Song of Solomonchapter 5
16 verses · Solomon, by tradition · 10th century BC · Wisdom and poetry
I have come to my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends, and drink; drink freely, O beloved.
Introduction
Solomon, by tradition, Wisdom and poetry, Song of Solomon Overview.
This chapter closes the wedding song and then opens the book's second night scene, in the love songs the title gives to Solomon. Its first hearers knew the heavy doors of a stone house, the bar across them at night and the watchmen on the walls. The woman speaks most of the chapter, and she tells of a moment of delay and what it cost her. Listen for how quickly the mood changes after she hesitates at the door. Then listen for her answer when the women of the city ask what makes her beloved different from any other. The chapter holds loss and praise side by side.
Context
- Who
- Hearers who knew what an Iron Age door and a night patrol were
- What
- The close of the wedding song, then a night scene in which the woman delays to open the door, loses the man and describes him to her friends.
- Where
- A bedroom door at night, the streets of the city with its watchmen, and the gathering of the daughters of Jerusalem.
- When
- The reign of Solomon, about 970 to 930 BC, by the title, on a night after the wedding.
- Why
- To show the grief of love neglected for a moment, and the praise that the loss draws out of the one who lost it.
Historical context
The scene at the door only works if you know the hardware. A house door was barred from the inside with a wooden bolt slid into a socket. Some doors had a hole cut above the bolt so that a person outside, or the owner with a key, which was a hooked stick, could reach a hand through and work the bar. "My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door" describes exactly that, and "my hands dropped with myrrh… upon the handles of the lock" means he left perfumed oil on the bolt where he touched it.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
"I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?" She is already in bed with her outer tunic off, and the floor of a house was beaten earth. Getting up means getting dirty again. The excuse is small, ordinary, and costly.
"The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me." The night patrol treated a woman alone in the streets after dark as suspect, and stripping her veil was a public shaming. This is the danger of the search made explicit.
Her praise song for him is built from palace and temple craft: a head of fine gold, locks black as a raven, eyes like doves by rivers of water washed with milk, hands as gold rings set with beryl, a body of ivory overlaid with sapphires, legs as pillars of marble set on sockets of fine gold. Statues of gods and kings were made this way, a wooden core sheathed in gold and inlaid with stone, standing on a fitted base. She is describing him as a figure of that scale.
Significance
The first hearers heard a love story that includes a missed moment and real pain. The book is not a run of unbroken pleasure, and it does not pretend to be.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
When the other women ask what makes him different from any other man, her answer is the whole second half of the chapter, and it ends, "this is my beloved, and this is my friend." Friend is the word that closes the description, after all the gold.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter is heard in the synagogue once a year, when the whole Song is read at Passover on the Sabbath that falls in the festival week. The site's festival table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts records the practice and cites Tractate Soferim 14:3 for it. Probed for this lane, the same table printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for the book. No chapter of the Song is a weekly portion, and none is read as a Haftarah.
The commentary ties the opening verse to the service of the sanctuary. Rashi places it "In the days of the dedication of the Beis Hamikdosh" (Rashi on Song of Songs 5:1:1). He reads the myrrh and the honey as the incense and the sin offerings the tribal princes brought on that day. God accepted them although they were brought as freewill gifts (Rashi on Song of Songs 5:1:2). The corpus ties no custom of the present day to this chapter, and none is named here.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Metsudah Five Megillot, Lakewood, N.J., 2001, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Each quotation is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern, and the translator's bracketed glosses are kept as the translation prints them.
Rashi reads the chapter as the history of the two Temples. The bride who sleeps at the second verse is Israel "confident and calm in the first Beis Hamikdosh", slumbering in the service of God (Rashi on Song of Songs 5:2:1). Her heart that wakes is God Himself, and Rashi names the Pesikta as the place this is expounded (Rashi on Song of Songs 5:2:2). Her answer at the third verse, that she has put off her robe and washed her feet, he reads as the reply of a wife who will not open the door. He gives Israel's words from Jeremiah about the queen of heaven as the same refusal (Rashi on Song of Songs 5:3:1).
