Song of Solomon 8:5

8:5-7 The Jewish church came up from the wilderness, supported by Divine power and favour. The Christian church was raised from a low, desolate condition, by the grace of Christ relied on. Believers, by the power of grace, are brought up from the wilderness. A sinful state is a wilderness in which there is no true comfort; it is a wandering, wanting state: There is no coming out of this wilderness, but leaning on Christ as our Beloved, by faith; not leaning to our own understanding, nor trusting in any righteousness of our own; but in the strength of him, who is the Lord our Righteousness. The words of the church to Christ which follow, entreat an abiding place in his love, and protection by his power. Set me as a seal upon thine heart; let me always have a place in thine heart; let me have an impression of love upon thine heart. Of this the soul would be assured, and without a sense thereof no rest is to be found. Those who truly love Christ, are jealous of every thing that would draw them from him; especially of themselves, lest they should do any thing to provoke him to withdraw from them. If we love Christ, the fear of coming short of his love, or the temptations to forsake him, will be most painful to us. No waters can quench Christ's love to us, nor any floods drown it. Let nothing abate our love to him. Nor will life, and all its comforts, entice a believer from loving Christ.

Song of Solomon 8:5 . Who is this, &c. — These seem to be the words of the daughters of Jerusalem, or of the friends of the bride and bridegroom, admiring and congratulating this happy union: leaning upon her beloved — Which implies both great freedom and familiarity, and fervent affection and dependance upon him. I raised thee up — These are Christ’s words: when thou wast fallen, and laid low, and dead in trespasses and sins, and in the depth of misery, I revived thee: Under the apple-tree — Under my own shadow: for she had compared him to an apple-tree, and declared, that under the shadow of the tree she had both delight and fruit, ( Song of Solomon 2:3 ,) which is the same thing with this raising up. There — Under that tree, either the universal or the primitive church did conceive and bring thee forth.

(5) Who is this that cometh. —This begins a new section, which contains the most magnificent description of true love ever written by poet. The dramatic theory encounters insuperable difficulties with this strophe. Again we presume that the theatre and the spectators are imaginary. It is another sweet reminiscence, coming most naturally and beautifully after the last. The obstacles have been removed, the pair are united, and the poet recalls the delightful sensations with which he led his bride through the scenes where the youth of both had been spent, and then bursts out into the glorious panegyric of that pure and perfect passion which had united them. Leaning upon her beloved . . .—The LXX. add here shining white, and the Vulgate, flowing with delights. I raised thee up.—Literally, aroused: i.e., I inspired thee with love. For this sense of exciting a passion, given to the Hebrew word, compare Proverbs 10:12; Zechariah 9:13. Delitzsch restores from the Syriac what must have been the original vowel-pointing, making the suffixes feminine instead of masculine. There thy mother . . .—Not necessarily under the apple-tree, which is commemorated as the scene of the betrothal, but near it. The poet delights to recall these early associations, the feelings with which he had watched her home and waited her coming. The Vulg. has here ibi corrupta est mater tua, ibi violata est genetrix tua, which savours of allegory.

So in later times the tree has been taken to stand for the Cross, the individual excited to love under it the Gentiles redeemed at the foot of the Cross, and the deflowered and corrupted mother the synagogue of the Jews (the mother of the Christian Church), which was corrupted by denying and crucifying the Saviour.

The scene changes from Jerusalem to the birthplace of the bride, where she is seen coming up toward her mother's house, leaning on the arm of the great king her beloved. Who is this - Compare and contrast with Sol 3:6. In the former scene all was splendor and exaltation, but here condescension, humility, and loving charm. I raised thee up ... - Beneath this apple-tree I wakened thee. The king calls the bride's attention to a fruit-tree, which they pass, the trysting-spot of earliest vows in this her home and birthplace. The Masoretic pointing of the Hebrew text (the most ancient traditional interpretation) assigns these words to the bride, but the majority of Christian fathers to the king. The whole passage gains in clearness and dramatic expression by the latter arrangement.

Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness? These Words are repeated from Song of Solomon 3:6 , See Poole "Song of Solomon 3:6" . This and the next clause are the words either, 1. Of the daughters of Jerusalem, or the friends of the bride and Bridegroom, admiring and congratulating this happy conjunction. Or, 2. Of the Bridegroom, who proposeth the question, that he may give the answer here following. Leaning upon her Beloved; which implies both great freedom and familiarity, and fervent affection, and dependence upon him. If these be the Bridegroom’s words, he speaketh of himself in the third person, which is usual in the Hebrew language. I raised thee up, when thou wast fallen, and laid low, and wert dead in trespasses, and in the depth of misery I revived thee. Under the apple tree; under my own shadow; for she had compared him to an apple tree, and declared that under the shadow of the tree she had both delight and fruit, Song of Solomon 2:3 , which is the same thing with this raising up. There thy mother brought thee forth; under that tree either the universal or the primitive church did conceive and bring thee forth.

