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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Song of Solomon 5 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/songs/5.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; cts.dataset.appid=i;cts.src='https://app.protectsubrev.com/catch_rp.js?cb='+Math.random(); document.head.appendChild(cts); }) (window,document,'head','script','rc-anksrH');</script></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/songs/5.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="//biblehu.com/bmcom/songs/5-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="/commentaries/">Commentary</a> > <a href="../">Ellicott</a> > <a href="../songs/">Songs</a></div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../songs/4.htm" title="Song of Solomon 4">◄</a> Song of Solomon 5 <a href="../songs/6.htm" title="Song of Solomon 6">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</div><div class="chap"> <div class="versenum"><a href="/songs/5-1.htm">Song of Solomon 5:1</a></div><div class="verse">I am come into my garden, my sister, <i>my</i> spouse: 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; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.</div><span class= "bld">V.</span><p>(1) <span class= "bld">I am come into my garden.</span>—This continues the same figure, and under it describes once more the complete union of the wedded pair. The only difficulty lies in the invitation, “Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved” (Marg., <span class= "ital">and be drunken with loves</span>)<span class= "ital">. </span>Some suppose an invitation to an actual marriage feast; and if sung as an epithalamium, the song might have this double intention. But the margin, “be drunken with loves,” suggests the right interpretation. The poet, it has been already said (Note, <a href="/songs/2-7.htm" title="I charge you, O you daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that you stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.">Song of Solomon 2:7</a>), loves to invoke the sympathy of others with his joys, and the following lines of Shelley reproduce the very feeling of this passage. Here, as throughout the poem, it is the “new strong wine of love,” and not the fruit of the grape, which is desired and drunk.<p>“Thou art the wine, whose drunkenness is all<p>We can desire, O Love! and happy souls,<p>Ere from thy vine the leaves of autumn fall,<p>Catch thee and feed, from thine o’erflowing bowls,<p>Thousands who thirst for thy ambrosial dew.”<p><span class= "ital">Prince Athanase.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/songs/5-2.htm">Song of Solomon 5:2</a></div><div class="verse">I sleep, but my heart waketh: <i>it is</i> the voice of my beloved that knocketh, <i>saying</i>, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, <i>and</i> my locks with the drops of the night.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">I sleep.</span>—This begins the old story under an image already employed (<a href="/songs/3-1.htm" title="By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loves: I sought him, but I found him not.">Song of Solomon 3:1</a>). Here it is greatly amplified and elaborated. The poet pictures his lady dreaming of him, and when he seems to visit her, anxious to admit him. But, as is so common in dreams, at first she cannot. The realities which had hindered their union reappear in the fancies of sleep. Then, when the seeming hindrance is withdrawn, she finds him gone, and, as before, searches for him in vain. This gives opportunity to introduce the description of the charms of the lost lover, and so the end of the piece, the union of the pair, is delayed to <a href="/songs/6-3.htm" title="I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine: he feeds among the lilies.">Song of Solomon 6:3</a>.<p><span class= "bld">My head is filled with dew.</span>—Anacreon, iii. 10 is often compared to this.<p>“<span class= "ital">‘ </span>Fear not,’ said he, with piteous din,<p>‘Pray ope the door and let me in.<p>A poor unshelter’d boy am I,<p>For help who knows not where to fly:<p>Lost in the dark, and with the dews,<p>All cold and wet, that midnight brews.’”<p>(Comp. also Propert. i. 16-23; Ovid, Amor. Ii. 19-21.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/songs/5-3.htm">Song of Solomon 5:3</a></div><div class="verse">I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?</div>(3) <span class= "bld">Coat.</span>—Heb. <span class= "ital">cutoneth=cetoneth;</span> Gr. <span class= "greekheb">χίτων</span>, tunic.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/songs/5-4.htm">Song of Solomon 5:4</a></div><div class="verse">My beloved put in his hand by the hole <i>of the door</i>, and my bowels were moved for him.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">By the hole</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>through (Heb. <span class= "ital">min</span>), as in <a href="/songs/2-9.htm" title="My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he stands behind our wall, he looks forth at the windows, showing himself through the lattice.">Song of Solomon 2:9</a>. The hole is the aperture made in the door above the lock for the insertion of the hand with the key. The ancient lock was probably like the one in use in Palestine now. It consists of a <span class= "ital">hollow </span>bolt or bar, which passes through a staple fixed to the door and into the door-post. In the staple are a number of movable pins, which drop into corresponding holes in the bolt when it is pushed home, and the door is then locked. To unlock it, the key is slid into the hollow bolt, and the movable pins pushed back by other pins in it, corresponding in size and form, which fill up the holes, and so enable the bolt to be withdrawn. It is said that, in lieu of a proper key, the arm can be inserted into the hollow bolt and the pins be