The beloved puts his hand through the opening and she rises too late. Rashi reads the vanishing at the sixth verse as God hidden and concealed (Rashi on Song of Songs 5:6:1). He gives the beloved's reason: "I will not come into your house because at first you did not wish to open [the door]" (Rashi on Song of Songs 5:6:2). The watchmen strike and wound her at the seventh verse. One of Rashi's two readings takes the double wound as the two destructions, "the first Beis Hamikdosh and the second Beis Hamikdosh" (Rashi on Song of Songs 5:7:2).
At the eighth verse the oath is laid on the nations who saw Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah go into the furnace and Daniel into the lions' den (Rashi on Song of Songs 5:8:1). The question at the ninth verse is theirs. "What is it about your God more than all the other gods, that you allow yourselves to be burned and hanged because of Him?" (Rashi on Song of Songs 5:9:1). The praise of the beloved that follows runs from the head of fine gold to the legs like marble pillars. Rashi glosses it word by word and keeps close to the plain sense (Rashi on Song of Songs 5:10:1 to 5:16:1).
The corpus carries two further notes on this chapter that it marks linked, so they are named here and never quoted or paraphrased. They stand cited and unquoted because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref, at Ibn Ezra on Song of Songs 5:3:1 and 5:4:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty locators on this chapter and the text of none. Each is cited and linked here, and none is quoted. On the first verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 13:2, Devarim Rabbah 2:37 and Midrash Aggadah, Leviticus 19:2:6. On the second verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 12:8, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Bereshit 17 and Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Toldot 34. On the third verse it holds Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 5:3:1, Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 5:3:2 and Shir HaShirim Rabbah 5:3:1. On the fourth verse it holds Devarim Rabbah 2:24, Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 5:4:1 and Midrash Tehillim 77:2.
On the fifth verse it holds Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 5:5:1, Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 5:5:2 and Midrash Tehillim 10:11. The corpus anchors Midrash Tehillim 10:11 at Song of Songs 5:5-6. On the sixth verse it holds Midrash Aggadah, Leviticus 1:1:3, Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 5:6:1 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 5:6:2. On the seventh verse it holds Jerusalem Talmud Shabbat 6:4:4, Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 5:7:1 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 5:7:2. On the eighth verse it holds Ketubot 111a:4, Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 5:8:1 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 5:8:2.
On the ninth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 40:5 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Shirah 3:13. On the tenth verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 84:3 and Bamidbar Rabbah 2:3. On the eleventh verse it holds Chagigah 14a:4 and Chullin 63a:13. On the twelfth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayechi 19 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 5:12:1.
On the thirteenth verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Eiruvin 2:8 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Eiruvin 5:7. On the fourteenth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 13:16 and Bamidbar Rabbah 13:20. On the fifteenth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 10:1 and Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Bereshit 6. On the sixteenth verse it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 15:11 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Song of Songs 5:16:1.
What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Song of Songs 5:1:1 to 5:16:1, The Metsudah Five Megillot, Lakewood, N.J., 2001, reported CC-BY, 22 notes kept; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Song of Songs 5:3:1 and 5:4:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/song-of-solomon/5.json, the 40 locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, the festival entry for the Song at Passover citing Tractate Soferim 14:3 and Mishnah Yadayim 3:5, probed for this book and printing parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
I Sleep, but My Heart Waketh: I Sought Him and Found Him Not
I have come to my garden, my sister, my bride: He answers the invitation of 4:16 in its own words, "I have come to my garden, my sister, my bride". Myrrh, spice, honeycomb, wine and milk are gathered and enjoyed. The address then widens to the wedding company: "Eat, O friends, and drink; drink freely, O beloved".
