Cap. 5, 17. Where has your friend gone?
The bride, sad because she lost her bridegroom, looked for him in other cities, but did not find him. Those, however, promise her that they will take care of her, help her with
Prayer and at the same time want to seek the Bridegroom with her.
Cap. 6, 1. My friend has gone down to his garden.
Here the consolation returns. For she sees that she is not completely lost from her bridegroom.
but that he went into the garden to tend the garden and gather roses, that is, to increase his gifts to the people. For when God leaves us, He does not do so in anger or out of hatred toward us, but He cleanses the vine so that it may bear fruit all the better, John 15:2. For the bride is speaking here of the fruit of temptation, that we increase in faith and good works through many tribulations.
V. 2. My friend is mine, and I am his.
That is, he is my beloved and I am his beloved. This joyfulness and confidence follows the challenge. "The roses" are the saints in this people.
V. 3. You are beautiful, my friend.
Here the bridegroom shows himself to the bride and makes it known that he delights in her faith, that she has not been broken by the challenge, so that she would have blasphemed or turned away from God. But this is a great consolation to the conscience, that it certainly believes that patience pleases God and that the sacrifice of a broken but not despairing heart pleases Him, so that even though the flesh, which is angry, grumbles a little, the spirit sighs to God and would rather remain in temptation and perish than to depart from God to godlessness. Thus experience brings hope [Rom. 5, 4].
Like Thirza, lovely like Jerusalem.
Thirzah [1 Kings 15:33, 16:8, 15:23] was the seat of the kings of Israel, as if to say: My bride, you are beautiful like Thirzah, and a well-fortified city, and like Jerusalem ordered and provided with the best laws. But it is nothing else than the description of the joyful certainty that the church or the people recognize that all his works are highly pleasing to God.
Terrible as army spikes.
The church or the people of God is not only well-ordered with worship and secular laws, but also terribly devoted to teu
fel and their adversaries. For Satan is afraid of us, when he sees that the heart is strengthened by this confidence, that we believe we please God. The adversaries are also afraid of us, for this reason they kill the godly, because they are afraid, like Pharaoh, who says 2 Mos. 1, 10: "We will dampen them with cunning, so that there will not be so many of them" 2c.
V. 4. Turn your eyes from me.
Here there is a twofold conception. The first one is that it is a warning: "Turn your eyes from me", that is, do not speculate about the majesty, otherwise you will be crushed by it. I do not approve of this one, because we see that the bridegroom has to deal with it, that he comforts. The other opinion is that it is a praise and an expression of love: "Turn your eyes away from me", they are so lovely and charming, they irritate me so that I cannot look at them any longer. He says this, not to avert his eyes, but in the manner of a lover; in telling her to avert her eyes, it is his deepest wish that she may not avert them.
It is therefore a prize of the orders in the spiritual realm. For the eyes are the teachers, as Elijah, Elisha 2c. have been. These please me so much, he says, that they provoke me to hope. These are excellent consolations by which God testifies that He approves of the worldly government and worship of this people, so that the hearts may attain the joyful certainty that they please God 2c.
Your hair is like a herd of goats.
This all agrees with the previous description [Cap. 4, 1]. But it is "the hair," as I said, the priests and Levites who are at the head of the people, governing the people with the word of GOD. "Gilead" means a heap of testimonies; that is the holy Scriptures, which in truth contain a heap of testimonies.
V. 5. Your teeth are like a flock of sheep coming out of the flood, all bearing twins.
This also belongs to the office of teaching, that one bites and scolds, not out of private hatred, but out of love and godly zeal. Therefore they are the teeth of the sheep. But what he adds of the bearing of the twins signifies the fruit of preaching. About the "cheeks" [v. 6.] is said above [Cap. 4, 3.]
V. 7. Sixty are the queens, and fourscore the concubines; and of the virgins there is no number.
So far, he has praised the various offices and estates of this people. But the praise is more to be referred to the word itself, by which the people is governed, than to the persons who govern. Now he gives thanks for the secular government given by God, that it has spread over so many cities and villages. For here one must keep the point of view (scopum) that goes through the whole book, namely that he speaks of the worldly regiment.
Therefore I take the sixty queens and the eighty concubines for the richer and the lesser cities, which were in the whole kingdom of Solomon, in Syria, Idumea, Palestine 2c., and used the same laws. The virgins are the great multitude of the other cities, all of which were governed by divine laws.
The passage in the books of Kings [1 Kings 11:3] about the number of Solomon's wives has made this passage obscure to many. But those are mistaken who think that Solomon was so lascivious that he took so many wives. This was a burden imposed on him by the law, which commanded that when a husband died, the next blood friend should take his place. Therefore, the abandoned widows saw that it would be best for them if they could be among the royal wives or concubines. This was the reason that Solomon became the husband of so many wives.
