Song of Solomon 2:6

Son 2:6 His left hand [is] under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me.

Ver. 6. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me.] As if she should have said, I called unto you, my friends, to relieve and raise me, falling into a spiritual swoon; but behold the "consolation that is in Christ, the comfort of love, the fellowship of the Spirit, the bowels and mercies of my dear husband": {Php 2:1-2} he hath fulfilled my joy, he hath prevented your help, or at least he hath wrought together with the means, and made it successful. You have stayed me with flagons, but he hath "restored my soul": {Psa 23:2} you have bolstered me up with apples, but when that would not do, he hath put "his left hand under my head," as a pillow to rest upon, and "with his right hand he hath embraced me," as a loving husband cherisheth his sick wife, and doth give her all the help he can. {Eph 5:29} The whole virtue and power of the ministry cometh from Christ. They do their worthy endeavour to stay and underprop our faith: but that notwithstanding we shall soon fall to the ground, if Christ put not to both his hands to keep us up. We stand in need of whole Christ; and having him to support us, we cannot fall finally, because fall we never so low, we shall arise, "for the Lord puts under his hand"; {Psa 37:24} his goodness is lower than we can fall; he circleth his saints with amiable embracements, and none can pull them out of his hands. Jacob undergird Rachel till she died upon him, "died on his hand." {Gen 48:7} The good Shunammite held her son till he died on her lap. But the love sick Church, "whether she lives or dies, she is the Lord’s"; {Rom 14:8} and whoso liveth and believeth on him cannot die eternally. But when Christ himself died, though soul and body were sundered for a season, yet neither of them were sundered from the Godhead whereunto they were personally united; so is it here: death may separate soul and body, but cannot separate either of them from Christ. And as "Christ being raised from the dead, dies no more," {Rom 6:9} so neither doth any one that is "risen with him." {Col 3:1} Christ may as easily die at the right hand of his heavenly Father as in the heart of a true believer.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. The verb here should be taken as expressing a wish. O that his left hand were under my head, and his right hand were embracing me: or, His left hand would be under my head. Cp. Son_8:3, where the same words recur in a kind of refrain, and where they must unmistakeably be taken to express a wish.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Hand. After peace comes affliction: grace is followed by glory, Proverbs iii. 16. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Is under my head, as a pillow for me to rest upon. No sooner did I cry out for help, but he was at hand to succour me, and did manifest his tender care and dear love to me.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6. His left hand, etc. — This verse is the utterance of a wish, O that his left hand were under my head! That his right hand were supporting me! Many a heart has felt, oftener in time of sickness and trouble, this faintness of yearning.

“O for the touch of a vanished hand,

And the sound of a voice that is still!”

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me. We may render the verb either as indicative or imperative. The hand gently smooths with loving caresses. The historical sense is more in accordance with the context, as the next verse is an appeal to the attendant ladies. Behold my happiness, how my Beloved comforts me!

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

His hand - No sooner did I cry out for help, but he was at hand to succor me.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

His left hand was under my head in the desert.

and his right hand would embrace me He traveled a three-days’ journey; to search out a rest for them [as in Num. 10:33], and in the place of the rest, He brought down manna and quails for them. All this I remember now in my exile, and I am sick for His love.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.