Song of Solomon 5:1
“We read also in the Song of Songs: "Come, brothers, drink and be inebriated." And wine which gladdens the heart of man. This fleshly wine does not gladden the heart of man, but overwhelms it, and makes it mad. Indeed, it is written that those who are powerful should not drink wine. The apostle too writes that we ought not to drink wine and eat flesh. Again it is said to us: And wine gladdens the heart of man. But it speaks of a spiritual wine, which, if anyone drinks it, he is immediately inebriated.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Homilies on the Psalms 42 (Psalm 127)patristic
3 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Song of Solomon 5:1
No sooner does the spouse say, "Let my Beloved come into His garden," than her Lord answers, "I am come into My garden." "Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." When we desire our Lord Jesus to come to us, He has already come, in a measure—our desire is the result of His coming! He meets us in all our desires, for He waits to be gracious. Our, "Come," is no sooner uttered than it is lost in His, "Behold, I come quickly!"
Song of Solomon 5:1
“The great work of man's redemption, and the riches of the covenant of grace, are a feast to the Lord Jesus and they ought to be so to us. The invitation is very free, and hearty, and loving: Eat, O friends! If Christ comes to sup with us, it is we that sup with him, Rev. iii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Song of Solomon 5:1
“My honeycomb - literally, “my reed” or “my wood,” i. e., the substance itself, or portions of it in which the comb is formed. The bees in Palestine form their combs not only in the hollows of trees and rocks, but also in reeds by the river-banks.”
Song of Solomon 5:2-3
I sleep, but my heart is awake: e" opens the second night scene. He knocks and says, "My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night." She answers with questions and a shut door, "I have taken off my robe" and "I have washed my feet."
Song of Solomon 5:2
“She is now awakened from sleep by him, although she was keeping watch with her heart so that she might hear his voice at once when he knocked. But while she was rising, she experienced a delay, because she could not match the swiftness of the Word. While she was opening the door, the Word passed by.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Isaac and the Soul 6.50-52patristic
3 more voices on this verse
Song of Solomon 5:2
“I sleep, but my heart waketh - This is a new part; and some suppose that the fifth day’s solemnity begins here. Though I sleep, yet so impressed is may heart with the excellences of my beloved, that my imagination presents him to me in the most pleasing dreams throughout the night.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Song of Solomon 5:2
“I sleep, but my heart waketh,.... Like persons that are half awake, half asleep, whom Cicero (x) calls "semisomni".”
Song of Solomon 5:2
“Those that by faith are espoused to Christ he looks upon as his sisters, his loves, his doves, and all that is dear; and, being clothed with his righteousness, they are undefiled. This consideration should induce her to open to him. Christ's love to us should engage ours to him, even in the most self-denying instances.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Adam Clarke explained the custom behind her excuse. People wore only sandals, so they washed their feet before lying down, and walking to the door would soil them again. He judged the excuses frivolous while the beloved of verse 2 stood outside in the night dew.
Song of Solomon 5:3
“I have put off my coat - The bride must have been in a dream or in much disorder of mind to have made the frivolous excuses here mentioned. The words relate to the case of a person who had gone to take rest on his bed. As they wore nothing but sandals, they were obliged to wash their feet previously to their lying down. I have washed my feet, taken off my clothes, and am gone to bed: I cannot therefore be disturbed. A Hindoo always washes his feet before he goes to bed.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Song of Solomon 5:3
“In this night of the world the garment of corporeal life is first to be taken off as the Lord divested himself in his flesh that for you he might triumph over the dominions and powers of this world.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Concerning Virginity 9:55patristic
Song of Solomon 5:3
“When, all too late, the bride did arise, she seems to have been more concerned to anoint herself with the liquid myrrh than to speedily welcome her waiting Lord.”
Hudson Taylor · Union and Communion; or, Thoughts on the Song of Solomon (1893)English evangelical
Song of Solomon 5:4-6
My beloved put his hand to the latch: h; my heart pounded for him," and she rises with hands dripping myrrh. She opens too late, for "he had turned and gone". The cost follows plainly: "I sought him, but did not find him" and "I called, but he did not answer".
