Song of Solomon 8:3

In the number of them, the allusion may be to the guard about Solomon's bed; which might consist of so many, partly for the security of his royal person, and partly for grandeur and majesty: and were just double the number of his father's worthies, he excelling him in greatness and glory; though it may be a certain number is put for an uncertain; and this is a competent and sufficient one. {q} Targum, Aben Ezra, Jarchi, Kimchi, Ben Melech, and Abendana. Song of Solomon 3:8 Ver. 8. They all hold swords,....

8:1-4 The church wishes for the constant intimacy and freedom with the Lord Jesus that a sister has with a brother. That they might be as his brethren, which they are, when by grace they are made partakers of a Divine nature. Christ is become as our Brother; wherever we find him, let us be ready to own our relation to him, and affection for him, and not fear being despised for it. Is there in us an ardent wish to serve Christ more and better? What then have we laid up in store, to show our affection to the Beloved of our souls? What fruit unto holiness? The church charges all her children that they never provoke Christ to withdraw. We should reason with ourselves, when tempted to do what would grieve the Spirit.

His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me. That is, when she should have the presence of Christ in her mother's house. Or the words are a petition that so it might be, "let his left hand", &c. (g); or a declaration of what she did enjoy, "his left hand is under my head", &c. (h); see Gill on Sol 2:6. (g) Tigurine version, Marckius, some in Michaelis. (h) Mercerus, Piscator, Cocceius, Michaelis.

3, 4. The "left and right hand," &c., occurred only once actually (So 2:6), and here optatively. Only at His first manifestation did the Church palpably embrace Him; at His second coming there shall be again sensible communion with Him. The rest in So 8:4, which is a spiritual realization of the wish in So 8:3 (1Pe 1:8), and the charge not to disturb it, close the first, second, and fourth canticles; not the third, as the bridegroom there takes charge Himself; nor the fifth, as, if repose formed its close, we might mistake the present state for our rest. The broken, longing close, like that of the whole Bible (Re 22:20), reminds us we are to be waiting for a Saviour to come. On "daughters of Jerusalem," see on [683]So 7:10. Canticle V.—(So 8:5-14)—From The Call of the Gentiles to the Close of Revelation.

3 . The bride here repeats in other words what she has already spoken of in Song of Solomon 8:1 , and losing herself in the anticipation of that which she had before regarded only as a possibility, she drops into the use of the third personal pronoun in her rapture, though she has been addressing her lover hitherto. Song of Solomon 8:3

Resigning herself now dreamily to the idea that Solomon is her brother, whom she may freely and openly kiss, and her teacher besides, with whom she may sit in confidential intercourse under her mother's eye, she feels herself as if closely embraced by him, and calls from a distance to the daughters of Jerusalem not to disturb this her happy enjoyment: 3 His left hand is under my head, And his right doth embrace me: 4 I adjure you, ye daughters of Jerusalem, That ye awake not and disturb not love Till she please! Instead of תּהת ל, "underneath," there is here, as usual, תּהת (cf. Sol 8:5). Instead of אם ... ואם in the adjuration, there is here the equivalent מה ... ומה; the interrogative מה, which in the Arab. ma becomes negat., appears here, as at Job 31:1, on the way toward this change of meaning. The per capreas vel per cervas agri is wanting, perhaps because the natural side of love is here broken, and the ἔρως strives up into ἀγάπη. The daughters of Jerusalem must not break in upon this holy love-festival, but leave it to its own course.

It is certain, however, that such buildings were erected, and it is probable that they are referred to here] in Jerusalem and in Lebanon [It is highly probable that pleasure houses were built in Lebanon ( Song of Solomon 7:4 , passim ), for which Solomon may well have had a strong affection, and pleasure gardens in Jerusalem ( Ecclesiastes 2:4-7 ). See Stanley, pp. 197-199); and we may reasonably imagine (with Ewald) that in these latter he sought to grow specimens of the plants, etc., about which he "spoke" (ch. 4:33; cf. Ecclesiastes 2:5 ). "It is a curious fact that in the ground hard by the 'fountains of Solomon' near Bethlehem, which exhibit manifest traces of an ancient garden, and where the intimations of Josephus would lead us to suppose that Solomon had a rural retreat, are still to be found a number of plants self sown from age to age, which do not exist in any other part of the Holy Land" (Kitto, "Bib. Illus." vol. 4. p. 101). Some of Solomon's journeys to these favourite resorts, we can hardly doubt, are referred to in Song of Solomon 3:6-10 ; Song of Solomon 4:8 sqq.; Song of Solomon 6:11] and in all the land of his dominion. 1 Kings 9:19

Verse 5. - I made me gardens and orchards . Solomon's love of gardens appears throughout the Canticles ( Song of Solomon 6:2 , etc.). He had a king's garden on the slope of the hills south of the city ( 2 Kings 25:4 ); and Beth-hacchemm, "the House of the Vine," at Ain Karim, about six miles east of Jerusalem ( Jeremiah 6:1 ); and at Baal-hamon another extensive vineyard ( Song of Solomon 8:11 ). The word rendered "orchard" ( parder ) occurs also in Song of Solomon 4:13 and Nehemiah 2:8 . It is a Persian word, and passed into the Greek form παράδειος (Xenophon, 'Anab.,' 1:2.7), meaning "a park" planted with forest and fruit trees, and containing herds of animals. It is probably derived from the Zend oairidaeza ," an enclosure." (For the trees in such parks, see Song of Solomon 4:13, 14 ; and for an estimate of Solomon's works, Josephus, 'Ant.,' 8:07. 3.) Ecclesiastes 2:5