Song of Solomon 2:11

My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. MY BELOVED SPAKE ... COME AWAY. Loving re-assurance given by Jesus Christ to the bride, lest she should think that He had ceased to love her, on account of her unfaithfulness, which had occasioned His temporary withdrawal. He allures her to brighter than worldly joys (). Messiah woos Israel to Gospel hopes from her past attachment to legalism. Not only does the saint wish to depart, to be with Him, but He still more desires to have the saint with Him above (). Historically, the vineyard or garden of the King, here first, introduced, is "the kingdom of heaven preached" by John the Baptist, before whom "the Law and the Prophets were." The type in Solomon's days was the return of God to Israel in favour, afte...

8-13 The church pleases herself with thoughts of further communion with Christ. None besides can speak to the heart. She sees him come. This may be applied to the prospect the Old Testament saints had of Christ's coming in the flesh. He comes as pleased with his own undertaking. He comes speedily. Even when Christ seems to forsake, it is but for a moment; he will soon return with everlasting loving-kindness. The saints of old saw him, appearing through the sacrifices and ceremonial institutions. We see him through a glass darkly, as he manifests himself through the lattices. Christ invites the new convert to arise from sloth and despondency, and to leave sin and worldly vanities, for union and communion with him. The winter may mean years passed in ignorance and sin, unfruitful and miserable, or storms and tempests that accompanied his conviction of guilt and danger. Even the unripe fru...

Verse 11. _THE WINTER IS PAST_] Mr. _Harmer_ has made some good collections on this part, from Drs. _Shaw_ and _Russel_, which I shall transcribe. One part of the winter is distinguished from the rest of it by the people of the East, on account of the _severity of the_ _cold_. At _Aleppo_ it lasts about forty days, and is called by the natives _maurbanie_. I would propose it to the consideration of the learned, whether the word here used, and translated _winter_, may not be understood to mean what the _Aleppines_ express by the term _maurbanie_. It occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament; and another word is used for the _rainy_ part of the year in general. If this thought be admitted, it will greatly illustrate the words of the bridegroom: _Lo, the winter is past; the rain is over, and_ _gone_. For then the last clause will not be explanatory of the first, and signify that the moist p...

The bride relates to the chorus a visit which the beloved had paid her some time previously in her native home. He on a fair spring morning solicits her company. The bride, immersed in rustic toils, refuses for the present, but confessing her love, bids him return at the cool of day. It is a spring-time of affection which is here described, still earlier than that of the former chapter, a day of pure first-love, in which, on either side, all royal state and circumstance is forgotten or concealed. Hence, perhaps, the annual recitation of the Song of Songs by the synagogue with each return of spring, at the Feast of Passover, and special interpretations of this passage by Hebrew doctors, as referring to the paschal call of Israel out of Egypt, and by Christian fathers, as foreshadowing the evangelic mysteries of Easter - Resurrection and Regeneration. The whole scene has also been thought...

EXPOSITION SONG OF SOLOMON 2:2 AS A LILY AMONG THORNS, SO IS MY LOVE AMONG THE DAUGHTERS. The king responds, taking up the lovely simile and giving it a very apt and charming turn, "My love is beyond comparison the chief and all around her are not worthy of notice beside her." The meaning is not thorns on the tree itself. The word would be different in that case. Rather it is thorn plants or bushes (_choach_);_ _see 2 Kings 14:9. _The daughters_;_ i.e._ the young damsels. The word "son" or "daughter" was commonly so used in Hebrew, the idea being that of simplicity, innocence, and gentleness. Song of Solomon

FOR, LO, THE WINTER IS PAST, THE RAIN IS OVER [AND] GONE. A season of the year which keeps persons within doors, makes going abroad unsafe, unpleasant, and uncomfortable; very unfit for travelling, roads bad, rivers impassable, and journeying very difficult; but now this season being over, and the spring come, the weather fair, and every thing gay and pleasant, it is inviting to be abroad; winter is by some writers r used not for the season of the year, but for a storm or tempest. Thus the winter and rain may be descriptive of the state and condition of Jews and Gentiles before the coming of Christ s, and which then ceased; it having been a stormy dispensation with the one, and a time of darkness and ignorance with the other, Hebrews 12:18; or rather it may in general represent the state of God's people both before and after conversion; before conversion it is a time of darkness, coldnes...

Here we have a dialogue of love between the Lord Jesus and his people. Song of Solomon 2:1. _I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys._ Amongst all flowers, there is none that can be compared with him. «White is his soul, from blemish free, Red with the blood he shed for me.» Song of Solomon 2:2. _As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters._ The child of God cannot long be mistaken for a worldling. The lily rises up above its thorny companions, but everybody knows that it is not a thorn; and chiefly do the quick eyes of the Lord Jesus discern his people wherever they may be found. You, dear friend, may perhaps come of a graceless family, or you may live in a house where God i

CHAPTER 2 The voice of the bride is heard again in the opening verses of this chapter; some understand it as meaning the Messiah speaking of Himself as the Rose and the Lily of the valley, but it is rather the bride. She is in her purity and separation like the lily among thorns, among the apostates of the nation during the end of the Jewish age. Of the Messiah she speaks as the apple-tree. She has no fruit of herself, but rests under Him as the blessed fruit-bearer. Under Him she finds her shelter, while He protects her and she can enjoy His fruit under His shadow. There she, and all true believers have rapture and rest and enjoy His fruit, which is sweet to the taste. The Bridegroom has brought her to His own place. She is in the house of wine (the better translation, instead of banqueting house). Unlimited joy and gladness are now her portion; the banner of love is over her; while she...

SONG OF SOLOMON 2:8 contains one of the most beautiful poems in the whole book; it breathes the air of the fresh spring-time, when, according to our own poet, a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love; here it is a young woman's fancy that hears the steps of the beloved hastening over the mountains, drawn by the sweet attractiveness of love. (1) The beloved comes (Song of Solomon 2:8 f.). (2) His speech (Song of Solomon 2:10). (3) The bride calls for his companionship (Song of Solomon 2:16 f.). Note the vividness, the dramatic force, of the opening words, Hark my belo

THE RAIN. The first or early rains come about the end of October or beginning of November; and the wet season, i.e. the last or latter rains, in March or beginning of April....