Song of Solomon 5:4
“My beloved put in his hand - If it were a real scene, which is mentioned in this and the two following verses, it must refer, from the well-known use of the metaphors, to matrimonial endearments. Or, it may refer to his attempts to open the door, when she hesitated to arise, on the grounds mentioned Son 5:3. But this also bears every evidence of a dream.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Song of Solomon 5:4
“Her compliance with these methods of divine grace at last: My bowels were moved for him. The will was gained by a good work wrought upon the affections: My bowels were moved for him, as those of the two disciples were when Christ made their hearts to burn within them. She was moved with compassion to her beloved, because his head was wet with dew.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Song of Solomon 5:4
“By the hole - He assayed to open the door. When his word would not prevail, his spirit, which is called the finger of God, Luke xi, 20, wrought inwardly upon my conscience.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
flowing myrrh: Albert Barnes took flowing myrrh as the myrrh that first runs from the tree on its own, the freshest and finest kind. John Wesley placed it on the handles because the beloved had touched them when he tried to open the door. He had gone, and his fragrance stayed.
Song of Solomon 5:5
“By which she signifies, that Christ, though he withdrew himself from her, yet left a sweet savour behind him. The handles - Hebrew. with myrrh passing or flowing upon the handles of the lock, which place the bridegroom had touched when he attempted to open it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Song of Solomon 5:5
"I sleep, but my heart is awake." Let us learn what food and produce God feasts upon and in which ones he takes pleasure. He takes pleasure in this, if anyone dies to his sin, blots out his guilt, and destroys and buries his iniquities. The myrrh represents the burial of the dead, but sins are dead, for they cannot possess the sweetness of life. Moreover, some wounds of sinners are moistened with the ointments of Scripture and the stronger food of the word as with bread, and are treated with the sweeter word like honey.
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Death as a Good 5:20patristic
Song of Solomon 5:5
“Sweet smelling myrrh - Or (as in the margin) “running myrrh,” that which first and spontaneously exudes, i. e., the freshest, finest myrrh. Even in withdrawing he has left this token of his unchanged love.”
Song of Solomon 5:5
“Christ will be sought while he may be found; if we slip our time, we may lose our passage. Note, (1.) Christ justly rebukes our delays with his denials, and suspends the communications of comfort from those that are remiss and drowsy in their duty. (2.) Christ's departures are matter of great grief and lamentation to believers.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
My heart sank at his departure: The words I sought him, but did not find him repeat the night search of 3:1 and 3:2. The search runs through verse 8 with no meeting. Matthew Henry drew that love delayed can miss its moment, and Ambrose read the departure as the Word passing into the inmost soul.
Song of Solomon 5:6
"I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had gone." What is this going? Simply that he has penetrated into the center of the mind as it was said to Mary, "And his sword will pierce your soul." For the living Word of God, as piercing as a sharp sword, comprehends both the limits of bodily thoughts and the secret places of the heart.
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Concerning Virginity 11:67patristic
Song of Solomon 5:7-8
I encountered the watchmen on their rounds of the city: The watchmen of 3:3 meet her again, "They beat me and bruised me; they took away my cloak". She charges the daughters: "if you find my beloved, tell him I am sick with love". Franz Delitzsch notes the refrain carries a message, since the beloved is the one being sought.
Song of Solomon 5:7
“Took away my veil - They tore it off rudely, to discover who she was. See on Son 5:2 (note). To tear the veil signifies, in Eastern phrase, to deflower or dishonor a woman.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Song of Solomon 5:7
“Disconsolate saints are taken for sinners, and are censured and reproached as such. Thus Hannah, when she was praying in the bitterness of her soul, was wounded and smitten by Eli, one of the prime watchmen, when he said to her, How long wilt thou be drunken? so counting her a daughter of Belial, 1 Sam. i.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
tell him I am sick with love: At 2:5 she was faint with love while he was near. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown saw the cause reversed here: there it was delight in his presence, and now it is pain at his absence. Matthew Henry noted she turns to her neighbours and asks them to plead with him.
