Song of Solomon 2:4
in Song of Solomon 2He has brought me to the house of wine, and his banner over me is love.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
He brought me to the banqueting-house, And his banner over me was love.
KJV
He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.
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This verse in Song of Solomon 2
Commentary
20 notes on this verse"Bring me into the wine cellar." The Bridegroom had stopped outside and was welcomed by the bride. Truly he had rested on her bosom. Many young maidens are not such as to be worthy of having the Bridegroom as their guest: "to the crowds" outside, he "speaks in parables." How I fear that many of us are maidens! "Bring me into the wine cellar." Why do I wait outside for so long? "See, I stand at the door and knock. If someone opens to me, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with me."
This site's exposition
Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest
on Song of Solomon 2:3-4
She answers his flower with a fruit tree: "Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my beloved among the young men." "He has brought me to the house of wine" names a feast.
This site's exposition
the house of wine
Adam Clarke explained that wine was stored in large jars along the wall of an upper room. That room also held the household's most precious goods. Albert Barnes read the banner as a rallying point, the support a bride from a humble home found in his known love for her.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
Naturally the bride now demands entry into the house of wine. For she alone had believed beforehand in the grape cluster hanging upon the cross, the grape cluster that was counted for nothing by everyone because while still in flower it had not exhibited to …
The banqueting-house of the heavenly King, that is, His body which He built up for Himself as His house, and then also the kingdom of heaven.
A commentator
John CassianThe First Conference of Abbot Joseph, Chapter 14 · Written before 435.
proposed
Something of this sort too we have in the character of the bride in the Song of Songs, where she says: "Set in order love in me." For this is true love set in order, which, while it hates no one, yet loves some still more by reason of their deserving it, and which, while it loves all in general, singles out for itself some from those, whom it may embrace with a special affection, and again among those, who are the special and chief objects of its love, singles out some who are preferred to others in affection.
He didn't abolish love of parents, wife, children, but put them in their right order. He didn't say, "Whoever loves" but "whoever loves above me." That's what the church is saying in the Song of Songs: "He put charity in order for me." Love your father, but not above your Lord; love the one who begot you, but not above the one who created you.
What is, "Set in order love in me"? Make the proper degrees, and render to each what is his due. Do not put what should come before, below that which should come after it. Love your parents but prefer God to them.
12 more voices on this verse
The Medieval Church7 voices
A commentator
Bernard of ClairvauxSermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon 50 · Written before 1153.
proposed
On the Twofold Charity, Namely Actual and Affectual; and Its Ordering. 1. You perhaps expect the following verses to be treated, thinking the little verse which was most recently treated to be finished. But I am contriving something else: for I have something yet to …
A commentator
Bernard of ClairvauxSermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon 23 · Written before 1153.
proposed
In moral discipline likewise three things are to be noticed, as it were three cells in one storeroom. And perhaps for this reason she said storerooms in the plural, and not storeroom, thinking of this number of cells. Further on, indeed, she glories in having …
A commentator
Bernard of ClairvauxSermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon 49 · Written before 1153.
proposed
How Charity Is Ordered Through Discretion, So That All the Members of the Church, That Is, the Elect, May Be Bound Together With One Another. 1. "The king has brought me into the wine cellar, he has ordered charity in me" (Song 2:4). As indeed …
A commentator
Robert of TombelaineCommentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 2 · Written in the 11th century.
