We have said at the beginning [in the preface] that this book of Solomon is, as it were, a song, in which he sings of the benefits of God, which are shown to his people through the word, and gives thanks for the same. But one can see that he is making the end of the song here, and asks for the future expansion of the kingdom. For he looks to the time of Christ, when the word and the service of God should be spread over the whole earth. So also in the Psalm is prayed [Ps. 68, 29. Vulg.], "Strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought among us."
V. 1. O that I might find thee, my brother, sucking my mother's breasts, outside, and kiss thee etc.
The meaning is: O our God, increase this kingdom infinitely. It is in the field outside, that is, with the neighboring peoples, and still wishes to go out still further. But it presents its bridegroom as a little child sucking its mother's breasts. For God was in this people, looking at the other kingdoms in which He was to be extended, like a little child. Therefore she says: You are as it were a child sucking its mother's milk, oh that I could find you outside, planted among all nations by the word of the Gospel! But she adds, "And would have to kiss you." For "to kiss" is to give the word, to have the gospel. When this shall be done, she says, men will no more mock me. We are now a despised people, but then it will happen that in all kingdoms throughout the world there will be some who will revere and praise me, who will accept the service of God and believe the word of God etc.
V. 2. I wanted to lead you and bring you to my mother's house.
Then I will lead you into the synagogue, as it is written of John [Luc. 1:17.], "He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children of
convert." For the Jews who believed in Christ were not led to us Gentiles, but to their fathers, that is. To the faith of the fathers. After that we Gentiles were taken into this family, so that we are now one people.
Since you were supposed to teach me.
Then the perfect Magisterium will be established, since it will be so obviously supported by the Holy Spirit.
Then I will water you with made wine and with the must of my pomegranates.
Then the teaching will be richer and stronger than it ever was under the law. I will give you wine, which you will drink, that is, which you will approve, and the must of pomegranates. This he adds, perhaps, to indicate the nature of the new teaching from various testimonies of the prophets.
V. 3. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand is hearting me.
So far we have heard the song of Solomon, in which he sang of present and past benefits, and asked that in the future the kingdom and the doctrine be spread over the whole world. What is in this chapter, I have said that it is, as it were, the conclusion, in which he refers to what he has treated throughout the whole book.
But here, too, he uses an image taken from lovers, namely, the embrace of the spouses, by which he indicates that this kingdom is under the protection of God and is governed and shaped by God. Since it is in this way that we should not doubt the favor of God toward us, he says:
V. 4. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you do not stir up nor stir up my love.
That is, you cities that are under this worship and kingdom, wear
1650 L. xxi, SS7-3S9. Interpretations on the Song of Songs. W. v, sE-sisi. 1651
Take heed that ye be quiet and peaceable, that ye stir not up tumults and sedition, but rather rejoice in this grace and peace, and obey the laws, obey the authorities. In religion also, beware lest any disturbance be stirred up, either by idolatry or by other blasphemous opinions. For these two things are connected with each other: Peace cannot exist without religion or righteousness, according to the words of the Psalm [Ps. 85, 11.], "That righteousness and peace may kiss each other." Above [Cap. 3, 5.] he added an adjuration (obtestationem): "I adjure you by the deer," that at least out of reverence for the holy fathers and prophets, whom they had for ancestors, they should be quiet and still. That he adds:
Until she likes it herself,
I think he is talking about an occasion that requires it. You citizens, do not wake her up. If she is awakened by the neighboring enemies, then you also do your duty, that you at the same time watch over her and help her and contribute your goods and chattels.
V. 5 Who is she that cometh up from the wilderness, and leaneth upon her friend?
Not only the neighboring peoples, but also those who are in this people are surprised that she comes up from the desert like this. But this is something that is constantly attributed to the works of God, that they come forth as from a desert and a dry land. The wicked blossom and come forth as if from an exceedingly lovely paradise, where there seems to be nothing that could have the slightest lack of form. In contrast, the church and the people of God seem to come out of the desert. For their glory is seen only in the word. If it came out of paradise, the world would admire it, but the desert does not admire it.