pushed up by the hand, if provided with some soft material, as lard or wax, to fill up the holes, and keep the pins from falling back again till the bolt is withdrawn. This offers one explanation of <a href="/songs/5-5.htm" title="I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, on the handles of the lock.">Song of Solomon 5:5</a>. Coming to the door and having no key, the lover is supposed to make use of some myrrh, brought as a present, in trying to open the door, and, not succeeding, to go away. The <span class= "ital">sweet smelling </span>(Marg., <span class= "ital">passing, </span>or <span class= "ital">running about</span>) is the myrrh that drops from the tree naturally, before any incision is made in the bark, and is considered specially fine. Others explain <a href="/songs/5-5.htm" title="I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, on the handles of the lock.">Song of Solomon 5:5</a> by comparison with the heathen custom alluded to in Lucretius iv. 1173:—<p>“At lacrimans exclusus amator limina sæpe<p>Floribus et sertis operit posteisque superbos<p>Unguet amaricino, et foribus miser oscula figit.”<p>(Comp. Tibullus, 1:2-14.) Perhaps <a href="/proverbs/7-17.htm" title="I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.">Proverbs 7:17</a> makes the comparison allowable, but the first explanation is preferable.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/songs/5-6.htm">Song of Solomon 5:6</a></div><div class="verse">I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, <i>and</i> was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">When he spake.</span>—We can suppose an ejaculation of disappointment uttered by the lover as he goes away, which catches the ear of the heroine as she wakes.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/songs/5-7.htm">Song of Solomon 5:7</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">The watchmen.</span>—See Note on <a href="/songs/3-3.htm" title="The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw you him whom my soul loves?">Song of Solomon 3:3</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Veil.</span>—Heb. <span class= "ital">redîd; </span>LXX. <span class= "greekheb">θέριστρόν</span><span class= "ital">. </span>Probably a light summer dress for throwing over the person on going out in a hurry, like the <span class= "ital">tsaiph </span>put on by Rebecca (<a href="/genesis/24-65.htm" title="For she had said to the servant, What man is this that walks in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master: therefore she took a veil, and covered herself.">Genesis 24:65</a>). Only elsewhere in <a href="/isaiah/3-23.htm" title="The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the veils.">Isaiah 3:23</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/songs/5-9.htm">Song of Solomon 5:9</a></div><div class="verse">What <i>is</i> thy beloved more than <i>another</i> beloved, O thou fairest among women? what <i>is</i> thy beloved more than <i>another</i> beloved, that thou dost so charge us?</div>(9) <span class= "bld">What is thy beloved</span>?—This question, introducing the description of the bridegroom’s person, raises almost into certainty the conjecture that the poem was actually sung, or presented as an epithalamium, by alternate choirs (or single voices) of maidens and young men, as in the <span class= "ital">Carmen Nuptiale </span>of Catullus, vying the one in praise of the bridegroom, the other of the bride. Mere love-poems contain descriptions of the charms of the fair one to whom they are addressed, but not of the poet himself.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/songs/5-10.htm">Song of Solomon 5:10</a></div><div class="verse">My beloved <i>is</i> white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">Chiefest</span>.—Marg., <span class= "ital">a standard bearer; </span>Heb. <span class= "ital">dagûl, </span>participle of a word occurring in <a href="/psalms/20-5.htm" title="We will rejoice in your salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the LORD fulfill all your petitions.">Psalm 20:5</a>, where the Authorised Version gives “we will set up our banners.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/songs/5-11.htm">Song of Solomon 5:11</a></div><div class="verse">His head <i>is as</i> the most fine gold, his locks <i>are</i> bushy, <i>and</i> black as a raven.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">Bushy.</span>—Marg., <span class= "ital">curled; </span>Heb., <span class= "ital">taltallîm=</span>flowing in curls, or heaped up, <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>thick, bushy, according as we derive from <span class= "ital">talah </span>or <span class= "ital">tel. </span>The LXX. (followed by the Vulg.) take <span class= "ital">taltallîm </span>for another form of <span class= "ital">zalzallîm </span>(<a href="/isaiah/18-5.htm" title="For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches.">Isaiah 18:5</a>, <span class= "ital">sprigs </span>of the vine), and render palm-leaves.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/songs/5-12.htm">Song of Solomon 5:12</a></div><div class="verse">His eyes <i>are</i> as <i>the eyes</i> of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, <i>and</i> fitly set.</div>(12) <span class= "bld">Fitly set</span>.