Verse 1 III. (1) A reminiscence (elaborated in Song of Solomon 5:2 seq. ) 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.
Verse 3 (3) The watchmen that go about the city .—“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, Land and Book, p. 32—in description of Beirût).
Verse 4 (4) I held him . . .—Bossuet, following Bede, regards this as prophetic of Mary Magdalen (type of the Church) on the morning of the Resurrection.
Verse 6 (6) Who is this that cometh. —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 Song of Solomon 8:11 ) 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. Wilderness. —Heb., midbar.
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 ( Joshua 8:16 ; Judges 1:16 ; comp. Matthew 3:1 , &c). Here = the country. Like pillars of smoke. —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 Frankincense, see Exodus 30:34 .
Verse 7 (7) Bed. —Heb., mitta. Probably, from context, a litter.
Verse 8 (8) Because of fear — i.e., because of the alarms common at night. For fear in the sense of object of fear, comp. Psalms 91:5 ; Proverbs 3:25 .
Verse 9 (9) A chariot. —Marg., bed; Heb., appiryôn. A word of very doubtful etymology. Its derivation has been sought in Hebrew, Persian, Greek, and Sanskrit. The LXX. render φορεῖον; Vulg., ferculum; and it seems natural, with Gesenius, to trace the three words to the root common in parah, φέρω , fero, fahren, bear, and possibly the sign of such a common origin in the Sanskrit pargana = a saddle (Hitzig). At all events, appiryôn must be a palanquin, or litter, both from the context, which describes the approach of a royal cortége, and from the description given of it, where the word translated covering suggests the notion of a movable litter, rather than of a State bed.
Verse 10 (10) Bottom. —Heb., rephidah = supports. Probably the back of the litter on which the occupant leaned. The midst thereof . . .—Literally, its interior paved love from the daughters of Jerusalem. 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 ratzuph, paved, and ahabah, love.