And yet, he says, it is based on pleasures, namely those that the Word pours out. For wherever the Word of God is, there must necessarily be the Holy Spirit, faith and other gifts of the Spirit. Therefore, he rightly says, "she leans" and is "rotten" on God, on whose word she is so hard.
stubbornly. For even if there are some sects, they are in darkness before God, and only the godly are seen; the others are considered nothing. The same is to be said of sins and other weaknesses. I used to refer this to the soul and to a contemplative (speculativam) life; but whoever wants to describe a contemplative life properly, let him describe it in such a way that it is: believing and leaning on the Word. For those who pursue their thoughts without the Word (speculantur) are brought down by Satan, as I have experienced more than once. Therefore, let us let go of these dreams.
Under the apple tree I woke you up.
That the Latin interpreter translated: Ibi corrupta est mater tua, is an obvious error. For he has changed a word of pain (poenae) into a word of guilt (culpae). For the verbum here actually means the labor of childbearing or the pains of childbirth, although elsewhere it stands for spoil and injure. The mother is the commonwealth, the citizens are the children. These, he says, I awakened under the apple tree, there your mother gave you birth or gave birth to you. For the kingdom of the Jews was not at all large, if one looks at the extent. Therefore it is compared to a tree that is not great, that it is the planting place for the future kingdom of the church, which is to be spread through all the lands.
V. 6. Set me as a seal upon your heart, and as a seal upon your arm.
This is an admonition from the bridegroom that the bride should stay on the word and not suffer herself to be diverted from the word either to her own thoughts or to another service. Well, he says, may I be to you like a seal or a ring by which you acknowledge me and embrace me from the heart. Look upon me, upon me fix thine eyes and thine heart. But where are you? In the word, he says, in Jerusalem and in my temple. Put this seal on your heart etc. The fact that he does not want it to be set on the heart alone, but also on the arm, means at the same time faith and love, that we, according to the word
God and live. When this happens, then we truly walk in royal adornment, and rightly bear this seal.
For love is strong, like death, and zeal is firm, like hell.
This reason (ratio) does not seem appropriate, but because this passage contains a description of the spiritual life, this saying rhymes very well with it. For since it exhorts to hold fast to faith and love, it indicates that great and unbroken courage is needed because of the many temptations that confront the godly. But how can such courage be better described than when it is called strong love? For this disposition of the heart has dominion over all others, as is shown not only by the honorable and conjugial love that is mentioned, but also by the foolish raging of youth. For it is true what the poet says: Love overcomes everything.
Therefore, the Bridegroom says If you truly love me, you will keep my seal, and you will overcome all the sorrow and trouble caused to you by the world and by Satan. For love is strong, like death, which conquers all things, and a firm zeal or jealousy (zelus) is like hell, which cannot be moved by pleas to restore the dead. We can call jealousy (zelum) an "angry love" where we are angry against the person out of excessive love, not out of hatred. But for this reason he uses the similitude of death and hell, so that he shows that the godly people will feel death and hell, as Paul says, Rom. 8, 36: "We are being killed all day long."
Their embers are fiery and a flame of the Lord.
What the Latin interpreter has translated: atque flammarum, means in Hebrew: a flame of God. But by both he denotes the inexhaustible and infinite embers of love, which cannot be extinguished. For he makes a distinction between the fire of God and other, earthly (mate
riali) fire, because the fire of God is eternal and unquenchable, which can neither be kindled nor extinguished by human will. This fire, he says, which God has thus kindled in you, not death, not hell, not all the wrongs that the world and the devil inflict on you, can extinguish. For love gives way to no one, and love gives way to everything.
V. 7. That even much water may not quench love.
He says here of "many waters", like Christ Matth. 7, 25:, since he speaks of the house that was founded on the rock. For no power of tempests, he says, will quench this love, but even kindle more. For those who have grasped the word with earnestness are, as it were, provoked by temptations and the cross to embrace it more closely. Therefore all temptations have this end, that although they seem to tear us away from Christ, they nevertheless unite us more with Christ.
If someone wanted to give everything in his house for love, it would all amount to nothing.
This is an excellent admonition with which he reminds the people to hold fast to the word with great diligence and care. As he has reminded them so far that they must persevere in adversity and not retreat, so here he gives a command on the other side, namely, that they should not let themselves be turned elsewhere by money and goods and power. He says: "It will happen that other lovers will pursue you, that they will attack you, not only with crosses and threats, but also with promises and goods. But be mindful of what love does. For love does not look at possessions and goods, but despises everything in the highest way. Thus Augustine says: Love outweighs all things, and it cannot be bought for any price.
