal city Joshua 12:24. It became again a royal residence during the reigns of Baasha and his three successors in the kingdom of the ten tribes, and may well therefore have been famed for its beauty in the time of Solomon. Terrible as ... - Awe-inspiring as the bannered (hosts). The warlike image, like others in the Song, serves to enhance the charm of its assured peace.

Thou art beautiful, O my love: these are the words of Christ, who had now again manifested himself to his church; whereby he declares, that though he had for a season hid his face from her, yet still he retained a sincere and fervent affection to her, and that, notwithstanding her manifold infirmities, she was yet beautiful in his eyes. Tirzah; a very pleasant city, as its very name signifies, and therefore made the royal seat of the kings of Israel; of which see 1 Kings 14:17 15:31,33 16:6 , &c. Comely as Jerusalem; which was beautiful, both for its situation, Psalm 48:2 , and for its goodly buildings, especially the temple. See Lamentations 2:15 . Terrible; either, 1. To strangers, whom by her grave and, majestic looks and carriage she affrights from rude or bold attempts, whereas some women invite others to familiarity with them by their loose and wanton carriage. Or, 2. To her enemies, whom God will certainly destroy.

4. Tirzah—meaning "pleasant" (Heb 13:21); "well-pleasing" (Mt 5:14); the royal city of one of the old Canaanite kings (Jos 12:24); and after the revolt of Israel, the royal city of its kings, before Omri founded Samaria (1Ki 16:8, 15). No ground for assigning a later date than the time of Solomon to the Song, as Tirzah was even in his time the capital of the north (Israel), as Jerusalem was of the south (Judah). Jerusalem—residence of the kings of Judah, as Tirzah, of Israel (Ps 48:1, &c.; 122:1-3; 125:1, 2). Loveliness, security, unity, and loyalty; also the union of Israel and Judah in the Church (Isa 11:13; Jer 3:18; Eze 37:16, 17, 22; compare Heb 12:22; Re 21:2, 12). terrible—awe-inspiring. Not only armed as a city on the defensive, but as an army on the offensive. banners—(See on [678]So 5:10; [679]Ps 60:4); Jehovah-nissi (2Co 10:4).

4 . Tirzah ] = pleasantness , is mentioned in Joshua 12:24 . It was an ancient Canaanite city, famed as its name and our passage shew for its beautiful situation. It was the royal residence of the Northern kings from the time of the abandonment of Shechem by Jeroboam I till the 6th year of Omri, who left it for Samaria, but it was apparently still of importance in the time of Menahem ( 2 Kings 15:14 ; 2 Kings 15:16 ). Neither the O.T. nor Josephus contains any indication as to the situation of Tirzah. But Brocardus in the 13th century, and Breydenbach in the 15th, mention a Thersa , three hours eastward of Samaria. Robinson, therefore, has identified it with the large village of Talluza , two-and-a-half hours E. of Samaria, and two hours N. of Nablous. Conder, however, has suggested that the village of Teiasir may be Tirzah. It lies two-and-a-half hours to the N. of Talluza , and has been identified by Porter in Murray’s Guide-book , 1858, with Asher a town of Manasseh, placed by Eusebius on the 15th mile from Neapolis to Scythopolis, anciently Bçthshe’ân. An objection which seems fatal is, that it lies too far from the great thoroughfare of the country for the ancient seat of the Israelite kings. From Tirzah being mentioned along with Jerusalem, this reference probably is to it as the capital of the N. kingdom. Its ancient rank as a Canaanite royal city can hardly have been in the writer’s mind.

Consequently, unless this be an interpolation, as Budde makes it, the Song cannot have been written by Solomon. But it does not prove that it was written during the period that Tirzah was the capital. For the name of the town at least was known up till the 15th century of our era, and the site must always have been beautiful. Therefore, if the writer of the Song was a Northern man, who knew its beauty and history, he might have inserted the reference centuries after it had become an unimportant place, or even a ruin. Tirzah may have been chosen along with Jerusalem instead of Samaria, because of the evil odour in which the latter was held after Nehemiah’s day, or for its significant name and well-known beauty. terrible as an army with banners ] The last four words represent the Heb. word nidhgâlôth , partic. niphal of a denominative from deghel = a banner. Cp. dâghûl , ch. Song of Solomon 6:10 : literally it would be ‘beflagged things,’ if we might coin such an expression; hence companies of soldiers gathered about a flag. Rightly the LXX, θάμβος ὡς τεταγμέναι (sc. φὰλαγγες), a terror (i.e. terrible) as ranked (phalanxes). As Oettli remarks, this simile indicates that a king, not a shepherd, is speaking here. Whether the bannered hosts are terrible as overcoming, conquering, so that we have here praise of the Shulammite’s beauty, or whether we have praise of her inaccessibility as frowning upon her flatterers, must be left to individual taste.