the Second Week after Easter
Click here to learn more!
Read the Bible
Izhibhalo Ezingcwele
INgoma yazo iiNgoma 2:5
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- AmericanEncyclopedias:
- InternationalBible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Stay: Psalms 4:6, Psalms 4:7, Psalms 42:1, Psalms 42:2, Psalms 63:1-3, Psalms 63:8, Isaiah 26:8, Isaiah 26:9, Luke 24:32, Philippians 1:23
flagons: 2 Samuel 6:19, Hosea 3:1
comfort me: Heb. straw me
for: Song of Solomon 5:8, 2 Samuel 13:1, 2 Samuel 13:2, Psalms 119:130, Psalms 119:131
Reciprocal: Psalms 84:2 - soul Song of Solomon 2:3 - his fruit
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Stay me with flagons,.... Of wine, which is a supporter of the animal spirits w. The church was now in a house of wine, where was plenty of it; even of the love of Christ, compared to wine, and preferred unto it, Song of Solomon 1:2; the church though she had had large discoveries of it, desired more; and such that have once tasted of this love are eagerly desirous of it, and cannot be satisfied until they have their fill of it in heaven: the flagons, being vessels in which wine is put, and from thence poured out, may signify the word and ordinances, in which the love of Christ is displayed and manifested; the church desires she might be stayed and supported hereby, while she was attending on Christ in them;
comfort me with apples; with exceeding great and precious promises; which, when fitly spoken and applied, are "like apples of gold in pictures of silver", Proverbs 25:11; and are very comforting: or rather, with fresh and greater manifestations of his love still; for the apple is an emblem of love, as before observed; for one to send or throw an apple to another indicated love x. It may be rendered, "strew me with apples" y; in great quantities, about me, before me, and under me, and all around me, that I may lie down among them, and be sweetly refreshed and strengthened: the words, both in this and the former clause, are in the plural number; and so may be an address to the other two divine Persons, along with Christ, to grant further manifestations of love unto her, giving the following reason for it:
for I [am] sick of love; not as loathing it, but as wanting, and eagerly desirous of more of it; being, as the Septuagint version is, "wounded" z with it; love's dart stuck in her, and she was inflamed therewith: and "languished" a; as the Vulgate Latin version is; with earnest desires after it; nor could she be easy without it, as is the case of lovers.
w "Vino fulcire venas cadentes", Senecae Ep. 95. x "Malo me Galatea petit", Virgil. Bucolic. Eclog. 3. v. 64. Vid. Theocrit. Idyll. 3. v. 10. Idyll. 6. v. 6, 7. Suidam in voce
μηλον. y רפדוני "sternite ante me", so some in Vatablus "substernite mihi", Tigurine version, Piscator. z τετρωμηνη, Sept. a "Langueo amore", V. L. so Michaelis "aegrotus" is used in this sense, in Terent. Heautont. l. 1.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
The bride’s answer: “As the ‘tappuach’ with its fragrant fruit excels the barren trees of the wild wood, so my beloved his associates and friends etc.” תפוח tappûach may in early Hebrew have been a generic name for apple, quince, citron, orange etc.
Song of Solomon 2:4
His banner - As the standard is the rallying-point and guide of the individual soldier, so the bride, transplanted from a lowly station to new scenes of unaccustomed splendor, finds support and safety in the known attachment of her beloved. His “love” is her “banner.” The thought is similar to that expressed in the name “Jehovah-nissi” (see the Exodus 17:15 note).
Song of Solomon 2:5
Flagons - More probably cakes of raisins or dried grapes (2 Samuel 6:19 note; 1 Chronicles 16:3; Hosea 3:1). For an instance of the reviving power of dried fruit, see 1 Samuel 30:12.
Song of Solomon 2:6
Render as a wish or prayer: “O that his left hand were under my head, and that his right hand did embrace me!” Let him draw me to him with entire affection. Compare Deuteronomy 33:27; Proverbs 4:8.
Song of Solomon 2:7
Render: “I adjure you ... by the gazelles, or by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up nor awaken love until it please.” The King James Version, “my love,” is misleading. The affection or passion in itself, not its object, is here meant. This adjuration, three times significantly introduced as a concluding formula (marginal references), expresses one of the main thoughts of the poem; namely, that genuine love is a shy and gentle affection which dreads intrusion and scrutiny; hence the allusion to the gazelles and hinds, shy and timid creatures.
The complementary thought is that of Song of Solomon 8:6-7, where love is again described, and by the bride, as a fiery principle.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Song of Solomon 2:5. Stay me with flagons — I believe the original words mean some kind of cordials with which we are unacquainted. The versions in general understand some kind of ointment or perfumes by the first term. I suppose the good man was perfectly sincere who took this for his text, and, after having repeated, Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love sat down, perfectly overwhelmed with his own feelings, and was not able to proceed! But while we admit such a person's sincerity, who can help questioning his judgment?