V. 8. Our sister is small and has no breasts.
Above I reminded that at the end of this song Solomon looks to the spiritual kingdom of Christ, which was expected to be much more extensive and greater than the physical kingdom of the Jewish people was. And there is no doubt that this is in ordinary
The kingdom of Christ has been discussed often and much, but there was a misconception. The common people thought that the kingdom of Christ would be a physical one. They did not realize that Christ would rule through the Word in such a way that the kingdoms of the world would nevertheless retain their course.
Solomon thus says: "When we look at the expansion of the kingdom that Christ will establish through the New Testament, our present people are rightly compared to a little girl who does not yet have breasts, that is, who is not yet sufficiently ripe for the preaching of the gospel that is to be spread throughout the whole world. But here is also the indication of a lament, so that this is, as it were, a common voice of all prophets and saints in the people of the law, who long from the prison of the law into the wide space of the gospel, so that God will bring the promises made by Christ to maturity etc.
What should we do to our sister? etc.
This is the perfect movement of a heart inflamed with desire for the future Christ, as Christ also says in the Gospel [Luc. 10:24]: "Truly I say to you, many kings and prophets wanted to see and hear what you see and hear, but neither saw nor heard it. So Solomon says here in the person of all the saints: What shall we do? as if he wanted to say: How shall this form of the ages be, and how lovely? What he adds:
Now when you are supposed to address them.
This is an exceedingly beautiful and not dark indication that the kingdom of Christ stands only in words. For he does not say: On the day when she is to be adorned, when she is to be led into the bridal chamber, but "address" her, namely through the apostles and Christ Himself, with the sweetest preaching of the Gospel, when she will be taught about the grace of God and the forgiveness of sins, as if he wanted to say: Today is not the day to address them, but to be silent. For we are still in the prison of the law, and see from afar, as it were, a glimpse of the
Word, through which the kingdom of Christ is to be extended into the whole world. Now he answers, but very darkly:
V. 9 If it is a wall, we will build a silver bulwark on it.
This seems to be quite strange that he compares his sister with a wall that he wants to decorate with silver towers and with a door that he wants to strengthen with cedar planks. But here, too, I want to give my opinion. It seems to me that he is comparing the people of God, whom he calls his sister, to a wall with towers at the time of the Gospel. For through the ministry of the Word the church is fortified as with a wall against all false teachings, even against the gates of hell. That he does not think of one, but of several towers or bulwarks, which he wants to put on this wall, is rightly referred to the variety of offices that are necessary in the church, as Paul indicates in Eph. 4:11. He therefore praises the ministry of the word in the new people and promises that he will not abandon it but build it, so that the servants who are to guard the city will be put on hold, as it were.
If it is a door, let us fortify it with cedar planks.
"Cedar" is praised, not only because of its smell, but also because of its durability (ab aeternitate), for it does not rot. Hence the word in Persius: 1) Cedro digna locutus [he has spoken in such a way that it is worthy of immortality]. "The door", however, he calls the teachers or catechists in the church, through which quite a few go in and out daily.
"A wall" therefore refers to the defense, but "the door" to the teaching. Paul also uses this image [1 Cor. 16:9]: "A great door has been opened to me," and this image describes the growth of the church. For since the word is preached daily, there are always new ones whose hearts are inflamed by the spirit and love of God.
1) Persius, sat. I, v. 42.
V. 10. I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers.
This is the voice of the bride who is now manable. For the Church, having been given the Holy Spirit and the Word revealed to her, is in truth a wall against the persecutions of Satan and the heretics. And she has breasts firm as towers, with which she teaches, comforts, and instructs etc. But this teaching and these consolations are quite sure and firm; in these souls find rest, but in other things they find no rest, as experience shows.
There I have been before His eyes, as the one who finds peace.
Where these two things are, teaching rightly and defending against the wolves, peace and tranquility follow inevitably. On the other hand, where one or both of these are missing, peace is expected in vain. But he looks at the law in passing, for there the people were afflicted under hard rule; but the teaching of the gospel brings true peace, that the hearts may not doubt the mercy of God. And it is truly the highest misfortune when God is silent and does not speak. It is all the more fitting for us to be all the more grateful after such a great light has been revealed.