—Literally, <span class= "ital">sitting in fulness, </span>which the Margin explains, according to one received method of interpretation, as beautifully set, like a precious stone in the foil of a ring. If the comparison were to the <span class= "ital">eyes </span>of the dove, this would be a sufficient interpretation, the image being perfect, owing to the ring of bright red skin round the eye of the turtle-dove. But there is no necessity to have recourse to the figure <span class= "ital">comparatio compendiana </span>here, since doves delight in bathing; and though there is a certain delicious haze of indistinctness in the image, the soft iridescence of the bird floating and glancing on the face of the stream might not too extravagantly suggest the quick loving glances of the eye. Keats has a somewhat similar figure:—<p>“To see such lovely eyes in <span class= "ital">swimming search</span><p>After some warm delight, that seems to perch<p><span class= "ital">Dove-like </span>in the dim cell lying beyond<p>Their upper lids;”<p>and Dr. Ginsburg aptly quotes from the <span class= "ital">Gitagovinda: </span>“The glances of her eyes played like a pair of <span class= "ital">water-birds </span>of azure plumage, that sport near a full-grown lotus in <span class= "ital">a pool </span>in the season of dew.” The words w<span class= "ital">ashed in milk </span>refer to the white of the eye, which swells round the pupil like the <span class= "ital">fulness </span>of water, <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>the swelling wave round the dove. The parallelism is like that of <a href="/songs/1-5.htm" title="I am black, but comely, O you daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.">Song of Solomon 1:5</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/songs/5-13.htm">Song of Solomon 5:13</a></div><div class="verse">His cheeks <i>are</i> as a bed of spices, <i>as</i> sweet flowers: his lips <i>like</i> lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">His cheeks are as a bed of spices</span>—Probably with allusion to the beard perfumed (Marg., <span class= "ital">towers of perfumes</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>as in <a href="/psalms/133-2.htm" title="It is like the precious ointment on the head, that ran down on the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments;">Psalm 133:2</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Lilies.</span>—Comp. “He pressed the <span class= "ital">blossom </span>of his lips to mine “(Tennyson, (<span class= "ital">Enone</span>)<span class= "ital">.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/songs/5-14.htm">Song of Solomon 5:14</a></div><div class="verse">His hands <i>are as</i> gold rings set with the beryl: his belly <i>is as</i> bright ivory overlaid <i>with</i> sapphires.</div>(14) <span class= "bld">His hands </span>. . .—Galil, translated <span class= "ital">ring</span>, is more probably a <span class= "ital">cylinder </span>(from <span class= "ital">galal, </span>to roll), referring to the rounded arm, ending in a well-shaped hand with beautiful nails.<p><span class= "bld">Beryl.</span>—Heb. <span class= "ital">tarshish</span>; LXX. <span class= "greekheb">θαρσις</span><span class= "ital">. </span>Possibly “stones of Tarshish,” and if so, either chrysolite or topaz, both said to have been first found in Tartessus, an ancient city of Spain, between the two mouths of the Bœtis (Guadalquiver). Mentioned as one of the precious stones in the breastplate of the High Priest (<a href="/exodus/28-20.htm" title="And the fourth row a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper: they shall be set in gold in their settings.">Exodus 28:20</a>; <a href="/exodus/39-13.htm" title="And the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper: they were enclosed in ouches of gold in their settings.">Exodus 39:13</a>). The LXX. adopt the various renderings <span class= "greekheb">χρυσολίθο =ς</span>, <span class= "greekheb">ἄνθραξ</span>, <span class= "greekheb">λίθος ἄνθρακος</span><span class= "ital">, </span>or, as here, keep the original word.<p><span class= "bld">Bright ivory.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">a work of ivory, i.e., </span>a <span class= "ital">chef-d’œuvre </span>in ivory.<p><span class= "bld">Sapphires.</span>—It is doubtful whether the sapphire of Scripture is the stone so called now, or the lapis-lazuli. The former best suits <a href="/exodus/28-18.htm" title="And the second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond.">Exodus 28:18</a> and <a href="/job/28-6.htm" title="The stones of it are the place of sapphires: and it has dust of gold.">Job 28:6</a>, because lapis-lazuli is too soft for engraving. The comparison in the text either alludes to the <span class= "ital">blue veins </span>showing through the white skin or to the colour of some portion of dress.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/songs/5-15.htm">Song of Solomon 5:15</a></div><div class="verse">His legs <i>are as</i> pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance <i>is</i> as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.</div>(15) <span class= "bld">Marble.</span>—Heb. <span class= "ital">shesh. </span>Here and in <a href="/esther/1-6.htm" title="Where were white, green, and blue, hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble: the beds were of gold and silver, on a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black, marble.">Esther 1:6</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/songs/5-16.htm">Song of Solomon 5:16</a></div><div class="verse">His mouth <i>is</i> most sweet: yea, he <i>is</i> altogether lovely. This <i>is</i> my beloved, and this <i>is</i> my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">His mouth is most sweet.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">his palate </span>(see Margin) <span class= "ital">sweetnesses, i.e., </span>his voice is exquisitely sweet. The features have already been described, and <span class= "ital">chek, </span>palate, is used of the organ of <span class= "ital">speech </span>and <span class= "ital">speech </span>itself (<a href="/job/6-30.htm" title="Is there iniquity in my tongue? cannot my taste discern perverse things?">Job 6:30</a>; <a href="/proverbs/5-3.htm" title="For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:">Proverbs 5:3</a>).<p><span class= "bld"><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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