Song of Solomon 5:8
“I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,.... Young converts, as before observed; who, upon the hideous outcry the church made in the streets, came to her to know what was the matter, whom she addressed as after related; this shows the humility and condescension of the church, in desiring the assistance of weaker saints in her present case, and her earnestness and resolution to make use of all ways and means she could to find her beloved; and it becomes saints to be assisting to one another; and conversation with one another, even with weak believers, is often useful.”
3 more voices on this verse
Song of Solomon 5:8
“Historically, His secret friends in the night of His withdrawal (Lu 23:27, 28). Inquirers may find ("if ye find") Jesus Christ before she who has grieved His Spirit finds Him again. tell--in prayer (Jas 5:16). sick of love--from an opposite cause (So 2:5) than through excess of delight at His presence; now excess of pain at His absence.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Song of Solomon 5:8
“I am sick of love - “I am exceedingly concerned for his absence; and am distressed on account of my thoughtless carriage towards him.” The latter clause may be well translated, “What should ye tell him?” Why, “that I am sick of love.” This ends the transactions of the third day and night.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Song of Solomon 5:8
“It is better to be sick of love to Christ than at ease in love to the world. (2.) What course she took in this condition. She did not sink into despair, and conclude that she should die of her disease, but she sent after her beloved; she asked the advice of her neighbours, and begged their prayers for her, that they would intercede with him on her behalf.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
What Is Thy Beloved More Than Another? He Is Altogether Lovely
How is your beloved better than others: The daughters answer with a question asked twice, and its second form, "How is your beloved better than another," presses her to back her charge. The question draws out the portrait of verses 10 to 16, and her loss turns into praise.
Song of Solomon 5:9
“Section 5:9–6:3: The bride’s commendation of the beloved. In the allegorical interpretations of Jewish expositors all is here spoken by exiled Israel of the Holy One whose praise she sings “by the waters of Babylon” Psa 137:1. Christian interpreters apply the description directly to the Incarnate Son, partly in His Eternal Godhead, but chiefly in His risen and glorified Humanity.”
Song of Solomon 5:10-12
My beloved is dazzling and ruddy: y, outstanding among ten thousand" opens the one place where the bride praises the bridegroom in the form of 4:1-7. "His eyes are like doves" returns the dove image he gave her at 1:15 and 4:1.
Song of Solomon 5:10
“My beloved is white and ruddy - Red and white, properly mixed, are essential to a fine complexion; and this is what is intimated: he has the finest complexion among ten thousand persons; not one in that number is equal to him. Literally, “He bears the standard among ten thousand men;” or “He is one before whom a standard is borne,” i.e., he is captain or chief of the whole.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Song of Solomon 5:10
"My beloved is white and ruddy." It is fitting, O virgin, that you should fully know him whom you love, and should recognize in him all the mystery of his divine nature and the body which he has assumed. He is white fittingly, for he is the brightness of the Father; and ruddy, for he was born of a Virgin. The color of each nature shines and glows in him.
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Concerning Virginity 1.9.46patristic
Song of Solomon 5:10
“My beloved is white and ruddy,.... This, and the following verses, contain the church's answer to the question of the daughters; she first gives a general description of her beloved, and then descends to particulars: the description of him in general is, that he is "white and ruddy"; having the whiteness of the lily, and the redness of the rose, Son 2:1; which make a perfect beauty.”
black as a raven: The portrait starts at the head. Albert Barnes compared the wavy hair to palm branches in motion and read purest gold as noble and precious, pointing to Lamentations 4:2. John Wesley warned against giving each feature its meaning, since the whole shows one person without blemish from head to foot.
Song of Solomon 5:11
“His head is as the most fine gold - Perhaps in the sense of noble and precious as the finest gold. Lam 4:2. Bushy - Waving like branches of the palm.”
1 more voice on this verse
Song of Solomon 5:11
“We need not aim at a distinct application of this and the following particulars, unto some special excellency of Christ, because such things are mere conjectures, and the only design of this description is, to set forth the beauty of Christ under the notion of a most amiable person, in whom there is no defect or blemish, from the crown of his head to the sole of his feet.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
bathed in milk: Adam Clarke took bathed in milk as the bright white of the eye, and he tied its lustre to the eastern use of stibium. He read mounted like jewels as eyes sitting full. Origen noted doves at the water watch for the hawk's shadow, so the image carries keen sight.