proposed
For what do we more fittingly understand by the wine cellar than the hidden contemplation of eternity itself? In this eternity the holy angels are inebriated with the wine of wisdom, while seeing God himself face to face, they are satisfied with every spiritual delight. …
We ought to love God in the first place, enemies in the last; and the measure of love that ought to be weighed out to our neighbors will vary according to the diversity of their merits. We know that the patriarch Jacob, although he loved …
The king brought me into the wine cellar, etc. Just as soon, she says, as the sweetness of His grace touched the throat of my heart, I felt myself so revived in spirit, and translated from the enjoyment of lowly things to heavenly desires, just …
A commentator
BonaventureCollations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 23 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
Furthermore, this charity gives to the soul a fire. Hence, in the Canticle, "Set me as a seal on your heart... for stern as death is love," when it loves to such a degree that it is totally carried up to the supremely desirable, and …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
12 ), and that which is represented in the banner, written in it in letters of gold, letters of blood, is love, love; and this is the entertainment in the banqueting-house. Christ is the captain of our salvation, and he enlists all his soldiers under the banner of love; in that they centre; to that they must continually have an eye, and be animated by it.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-citation-number+unbalanced-parens
Banquetting house - The places in which believers receive the graces and blessings of Christ. His banner - By the lifting up whereof I was invited to come to him, and to list myself under him. Love - The love of Christ crucified, which, like a banner, is displayed in the gospel.
He brought me to the banqueting house,.... Or "into" it (q).
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
He brought me to the banqueting house - Literally, the house of wine. The ancients preserved their wine, not in barrels or dark cellars under ground, as we do, but in large pitchers, ranged against the wall in some upper apartment in the house, the place where they kept their most precious effects.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Spiritually, the bride or beloved is led (So 2:4) first into the King's chambers, thence is drawn after Him in answer to her prayer; is next received on a grassy couch under a cedar kiosk; and at last in a "banqueting hall," such as, JOSEPHUS says, Solomon had in his palace, "wherein all the vessels were of gold" (Antiquities, 8:5,2).
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הֱבִיאַ֙נִי֙ | heviani | he has brought me | H935 → | 2568 times |
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | into | H413 → | 5510 times |
| בֵּ֣ית | beit | [the] house of | H1004 → | 2046 times |
| הַיָּ֔יִן | haiyayin | <the> wine | H3196 → | 141 times |
| וְדִגְל֥וֹ | vediglo | and standard his | H1714 → | |
| עָלַ֖י | ʾalai | over me | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| אַהֲבָֽה׃ | ʾahavah | [is] love | H160 → | 38 times |
הֱבִיאַ֙נִי֙he has brought me
hevianiH935 →2568 times
אֶל־into
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
בֵּ֣ית[the] house of
beitH1004 →2046 times
הַיָּ֔יִן<the> wine
haiyayinH3196 →141 times
וְדִגְל֥וֹand standard his
vedigloH1714 →
עָלַ֖יover me
ʾalaiH5921 →5755 times
אַהֲבָֽה׃[is] love
ʾahavahH160 →38 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Revelation 3:20Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me.
it leads to
- Luke 12:36–37
Then you will be like servants waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks, they can open the door for him at once.
- Revelation 19:9
Then the angel told me to write, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
- John 14:21–23
Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.”
- Matthew 24:33
So also, when you see all these things, you will know that He is near, right at the door.
- Song of Solomon 5:2–4
I sleep, but my heart is awake. A sound! My beloved is knocking: “Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one. My head is drenched with dew, my hair with…
- Luke 12:36–37
Through
Song of Solomon 1:4Take me away with you—let us hurry! May the king bring me to his chambers. We will rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine. It is only right…
it leads to
- Hosea 11:4
I led them with cords of kindness, with ropes of love; I lifted the yoke from their necks and bent down to feed them.
- John 6:44
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
- Psalms 45:14–15
In colorful garments she is led to the king; her virgin companions are brought before you.
- Hosea 11:4
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Song of Solomon
This page draws on 19 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Augustine of Hippo, SERMON 344:2; Augustine of Hippo, SERMON 50 (100).2; Bede, On the Tabernacle 1:6; Bede, Commentary on the Song of Songs; Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon 50; Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon 23; Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon 49; Bonaventure, Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 23; Cosmas Indicopleustes, The Christian Topography, Book 10; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Cassian, The First Conference of Abbot Joseph, Chapter 14; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Nilus of Sinai, COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 45; Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 2:7 and Robert of Tombelaine, Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 2.