13 You who have your resting-place in the gardens, the friends give ear to your voice; make me give ear to it.
Say, O love of my soul, where you give food to your flock, and where you make them take their rest in the heat of the day; why have I to be as one wandering by the flocks of your friends?
What is your loved one more than another, O fairest among women? What is your loved one more than another, that you say this to us? My loved one is white and red, the chief among ten thousand. His head is as the most delicate gold; his hair is thick, and black as a raven. His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the water streams, washed with milk, and rightly placed. His face is as beds of spices, giving out perfumes of every sort; his lips like lilies, dropping liquid myrrh. His hands are as rings of gold ornamented with beryl-stones; his body is as a smooth plate of ivory covered with sapphires. His legs are as pillars of stone on a base of delicate gold; his looks are as Lebanon, beautiful as the cedar-tree. His mouth is most sweet; yes, he is all beautiful. This is my loved one, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.
He who has my laws and keeps them, he it is who has love for me: and he who has love for me will be loved by my Father, and I will have love for him and will let myself be seen clearly by him. Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, How is it that you will let yourself be seen clearly by us and not by the world? Jesus said to him in answer, If anyone has love for me, he will keep my words: and he will be dear to my Father; and we will come to him and make our living-place with him.
And whatever request you make in my name, that I will do, so that the Father may have glory in the Son. If you make any request to me in my name, I will do it.
Teaching them to keep all the rules which I have given you: and see, I am ever with you, even to the end of the world.
Come, my loved one, let us go out into the field; let us take rest among the cypress-trees. Let us go out early to the vine-gardens; let us see if the vine is in bud, if it has put out its young fruit, and the pomegranate is in flower. There I will give you my love.
I went down into the garden of nuts to see the green plants of the valley, and to see if the vine was in bud, and the pomegranate-trees were in flower.
Be awake, O north wind; and come, O south, blowing on my garden, so that its spices may come out. Let my loved one come into his garden, and take of his good fruits.
See, it is the bed of Solomon; sixty men of war are about it, of the army of Israel, All of them armed with swords, trained in war; every man has his sword at his side, because of fear in the night. King Solomon made himself a bed of the wood of Lebanon. He made its pillars of silver, its base of gold, its seat of purple, the middle of it of ebony. Go out, O daughters of Jerusalem, and see King Solomon, with the crown which his mother put on his head on the day when he was married, and on the day of the joy of his heart.
The fig-tree puts out her green fruit and the vines with their young fruit give a good smell. Get up from your bed, my beautiful one, and come away. O my dove, you are in the holes of the mountain sides, in the cracks of the high hills; let me see your face, let your voice come to my ears; for sweet is your voice, and your face is fair.
Let your voice come up to me in the day of trouble; I will be your saviour, so that you may give glory to me.
She will come before the king in robes of needlework; the virgins in her train will come before you.
And he said, Go then. So he sent her away for two months; and she went with her friends to the mountains, weeping for her sad fate.
If you are in me at all times, and my words are in you, then anything for which you make a request will be done for you.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Song of Songs 8
Commentary on Song of Songs 8 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 8
The affections between Christ and his spouse are as strong and lively here, in this closing chapter of the song, as ever, and rather more so.
Sgs 8:1-4
Here,
Sgs 8:5-7
Here,
Sgs 8:8-12
Christ and his spouse having sufficiently confirmed their love to each other, and agreed it to be on both sides strong as death and inviolable, they are here, in these verses, like a loving husband and his wife, consulting together about their affairs, and considering what they should do. Yoke-fellows, having laid their hearts together, lay their heads together, to contrive about their relations and about their estates; and, accordingly, this happy pair are here advising with one another about a sister, and a vineyard.
Sgs 8:13-14
Christ and his spouse are here parting for a while; she must stay below in the gardens on earth, where she has work to do for him; he must remove to the mountains of spices in heaven, where he has business to attend for her, as an advocate with the Father. Now observe with what mutual endearments they part.