5. Who is this—Words of the daughters of Jerusalem, that is, the churches of Judea; referring to Paul, on his return from Arabia ("the wilderness"), whither he had gone after conversion (Ga 1:15-24). I raised thee … she … bare thee—(Ac 26:14-16). The first words of Jesus Christ to the bride since her going to the garden of nuts (So 6:9, 10); so His appearance to Paul is the only one since His ascension, So 8:13 is not an address of Him as visible: her reply implies He is not visible (1Co 15:8). Spiritually, she was found in the moral wilderness (Eze 16:5; Ho 13:5); but now she is "coming up from" it (Jer 2:2; Ho 2:14), especially in the last stage of her journey, her conscious weakness casting itself the more wholly on Jesus Christ (2Co 12:9). "Raised" (Eph 2:1-7). Found ruined under the forbidden tree (Ge 3:22-24); restored under the shadow of Jesus Christ crucified, "the green tree" (Lu 23:31), fruit-"bearing" by the cross (Isa 53:11; Joh 12:24). "Born again by the Holy Ghost" "there" (Eze 16:3-6). In this verse, her dependence, in the similar verse, So 3:6, &c., His omnipotence to support her, are brought out (De 33:26).

5 . the wilderness ] i.e. the uncultivated open pasture lands round the village. This again is an insurmountable difficulty for Budde, as the same word in Song of Solomon 3:6 was. Siegfried boldly tries to get over the difficulty by saying that the threshing-floor lay in the midhbâr , and in Wetzstein’s account the marriage procession is said to move from the chaff-barn towards the threshing-floor. But unfortunately, the procession, if procession it be, is described as coming from the midhbâr . Moreover, to make the threshing-floor a part of the midhbâr is unheard of. leaning upon her beloved ] i.e. she was supporting herself as weary with the journey. I raised thee ] The pronouns thee and thy in the last clauses of this verse are masculine in the Massoretic text, and consequently make the Shulammite address the bridegroom. But the Syriac, which is followed by many commentators, reads the pronouns as feminine. The question is one of vowels, as the consonantal text is the same for both readings, and in all probability the feminine suffixes are correct, for no one’s mother but the bride’s has hitherto been spoken of, and the words are better suited to the bridegroom than to the bride. The clause should be rendered as in the R.V. I awakened thee . The lover, as he approaches the maiden’s home, points out places that are memorable to him. Under this apple tree he had, perhaps, kissed her awake. Cp. Tennyson’s Sleeping Beauty .

This is better than, ‘here I first aroused thy love.’ there ] i.e. yonder , not under the apple tree, but in the house they are approaching. thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth that bare thee ] Better, as in the R.V., thy mother was in travail with thee, there was she in travail that brought thee forth . Chap. Song of Solomon 8:5-7 . The Return in the Might of Love The scene depicted in these verses is the return of the Shulammite with her lover to the village. As they draw near she leans upon him in weariness, and they are observed by some of the villagers, who ask the question in Song of Solomon 8:5 a . The lovers meantime come slowly on, and as they come he points out an apple tree under which he had once found her sleeping and awaked her, and then as they come in sight of it, he points to her birthplace, her mother’s home. In Song of Solomon 8:6-7 the Shulammite utters that great panegyric of love which is the climax and glory of the book. Because of this power of love which she feels in her heart she beseeches her lover to bind her closely to himself. For the Wetzstein-Budde theory these verses are full of insuperable difficulty. Such personal details as we have here cannot be made to fit into a collection of general wedding songs, and the advocates of that view have simply to give them up as a mere congeries of fragments. Taken as above, everything is simple, intelligible and natural.

Verses 5-14. - Part V. CONCLUSION. THE BRIDEGROOM AND THE BRIDE IN THE SCENE OF THEIR FIRST LOVE. Verse 5a. - Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? We must compare this question with the corresponding one in Song of Solomon 3:6 . In that case the inhabitants of Jerusalem are supposed to be looking forth, and behold the bridal procession approaching the capital. In this case the scene is transferred to the country, to the neighbourhood of the bride's home, where she has desired to be with her lord. The country people, or the group of her relatives, are supposed to be gazing at the pair of lovers, not coming in royal state, but in the sweet simplicity of true affection, the bride leaning with loving confidence on the arm of her husband, as they were seen before in the time of their "first love." The restoration of "first love" is often the prayer of the disciple, feeling how far he falls short of the affection which such a Master should call forth. The first feelings of the heart when it is won to Christ are very delightful. "Where is the blessedness I knewWhen first I saw the Lord?Where is the soul-refreshing viewOf Jesus and his Word?" It is a blessedness when we come up from the wilderness. It is a joy to ourselves and a matter of praise to our fellow believers when we are manifestly filled with a sense of the Saviour's presence and fellowship.