V. 11. Solomon has a vineyard.
The interpreter errs [ by translating: Vinea fuit pacifico in ea, quae habet populos, for I hold that both are proper names, so that the text should be read thus: "Solomon has a vineyard in Baal Hamon," so that the one is the name of a person, the other the name of a place, although Baal Hamon is found nowhere else. However, I connect this to the preceding in this way: Solomon looks at the end of the song to the end of the people, that is, to the kingdom of Christ, in which the word of grace should be spread over the whole world. Because the remnants of the Jews were the beginning of this kingdom, 2) therefore he calls the whole church his vineyard, and says that in Baal
1) There is a dot here in the Erlangen edition. The preceding is drawn to the previous sentence.
Hamon be, that is, in a very great multitude and in a very populous place. For Baal means a lord, and Hamon a multitude.
[This he says to comfort his people and to give them hope that the promises would certainly be fulfilled, since, as small as this kingdom is, when compared with the other kingdoms of the Gentiles, it is a planting place of the future kingdom of Christ, which is a kingdom of the multitude, because it is not bound to one place nor to certain persons, but is in all places, among all people, to the end of the world. This is the view I like best, although there is nothing to prevent us from seeing it as a conclusion of the whole book, where he praises his kingdom, saying that although it is small in the sight of the world, it is nevertheless very great in the sight of the word of God. In this way, what follows can be related to the external administration, as the histories teach that Solomon ruled the kingdom with the utmost care and diligence. But we want to continue, in honor of the Gospel, with the spiritual kingdom, whose planting place was, as it were, Solomon's people.
He gave the vineyard to the keepers.
This vineyard shall not lie neglected without care, but shall have its cultivators, the apostles and the other ministers of the Word, through whom the Holy Spirit will adorn the churches with various gifts.
That each one may bring a thousand pieces of silver for his fruit.
The limited number ["thousand"] stands for an infinite one. But because the number thousand is the highest, it indicates that these keepers come with the most complete reward and the most abundant fruits. Thus Peter, Paul, John etc. who were set as custodians so cultivated this vineyard that it yielded exceedingly much fruit. For the word of God cannot be taught without all fruit.
V. 12. My vineyard is before me.
This vineyard is commanded to the keepers in such a way that nevertheless the Lord Himself supervises it; as the latter said:
1658 L. xxi, "67 f. Interpretations on the Song of Songs. W. v, AW-nos. 1659
God did not create the world in such a way that He would have walked away. He supervises, yes, he is present when the preaching office is taken over, and he works. Thus, in the worldly regime, those who do not look after the business themselves do not direct their ministry well.
A thousand are due to you, Solomon, but two hundred are due to the guardians, along with its fruits.
I keep [instead of pacifici in the Vulgate], the proper name [Solomon]: A thousand are due to you, O Solomon. If this is understood of the temporal government, the meaning is easy, for the prince is the lord of all. But those who render service to the prince receive each one his reward according to merit. But if we look to the kingdom of Christ and to the right Solomon, it is not obscure what John said with this [John 1:16.], "Of his fulness have we all taken." For though the keepers have two hundred, that is, though the saints have their gifts, yet Christ is the source of all goods.
V. 13. You who dwell in the giirs.
"Gardens" in the plural he calls either in the secular regiment the various principalities of Solomon, or spiritually the
Congregations. But it is an exhortation that the churches should be governed with the utmost faithfulness, for there are people who oversee and observe everything.
Let me hear your voice.
After reminding her that there are people watching the bride, he also reminds her not to be silent but to speak. For this is left, that the word of God may be constantly practiced, lest we be overcome either by weariness, or contempt, or hatred of the word, as the Jews were disgusted with the manna, and looked back upon the fleshpots of Egypt.
V. 14. Fleuch, my friend.
Here also the bride says valet to the bridegroom, and asks that he put an end to this captivity of the law and spread the free teaching of the gospel into the world, as it were into various mountains, and be like a deer that does not stop in one place. - This is how I understand this book of Solomon's worldly rule. Now, if I am wrong, a first work deserves indulgence; for the thoughts of others have much more inconsistency.