Song of Solomon 2:12

The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; FLOWERS - tokens of anger past, and of grace come. 'The summoned bride is welcome,' say some Fathers: 'to weave from them garlands of beauty, wherewith she may adorn herself to meet the King.' Historically, the flowers, etc., only give promise; the fruit is not ripe yet: suitable to the reaching of John the Baptist, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand;" not yet fully come. THE TIME OF ... SINGING - the rejoicing at the advent of Jesus Christ. Gregory Nyssenus refers the voice of the turtle dove to John the Baptist. It with the olive branch announced to Noah that "the rain was over and gone" (Genesis 8:11). So John the Baptist, spiritually. Its plaintive 'voice' answers to his preaching of repen...

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...

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

THE FLOWERS APPEAR ON THE EARTH,.... One of the first signs of the spring being come t; and make the season delightful and pleasant; the sun returning with its warming influences, herbs and plants are quickened and spring up; fields and meadows, as well as gardens, are covered with a variety of beautiful flowers, which make walking abroad very delightful. By these "flowers" may be meant either the graces of the spirit in the saints, which, when a wintertime with them, seem to be dead, at least are hid; but, upon a return of the sun of righteousness, revive and are seen again: or the saints themselves, when in a flourishing condition, and in the exercise of grace; who may be compared to the flowers of the field for the production of them in the spring, which is a kind of re-creation of them, Psalms 104:30; and fitly expresses the renovation of the Holy Ghost, to which the revival of them...

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

ON THE EARTH. in the fields. VOICE: i.e. cooing. TURTLE. turtle-dove.. migratory bird (Jeremiah 8:7)....

Song of Solomon 2:8-17. The Beloved comes The scene is evidently changed from Jerusalem to some royal residence in the country. The lover, like the Shulammite herself, belongs to the northern hills; and as he appears here, it is more natural to suppose that the scene has been transferred thither than that he has come to Jerusalem. Moreover the later references to Lebanon imply this change of scene, and it is most suitable to suppose that the change takes place here. The indirect way in which this is hinted is entirely congruous with the kind of poems we have taken these to be. The Shulammite starts up in uncontrollable agitation, imagining she hears her lover's footsteps as he hastens to her over the hills, and she addresses her companions, the court ladies, tracing his approach until he reaches the lattices in the wall,...