Bible Commentaries

I have come into my ^a garden, my sister, [my] spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drank my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

(a) The garden signifies the kingdom of Christ, where he prepares the banquet for his elect.

^b I sleep, but my heart waketh: [it is] the voice of my beloved that knocketh, [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 ^c night.

(b) The spouse says that she is troubled with the cares of worldly things, which is meant by sleeping.

(c) Declaring the long patience of the Lord toward sinners.

I have put off my ^d coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?

(d) The spouse confesses her nakedness, and that of herself she has nothing, or seeing that she is once made clean she promises not to defile herself again.

I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands flowed [with] myrrh, and my ^e fingers [with] sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock.

(e) The spouse who should be anointed by Christ will not find him if she thinks to anoint him with her good works.

The ^f 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.

(f) These are the false teachers who wound the conscience with their traditions.

I charge you, ^g O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I [am] sick with love.

(g) She asks of them who are godly (as the law and salvation should come out of Zion and Jerusalem) that they would direct her to Christ.

^h What [is] thy beloved more than [another] beloved, O thou fairest among women? what [is] thy beloved more than [another] beloved, that thou dost so charge us?

(h) Thus say they of Jerusalem.

His ⁱ head [is as] the most fine gold, his locks [are] bushy, [and] black as a raven.

(i) She describes Christ to be of perfect beauty and comeliness.