V. 8. But One is my dove, my pious 2c.
I have said that he gives thanks for the fruit that follows from the word. For this administration of the regiment is not in vain. There are
sixty queens 2c., who all make use of them. And although none of these cities is so pure that there are not many shameful and worthless people in it, yet in every single one there are some godly people, who have dove simplicity, who honor and respect this regiment from the heart, who admire and praise it as the highest gift of God, since it has the word and the church of God is in this regiment. This is my Some, my One Dove, which is gathered from the whole kingdom 2c.
When they saw the daughters, they blessed them.
All, even the wicked, must praise the godly and good citizens who are everywhere in the cities.
V. 9. Who is she who bursts forth like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, chosen as the sun?
The kingdom of Solomon, so ordered and adorned with laws, is praised everywhere; it emerges and illuminates the whole world with its rumor and glory. The other kingdoms are dark darkness compared to this one, because they are possessed by the devil. God has not sent His word to them and has not enlightened them with the rays of His knowledge. Therefore, this regiment of Solomon's, for the sake of the Word, is like the dawn, the sun and the moon in the sunrise.
But it is excellent consolation when a people with worldly rule can convince itself that it is like this before God, as he describes it here. For we often see the opposite in front of the wager, as the history of the Israelite people also teaches us.
V. 10. I went down to the nut garden to look at the shrubs by the brook 2c. I did not know them 2c. 1)
After the consolation is finished, another challenge follows. So far he has praised his kingdom and given thanks for it. For he sees the
1) The words non uovl lm the Vulgate: nesoivi) are drawn to the eleventh verse in the Vulgate.
Dove, that is, some good in every single city, whose godliness and life he approves.
Now he turns to the other side and sees that the crowd of the wicked is so great that there seem to be no godly or good people before it. For this is how it tends to happen: The vices move the hearts exceedingly violently. Therefore, a special strength is needed here, which the Spirit of God gives, so that one does not allow oneself to be struck down by the sight of those evils.
He says, "I have gone into my garden." I have directed the office of bishop and visitator, that I might see the fruits of my regiment, and behold, the multitude of the ungodly is so great that I must say: I did not know (nescivi) or I did not know (non novi), namely my dove. For if we consider the number, the multitude of the ungodly is so great that there seem to be godly people nowhere. The same happens to us; when we visit the churches, we find so many infirmities everywhere that one might justifiably despair of the fruit of the Word; and yet the dove remains, even though it is not seen, covered by the multitude of the wicked.
V. 11. My soul did not know. 1)
This passage is very obscure. Jerome has translated it in such a way that it is very much in accordance with the opinion I have expressed: he has come to look for the fruits and to seek them, but he does not know about them, that is, he does not find anything. Because the number of the ungodly is always the greatest, then, when someone is due, the good ones are lost, as it were, and are nowhere to be seen. But it seems to me to be more appropriate if we connect the sentences in this way: I did not know it that my soul had set me to be the chariot of a noble people. 2) For I take Aminadab as a generic (appellative) name. But it is a common image that "soul" for
2) In Latin: Resoivi, ^nod xosuit nae nninaa IQ6N, ut 6886IÜ HUmtriM xopuli muuitici. In the Vulgate: ^.uilua inea eouturßnvit nie xroxter yuadriM8 ^ruiundad.
"Will" is set. My soul has set me to be the people's chariot, that is, I have desired to be the people's chariot. But I do not know this either. I am indeed set to preside over others and to govern others, but they do not wish to be governed, they do not wish to obey, but to govern and be princes 2c. For this is what the unruly people are wont to do.
V. 12. Return again, return again, O Sulamith.
Here the bridegroom calls the bride away from looking at evil, so that she may let it go, and rather be comforted by looking at the good that she has. It is no small art, however, that one can overcome the present temptation and bring the heart away from sadness by considering the gifts we have, which, if one judges rightly, always outnumber and far surpass the adversity by which we are oppressed. Therefore, he says: "Return, and we will look at you; turn your eyes away from the present adversity; look at yourself, and you will see how many benefits and gifts God has bestowed upon you.
But he calls her Sulamith, or a perfect one, or a peaceable one, so that by the glorious praise he may draw her away from the sad thoughts which she has taken by looking at evil. You are peaceable, that is, everything is well, you have an abundance of good of all kinds, or you are perfect, you lack nothing. For you have a regiment appointed by God, you have authorities who rule, you have subjects who obey. Now if there are also evil ones among these, do not let them move you, but rather consider your so great gifts 2c.
We should also exercise this equity in our private life, that we patiently bear some minor infirmities, be it in friends or in our spouse, since these are compensated by so many other good things, if one only wanted to mean it right.
What do you see in Sulamith?
Rather, look at her rightly and as she deserves. Recognize in her God and the
Word of God, and that the commonwealth is not ordered by human but by divine counsel. What, therefore, can be criticized about it? God has not only given the household, the secular government, the church of this people, but He also approves of it; and not only that, but He has also promised that He will be with it 2c.
The round dance to Mahanaim. 2)
It is exceedingly well armed, so that there is no danger because of the multitude of the wicked that it should be overthrown by them. God is with His people and governs them 2c.
1) In Latin and Vulgate: Ami edoros eastroruva - Nothing but hosts of encampments.