Song of Solomon 5:12
“In doves, the eyes are signified. For when it says, "doves over the abundance of the waters," it means this kind of bird when it comes to the waters. There it is accustomed to suffer the attacks of the hawk and to detect its hostile arrival in flight when it sees the shadow of its wings in the waters. And so it escapes the deceit of imminent peril by the keen vision of its eyes. For if you could thus look out for the snares of the devil and avoid them, you would offer "doves" as a sacrifice to God.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Homilies on Leviticus 3:8.4patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Song of Solomon 5:12
“His eyes are as the eyes of doves - See on Son 4:1 (note). Washed with milk - The white of the eye, exceedingly white. By the use of stibium, in the East, the eye is rendered very beautiful; and receives such a lustre from the use of this article, that, to borrow the expression of a late traveler, “their eyes appear to be swimming in bliss.” I believe this expression to be the meaning of the text. Fitly set - Or, as the margin, very properly, sitting in fullness; not sunk, not contracted.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Song of Solomon 5:13-14
His cheeks are like beds of spice: e" and "His lips are like lilies, dripping with flowing myrrh" carry the portrait downward by impression. "His arms are rods of gold set with beryl. His body is an ivory panel bedecked with sapphires" gathers royal and priestly materials together.
Song of Solomon 5:13
“Sweet flowers - Better as in the margin, i. e., plants with fragrant leaves and flowers trained on trellis-work. Like lilies - Are lilies dropping liquid myrrh (see the Son 5:5 note). Perhaps the fragrance of the flowers, or the delicate curl of the lip-like petals, is here the point of comparison, rather than the color.”
1 more voice on this verse
Song of Solomon 5:13
“IN this chapter the spouse describes in detail the Person of her Beloved. She is not satisfied with saying, "He is altogether lovely," but she delights to talk of the charms of each part of His sacred Person and to picture the beauties of His Divine form and features, so that thereby she may, perhaps, win some other heart, first to admire and then to love Him. Dear Friends, there are some things about which you will be wise not to go into details.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2479: “Spices, Flowers, Lilies and Myrrh” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
set with beryl: The Hebrew for beryl is tarshish, which Adam Clarke preferred to render chrysolite, a gold coloured gem. He saw rings and bracelets set with stones. John Wesley took the ivory panel for the whole trunk of the body, its sapphires white stones veined with blue.
Song of Solomon 5:14
“Beryl - Beautiful, and precious, and richly adorned, as it were with gold rings set with precious stones. Belly - Which seems to be here used, for the whole body, reaching from the neck to the bottom of the belly. Saphires - Of a pure and bright white colour, intermixt with blue veins; for some saphires are of a bright blue colour.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Song of Solomon 5:14
“His hands - gold rings set with the beryl - This really seems to refer to gold rings set with precious stones on the fingers, and perhaps to circlets or bracelets about the wrists. Some suppose it to refer to the roundness and exquisite symmetry of the hand and fingers. תרשיש tarshish, which we translate beryl, a gem of a sea-green tint, had better be translated chrysolite, which is of a gold color.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Song of Solomon 5:14
"To the pure all things are pure." As in statuary to the artist the partly undraped figure is suggestive only of beauty, free from indelicacy, so to the saint the personal excellencies of Jesus Christ, typified under the ideal of the noblest human form.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Song of Solomon 5:15-16
His legs are pillars of marble: e" ends the portrait in strength, and "His appearance is like Lebanon" gives it the northern grandeur. The praise ends in taste, "His mouth is most sweet," and then in two lines, "he is altogether lovely" and "this is my friend".
Song of Solomon 5:15
Who indeed but Christ could dare to claim the church as his bride, whom he alone, and none other, has called from Libanus, saying, "Come here from Lebanon, my bride; come here from Lebanon"? Or of whom else could the church have said, "His throat is sweetness, and he is altogether desirable"? And seeing that we entered upon this discussion from speaking of the shoes of his feet, to whom else but the Word of God incarnate can those words apply? "His legs are pillars of marble, set upon bases of gold."
