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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 3 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/songs/3.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001.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" /></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/3.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/3-1.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/2.htm" title="Song of Solomon 2">◄</a> Song of Solomon 3 <a href="../songs/4.htm" title="Song of Solomon 4">►</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/3-1.htm">Song of Solomon 3:1</a></div><div class="verse">By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.</div><span class= "bld">III.</span><p>(1) A reminiscence (elaborated in <a href="/songs/5-2.htm" title="I sleep, but my heart wakes: it is the voice of my beloved that knocks, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.">Song of Solomon 5:2</a> <span class= "ital">seq.</span>) of the intensity of their love before their union, put by the poet into his lady’s mouth. She “arises from dreams” of him, and goes to find him.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/songs/3-3.htm">Song of Solomon 3:3</a></div><div class="verse">The watchmen that go about the city found me: <i>to whom I said</i>, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?</div>(3) <span class= "bld">The watchmen that go about the city</span>.—“Henceforward until morning the streets are deserted and silent, with only here and there a company returning from a visit, with a servant bearing a lantern before them. The city-guard creeps softly about in utter darkness, and apprehends all found walking in the streets without a light” (Thomson, <span class= "ital">Land and Book, </span>p. 32—in description of Beirût).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/songs/3-4.htm">Song of Solomon 3:4</a></div><div class="verse"><i>It was</i> but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">I held him </span>. . .—Bossuet, following Bede, regards this as prophetic of Mary Magdalen (type of the Church) on the morning of the Resurrection.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/songs/3-6.htm">Song of Solomon 3:6</a></div><div class="verse">Who <i>is</i> this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?</div>(6) <span class= "bld">Who is this that cometh.</span>—The dramatic feeling is decidedly shown in the passage introduced by this verse, but we still regard it as a scene passing only in the theatre of the fancy, introduced by the poet in his Epithalamium, partly from his sympathy with all newly-wedded people, partly (as <a href="/songs/8-11.htm" title="Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon; he let out the vineyard to keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.">Song of Solomon 8:11</a>) to contrast the simplicity of his own espousals, of which all the joy centred in true love, with the pomp and magnificence of a royal marriage, which was a State ceremony.<p><span class= "bld">Wilderness.</span>—Heb., <span class= "ital">midbar. </span>The idea is that of a wide open space, with or without pasture: the country of nomads, as distinguished from that of a settled population. With the article (as here) generally of the desert of Arabia, but also of the tracts of country on the frontiers of Palestine (<a href="/joshua/8-16.htm" title="And all the people that were in Ai were called together to pursue after them: and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.">Joshua 8:16</a>; <a href="/judges/1-16.htm" title="And the children of the Kenite, Moses' father in law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the south of Arad; and they went and dwelled among the people.">Judges 1:16</a>; comp. <a href="/matthew/3-1.htm" title="In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,">Matthew 3:1</a>, &c). Here <span class= "ital">= the country.</span><p><span class= "bld">Like pillars of smoke.</span>—The custom of heading a cortege with incense is both very ancient and very general in the East: probably a relic of religious ceremonials where gods were carried in processions. For <span class= "ital">Frankincense, </span>see <a href="/exodus/30-34.htm" title="And the LORD said to Moses, Take to you sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like weight:">Exodus 30:34</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/songs/3-7.htm">Song of Solomon 3:7</a></div><div class="verse">Behold his bed, which <i>is</i> Solomon's; threescore valiant men <i>are</i> about it, of the valiant of Israel.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">Bed.</span>—Heb., <span class= "ital">mitta. </span>Probably, from context, a <span class= "ital">litter.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/songs/3-8.htm">Song of Solomon 3:8</a></div><div class="verse">They all hold swords, <i>being</i> expert in war: every man <i>hath</i> his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">Because of fear</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>because of the alarms common at night. For <span class= "ital">fear </span>in the sense of object of fear, comp. <a href="/psalms/91-5.htm" title="You shall not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flies by day;">Psalm 91:5</a>; <a href="/proverbs/3-25.htm" title="Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it comes.">Proverbs 3:25</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/songs/3-9.htm">Song of Solomon 3:9</a></div><div class="verse">King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">A chariot.</span>—Marg., <span class= "ital">bed; </span>Heb., <span class= "ital">appiryôn. </span>A word of very doubtful etymology. Its derivation has been sought in Hebrew, Persian, Greek, and Sanskrit. The LXX. render <span class= "greekheb">φορεῖον</span>; Vulg., <span class= "ital">ferculum; </span>and it seems natural, with Gesenius, to trace the three words to the root common in <span class= "ital">parah, </span><span class= "greekheb">φέρω</span><span class= "ital">, </span>fero, fahren, bear, and possibly the sign of such a common origin in the Sanskrit <span class= "ital">pargana = a saddle </span>(Hitzig). At all events, <span class= "ital">appiryôn </span>must be a <span class= "ital">palanquin, </span>or <span class= "ital">litter, </span>both from the context, which describes the approach of a royal cortége, and from the description given of it, where the word translated <span class= "ital">covering </span>suggests the notion of a movable litter, rather than of a State bed.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/songs/3-10.htm">Song of Solomon 3:10</a></div><div class="verse">He made the pillars thereof <i>of</i> silver, the bottom thereof <i>of</i> gold, the covering of it <i>of</i> purple, the midst thereof being paved <i>with</i> love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">Bottom.</span>—Heb., <span class= "ital">rephidah = supports. </span>Probably the back of the litter on which the occupant leaned.<p><span class= "bld">The midst thereof </span>. . .—Literally, <span class= "ital">its interior paved love from the daughters of Jerusalem. </span>There are three possible renderings. (1) Its interior made bright by a lovely girl of, &c; and (2) its interior paved in a lovely way by, &c; (3) its interior tesselated as a mark of love by, &c. The last of these does the least violence to the text as it stands, but very possibly some words have dropped out between <span class= "ital">ratzuph, </span>paved, and <span class= "ital">ahabah, </span>love.<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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