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Exposition of the Christian Faith 3.10.74patristic
3 more voices on this verse
Song of Solomon 5:15
“Marble - White, and strait, and well shaped and strong. Gold - His feet are compared to gold, for their singular brightness, for which they are compared to fine-brass, Rev. i, 15. Countenance - Hebrew. his aspect or appearance, his form or person.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Song of Solomon 5:15
“From the several parts, she proceeds to the general effect of the whole person of Jesus Christ. Lebanon--so called from its white limestone rocks. excellent--literally, "choice," that is, fair and tall as the cedars on Lebanon (Eze 31:3, &c.). Majesty is the prominent thought (Ps 21:5).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Song of Solomon 5:15
“This sets forth the stateliness and magnificence of the goings of our God, our King, in his sanctuary ( Ps. lxviii. 24 ), and the steadiness and evenness of all his dispensations towards his people. The ways of the Lord are equal; they are all mercy and truth; these are the pillars of marble, more lasting than the pillars of heaven.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
he is altogether lovely: John Gill noted that the Hebrew for most sweet is a plural, sweetnesses, as if sweetness itself. After the features of verses 10 through 15, Adam Clarke saw her powers of description fail, so she names the whole of him as loveliness. Clarke rendered friend as companion.
Song of Solomon 5:16
His mouth is most sweet - His eloquence is great, and his voice is charming. Every word he speaks is sweetness, mildness, and benevolence itself. Then, her powers of description failing, and metaphor exhausted she cries out, “The whole of him is loveliness. This is my beloved, and this is my companion, O ye daughters of Jerusalem.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Song of Solomon 5:16
“His mouth is most sweet,.... Or sweetness itself (k); yea, "sweetnesses" (l); exceeding sweet.”
Song of Solomon 5:16
“WHEN THE OLD PURITAN MINISTER had delivered his discourse, and dwelt upon firstly, and secondly, and thirdly, and perhaps upon twenty-fifthly, before he sat down he usually gave a comprehensive summary of all that he had spoken. Every one who carefully noted the summary would carry away the essence of the sermon. The summary was always looked upon by the Puritan hearer as one of the most valuable helps to memory, and consequently a most important part of the discourse. In these five words the spouse here gives you her summary.”
Song of Solomon 5:16
“Here is a true believer, [1.] Giving an entire consent to Christ: "He is mine, my Lord and my God ( John xx. 28 ), mine according to the tenour of the gospel-covenant, mine in all relations, bestowed upon me, to be all that to me that my poor soul stands in need of." [2.] Taking an entire complacency in Christ.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The form: A night scene of loss and search, followed by the bride's descriptive praise of her beloved, as Delitzsch classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Her praise from head downward | Verses 10 to 16 are the one place the woman describes the man part by part, from his head to his legs. It answers the form he used for her at 4:1 to 5, and it ends on the claim that he is altogether lovely.Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, 1875. | Song of Solomon 4:1, Song of Solomon 5:10, Song of Solomon 5:16 |
| The second night search | The search of 5:6 to 8 follows the pattern of 3:1 to 4, with the woman going out into the city and meeting the watchmen. The second time they strike her and take her cloak, and she does not find him.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Song of Solomon 5. | Song of Solomon 3:2, Song of Solomon 5:6, Song of Solomon 5:7 |
How this chapter is built
2 more paragraphs on the patterns
Verse 1 closes the wedding song that began at 3:6. Verses 2 to 8 are a night scene that repeats the search of chapter 3 with a harder end, since here the watchmen strike her and she does not find him. At verse 9 the daughters of Jerusalem ask what makes him different. Her answer at verses 10 to 16 is a description of him from head downward, the same form he used of her in chapter 4.
Sources: Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, 1875; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Song of Solomon 5.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, 1875 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Ambrose of Milan, Concerning Virginity 11:67; Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 3:8.4.